HTC One mini 2: the One (M8) on a diet

Cons

• Relatively expensive
• Color reproduction could be better

HTC has been very successful in the last two years with the design and construction of its phones. The HTC One was praised for its beautiful aluminum housing, and the placement and quality of the BoomSound speakers also received praise. So it’s no surprise that HTC used the same success formula last year for its HTC One Mini, a mid-range model that is derived from the ‘real’ HTC One. They must have thought ‘Never change a winning team’ at HTC, because this year also follows the introduction of the top model, the HTC One (M8), a small variant with an identical appearance: the HTC One mini 2.

The housing

The variant that we received from HTC for review is referred to as ‘gunmetal gray’ and is finished at the back with a dark gray aluminum with a brushed texture. A few months ago we reviewed the same variant of the HTC One (M8) and we still like this style very much.

The phone exudes a certain luxury and quality, but it does not stop at appearance; due to the subtle curve on the sides, the One mini 2 is also nice to hold. What helps is that with its 4.5″ screen, it is a lot smaller than today’s high-end Android phones. So if you like to operate your phone with one hand, the One mini 2 is the right choice. The only criticism of the finish is the nano-SIM slot, which protruded a fraction in our test model, which probably does not apply to all models, but it would be better if it did not occur at all.

As mentioned, the One mini 2 is equipped with HTC’s so-called BoomSound speakers, a name with a high marketing blabla content, but which is true. Firstly, the speakers already sound better because they are at the front and thus facing you, and secondly, HTC simply uses better quality speaker parts than we normally encounter in this price segment.

The screen

The 4.5″ display has a resolution of 1280×720 pixels, good for a pixel density of 326ppi, comparable to an iPhone 5/5C/5S. That’s a lot less than larger Android phones, but frankly that side is of the market a bit over the top when it comes to screen resolution. We find the sharpness on a screen like that of the One mini 2 more than enough for pleasant use. Yes, if you put a phone with a higher pixel density next to it and they both very close to your nose, you can tell the difference, but who does that?

The screen also scores well in other areas. Because it is an IPS panel, the viewing angles are very wide, so the image does not look any different when you look at the phone at an angle. Furthermore, the brightness of 442cd/m2 is high enough to prevent the screen from turning into a mirror outdoors, and the contrast of 1037:1 is not bad for a device in this class either ^. The only flaw is the color reproduction . It is not very true to life and the screen is on the blue side. However, you will only notice the latter if you compare the phone directly with other devices.

Hardware, performance and battery life

Just like with competitor Samsung, the mini version is not just a smaller version of the top model. Not only the housing has been slimmed down, but parts have also been saved, so that we can no longer speak of a high-end model. The HTC One mini 2 is powered by a Snapdragon 400 soc, consisting of four Cortex A7 cores at 1.2GHz and an Adreno 305 GPU, coupled with 1GB of RAM. That is not very fast hardware, but HTC knows how to squeeze the required performance out of it. That’s why it’s nice to work with the One mini 2 and if we compare it with the other mini , HTC clearly has its affairs in order in terms of performance.

If we go through the rest of the specifications, we do not encounter any striking things. There is 16GB of storage memory, of which just over 10GB is available to the user. You can expand the memory via the micro SD slot. On the wireless front, the One mini 2 supports WiFi-n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and 4G. Most people won’t have any trouble getting through the day with the One mini 2, but don’t expect similarly impressive battery performance from its big brother; the 2100mAh battery simply has too little capacity for that.

Software and cameras

The mini 2 runs on Sense 6.0, HTC’s own variant of Android, in this case version 4.4.2. For the most part it’s the same software with the same look and feel as the One (M8) and we still think Sense is one of the best skins for Android out there. Visually, the software is well thought out and everything forms a beautiful whole. In addition, HTC has held back when building new functionality, and the things it has added are generally useful.

That’s why we regret that Motion Launch , which was introduced with the HTC One (M8), is not available on the One mini 2. Motion Launch not only made it possible to turn on the phone by tapping the screen twice, tapping, but also by picking up the phone or turning it to a horizontal position. For example, pressing the volume button automatically starts the camera. There are even more shortcuts that you can perform when the screen is off. It is a pity that the One mini 2 does not have that.

The camera of the HTC One mini 2 is a rather standard 13-megapixel model and therefore not the Ultrapixel camera that we know from the One (M8). It is clearly less sensitive to light, so you see noise more quickly in dark parts, and because it doesn’t have image stabilization, you’re more likely to get blurred photos in low light. If there is sufficient light, the camera manages to take reasonably good photos with quite a bit of detail, although of course it remains less good than with more high-end phones. The software is well put together and there is hardly any shutter lag. The only criticism is that you have to dive into a submenu to switch between photo and video mode.

Conclusion

The HTC One mini 2 is a successful phone in most respects, taking over many of the strengths of its inspiration, the One (M8). The build quality is fine, the phone feels great in the hand, looks nice in our opinion and despite the slower hardware it works well. Furthermore, the screen is reasonable, with excellent brightness, sharpness and viewing angles, although the color reproduction could be better. The battery life is not bad, but it is also not in a positive sense.

The main problem of the One mini 2 is the competition. HTC wants to have about 375 euros for it, which puts the device in the same waters as the HTC One, Galaxy S4 and LG G2, last year’s top models, which have now dropped in price. These are all phones with faster hardware, nicer screens and often better battery life. For people who necessarily want a phone of 4.5″ or smaller, but with a nice design, the One mini 2 is also a great device at its current price, but we wouldn’t say at the moment that you can get a really good one. got a deal.