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HTC One Mini 2, a phone that follows in the footsteps of the well acclaimed HTC One M8, is one of the more stylish looking smartphones smartphone that money can buy today. The HTC One Mini 2 is supposed to be a miniature HTC One M8. HTC back in 2013 decided to rework the ‘One’ line up and make it more premium and more desirable. This lead to an aluminum unibody HTC One M7. It was well received and did strike as innovative. In 2104, HTC reimagined the design we saw the HTC One M8. It was slimmer, better looking and came in unique colour options. Over the few months those colour options have expanded to include red, pink, etc.
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The Htc One Mini 2 follows in the same philosophy as the HTC One M8. The phone is made out of metal, much in the same way as its bigger brother. The HTC One Mini 2 has pretty much the same overall design and silhouette too.
The HTC One Mini 2 however makes a departure from the dual lens Ultrapixel setup and this means that there’s no secondary rear camera at the back. It retains the same boom sound speakers.
The Mini 2 doesn’t have as many variants as the HTC One M8 does. It also carries lower spec internals to differentiate itself from the bigger One M8. So that’s about the biggest difference between the two HTC offerings. From a design standpoint, the HTC One Mini 2 warrants more deeper diving and that’s exactly what we’ve done for you.
Design:
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The HTC One Mini 2 is designed to not only be good looking but also great to hold in the hands. The material on the HTC One Mini 2 are pretty much the same that we have seen on the larger flagship device. The One Mini 2 deviates from an all metal body to metal and plastic body combination. That may seem like a bit of a downer, in one small way it may be too. The HTC One Mini 2 has a hard plastic shell that runs across the four sides and the back of the phone. The back part can be understood as that is for the antennas, but having that run through the device on the sides takes away the harmony one can see and feel in the larger device. With two different layers running in parallel along with the screen and speakers being raised up, the sides look like the least worked upon area in terms of design. When one compares this with the HTC One Mini, there’s a marked change as the plastic around the sides is lesser and there’s more focus on the metal.
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The HTC One Mini 2 looks gorgeous overall, and I do mean gorgeous, but HTC should do something for that large plastic ring running across the sides of the phone. It gets worse when the volume rocker comes into the picture. There’s just too many things going on, and it’s chaotic if you ask me.
Like I said earlier, the One Mini 2 was designed to be good looking and from a distance and when you view the device as a whole, it does. Only when you dive into the details you start noticing things that makes one wonder why HTC didn’t keep the clean look of the One M8.
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I may have started the design review on a negative note, but it was one thing I had to get out before I moved on to where the HTC One Mini 2 gets interesting.
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The HTC One Mini 2 is a slim phone, but in a deceiving sort of a way. HTC played it smart and packed in all the goodies to the center of the phone, while leaving the left and right sides of the phone slim and sleek. This design allows the pams to hold the phone very naturally and easily. There’s minimal effort and it’s not taxing on the fingers at all. in fact I’d have to say that this feels by far the most comfortable to hold in one hand, trumping many a premium offerings.
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The HTC One Mini 2 has the buttons and placed in roughly the same spots as the original One Mini. If you are however using the One M8, then you will find that this can be more than a bother. I repeatedly found myself searching for the power key, this primarily because the One M8 had it on the right side instead of the left side. I’m not a big fan of this set up and it was annoying for me. The power button also does not have the IR blaster, just in case you were wondering. The power button is raised just enough for your fingers to find it without you looking, this something that I personally found very nice, as it didn’t destroy the the look of the phone with something jutting out on the top. The volume rocker is set up the same way, the fingers automatically lock in to position. From the standpoint of aesthetics the buttons are good on the fingers. There’s an odd click noise with the power button every time I use it, but it’s not a worry for me.
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To the left of the phone there is a single slot for the nano SIM, yes the HTC One Mini 2 will entail an upgrade to a nano SIM. The right side has the odd coloured volume rocker and the Micro SD card slot. The bottom of the device has the Micro USB slot. HTC has. The gun metal finish on the HTC One 2 is superb and it does make the phone feel every bit a premium device.
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Compared to its predecessor, the One Mini 2 has a bigger screen – 4.5″ vs the 4.3″ on the first generation One Mini. This addition makes the phone taller than the One Mini as well. Visually the One Mini 2 is quite big, easily besting the Sony Z1 compact. Armed with sensors on the top end of the phone and a 5MP for taking selfies, the HTC One Mini 2 maintains a clean look with only the HTC logo appearing just above the speaker on the bottom side. HTC has done away with physical buttons for navigating through the phone, instead it’s all onscreen buttons. This allows the One Mini 2 to look very clean and classy.
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Overall, the HTC One Mini 2 sets the standard for mini versions of flagships. It looks good and feels great. There are areas that need attention, these however seem like they can be addressed in the future iteration. The phone definitely has the oomph to stand out and looks classy. It may not rock high end specs, but the One Mini 2 makes up for that with great design.
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