Using the phone is just as easy as most handsets, even with the smaller screen.
The keyboard is understandably a little more cramped thanks to the diminished screen size, but HTC has left its Swype-like “Trace” mode in here, offering a way to type quickly.
The screen also isn’t quite the same level of high resolution display as what was used in the 4.7 inch Full HD HTC One, but it’s still a nice display, providing 341 pixels per inch, higher than that of the iPhone 5’s Retina display (326ppi) and equal to what Sony used in the Xperia S.
Battery life is decent for the size, with a day of life possible, but not much more, unless you resort to doing a whole heap of nothing on the second day.
Our testing included listening to music using wired headphones, making phone calls, social networking, surfing websites, sending messages and emails, and running apps, and all of that showed the HTC One Mini could reach just over a day of life.
Typically, we consider 4G smartphones with a day and a half to two days as having good battery life, but given that this is a smaller handset than its regular-sized HTC One brother and thus features a smaller battery, a day of life seems totally respectable to us, especially since the battery is 1800mAh and not the 2300mAh of its sibling.
An area that the One Mini shares with the One is in 4G performance, and this thing just flies.
Benchmarking it across Sydney, we found speeds as high as 76Mbps down and 32Mbps up, making it one capable beast.
System performance was also decent, though thanks to a different chipset, nowhere near as fast as the One.
It is, in fact, faster from a synthetic benchmark point of view than last year’s flagship HTC One X handset, but comparatively scores half the points compared from the HTC One this year. It also has 1GB less RAM, for a total of 1GB, under the 2GB sweet spot that Android seems to prefer.
That said, despite the differences in hardware, the day to day performance of the One Mini seems perfectly fine, with no obvious slowdowns if you’re browsing the web, switching apps, jumping through menus, or doing anything else you might want to do on a smartphone.
Gamers might notice the differences, but HTC has essentially crafted a smaller version of the One with slightly slower performance that can at least outpace last year’s flagship.
The rear camera appears to be just as good as the four megapixel module we saw on the HTC One, which seems to prefer low-light to many of the other handsets, while still supporting “Zoe,” HTC’s technology to capture multiple frames and let you edit sections out of them later.
We won’t go into the specifics of that – we did that in the One review – but sufficed to say it’s like having a touch of Photoshop with you if you decide to use the Zoe camera mode.
The front-facing camera has dropped in megapixels, marginally though, from 2 to 1.6.
That said, the ultra-wide angle isn’t so ultra-wide anymore, and as you can see in the images below, the One Mini doesn’t have quite the same wide capture as the regular One. It does manage to feel sharper, so that is at least something going for it.
The Mini also feels great, and the smaller design will accommodate some people better than the original. We quite liked the size, because even though it wasn’t a huge leap from the One, it still managed to feel mostly right in our hands.
We say “mostly right” because just like the One, the power button location can be just as trying to get to. The placement of this button in the top left position, and for such a tall phone, it can be a little awkward to get to with one hand.
You do eventually get used to it, or you change your hand-hold without thinking.
There are some things missing, though, such as the wireless Near-Field Communication technology, which makes it easy to pair compatible headphones or connect with TVs and computers, and there’s also the omission of infrared, a feature that was previously made available through the power button up top. No TV remote control for you here, it seems.
There is also no microSD slot, meaning the 16GB storage you get with the One Mini is all you’re going to get, equating to roughly 10GB of storage you get to work with when the phone is ready. That’s not much, so just be aware.
Conclusion
When HTC first started the “One” series last year, it said it was slimming down the range, making it easier to pick handsets. It subsequently released lots of handsets all featuring that naming convention, which actually did the opposite.
This year, however, HTC appears to be coming good on its promise, and with the One Mini, has effectively produced a smaller version of its much lauded One handset from earlier in they year.
It’s worth pointing out that despite the name and similarities, these aren’t the same device, and the One Mini does make some compromises to get to its smaller size.
That said, if you’re looking for a handset that is small, well-designed, and packs performance, this is one phone you’ll want to check out.
