HTC’s pint-size phone announced as the One Mini

Earlier in the week, we saw an infographic hint that HTC would be launching something small. The good news is that the UK division has confirmed it, but the bad news is the Australian division hasn’t.

Announced overnight in London, HTC’s One is getting de-bigulated, shrunk in size to support a slightly smaller hand, slightly smaller screen, and a few modifications in hardware to make the handset work in that slightly smaller size.

First is that screen, moving from a 4.7 inch Full HD to a 4.3 inch HD 720p screen, dropping from the staggering 468 pixels per inch to 341ppi, a number that’s still higher than the 326 offered on Apple’s iPhone 5.

The smaller screen means the device is smaller, and that means HTC is reducing some of the technology found inside. As such, there’s a Snapdragon 400 1.4Ghz dual-core, 1GB RAM, Google Android “Jelly Bean,” 16GB storage, and still no microSD slot.

You can expect a similar design with an aluminium chassis, now complimented by some accents of polycarbonate, as well as the Ultrapixel 4 megapixel camera, both from the HTC One. There’s also Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX support, WiFi, DLNA, GPS, 4G LTE connectivity, and Beats Audio through both the headphones and extra loud dual-speakers at the front.

HTC’s Blinkfeed is also here, though we’re hoping it’ll be tightened up and adapted to support more than just the few news services HTC has running in its current iteration.

Missing in action is Near-Field Communication, so there’ll be no waving your phone in front of speakers in this handset, so keep your Bluetooth settings close.

While the idea of a smaller metal One intrigues us, HTC’s Australian arm doesn’t have any word on local availability, so right now, all we can say is that hopefully it’s coming in the next few months. We’ll keep you updated with more on this as it happens.