You can already pre-order the SIM-free and unlocked version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini from online retailer Clove for £298.80, though the device's official availability date has yet to be confirmed.

The S3 Mini is essentially the Galaxy S Advanced (or Galaxy S3 Lite) in an S3-like chassis. In other words, technology that is almost two years old into a six-month old casing.

Therefore, don’t expect anything near the Galaxy S3 inside it. It runs on a dual-core system-on-chip, an ST-Ericsson Novathor U8500 clocked at 1GHz (which also powers the £150 Sony Xperia U).

It comes with a 4in Super AMOLED 800 x 480 pixels, 1GB of RAM, 8GB onboard storage, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, a front-facing VGA camera, a microSD card slot, NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DLNA, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a 1,500mAh battery.

Available in white and blue, the Galaxy S3 Mini is more than £100 pricier than the Sony Xperia Solo, which has a similar form factor, more expensive than the HTC Desire X and costs the same as the quad-core LG Optimus 4X HD, which also has a much higher screen resolution, although it is bigger and a tad heavier.