It’s very clear that the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini has only a passing resemblance to its larger namesake. We’ve talked at some length about all the ways Samsung failed to make the phone much like the Galaxy S III at all, and a number of those complaints had to do with the processor choice. While it’s been clear that the handset wouldn’t get a top-of-the-line Exynso 4 Quad, all we’ve really known is that the Mini would run on a dual-core 1GHz chip; just which SoC did Samsung have in mind? The mystery is finally solved today, upon ST-Ericsson announcing the presence of one of its NovaThor ModAp chips in the GS3 Mini.

There were at least some decent hints that this wouldn’t be any sort of Exynos chip: Samsung hasn’t released an Exynos-running smartphone that operated at 1GHz since its Exynos 3 days, with phones like the Nexus S, but those aren’t dual-core components.

This isn’t Samsung’s first time using NovaThor chips, and they’ve already found a home in the Galaxy S Advance, Galaxy Ace 2, and Galaxy Beam. Of those, the Galaxy S Advance is the closest match to the GS3 Mini hardware, though the Mini gets a bit more RAM.

Source: ST-Ericsson
Via: Engadget