Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and midrange smartphones

The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini was officially announced on the 11th of this month; shortly after its release it received a significant amount of criticism for not having the same specifications as the Samsung Galaxy S III, just in a smaller-sized phone. One other piece of criticism was that the S3 Mini was "yet another midrange smartphone".

In reading tech sites, I am surprised that there appears to be a number of people who object to midrange smartphones, mainly because they are not "up to spec" with the more advanced phones. To me, the whole point of a "midrange smartphone" is to give people who can't afford the higher models of smartphone the benefits of a smartphone, but without the pinnacle features and specifications.

At present, on Amazon.co.uk the HTC One X costs around £360, Samsung Galaxy S III around £410, and the iPhone 5 (16 gigabyte) around £680 (note that the prices of all three change daily). Not everyone can afford these prices, and not everyone needs all the features built into each device, so why not design midrange units? It has the dual-advantage of giving the company wider demographics of people to sell to and those who purchase the handsets join in the smartphone experience.

Complaining about the existence of midrange smartphones seems pointless to me. It's unreasonable to expect them to have the same specifications of a One X or an S III, as that would defeat the purpose of anything that's "midrange". Perhaps the only thing worse than midrange complaints are when people write reviews about feature phones and compare them to smartphones. It's not at all a fair comparison - imagine if this was about cars: it would be like wanting to buy an old Volkswagen Beetle, but somebody recommends you buy a Rolls Royce because has more features and "is better". At the end of the day, you want functionality at a price for your budget, not something fancy.

Some of the complaints could also be trolling and others from people who simple enjoy complaining, but regardless, midrange smartphones are here to stay. As for the S3 Mini, no offence to it but I have no plans to obtain one anytime soon...I am content with my current (new) phone!