HTC HD mini Review

Introduction:

At this year's MWC, HTC, the premier Windows Mobile phone manufacturer, officially announced what's maybe one of the last smartphones to run the condemned Windows Mobile 6.x.x OS - the HTC HD mini. As the HD mini arrives at this world during what's probably the last days of the Windows Mobile platform as we knew it, we can't help but wonder if it's gotten the guts to face the plethora of Android phones that are flooding the market right now from literally every direction. Still, HTC wouldn't have been such a name today if wasn't making quality products that the users enjoy.

So what does the HTC HD mini has to offer in its fight against time? Let's start by opening the box:

•    HTC HD mini
•    microUSB cable
•    Compact wall charger with attachments
•    Wired handsfree
•    Quick start guide
•    Some other papers

As you see, the package contains almost everything a user may need. Only a car charger and a case are missing, but why should you use a case, when your phone is such a good looker? What, the HTC HD mini is a good looker? Yep, that's right...

Design:

Of course, the most important question here is how "mini" is the HTC HD mini. It depends on your approach really. If we are to compare it to the HD2, the HD mini looks like a very compact and much more comfier to carry around phone. Pitting it against the numerous other offering based on different platforms though will reveal it's far from being the smallest device. Still, it is pretty compact and can be easily operated with one hand only - a definite advantage for some.



You can compare the HTC HD mini with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The second element that's of interest in the HTC HD mini's workmanship are the four screws on the back. In addition to looking cool and unique, they are practically holding the phone together, so do not attempt to remove them.


The screen is 3.2-inch - which is pretty nice for this overall size - and fortunately it utilizes capacitive technology, making it the second WM phone with such display. This makes using the handset a breeze and much more fun. While image quality is not bad at all, the resolution is HVGA (as on the iPhone), meaning smaller text may be a bit hard to read, because of "pixelization". However, even though the screen is TFT and not AMOLED, you'll still be able to enjoy some rich colors.


Multitouch is available in some apps like the browser, the photo gallery and Google Maps, and on the whole it works satisfactorily.

Below the screen is the same exact key layout we saw on the HTC HD2, with the major difference that they are capacitive and not physical here. They have a strong white backlighting with a green tint, which makes them easy to use in the dark.


All in all, the HTC HD mini is a very solid and good looking smartphone. At least here, in the design department, it succeeds in delivering that high-end feel one would expect from an "HD" handset.

Interface:

When we talk aboutmobile operating systems, it is well-known to us all that Android isall the rage right now, and there is little place for others in thecustomers' hearts. Well, don't give up on Windows Mobile 6.5.3 yet, asHTC has once again come to save the day with its Sense userinterface.

For those who have not kept a close eyeon this topic, we should note that HTC's Sense for Windows Mobile is pretty differentfrom Sense for Android. Basically, Sense for WM is what TouchFLO usedto be, with some small graphical and functional tweaks. With theupcoming launch of Windows Phone 7 at the end the year, we see why thissoftware has not moved an inch further since we reviewedthe HTC HD2. You still have your homescreen divided into several tabs (HTC's PeepTwitter client is not up by default, but can be activated), whichprovide you with shortcuts and various kinds of information. So, in away, you'll rarely have to leave the homescreen.

HTChas done a particularly good job with the Home tab, which lets you quickly access theworld clock, alarms, call history, calendar and dialer, as well as upto nine shortcuts to favorite apps, contacts or bookmarks. Everythingis very graphically rich, and we especially like the messaging andemail tabs, which let you easily preview your different inboxes. Thesame goes for the photo gallerytab in the HTC HD mini. Even most of the settings arepersonalized by Sense, allowing you to avoid the unwelcoming WindowsMobile interface almost at all times.



The HTC HD mini runs fairly smooth, butthere is some occasional choppiness here and there. Nothing majorthough.

Messaging:

HTC Sense comeswith a nice set of on-screenkeyboards, so you should be able to find just your type inboth portrait and landscape mode. The 3.2-inch screen of the HTC HDmini does not provide as much room as the HD2's 4.3-inch panel, butstill typing is easy enough. As we mentioned above, your messagingdeeds will be assisted by the Messages and Mails tabs, which show youpreviews of your messages. You can then view the full message by simplytapping on the preview.

Working with multipleinboxes is a breeze on the HTC HD mini - you can switch between them ina second. One issue we encountered while trying to set up our personalemail was that we needed to restart the phone in order to startreceiving and sending any messages. Still, this might have been aprecedent.



Internet:

For quite sometime, Opera Mobilehas been the default browser in HTC smartphones powered byWindows Mobile (or Windows Phone, it's your call) and the HTC HD miniis not an exception to the rule. Indeed, it provides a betterexperience, compared to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Everything fromscrolling to double-tap zooming works smooth enough, although not asprecise as on the iPhone. You can also use multitouch for fine zooming,but it isn't really thought out. Surprisingly, pinch-to-zoom worksbetter in Internet Explorer, but the disadvantages of this browser likeslower loading times and occasional lagging make it the worseoption.



You can connect to the internet throughWi-Fi or 3G (where available), as the HTC HD mini supports HSDPA 7.2Mbit/s and HSUPA 2.0 Mbit/s. This is enough to guarantee some decentonline speeds.

You can also turn your phone into aWi-Fi router. Thisbasically creates a Wi-Fi network using data connection from yourcarrier. We tried it and managed to successfully connect our Nokia 5530XpressMusic to the newly-born network. Speeds were good enough toeasily surf the web with Opera Mobile, although this will depend onyour network coverage.

Camera:

To tell you the truth, we are really into the idea of having a small device, which can do it all - place phone calls, send messages, play music, video and games, surf the web and take pictures. In really however, it seems it's pretty difficult to create one, which manages to do all this stuff in the right way. Take, for example, the HTC HD mini. It might be pretty capable in certain areas, but its camera is just not good enough. The HD mini has a 5-megapixel autofocus shooter without a flash, which makes somewhat dark and detail-lacking photos. Most of the objects are quite blurred, although colors seem natural. On the whole however, this isn't a good phone for taking pictured. Indoor shots are bearable, but due to the lack of flash, the less light there is, the more noise you will encounter.




Video is recorded in VGA resolution at about 28 fps. It's pretty usable, although not perfectly smooth.

HTC HD mini sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution

The interface of the camera app is very intuitive. You have touch focus, which is a great feature, and you also have a number of other basic settings like white balance, brightness adjustment, ISO sensitivity and image effects.



Multimedia:

Without a kickstand on the back, but with a 3.2-inch screen, the HTC HD mini is still a pretty good smartphone to watch videos on. The bad news is there is no support for the DivX, Xvid and H.264 codecs out of the box. The good news is you can flawlessly watch MPEG-4 coded videos with a maximum resolution of 800x480 pixels. We encountered absolutely no issues when watching videos of such high resolutions. In order to get support for other codecs however, you'll need to install some additional software.

The HTC HD mini is equipped with HTC's music player, which is pretty simple and straightforward - something we truly value these days. Listening to music with the earphones from the box was more than enjoyable, as the sound was perfectly balanced, with decent amount of lows and highs, as well as more than enough power. These are definitely one of the better earphones one can find in the box of their phone. The loudspeaker on the other hand is pretty faint, so keep in mind you won't be able to suddenly start a party with it.



Software and GPS:

We've said it before and we'll say it again - the official YouTube client for Windows Mobile is very, very good. Its interface is great and you can easily filter the content by categories. More importantly, the video quality is superb, so we can simply describe the app with one word only - beautiful.



We also mentioned that you get HTC's Twitter client, Peep, which we really like, although we had a problem here. You know how a lot of people like to tweet links, right? Well, clicking a link in a certain tweet here can be a real pain in the neck. Sometimes you may need to try about ten times in order to select a link. It's unbelievably hard and irritating.



The Office Mobile suite is of course here to let you work with documents. While it might be useful if you just want to view a document, it won't really provide you with some actual functionality - only the most basic stuff is here.



When you get a Windows Mobile phone, you expect to see a nice catalog of third-party applications. Unfortunately Windows Marketplace for Mobile is pretty poor, especially if you want games. Almost all of the offerings are paid and cost a lot for what they offer. Otherwise, the Marketplace app itself is nice and easy to use, with options to read user reviews and view screenshots. However, what good is a decent interface without a proper content.



In addition to Google Maps, the HTC HD mini also comes with a trial version of CoPilot Live, which a pretty decent navigation solution. The best part is that it doesn't require constant internet connection like Google Maps.

The GPS module inside the HTC HD mini managed to find the satellites in about a minute and a half in a cloudy weather and with A-GPS turned off, which is a very good result. Warm start was of course instantaneous.

Performance and Conclusion:

Getting right to the point, we should say the HTC HD mini is not a great phone. Incoming loudness is fine, but voices tend to lack any natural sounding. Our callers found the volume on their side to be a bit low, with our words not being the easiest to comprehend. Then again, there aren't a lot of smartphones, which actually manage to surprise us pleasantly in this area.

The manufacturer estimates that the battery of the HTC HD mini should be able to keep the phone up and running for about 7.25 hours of talk time and 340 hours (14 days) of stand-by. "Not bad at all", said the cyber junkie and set the brightness to its maximum level.

So is there a reason why you should get a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 handset with Windows Phone 7 coming at the end of the year? Since none of the apps for the current-gen Windows Mobile phones will not work on Windows Phone 7, we believe users should have no hesitations when getting a WM device now. Looking at the existing crop of smartphones running this platform, we have to say the HTC HD mini is a perfect choice, due to its ease of use and reliability. Right now, the HD2 is the undisputed king of Windows phones, but if you're not really into such great sizes, the HD mini is just for you.

It's best alternatives are:
HTC Touch Diamond2 - It is also a very appealing phone, which can offer you similar functionality, but utilizes a resistive screen, which is not that easy and pleasant to use.

HTC Touch Pro2 - There's much more sense in giving the Touch Pro2 as an alternative to the HD mini, rather than the Touch Diamond2, because it sports a full side-sliding QWERTY keyboard, which will be of good use if you type a lot of text messages and emails. Unfortunately, it too lacks a capacitive screen.