HTC One mini 2 hands-on: First look

Introduction

HTC has expanded the One family with a new petite member - the HTC One mini 2. Note that it's not One (M8) mini, this is more of a sequel to the One mini from last year. Perhaps most telling of this is the camera, a 13MP shooter rather than the questionable dual-camera of the M8. Still, the HTC One mini 2 looks just the same as the new HTC One M8, so the family relation is more than obvious.

HTC One Mini 2 official photos

The HTC One mini 2 preserves the qualities that made the original mini great, namely the premium aluminum unibody design, the excellent screen and the stereo front-facing speakers. There are major changes though, the screen grew to 4.5" from 4.3" and the camera more than tripled its resolution to a 13MP. Here's a cheat sheet of One mini 2's specifications.

HTC One mini 2 at a glance:

• General: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band UMTS/HSPA, LTE
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone with aluminum unibody
• Dimensions: 137.4 x 65 x 10.6 mm, 137 g
• Display: 4.5" 16M-color 720p (720 x 1280 pixels) Super LCD 2 capacitive touchscreen, 326ppi pixel density; Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7, 1GB RAM, Adreno 305
• OS: Android 4.4 KitKat with Sense 6
• Memory: 16GB storage, microSD card slot
• Camera: 13MP auto-focus camera, BSI sensor, f/2.2; LED flash
• Video camera: Full HD (1080p) video recording at 30fps with HDR; 720p @ 60fps
• Front camera: 5MP front-facing camera; 1080p @ 30fps video
• Connectivity: dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, standard microUSB port with MHL and USB host, GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack
• Battery: 2,100mAh Li-Po
• Misc: BoomSound stereo speakers on the front, HTC Zoe

The HTC One mini 2 runs the latest software from Google and HTC on a different Snapdragon 400 chipset than the original One mini. It adds a microSD card slot, which is more than welcome, as the limited storage was one of the more common complaints we've heard about its predecessor.

HTC One mini 2 joins the original One mini in our office

The One mini 2 grew in size as well as features. The original HTC One mini was already taller than most other 4.3" phones, and the new one is even taller. The width of the two though is almost the same.

The in-hand feel is as premium as ever, but flip to the next page for our thoughts on the second generation One mini hardware.