HTC One mini Review

Introduction

With the “mini” version of the One, HTC is jumping on the trend to shrink flagship phones in size and specs, then slap a lower price on them, capitalizing on the name recognition built around the annual high-end device already.

At first look the HTC One Mini has more to do with its larger namesake then Samsung's mini version with the Galaxy S4, for example. All stand-out features from the flagship One, like a svelte aluminum chassis, BoomSound stereo speakers at the front, and the UltraPixel camera, are present on HTC's mini version as well. Is there anything significant, save for screen diagonal, that HTC sacrificed on to reach the lower price of the One mini? Read on to find out...

In the box

• In-ear stereo headphones
• Wall charger
• MicroUSB cable
• Warranty and information leaflets

Design

There is nothing in the midrange Android category, save for the Huawei Ascend P6, that can match the exclusive aluminum chassis of the HTC One mini. Keeping all design cues from the flagship One, the Mini-Me version is exactly that – a more compact version with the same premium looks.


The brushed metal back is tapered and fits well in the hand, albeit a bit slippery to hold. The One mini bets on an elongated profile, which has to fit the BoomSound stereo speakers at the front and their signature perforated grill, making the phone pretty tall for the screen size. At the same time, however, it is quite narrow, so it is comfortable to operate with one hand.


What's not comfortable are the side keys, though. The power/lock button at the top is too small and flush with the surface to feel and press without finger-wandering. Even when you get to it, the tactile feedback is very shallow and mushy. The same goes for the volume keys on the right, so it takes quite a bit of adjusting before you stop looking and thinking each time you need to press a physical button on the HTC One mini. Unlike the clicky ones, the capacitive navigational keys below the display are responsive and well backlit so you never skip a beat with them.

The micro SIM card tray on the left hints at a sealed design, and that's precisely what HTC is offering, as usual lately – sealed battery compartment and no memory card slot. An LED notification light is present underneath the top speaker grill, though rather smallish to be viewed comfortably.



Display

The One mini flaunts a 4.3” Super-LCD3 panel with 720x1280 pixels HD resolution. The 341ppi pixel density is top-notch for the class, and the display sports very natural color representation. It is not Full HD, like on the flagship One, but has borrowed all other great features from it, like the high peak brightness, excellent contrast and ultra wide viewing angles.

In fact, when we add the very low mirror reflectance, which helps significantly with sunlight visibility, we'd wager to say HTC has graced the One mini with one of the best phone screens out there.

Interface and functionality

The newest HTC Sense 5.0 interface is coated above Android 4.2.2, just like with the HTC One, hence the mini version offers the same streamlined, uniform look of the most identifiable Android overlay. For a more in-depth look into HTC Sense 5.0 you can read up on the One review, exploring every nook and cranny of the new features and the refreshed looks.


Suffice it to say that the news and social reader BlinkFeed, which aggregates all your personal interests and communication venues in one homescreen, is present on the One mini, too, as well as the artsy Zoe software for photography collage on-the-go.

The default portrait keyboard feels pretty cramped and it is very easy to press the wrong button, or hit a few at once. It's not because the screen is “just” 4.3” instead of HTC just has glued the stock keys together, with no space between them. That makes it harder to type in quickly, but there are enough keyboard app options at the Play Store to remedy this omission.



Processor and memory

HTC has taken it down a notch in the processor department from the flagship One, outfitting the mini version with a Snapdragon 400 instead of 600. Clocked at 1.4 GHz, the two cores aren't as powerful, but they still provide more oomph than Android's interface can consume, even when painted with Sense 5.0.

We didn't notice any lag or stuttering, and, despite the single gig of RAM, instead of the 2 GB on the One, we also never felt the phone is gasping for memory, either. Granted, this is likely due to HTC restricting the number of apps that can be open at once, as usual, and here the number is nine, neatly arranged in a thumbnail grid when you double-tap the home key. You can flick the snapshot up with your finger to close each individual running app.

An issue of bigger concern for many would be the lack of memory expansion slot, which means you are to make do with 16 GB of internal storage, of which 11 GB are user-available for files, pics, video and music.

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Camera

The One mini has UltraPixel camera on the back, just as the original One. This means that its image sensor is similar in size to the ones used in rival 8-13 MP phones, but is used to produce 4 MP resolution. This leads to larger-than-average pixel size, designed to deliver superior results in low-light. Unlike its bigger brother though, the One mini lacks the optical image stabilization feature, which allows for longer exposure times without blur.


It is extremely fast to focus and take a shot with the One mini, and the video capture button shares one screen with the shutter key, this speeding things up even further. A bunch of shooting modes like HDR, Sweep Panorama or Night can be applied before you take a shot, and plenty of color effects, too.

The pictures exhibit natural colors, but come out a tad underexposed in automatic shooting mode. We'd recommend using the quick HDR option when there is bright sky involved, or other high dynamic range scenes, for better exposure results. Details in pictures are decent for the 4 MP resolution, and no way on par with the better examples of 8+ MP camera phones.

Indoors the One mini indeed takes in more light than your typical handset, but quite a lot of noise, too. The phone often calculates that it should lower the speed (increase the exposure time) instead of fire the LED flash, often resulting in blurry pics.


Video is recorded with Full HD 1080p resolution at 30fps - the footage runs smooth, with no visible artifacts, but a tad underexposed, so we'd advise on using the HDR video mode for better results. In addition, you can record in HD with faster 60fps count, and even slow motion video with variable playback speed. The slow motion option records low-res 768x432 video with very high frames count, then plays it back with slower 24fps average count for a nice replay-like effect.

HTC One Mini Sample Video:



HTC One Mini Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia

The Gallery gets you into a slideshow of your images upon entering, and offers a familiar grid view for both folders and their content. You can edit photos directly from it, or send them to HTC Share as a Zoe collage that fuses pics, video and music from the Gallery with various vintage effects for a short and artsy collage that the phone automatically makes for you.


Music playback is stellar, thanks to the top quality frontal stereo speakers, each with dedicated amplifier, and the headphones provided are pretty decent, too. The Beats Audio preset kicks in both in speakers and headset mode, but the buds' bass sound is inferior to what Apple supplies in the iPhone 5 package, or Samsung with the Galaxy S4, for instance.

The HTC One mini can cope with any major video format you load on it, and that includes DivX/Xvid/MKV footage, up to 1080p of resolution.

Call quality

Voices come loud and clean in the earpiece of the One mini, as HTC simply uses the top BoomSound speaker for that purpose. The other end said the phone's dual-mic setup dealt with noise-cancellation fine, but our voice came through a bit on the low volume side.

Battery

The sealed 1800 mAh battery of the One mini provides enough juice for more than 13 hours of talk time in 3G mode, which is way above average. Tinkering with the phone for the review showed that it will last you the typical day, day and a half with moderate usage.

The issues that HTC One had with power leakage during standby that the company had to fix with a firmware update, are not present on the One mini – we charged the phone fully in the evening, and in eight hours the battery had gone down to 96% only, while connected to a carrier network and with Wi-Fi turned on.

Conclusion

The HTC One mini sets a great example for how a more compact, cheaper version of an annual flagship should be done. HTC kept the same stellar and recognizable design the One has, and didn't leave out any of the unique features like the best phone speakers or the UltraPixel camera.

To achieve a lower price, it only skimped on aspects that are likely to matter less for the average user, like taking away a bit of processing power and memory. We can't even say it skimped on screen resolution, as HD is plenty for the 4.3” diagonal. The lack of the OIS camera tech is also of dubious significance.

The most direct competitor to the HTC One mini is the Galaxy S4 mini, with the same screen size and the mojo of the flagship Galaxy line in its turn. It is just no match, however, in term of design and features to the elegant One mini, not to mention the lower resolution of its Super AMOLED display – all of which doesn't preclude Samsung from selling it for the same price.

Another competitor is Huawei's Ascend P6, which has premium design with ultra slim profile, too, but is a tad larger, and with worse camera and sound quality, though at a slightly lower price.

If you dare to venture outside the Android world, the Nokia Lumia 720 will be a cheaper bet, with a good camera, too, and a microSD slot, but lower screen resolution and smaller app count.

Software: 1.22.401.1

HTC One mini Video Review: