I've had some time to get accustomed to the phone and I really like it. It's my first smartphone and seems to give me the benefits of a smartphone in a compact size. I don't do much with it except talk, text, navigational purposes, and peruse the internet. So it works great for what I use it for. I don't do much downloading of movies or songs, so I'm not sure if it's great for that. What was a bit frustrating was that the user guide was in a different language (I speak English), and the phone was also set up in a different language. I’m guessing that may have had something to do with it being an “International version” phone. It took a bit of time to figure out how to change the language to English given that every page on the phone was in that language. After I managed that, I was able to download an English version of the user guide. The plug for the charger is also equipped to work with outlets abroad by removing the attachment, which also took a while to figure out what it was. The plug does works in the U.S by adding the attachment. The battery is ok, and I wished that the phone had a LED on the front of the phone to let you know you have a message like my last phone. The ear buds are just ok and come with several replacement plastic covers. No major complaints and very happy with it.

Muchas gracias

I bought this from a specific supplier (Wireless Experts) because of their superb rating: 4.9 stars over the past 12 months (4,303 ratings). Since this is an international product, I cannot stress enough that you need to buy from someone you can trust. It is not worth saving about five or six dollars to get the cheapest price. It is the first time I've used this supplier and I am very pleased to announce that the one I received was indeed new in the original box. It seems to work perfectly. I transferred my phone number from AT&T to Consumer Cellular, something I should have done many years ago. Now I have the same full reception for far less money. I'm thinking about transferring my wife's phone from T-Mobile after I use Consumer Cellular a while. Sorry to deviate from this review. My phone was set up for English when I received it, so I didn't have to do anything specific to get started. I travel to China and the Philippines occasionally and I should be able to change out the SIM card to a local cellular company to avoid international charges. The phone I received uses a full sized SIM card. I'm confident this phone will work in both countries. But China is mostly a CDMA country, so reception is only good inside major cities. GSM isn't suited outside major cities.

a powerful, small smartphone.

I do like this phone very much and it could be a 5 start phone . But it is not a high performance ready phone. It has all the features and amenities of a good Android , but it lacks on one of the most important features, and that's battery life. The phone last only 7-10 hours of use. Even back ground apps drain life noticeably. I am really disappointed. My mum used to complain that her phone anyways died and I thought that maybe she always had the back light on its brightest or ran superfluous apps, but now experiencing it myself, I can say that she was correct in her statement. I'm really disappointed. My old Samsung pocket had amazing battery life even when used continuously with the highest brightness. It's been only 3 days of me having the phone, and I've had to charge it several times.

Just put it into service yesterday, but so far, everything works and works well. This was a gift for my wife and it's her first smartphone, so she's having a good time learning all the things she can do. This phone makes it easy to use and enjoy a smartphone for a first-time user. This is, by the way the N model, not the L, as others have indicated. Not sure what the difference is, as I have an L model and I can't see any obvious differences in performance or features. If I had a criticism, it would go to battery life, but all smartphones are voracious battery power consumers, and this phone gives you lots of power-saving options (and suggestions), but for a person who is used to charging their phone every 5 days or so, having to plug this one in every night takes a little getting used to. In summary, the device appears to be everything it says it is, and works very well up to now. I could easily give this five stars, but nothing's perfect. I do highly recommend this for a person who wants a basic smartphone that does what it says it will do.

This is my every day phone. I like it a lot. It is no iPhone but I'm not your typical smart phone user. I don't play games on it, I don't text or do social media on it. I use my phone to make phone call, Period, but it does have smart phone capabilities that I'm glad it has in case of emergencies such as the time I flew into Chicago and missed my connecting flight. The line at the United service counter must have had 200 people and I was at the end of the line. A United employee started at the back of the line reassigning people to new flights, she reassigned me to a new flight and emailed me an new boarding pass that all I had to do was show the email that contained a little QR code that they could scan, while I boarded. Saved me a big waste of time.

Excelente

First of all, these are all being sold by different vendors. So I want to state I bought mine through Best Price Mobile. It is an international version, which in itself is not a bad thing. However, please know there are some issues you should be aware of, which may or may not matter to you. First, it is not supported if you go to the Samsung website here in this country at least. They will ask for the imei, or the s/n and ask where you bought it and depending on the kindness of the person in the live chat, you probably won't get help that way. Of course there is always those long choking FAQ with more information that made my eyes glaze over. Sometimes you need to speak to someone especially if a device is unfamiliar to you. Let me say right off, I'm not a big phone person. I'm a wiz on a computer, notebook, but I have a bit more of a time trying to figure out a smartphone. Plus, I cut my teeth on a windows phone, an HTC Radar, which I am beginning to appreciate a lot more. Second, let me add that the firmware on this is old -- it's a 4.2.2, when in fact the latest being used in these Galaxy III minis are a 4.4.4. Yeah, big difference in performance, speed just about all that impacts what you do on the phone. You can and should go to your provider and ask if they have issued any firmware updates, as tmobile did so I'm struggling to get this phone to download the 4.3 firmware. No luck in three long long tries. It won't download, it won't install. So, there is a lot to think about. Maybe it's the phone, but still, be aware of this. There's a reason these phones are as cheap as they are. And again, the support from Samsung is sparce. I say that because when I bought my USED Radar I called HTC, and boy I got not only a callback but a great deal of very generous help for a phone that was way out of warranty. So, seller does make a big difference. This is a lesson I learned buying this phone. I got mine finally last night (Saturday night Jan. 3) and I've spent all day Sunday trying to set my emails, update, personalize etc. and it's been all day long ALL DAY LONG. Samsung did say that with tmobile, this phone is capable of 4G speed. I did also call tmobile, and they confirmed that, and the firmware update. If I can't get it updated, I will go to a tmobile store and have them give it a go. Otherwise, this phone is going back. I found the speed to be slow, so I know I am definately not getting 4G speed now, but that could be the firmware, and tmobile giving this new phone a boost by taking if offline and putting it back on. I wanted to give it three stars because it is a nice looking phone, very slim and sleak. The screen is gorgeous, the colors amazing. But, let me say a few strange things have happened. I had that long download that worked, but failed to install. Sometime between that and trying the software Samsung provides that you can download to your computer (more about that later) the date got screwed up and went back to Dec. 31 2014, and the time went off about an hour and a half, and so did the time zone. So I'm changing the time and each time I log out, I see it's an hour earlier. I finally figured hey it's the wrong time zone. Well please know, I had all that little easy stuff all set up early today. I don't know what whacked it out of synch. I put a pin on my phone, which I did with my Radar, and it's a medium security thing. Somewhere along the way the 30 minute time out also got thrown out of whack and the screen locked up almost right away. I was ready to cry because the phone can't be locked and then connect to your software. Which, by the way, said my firmware was up to date. So much for the Kies software that Samsung puts out. Though this phone looks good, it has a very cheap feel. I am so gentle with the back, out of fear it will break. You got to take it off to put in the battery, sim card and I also added an 8 gig microsd (i planned to put music in there) and all was recognized right away. Very easy to install, but it makes the phone feel cheap, the back cover flimsy. I like very much the fact you can block unwanted callers. Three cheers for Samsung for doing that. I think they were the first cellphone maker who offered that option, which is great if you get hounded by, well, hounded by anyone. I ordered this phone Dec. 28. It arrived on Jan. 3 (Saturday). I think that's a long time for a phone to be bumping around in the mail. The postal level was the cheapest. If it were me selling smartphones I'd choose priority mail. I also mentioned some of the issues with a very nice Amazon rep this morning, as I was getting started on personalizing and updating my new phone. Instead of contacting me with a can we do anything to help I got a terse note about an RMA attachment and a comment about a restocking fee if there is nothing wrong with the phone. I assure them, and everyone, if this phone goes back, it's because it won't download and update firmware that my carrier provides. It is because of strange changes like the time and date, also a few other things in the settings that have to do with how the phone responds when there is a call. I have no idea what causes stuff like that to happen. The easiest thing to set up was my email account and no I do not have gmail, i had to manually put in the setting but that was a snap and it works great. Last but not least. Silly me I got an android because I wanted a phone that had more flexibility, I hated Zune, I hated having to only use Zune to put in music ringtones etc. and that a windows phone was limited in the applications you can use. Slap with with a razor. YOu have to go through google for EVERYTHING. If you don't want to imput a password into google to get an app, for example, I GET the NYT so I automatically can get a mobile app, but instead of just downloading my app, I kept getting this google page telling me to put in a password or create a new account. For everything, even the Play Store. I even tried using Bing to find the app it still went to google page. Some people might not mind that, but I do not care for it. I think it's my business what app I use, and how I choose to download it. That is what gave it the two and not three stars. Now I know why every review especially on CNET said this Samsung-google partnership becoming very entwined. If I had a better idea of this I don't think I would have bought this and instead tried for an updated HTC, a very well made phone with far superior customer service. In my humble opinion. I think the phone has a lot of good things going for it, but I don't understand so much fawning in these reviews. You can find many excellent cellphone and smartphone makers on Amazon. And beware especially, the reviews all stay with the product, but different sellers have different ways of communicating, they get their inventory from different sources, like the people who got phones in Russian and German. Added Jan. 5: finding and downloading the manual is easy. But the manual has only spartan information, just the basics. Update Jan. 11: The battery, which was not very strong to begin with, died. I think battery issues are some of the problems common to the Samsung Galaxy 3 mini, as a lot of people seem to have them. The battery was not under any particular strain as I do not play games, I don't text nor did I have a chance to even try the music player. I had not had a chance to even try to get a personalized ringtone, though I found great instructions online showing how to do so. If this helps anyone: The phones marked I8200L were made for use in South America; the ones marked I8200N were made for Europe. Beyond language there should not be any other difference in firmware, options etc. Try as I might, I could not get the phone to update the firmware to the latest my carrier released. I also could not get the Amazon app to install, though it did download. But I was not surprised given the only two apps I tried to download and use were ones I already paid for, my NYT mobile app and CNN -- and the third was the Amazon. After a week of using the Galaxy mini I found the most annoying thing was whenever a call came in and I was on the phone, I would get an ear-shattering busy signal that was so jarring. I thought I was familiar enough with choosing the internal tones, alerts etc., but I looked everywhere to see how to change or stop that and I could never figure it out. I think once one gets familiar from using the phone a few days, things like changing ringtones, alerts, etc. become very easy. Setting up the wi-fi and my email account was a piece of cake. But could not figure out how to stop the blasting busy signal and I am not on the phone much. I don't text, because I'm lousy at it. I do read emails and that's about it. In the end I returned it because a new phone should NOT have battery issues. If that happens right off the bat, what will happen in a few months? Thank you Amazon for being a good customer-oriented company. YOu did get the seller BEST MOBILE to email me but she did not call or provide any help. That is a world of difference from the sellers of the Nokia cellphone I bought here about three or four years ago. It was an international phone also, made in the day when Nokia was making exceptional products and to this day that is my back up phone when anything goes wrong. I am using it now. That phone is made to last, and the sellers went the extra mile in helping me get in coordinates specific to tmobile so I could get ringtones sent to me. This was in the day when you could buy ringtones from your carrier. So the last thing I want to say is pay attention to ratings and who is selling what because it can make a huge difference in your overall experience.

Just got this a few days ago & am still learning all the features. It is a nice little phone, I am not excited about how big the cell phones are getting, so this size is just right! Not to mention the price was great for a brand new phone! One thing that I want to share is that this phone came with the instructions in Polish, it did come with a US adapter for the charger. It is very easy to find the instruction manual in English on line & I also watched a u-tube video showing how to put it together. The first screen that comes up when you turn it on is to select your language, very easy to change it to English by scrolling on the languages. My sim card worked with no problems, it takes a standard size sim card, be sure to check the size of your sim card to make sure it is compatible. Overall I think this is a good deal!