Dubai: HTC has come out with HTC One Mini, which is smaller and lighter, without losing any of the HTC One’s premium finish.
The compact handset is packed almost with the same features as the HTC One but it does not have the same luxurious feel as the HTC One. The moulded white plastic rim around the edges tarnishes Mini’s look.
The 4.3-inch device runs on 1.4GHz dual core Qualcomm processor with 1GB of RAM and Adreno 305 GPU.
The screen sports a 720p Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen with 342 pixel per inch (ppi) compared to iPhone 5’s 326ppi and Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini’s 256ppi.
The Mini runs on the latest Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with HTC’s Sense 5 user interface. Out of the 16GB internal storage capacity, around 11GB is available for users. Due to the aluminum unibody design it does not have a microSD slot for storage expansion.
The other few missing features on the Mini are the Optical Image Stabilization, NFC, MHL connectivity and IR blaster.
HTC has kept the front BoomSound stereo speakers, BlinkFeed, 4MP UltraPixel camera, 3.5mm audio jack and Beats audio tuning.
It is extremely thin and rectangular in design and with curved edges at the back to sit firmly on the hand.
The BlinkFeed feature streams all your favourite contents from Facebook, Twitter and other sources onto one screen to deliver an image-rich page on home screen. Users can select their own contents to be displayed, but the drawback is that it cannot be turned off. It is the home screen by default.
The HTC’s ultrapixel camera technology provides 300 per cent more light entering the sensor than normal smartphone cameras. It is good when taking photos in low light conditions. The snaps are rich in colours and looked stunning on the phone screen. When blown up, snaps taken by the 4MP camera loses detail but are not prone to noise and distortion. Since the screen is 720p the quality of images is not as great as in HTC One.
The camera can take faster images and the HTC Zoe feature captures 20 images and three second video before and after pressing the button. It stitches together all the photos into one, plus you can add background music from HTC Music to make it into a video. The user needs to hold the phone firm for some time after taking the snap for the phone to complete the video. The gallery becomes live tiles of photos.
Some camera features will not work when using Zoe, like zooming and high dynamic range (HDR) mode. But HDR mode can be used during video recording.
The front camera is downgraded to 1.6MP but supports only 720P video recording. Composing a video with variable speed playback is easy on HTC One. Users can add a little drama by slowing down or speeding up a particular scene. The quality of watching high-definition videos and movies on the One is a pleasure and, at the same time, instantly creates and share events with video highlights.
The aluminium casing gets little hotter when watching videos or playing music on the Mini for a long time.
The HTC Boomsound front-facing stereo speakers offer stunning audio quality with Beats technology. It is good when watching movies and playing games.
Talking of games, some of the graphic-rich games like Real Racing 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are not compatible with the Mini and with signs of lag or frame rate issues. May be it is due to lesser processing power, but Riptide GP played well on the Mini.
The 1,800mAh battery on Mini is less when compared to 2,300mAh on HTC One. Users can power for one full day of moderate use. Users can improve the battery life by power saving mode and turning the BlinkFeed off. For power users, it lasts for around nine hours with 3G and WiFi on.
Regarding connectivity, it has 3G, 4GLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0. It is priced at Dh????
