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Samsung shows sequels to Galaxy Ace and Mini

New smartphones continue to appear in advance of Mobile World Congress. Samsung is the player this time with the Galaxy Ace 2 and Galaxy Mini 2.

Kent German Former senior managing editor / features
Kent was a senior managing editor at CNET News. A veteran of CNET since 2003, he reviewed the first iPhone and worked in both the London and San Francisco offices. When not working, he's planning his next vacation, walking his dog or watching planes land at the airport (yes, really).
Kent German
2 min read
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2
Galaxy Ace 2 Samsung

At this point, there may not be any new phones left to unveil at Mobile World Congress.

This time Samsung is getting a head start on next week's wireless trade show by announcing the Galaxy Mini 2 and Galaxy Ace 2. Though we heard rumors of the Mini 2 last week, Samsung waited until early Tuesday morning to make the handsets official in a press release from the company's Korean headquarters.

As if the "2" in their names wasn't a dead giveaway, both phones are sequels to the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Mini that we saw last year at Mobile World Congress (the recent Galaxy Ace Plus is another member of the family). That means of course, that both devices offer entry-level features and simple compact designs.

The Galaxy Ace 2 has a 3.8-inch WVGA display, an 800MHz processor, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), a 5-megapixel camera, a second VGA shooter around front, a digital music player, a microSD card slot, 4GB of internal memory, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, GPS, and Samsung's TouchWiz interface. For connectivity, it supports all four GSM bands plus HSDPA for data.

Watch this: Samsung Galaxy Mini 2
Samsung Galaxy Mini 2
Galaxy Mini 2 Samsung

The Galaxy Mini 2 also has an 800MHz processor and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but its features are scaled down just a bit. There's a 3.27-inch HVGA display, a 3-megapixel camera, a digital music player, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, a microSD card slot, and 4GB of internal memory. It has TouchWiz, as well, and it's a quadband world phone with HSDPA support.

The Ace 2 will be available in the United Kingdom starting in April while the Mini 2 will hit France next month with a global release to follow. Samsung did not reveal pricing at the time of this writing.

We've no doubt that Samsung will show off the phones when Mobile World Congress begins next Monday in Barcelona, Spain. The company announced that it won't unveil the long-rumored Galaxy S III in Barcelona, but we may see a Galaxy Tab 11.6 and a faster Galaxy Nexus. Whatever happens, CNET will be there to bring you details on Sammy's announcements plus hands-on impressions.