Sleek metallic appearance, decent HD screen, powerful processor, good battery life
Camera only so-so, rivals can deliver similar specs for less
We've already had the HTC One mini, so logic, if not common sense, would decree that it's next incarnation should be called the HTC One mini 2. It's bigger than the original, and getting dangerously close to its inspiration, the HTC One (M8) in size.
Chassis and screen
The phone has now expanded out to a plumpish 11mm at the ridge of its curved back, and stretched a little at the edges too. It's still smaller than the M8 of course, but it's hardly the dinky handset its name implies. The all-metal chassis exudes class, and though the price may be considerably lower than the original, you certainly don't get the feeling they've skimped on the build quality.
The 4.5-inch screen has stretched a bit from the original's 4.3 inches, but it's retained the same screen resolution of 1,280x720 pixels. Technically that means the screen should be a little less sharp, but it's impossible to tell just from looking at it and it still delivers an impressive 342ppi -- still comfortably above the iPhone 5's 326ppi. There's 16GB of memory on board, which isn't bad, and you can add a further 128GB via microSD card (you can't use the card to store apps though).
Processor and software
As you'd expect, the mini's processor is a step down from the M8's quad-core 2.3GHz engine to a dual-core 1.4GHz model. Still, it's backed by a full 1GB of RAM and in practise it's certainly no slouch, whipping through the apps with aplomb. Our AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a score of 16,946, which puts it in line with the quad-core EE Kestrel and Motorola Moto G. The battery capacity has increased from 1,800 to 2,100mAh and it does a pretty good job, comfortably delivering close to two days of fairly heavy use.
It's running the latest 6.0 version of HTC's Sense interface, which gives it a significantly different look to standard Android.
The BlinkFeed screen pulls together all your favourite news and message feeds into a magazine-style interface that works pretty well once you've got used to it, though it isn't for everyone. The latest Sense also includes 'Extreme Power Saving' mode, which you can set to kick in once the battery drops down to a certain level.
Photography
In what seems like a bit of an about face, the camera eschews HTC's recent reliance on Ultrapixels, and is not attempting to claim here that having fewer, but bigger pixels is a better option.
This time the company has gone for a traditional 13-megapixel snapper, with a 5-megapixel version on the front for video calls.
The main camera is functional enough and comes with a decent range of features, but picture quality is only so-so. Despite the presence of a BSI sensor, you really will need to be careful with your light to get decent results. There's a fun 'selfie' setting though, which allows you to doctor the pic by cropping and rotating, as well as adding effects like 'skin smoothness' (slight blurring really), 'eye brightening' and 'anti-shine'.
Conclusion
The HTC One mini 2 offers a few welcome upgrades to the original and does a fairly good job of offering a cut-price alternative to the full-grown version, delivering a good range of specs without too much compromise, in an equally classy, if only slightly smaller package.
Software: Google Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Processor: Dual-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 4.3 inches SuperLCD3, 1280x720 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 13 megapixels with autofocus, LED flash and BSI sensor; 5 megapixel front-facing camera
Video playback: 3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 10), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3)
Audio playback: aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma
Radio: Yes
Battery: 2100mAh
Size: 137x65x11mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
