We first saw rumored specs for Samsung's new Galaxy SIII Mini smartphone last week, and today even more information, including purported pics of the device, have leaked thanks to German tech website MobileGeeks.

View the leaked pics here

Samsung began sending out invitations for an event last week to be held in Frankfurt, Germany on Oct. 11 at a Samsung Mobile retail store. Of course, we can't speak, let alone read German, and the invites don't explicitly say "Galaxy S III Mini," but there is a very big "S" in the middle of the graphic, and SlashGear translates the slogan to something like "something small that will be big." Thus, we're inclined to believe there's enough of winking and nudging going on here to indicate the event is being held to debut the new phone.

Plus, considering the massive popularity of the Galaxy S III, we think you'll forgive us for speculating that this event is almost certainly for the release of the Galaxy SIII Mini.

Based on the leaked photos and specs, the Samsung Galaxy S III Mini looks very similar to the Samsung's flagship device, the Galaxy SIII, but comes packed in a strikingly smaller plastic body measuring  121.55 x 62.95 x 9.85 mm. 

MobileGeeks cautions that all of the specs may not be 100 percent accurate, as they culled their information from a number of sources, but we'll all be able to check our information tomorrow when the event gets underway.

Samsung has not commented at this point to say whether or not the SIII Mini will ever make its way to the U.S.

JK Shin of Samsung Mobile Communications has confirmed that the 4-inch version of the SIII will be released in Germany on October 11th.

Shin assured that the phone will have "full form factor," and that it will not be an entry-level smartphone, despite its size. The Galaxy S III Mini will clearly be going against the grain with many of its specs. Most other high-end Android smartphones offer larger screens. Whether or not that will affect user perception remains to be seen.

Of course, with the SIII Mini's smaller size, you might wonder why many are saying it could be an iPhone 5 competing device. And that view is certainly arguable. The iPhone 5's specs clearly trump the SIII Mini in certain areas - screen size, resolution, cameras. But, we're guessing Samsung's new device will still take a sizable chunk out of Apple's market share just by offering a few things Apple's device lacks like NFC, and by appealing to people who might have been happier with the size of the iPhone 4S.

Developers who programmed applications for Google's mobile operating system believe that reports of the rumored Galaxy S III Mini are accurate. "We spoke to 3 Android developers, and they think that the above rumor that Samsung is going to Launch Galaxy S3 mini is accurate," Trip Chowdhry, Managing Director of Equity Research at Global Equities Research, said to NASDAQ Oct. 4. "'Looking at the source code of Jelly Bean, a small screen size support looks very plausible, was the converged view we got."

Chowdhry added that developers are anticipating even more Android devices the first week of November.

Samsung Galaxy SIII specs

4-inch S3 Mini (GT-I8190) will have a WVGA 800 x 480 Super AMOLED display and a 1.GHz dualcore STE U8420 processor, with a 5-megapixel camera on the back. OS is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean complete with Samsung's own TouchWiz.

1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage, along with a microSD slot compatible with up to 32GB cards. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, and microUSB, along with triband HSPA (900/1900/2100) and quadband GSM/EDGE.

NFC for mobile payments and Android Beam, a 3.5mm headset, a 1,500 mAh battery, VGA-resolution front facing camera, and - going by the leaked images - a change to the touch-button design, with simple illuminated lines rather than full graphics as on the Galaxy S III. The whole handset measures 121.55 x 62.95 x 9.85 mm, making it considerably smaller than the Samsung flagship.

The phone will go on sale at €399 ($513) unlocked and SIM-free.

Apple iPhone 5 Specs

Height: 4.87 inches, Width: 2.31 inches, Depth: 0.30 inch, Weight: 3.95 ounces.

4-inch (diagonal) Retina display, 1136-by-640 resolution, 326 ppi, GSM model: GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, CDMA model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n; 802.11n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and GLONASS, 1GB RAM, SoC: A6 Chip, Nano-SIM, three-axis gyro, dual-mic noise suppression, assisted GPS and GLONASS.

Front and back facing cameras:

Front: 1.2MP photos, 720p HD video, Backside illumination sensor;

Back: 8 megapixel Autofocus Tap to focus, LED flash, Backside illumination sensor, Five-element lens, Face detection, Hybrid IR filter, ƒ/2.4 aperture, Panorama,

Video: 1080p HD video recording, 30 fps, Tap to focus while recording, LED light, Improved video stabilization, Take still photos while recording video, Face detection.