new on board

HTC One mini review

The HTC One was a landmark handset, pretty much the best that HTC could produce at the time. But it's quite a handful, and it made sense to shrink it down a little for those who value comfort and usability over bleeding edge tech.

That's what the HTC One mini aims to be and it's on sale now for around £380.

Design
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.

HTC One mini beside the HTC One
HTC

It's still a goodly size though, well up to the task of delivering HD movies with its screen resolution of 1,280x720 pixels, which amounts to 341 pixels per inch (ppi), although that's dropped from the One's full HD 1,080x1,920-pixel 469ppi screen. That puts it a smidgeon ahead of the iPhone 5's 326ppi and well in front of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini's 256ppi. Movies sound pretty good too thanks to the extra oomph provided by the twin HTC BoomSound speakers on the front and the option of and Beats Audio sound processing.

It's still fast, whipping through the apps with ease, and with no obvious delay when rendering busy web pages

Like the One, the screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, but this one is version 3, promised to be tougher than the version 2 on the older phone -- one of the very few improvements the mini can deliver over its predecessor.

That slimline aluminium casing with its gently curving back now augmented by white plastic trim to distinguish it from the original One looks and feels extremely classy by the way, and in no way reflects the price drop of well over £100. There's a slot in the side for your micro SIM card but you can't remove the battery and there's no option to boost the memory with a microSD card -- so you're stuck with the 16GB it comes with.
HTC One mini HTC One miniNate Lanxon
HTC One mini HTC One miniNate Lanxon

Android and software
Like its big brother, 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).

HTC's Sense 5.0 user interface means a slightly different look for the homescreen and Android icons, but also incorporates some different menus and widgets. BlinkFeed is one such, a full-screen app that pulls together your chosen news and social networking updates into a magazine-style format, a bit like Flipboard. It works pretty well but unfortunately you're limited to a particular selection of news feeds and if you don't want it, you can't remove it from your home screen.

Performance
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.

It's ready for 4G too, so you can make the most of it with EE, or hang on until other 4G networks begin to make their appearance later this year.
HTC One mini test photo HTC One mini test photoDave Oliver
HTC One mini HTC One miniNate Lanxon

Photography
HTC describes the camera as "UltraPixel". It's got four megapixels really, like the snapper on the One, but HTC reckons the pixels are larger than usual, letting in more light. It also has a large F2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens, plus an illuminated sensor for improved pics in low light. There are settings galore, including anti-shake, sweep panorama, HDR, touch focus, face detection and smile capture. There's also HTC Zoe, which allows you to take multiple pics (up to 20, depending how long you press the onscreen shutter button) and shoot a three-second video, just to make sure you don't miss the moment as well as animating pictures in your gallery and set them to music.

The battery has shrunk considerably from the large 2,300mAh model to 1,800mAh and it shows

All of which makes it a fun camera to use, but it's a shame that the pictures aren't better quality. Sharpness isn't up there with the best, detail can be lacking and the automatic settings can struggle with light levels. However, it's worth noting there is absolutely no difference between this lens and the one on the full size HTC One -- it's identical.
Test photo taken with the HTC One mini's rear camera Test photo taken with the HTC One mini's rear cameraDave Oliver


The front-facing camera is a step down from the One however, offering 1.6 megapixels instead of 2.1 and allowing you to record in 720p HD rather than full HD 1,080p.

Some perhaps less obvious compromises include the lack of NFC for touch payments or easy swapping of content with other phones and there's no infrared sensor that would allow you to use your phone as a universal remote.

As with other HTC One phones though you'll get the option of 25GB of free online storage via Dropbox but it's only for two years -- after that you'll have to pay.

The battery has shrunk considerably from the large 2,300mAh model to 1,800mAh and it shows -- you'll be lucky to get a full day's worth of heavy use out of it.

Conclusion
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.

However, the reduced battery life doesn't impress, and being stuck with half the amount of memory storage may be a deal-breaker for some, but if you can't quite justify the high-end price of the One, the One mini is a very worthy compromise.