Review: HTC Mini with slightly modified design - NU.nl

Photo: NU.nl / Joost Nederpelt

The design of the Mini is slightly different from the original One for Nutech was named best smartphone of the moment .

in April

Thus, the cut edge of the One replaced by a type of plastic bumper. That makes for a slightly less luxurious look. The two volume buttons protrude slightly provide a less than impressive finish accurately concealed buttons in the One.

The front is almost identical. The two prominent speakers at the top and bottom of the screen remained and the border around the screen has not become more robust. The difference in size of the phone itself is otherwise very limited, only 0.5 inches in height and width.

the back again is made of brushed aluminum and slightly curved to comfortably in your hand and look beautiful.

Display and sound

The resolution of the screen is cut from full HD (1080 x 1920 pixels) to HD (720 x 1280 pixels). The differences are small, in practice, also because the screen itself is slightly smaller (4.3 to 4.7 inch). When zooming in on text loss in sharpness falls, but with photos and even text on the home screens, it is almost impossible to see.

Furthermore, the white display and brightness slightly less good, but despite the small differences the screen is excellent. The Mini One therefore has a better display than the S4 Mini (review). However, the latter has slightly better viewing angles and colors seem brighter by them to show.

slightly saturated

Camera and battery

HTC One Mini has the same camera as the One. A 4-megapixel model that HTC describes as an ultra pixel camera. By making use of larger pixels using more light is captured and would improve the quality of the pictures must go up. In the dark the Mini One and One therefore relatively good photos.

the phones themselves see the photos often nice, although even then the lack of detail, for example leaves and buildings may fall. On the PC, the details are all at the lower resolution. See photos taken with the Mini on Nutech.

The battery life of the Mini is average and comes with regular use of social media, new apps and e-mail where the screen is often a high brightness about 12 to 14 hours.

Performance

Mini uses a 400 Snapdragon chipset, like the S4 Mini. These chips are slightly less likely than those in the current top models, but the speed is sufficient in practice. The Mini One has no problem with games, videos and the usual or heavy apps.

The Mini has Android 4.2.2 and HTC Sense 5.0. Same software as the One. In appearance Sense is pretty quiet with a clear line in terms of icons. The Blink Feed, a sort of digital magazine with a visual display of messages in selected media, the latest news and updates from social media, the standard home screen.’s This can be disabled, happy because clearly it is not.

Conclusion

Because the Mini (449 Euros MSRP) is a lot cheaper than the One (699 Euros MSRP) there are some concessions. The screen is slightly less good, the chip less rapidly and the housing less well finished. Nevertheless, the performance is sufficient and finish fine.

A full One in a small jacket is unfortunately not and the difference in size is very limited. That does not mean that the HTC One Mini at all levels can come along and an impressive handset is the bottom line. HTC now joins Samsung with a good and relatively small Android device for a lower price. The Mini One and Mini S4 do not for each other.

View photos and expanded version of this review