Review: HTC One mini
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 9:18AM 
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Released earlier this year, the HTC One remains one of the best Android smartphones in the market today in almost every aspect. Great build, premium materials, innovative software and a stunning new camera. It was voted best smartphone by Canadian Reviewer's readers a few months ago and it has spawned smaller and larger variants. We take a look at HTC One's mini me.
The HTC One remains the flagship product with its quad-core processor, 4.7-inch screen HD screen with 468 pixel per inch pixel density and larger 32GB storage capacity. The HTC One mini, which also runs Android Jelluy Bean 4.2, mimics the larger One's design and replicates some of the key differentiators that set the HTC One apart from the competition.
The Boomsound front-facing stereo speakers, the 4 megapixel Ultrapixel camera and HTC's Zoe AV feature and Sense 5 user experience, and 4G-LTE connectivity are all available in the HTC One mini.
The materials and build quality of the One mini are very similar to the larger phone. Instead of end-to-end glass on the display, the mini has a plastic border surrounding the edges of the phone. The result is a robust, slim and handsome smartphone that fits perfectly in one hand and can be navigated easily.
What one quickly notices with the HTC One mini is that it isn't really tiny. Not as 'mini' as say some of Samsung's smaller smartphone variants. This is a good thing since users will feel like they are getting a very similar device to the larger HTC One.
What's been reduced is the screen size (4.3 inches vs 4.7), the processor (dual-core 1.4 GHz vs quad-core 1.7GHz), RAM (1GB vs 2GB), front facing camera(1.6 megapixel vs. 2.1 megapixel) and most obviously the non-removable battery (1800 mAh vs. 2300 mAh).
I still found the HTC One mini to be quite sprightly in launching and running my most popular apps and soon got used to the slimmer and lighter size. This is certainly a great mid-range device that will run the majority of Android apps as well as HTC's own software efficiently.
The HTC One mini, which is available from Rogers in Canada starting November 4, feels good all around. Just enough in terms of specs and functionality to satisfy most users.
Its remarkable that HTC has managed to maintain the best aspects of the HTC One experience and translated into a slightly smaller size.
Most users will not miss the faster processor or the slightly larger screen although the smaller RAM of the HTC One mini might factor into some of the background processes.
That said, there aren't that many applications on Android that can really take full advantage of the quad-core processing so basic functions like reading mail, surfing the web, social media and even some games felt just as fast on the HTC One mini as they did on the larger One.
The best thing is that the HTC One mini doesn't feel like a cripped derivative device but is a pretty powerful smartphone on its own merit. It will compete nicely with many dual-core powered Android devices in the market today and it will feel more premium and polished because of its aluminum design and high quality build.
Stay tuned for our wrap-up and final rating as well as the pricing in Canada from Rogers.
Reader Comments (1)
I bought HTC One mini last week during the Diwali offer and I don't regret buying it. :)
For starters the price seems to be a bit steep. The phone is comparable to an iPhone 5 with solid build quality, slim and a bigger screen. So it is obvious that it will be priced on the higher side.
This is a great phone for single handed operations and the initial setup took me less than 10 minutes. HTC has a transfer app that could copy everything from your old phone via WiFi making it easy for me to setup without having to change SIMs or SD cards (doesn't have an SD slot)
I thought of replacing the original ROM with the Nexus ROM, but love HTC's blink feed, email app and the settings it provides to customize the phone. Having used Android 4.3 for couple of months, I would say HTC Sense SDK is far better.
It has a good battery life, provided you keep apps running in the background to bare minimum.
The call quality is good. There were no call drops on longer conversations although the phone heats up a little on choppy networks. It is a common issue on all phones that tends to keep the network intact.
Love the beats audio, it serves its purpose. It delivers better quality output than S4 or G2.
The only drawback will be the camera. It doesn't fare well on a digital zoom, but as long as you use Optical Zoom the pictures look pleasant without grains.
All in all HTC One Mini is the best buy if you have a choice of buying an iPhone or S4 or G2. In this price range it is a bargain.