HTC One mini 2 review: Growing up

Display

The display of the HTC One mini 2 is a Super LCD2 unit of 720 x 1280 resolution and 4.5 inches of diagonal. This results in a pixel density of around 326ppi.

Although not a Super LCD3 as the HTC One M8's, the screen offers great image quality and viewing angles.

HTC One mini 2's display

Quite similar to the screen of the original HTC One mini, this one offers very good brightness and contrast, the only minor letdown being reflectivity.

Blacks are deep at both ends of our test - at both 50% and 100% brightness. Speaking of brightness, it's a sufficiently bright screen and its contrast ratio is impressive. The LG G2 mini's screen fades in comparison and it has a lower resolution as well. Motorola's Moto G has a reasonably good 720p screen but it too gets outdone by the HTC One mini 2.

Sunlight legibility is quite good, just not the best. The screen performs decently under direct sunlight but it would've done better had it been a little less reflective.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3.549
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Nokia Lumia 925
  3.402
• Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  3.127
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  3.118
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2.950
• HTC One S
  2.901
• BlackBerry Q10
  2.856
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• BlackBerry Z30
  2.790
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Sony Xperia ZR
  2.672
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• HTC One Max
  2.537
• Nokia Lumia 720
  2.512
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• HTC One (M8)
  2.371
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Oppo Find 7a
  2.279
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  2.262
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• Nokia Lumia 630
  2.056
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• HTC One mini
  2.003
• LG G2
  1.976
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1.944
• HTC One mini 2
  1.940
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• LG G Pro 2
  1.922
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1.865
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Meizu MX3
  1.754
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1.740
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• BlackBerry Q5
  1.682
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• LG Optimus GJ
  1.666
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  1.622
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1.578
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  1.563
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
  1.393
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1.321
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• Nokia Asha 501
  1.270
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

Battery life test

The HTC One mini 2 is powered by a 2110mAh battery, up from 1800mAh in the original, that's quoted at around 16 hours of talk time and 550 hours of standby. For a reference, the Motorola Moto G has a 2070mAh unit, while the LG G2 mini is powered by a 2440mAh monster of a battery.

The One mini 2 offers Power Saving and Extreme Power Saving modes. The former just dims the screen and throttles down the CPU, while the latter is more advanced and disables multitasking altogether and replaces the launcher with a simplified version letting you only access a basic set of features.

The HTC One mini 2 did better than the original but not quite the score we were hoping for. The 50h rating was less than we expected based on the official HTC numbers. For more information here's our full battery test post.

Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.

Connectivity

The HTC One mini 2 has quad-band 2G/EDGE support, tri-band 3G with HSPA+ (up to 42Mbps downlink) for the international version and quad-band 3G with HSPA+ for the Asian version. There's quad-band or penta-band 4G support too, depending on the region.

Local connectivity includes dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (that's both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz), Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA. There is also stereo Bluetooth 4.0 with the aptX audio codec. There's A-GPS and GLONASS for positioning too.

The handset has a standard 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB port. The microUSB port is MHL enabled, meaning you can use it to output content to an external screen with the right type of an adapter. The microUSB port can also be used in a USB host mode where you can hook up various USB periphrals to the phone. Of course, you would need an adapter.

Just like the HTC One (M8) the HTC One mini 2 has support for the HTC Mini+ accessory. You pair the two via Bluetooth and you can then take calls, keep up to date with notifications and more on the little phone.

HTC Mini+

NFC is listed as optional and indeed our unit did not have it. HTC hasn't published a list of markets that get NFC, so that's something to check before buying one.