Samsung will reportedly introduce the Galaxy S4 Mini this week, en route to the handset's supposed released date that experts said will likely happen between late May and early June.

If the reports proved right, the smaller sibling of Samsung's new flagship, the Galaxy S4, will be battling it out with Apple's new releases - the slightly refreshed iPhone 5S and its low-cost edition that earlier reports had referred to as the iPhone Mini.

As the pared-down version of its premier handset, Samsung intends to rollout the S4 Mini on markets that were assessed to place importance both on attractive specs and reasonable price - a mix that is hard to achieve on the 5-inch Galaxy S4.

Specs-wise, the S4 Mini seems all geared as a crowd-pleaser as rumoured specs pointed to a 4.3-inch display screen that some experts said is generous enough for a mid-range Android handset.

The screen size, in fact, will easily surpass what Apple has to offer if both the iPhone 5S and the cheaper iPhone will again sport the 4-inch viewing window seen in the iPhone 5.

And as if to make sure that the S4 Mini will hold a candle against the new iOS smartphones, Samsung is deploying the smaller S4 with the same Super AMOLED screen display flavour though tamed a bit as qHD with pixel density of 256ppi.

The iPhone 5S is expected to carry Retina display but not its cheaper version. Considering that the S4 Mini is powering its way to the JellyBean 4.2.2 world with a quad-core 1.6GHz CPU, it's safe to assume that Samsung's serving can hold its own against the upcoming Apple flagship, likely to showcase the new A7 64-bit processing chip.

Pitted against the low-cost iPhone, the S4 Mini enjoys a clear advantage in muscle so Apple needs to highlight another handset feature that would convince consumers it is the better choice.

Enter the pricing competition and earlier rumours offered the projection of no more than $300 as the budget iPhone's price tag. Experts believe the S4 Mini will be priced much lower considering that the regular Galaxy S4 is set to hit the U.S. market with a $200 sticker price.

Unlock, the S4 Mini retail price will pretty much level with that of the estimated unit price of the low-cost iPhone. However, if carriers will pick up the handset for wider distribution, it can go as low as $100 or even free.

Indeed, the Galaxy S4 Mini is headed on a path that Apple has mapped as its new battle course and it should be an interesting dog fight as the two titans unleash more handset options for consumers - the final arbiter of who will be the mobile device king by the end of 2013.