HTC One mini

HTC ONE MINI REVIEW

The HTC One having quickly become HTC's most popular smartphone to date, the HTC One Mini has a lot to live up to. It also faces some fierce competition in the smartphone market, with Samsung having recently launched the similarly configured Galaxy S4 Mini handset. At a distance, the HTC One Mini is the spitting image of HTC’s full-sized flagship device. From the front, you’re looking at a 16:9 aspect ratio display, sandwiched between two front-facing speakers. Around the back, you see a classy brushed aluminum exterior, divided by a polycarbonate trim. Put the two handsets side by side, and it’s clear you’re dealing with two very closely related devices. It's called the One mini, but it's actually only a wee bit smaller than the original full-fat One, measuring 132x63x9mm (as opposed to 137x68x9mm) and it's dropped the weight from 143g to 122g. The screen has taken a similarly light shaving, so it now measures 4.3-inches rather than 4.7-inches. That may not sound like a lot, but it does actually make quite a difference when it comes to stretching your thumb across the keypad when you're trying to operate it one-handed. Like the HTC One, the One Mini sits comfortably in the hand, thanks to its curved metal back. In fact, the combination of the smaller size and curved plastic trim makes the Mini a smidgen more ergonomic than its big brother. The glossy bumper extends around the sides of the device, so you’re dealing with a bit more plastic and a bit less metal in the One Mini. That means the Mini’s appearance is somewhat less striking than the original, but at the same time it's an easier fit for the palm. the One mini comes with the very latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean operating system. It's not a huge advance on the more common 4.1, but it's nice to know that no compromises have been made and that you won't be lagging behind the curve (at least until Android 4.3 is available). The processor has been downgraded from a quad-core 1.7GHz to a dual-core 1.4GHz version backed by 1GB RAM rather than 2GB. That's potentially quite a drop, but it's still fast, whipping through the apps with ease, and with no obvious delay when rendering busy web pages. Our AnTuTu performance benchmark test delivered a score of 11,251, which compares well with other dual-core beasts like the Sony Xperia SP and well ahead of the Motorola Razr HD. The HTC One mini makes some sensible compromises to bring down the size and price of the original One. The screen's a bit smaller (but not too small) and while the processor has a lower spec, it isn't obviously much slower in practise. Thankfully, the "UltraPixel" camera is the same (we're not big fans, but we'd have been disappointed if they'd dropped its already so-so quality) and the unibody casing is just as classy.

SPECIFICATION & FEATURES

DISPLAY & SCREEN

Type:	Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen
Display Protection:	--Corning Gorilla Glass 3 --HTC Sense UI
Technology:	--Android™ with HTC Sense™ --HTC BlinkFeed™
Colors:	16M colors
Aspect ratio:	16:9
Touchscreen:	Capacitive, Multi-touch
Size:	4.3 inches
Resolution:	720 x 1280 pixels
Pixel density:	341 ppi
Display Features:	Light sensor, Proximity sensor

BODY & DESIGN

Device type:	Smart phone
OS type:	Android Sense UI
Body material:	Aluminium
Dimensions:	(5.20 x 2.49 x 0.36 inches) / (132 x 63.2 x 9.25 mm )
Weight:	(122 g) / (4.30 oz)
Form factor:	Candybar

GENERAL TECHNOLOGY

2G Network:	GSM 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz
3G Network:	HSDPA 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz - EMEA version HSDPA 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz - Asia version HSDPA 850 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz - AT&T version
4G Network:	LTE 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2600 MHz - EMEA version LTE 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2600 MHz - Asia version LTE 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 1700 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz - AT&T version
Data:	LTE, HSDPA+ (4G) 42.2 Mbit/s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s, UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
Positioning:	GPS, A-GPS, Glonass
Navigation:	Turn-by-turn navigation
Global Roaming:	Yes
SIM card type:	Micro-SIM
Announced:	18 Jul 2013
Released:	Coming soon, Release date: August 2013

HARDWARE & MEMORY

Processor:	Dual core, 1400 MHz, Krait
Graphics processor:	Adreno 305
User storage:	11 GB
System memory:	1024 MB DDR2 RAM
Built-in storage:	16 GB storage, available capacity varies
Card slot:	No

MULTIMEDIA & SOUND

Alert types:	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
Audio quality:	--HTC BoomSound™
Audio features:	--Dual frontal stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers --Studio-quality sound with Beats Audio™ --Sense Voice
Audio formats supported:	Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9) Recording: .amr
Audio codecs:	MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, M4A (Apple lossless), AMR, OGG, MIDI
Video formats supported:	Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3) Recording: .mp4
Nokia Music::
Loudspeaker:	Yes, (stereo speakers, built-in amplifiers)
Headphone:	Yes
3.5mm jack:	Yes, (Beats Audio sound enhancement)
Music player: Filter by: Features:	Yes Album, Artist, Playlists Album art cover, Background playback, Beats Audio
Radio:	Yes

CAMERA

Camera:	HTC UltraPixel Photo & Video Camera
Primary Camera quality:	4 megapixels, (2688 x 1520 pixels), 1/3'' sensor size, 2µm pixel size
Flash:	LED flash
Aperture size:	F2.0
Focal length:	28mm
Features:	--Back-illuminated sensor (BSI), Auto focus, geo-tagging, face and smile detection --BSI sensor, Pixel size 2.0 µm, Sensor size 1/3" --Dedicated HTC ImageChip 2 --Smart Flash: Five levels of flash automatically set by distance to subject --HTC Zoe™ with Sequence Shot, Always Smile and Object Removal --Gallery with Video Highlights and HTC Share --Continuous shooting and VideoPic --Slow motion video recording with variable speed playback
Primary video camera:	--Camera video resolution: 1080p (Full HD, 1920 x 1080) --Camera video frame rate: 30 fps --Video playback frame rate: 30 fps --Video recording formats: MPEG4
Primary video camera features:	1080p Full HD video recording with HDR Video
Secondary camera:	Yes (1.6 megapixels with BSI sensor), 720p@30fps
Secondary camera features:	720p video recording
Secondary video camera:	--Secondary video camera resolution: 720p (HD, 1280x720) --Secondary camera video recording format: MP4

CONNECTIVITY

WLAN:	Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 (a/b/g/n, dual band, DLNA)
Bluetooth:	Yes (4.0 with aptX™ enabled)
Bluetooth profiles:	Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP)
USB:	Yes (v2.0)
Connector:	Micro-USB
Features:	Mass storage device, USB charging
GPRS:	Yes
EDGE:	Yes
Speed:	HSPA+, LTE
Other:	--DLNA® for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to a compatible TV or computer --HTC Connect™ --Tethering --Computer sync --OTA sync

INTERNET

Built-in Online services support:	YouTube (upload), Picasa
Browser:	HTML

APPS

Other Applications

Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk

FEATURES

OS:	Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset:	Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 400
CPU:	Dual-core 1.4 GHz Krait 300
GPU:	Adreno 305
Sensors:	Accelerometer, Gyroscope, proximity, compass, Ambient light sensor
Messaging:	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, Predictive text input
Browser:	HTML, HTML5
Organizer:	Calendar, Alarm, Calculator
Phone Book:	Yes, (Unlimited entries, Caller groups, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by both first and last name, Picture ID, Ring ID)
Charging:	Charger
Call Records:	Yes
SMS:	Yes
MMS:	Yes
E-Mail:	Yes, (IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange)
Instant Messaging:	Yes, (Google Talk)
Predictive text input:	Yes, T9 input
Voice message:	Yes
Voice dialing:	Yes
Voice commands:	Yes
Voice recording:	Yes
Radio:	TBD
GPS:	Yes, (with A-GPS support and Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS) --Digital compass
Java:	Yes, (via Java MIDP emulator)
Colors:	Glacial Silver, Stealth Black
Notifications:	Haptic feedback, Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone
Others:	--SNS integration --Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic --MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player --MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player --Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk --Organizer --Document viewer --Video/photo editor --Voice memo/dial --Predictive text input

BATTERY

Battery Type:	Embedded rechargeable Li-polymer battery
Capacity:	1800 mAh battery
Stand-by time:	Up to 500 hours (2G), 20.8 days / Up to 692 hours (3G), 28.8 days
Talk time:	Up to 20.72 hours (2G) / Up to 13.27 hours (3G)
Not user replaceable:	Yes