[4][5] The S5 Mini uses an almost identical variant of the S5's polycarbonate perforated faux-leather hardware design.

Internally, it features a quad-core 1.4 GHz Exynos 3 Quad 3470 (for the SM-G800F, SM-G800M and SM-G800Y) or an equally-clocked Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8228 (for SM-G800A, SM-G800H[6] and SM-G800R4) processor with 1.5 GB of RAM (of which approximately 277 MB is reserved for the system), 16 GB of expandable storage, and a 4.5 inch (1280x720 pixel) HD Super AMOLED screen with a pixel density of 326 PPI.

The device is claimed to be water resistant despite the exposed USB charging port, while the USB charging port of the Galaxy S5 requires to be covered by a flap to ensure water protection.

The Galaxy S5 Mini comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat and Samsung's TouchWiz software which includes almost all of the features of the S5.

Its software, like the S5, also contains an "Ultra Power Saving" mode to further extend battery life; when enabled, all non-essential processes are disabled, and the screen switches to only rendering in white on black.