A lot of selfies are circulating on the internet with celebrities also joining in on the fun. Yes, the HTC One Mini 2 is the perfect device for the selfie loving user. However, this is not the end of the list of features.
While this may be “mini”, but it does not compromise on any of the features of the flagship HTC One M8 Smartphones. All the characteristic features are condensed and presented in smaller and much more manageable form. Hence the term, “mini”. The HTC One mini 2 replaces last year’s One mini which had won great accolades for its use of solid build quality achieved by metal phone bodies. It seems like the company is bent on keeping its focus on this approach with the Mini 2 as well.
This phone is specifically designed to fulfil the requirements for the small premium segment of Smartphones. It is a good and sturdy phone with great performance capabilities, despite being smaller than most of the 5 inch plus phones that are attention grabbers in the mobile market today.
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If you take a closer look, this phone looks pretty much the same as the HTC One M8, but only slightly smaller. But the only drawback that I feel in this phone is that the company cut on the “premium” aspect of the process to bring down the Mini 2 to the small premium segment. So the body is not made from a single aluminium unit. In fact, it is made from multiple pieces, so the feel isn’t exactly like that of the M8. But this is only if we compare it to the company’s flagship phone. On comparing it with various mid ranged competitors, it does stand out from the crowd with some pretty good ratings. In terms of the ergonomics of the design, the mini 2 is 9mm shorter and over 5mm narrower than the flagship model and this makes it highly convenient for single hand operations.
The screen and the OS are pretty responsive to the touch and this proves that despite its size, the Mini 2 definitely packs a punch. The quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor in this phone is a tad bit tempered down than the Snapdragon 801 used in M8. However, the difference in performance is so minuscule that you would hardly notice it. The capabilities of this processor include faster app launch, smoother game operation and multitasking capabilities.
Some of the games which are graphically enhanced and suited for high end phone models may not run as efficiently as on the premium segment phones. However, such intensive gaming is hardly the focus when it comes to small Android phones. The enhanced performance and speed makes it a worthy upgrade to the series.
The phone comes with 16GB of storage built in with a MicroSD card slot for expanding the storage with an extra 128 GB. The only drawback in this section is that the apps need to be stored in the internal storage. The 128 GB external spaces cannot be used for storing apps.
Mini 2 also gives a decent battery usage time with the same all-day battery life as the One M8. This is the company’s claim as HTC is known for creating some really good and durable batteries for its phones. Without activating any power saving feature on this device, average users should be able to get around 2 days of operational use without charging the phone in between.
The camera is probably the most hyped about feature in this phone and it seems that the camera on the Mini 2 is getting a lot of attention from mobile users, specifically speaking – the selfie loving generation. The traditional 13-megapixel main camera is capable of turning out good quality photos even if they are not as great as the ones obtained from the M8’s 4 Ultrapixel DuoCamera. Even though the low light performance of the camera is not as good as that on the M8, the images are comparatively sharper.
For the selfie lovers, the Mini 2 has a huge treat for you. The front camera is a 5 megapixel, wide aperture and high quality image producing behemoth that can churn out great photos that exceed the expected quality of regular front camera pictures. Moreover, you get loads of fancy image editing options in the phone which make “selfies’ rather fun to manage.
Technical Specifications
| GENERAL | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| 3G Network | HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 – EMEA version | |
| HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 – Asia version | ||
| 4G Network | LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2600 – EMEA version | |
| LTE 700 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 – Asia version | ||
| SIM | Nano-SIM | |
| Announced | 2014, May | |
| Status | Coming soon. Exp. release 2014, June |
| BODY | Dimensions | 137.4 x 65 x 10.6 mm (5.41 x 2.56 x 0.42 in) |
| Weight | 137 g (4.83 oz) |
| DISPLAY | Type | Super LCD2 capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.5 inches (~326 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 | |
| – HTC Sense UI |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers, built-in amplifiers | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes |
| MEMORY | Card slot | microSD, up to 128 GB |
| Internal | 16 GB, 1 GB RAM |
| DATA | GPRS | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes | |
| Speed | HSDPA, 42 Mbps, HSUPA; LTE, Cat4, 50 Mbps UL, 150 Mbps DL | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v4.0 with A2DP | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB Host |
| CAMERA | Primary | 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
| Features | Geo-tagging, face and smile detection | |
| Video | Yes, 1080p@30fps | |
| Secondary | Yes, 5 MP, 1080p@30fps |
| FEATURES | OS | Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 | |
| CPU | Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 | |
| GPU | Adreno 305 | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, proximity, compass | |
| Messaging | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email | |
| Browser | HTML5 | |
| Radio | FM radio with RDS | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS | |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | |
| Colors | Gunmetal Gray, Glacial Silver Amber Gold | |
| – SNS integration – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic – TV-out (via MHL A/V link) – MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player – MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV/Flac player – Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk – Organizer – Document viewer – Photo viewer/editor – Voice memo/dial – Predictive text input |
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Po 2110 mAh battery | |
| Stand-by | (2G) / Up to 556 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | (2G) / Up to 16 h 10 min (3G) |
The Verdict!
While no official price has been quoted by the company, it is expected that the phone could cost around £300 without a contract. However, it should come free of cost for contractual subscriptions. The metal body feels great in the hand and has a premium feel to it. The performance is smooth and the device packs in a great battery management system for delivering commendable performance even for the average user.
The only small down side is that its slower processor and only 1GB of RAM which may affect the performance of visually enhanced games. For overcoming this minor obstacle, the company would have to come up with another rendition of the phone with enhanced RAM support. Currently, this makes the phone less future proofed.
If you’re looking for a well-made, smaller Android phone, then the Mini 2 is the perfect choice for you. There is no phone out there that can match the capabilities of this phone in this segment. The HTC One Mini 2 would start roiling out by the end of May. Till then we can only speculate about the costs and post usage review from extensive usage by the targeted consumer group.
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