The HTC One Mini 2 was just reviewed from a design perspective in the first of the multi part review on the smartphone. The HTC One Mini 2 pretty much set the standard for coolness in Android devices when it came to mid end devices. The HTC One Mini 2 isn’t your average smartphone. It is a flagship device for that range from HTC. That being said, a phone is only as good as it’s hardware, cover it in all kinds of materials and give it all kinds of finishes, yet if the hardware isn’t good. The phone just fails. There are countless stories about manufacturers doing just that. The HTC One Mini 2 veers somewhere in between. On the hardware front it is somewhere in the middle. There’s a lot to speak about that in this part of the review. Before I begin, let’s clear out what is not being considered in the scope of this review – camera, music performance and call quality out of the mix. There’s one last thing I’ve got to put in here for you to know more about the HTC One Mini 2, the specs.
The HTC One Mini 2 Specs:
- 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor
- 1GB RAM, 16GB internal memory with Micro SD card slot supporting up to 128GB cards
- 4.5″ 720p Super LCD2 display
- WiFi, DLNA< Bluetooth 4, GPS, GLONASS and 4G
- 2110mAh battery
One look at the specs and you might be left wondering that this feels odd, the 1GB of RAM on paper does look like it’s 2012 again. However in my day to day use I’ve found the phone to be more than capable, which means it’s all in the head? not necessarily. The entire hardware in the phone runs off quite well and does not sputter or freeze like I had thought it would. Let’s face it, HTC has a custom skin running on top of Android and while they have slimmed it and made it less obtrusive, one does wonder how would it cope up when presented with a gig of RAM. Fortunately, it didn’t disappoint.
Posted below are screenshots from various benchmark testing apps – If these be the parameters you judge by this should satisfy that part of your curiosity.
With that done, let’s move on to the actual experience of using the One Mini 2.
Hardware:
The HTC One Mini 2 is a rather smooth phone, not just in looks but also in usage, the software and the hardware work in such a way that there’s a degree of fluidity that I’ve not witnessed in Android devices before. The processor is fast and capable of keeping up with demanding tasks and computing should there be a need. In my day to day usage, I did not for once feel like things were slowing down or performance not matching up to what was expected from a device like this. in all fairness, the processor and the Adreno 305 GPU performed quite well and gave no cause for worry. Like I said earlier, the 1GB RAM seemed like it might be the cause of misery for this phone, I really did. But it did not do any such thing. 1GB of RAM did not feel like a letdown for a device like this. In my daily use, the phone did not at once feel like it was choked or fatigued. No lags, no freezes or app crashes, nothing. I am quite surprised by that. We have been let to believe by manufacturers that more RAM is the way for smartphones and 3GB is, by today’s standard, the new ideal with 2GB being defacto standard. In such a world, phones toting 1GB of RAM are considered inadequate or handicapped, or so we have been let to believe. The HTC One Mini 2 quashes that perception by providing an experience that’s typical of higher end devices. There are other phones that can manage the feat, this particular phone isn’t the only one, but it certainly does it with a lot of fluidity and that’s to be recognized and commended.
I played quite a few games on the phone and taxed it quite a bit, but the phone never felt out of breath. Only after having opened a lot of apps (15 -20) randomly and a few games did I find the performance suffer, but then again I don’t think anyone is going to do that. I really wish I had something negative to pick on here, but to be honest this phone did not give me any grief. Just like the HTC One M8, this phone just nailed it in this area.
Memory is a crucial element in hardware, too little and you’ve crippled the phone for it’s entire life and too much of it means that you’ve hit a six on a no ball (cricket terminology, for the people who didn’t get it). The HTC One Mini 2 doesn’t do any of those. It plays it safe and practical by coming with 16GB of internal memory and a Micro SD card slot that will take in 128GB cards. With that kind of memory options the Mini 2 doesn’t feel like it’s limping. I had a 16GB Micro SD card (the UHS 1 variety) and that allowed for a smooth experience in my day to day usage. If you are getting a smartphone like this, it’s best to invest in an SD card that’s fast, otherwise it ruins the experience completely. The 16GB internal memory does fine too. If you had to absolutely run just on that, you could do that too. The HTC One Mini 2 comes with 50GB of Google Drive storage (a complimentary offer available with the HTC smartphone, that adds 50GB of online storage to your existing 15GB available on Google) for two years so there’s always the cloud for storing those pictures and videos online. The latter is not a hardware feature but a software, but it adds to the memory part and makes the device that much more useful.
The HTC One Mini 2 features a 4.5″ Super LCD2 display. That’s a lot of display acronyms right there. The HTC One Mini 2 has a display that’s not a compromise. It’s not a full HD unit, but it is a 720p which in this case is plenty. It is an LCD at the end of the day which means that it can’t outdo an AMOLED display, but I have to say that this display can easily rival some of the best displays available in phones today. The HTC One Mini 2 screen is crisp, sharp and looks gorgeous. It is a delight to use in terms of touch, the glass and the touch is top notch, which is to be expected since it is Gorilla Glass 3. The display is dynamic in it’s response to light. In direct sunlight I did have a few issues reading stuff off the display, but it wasn’t too bad or washed out. In darkness, the screen comes alive and the experience on the whole is quite a pleasure to the eyes. During gaming and during streaming video, I found the screen more than capable to take on the rigours of the application. Be it Asphalt 8 or YouTube, the display on the HTC One Mini 2 did not seem like a compromise or a let down even. I must admit that HTC has done a great job here in too.
The HTC One Mini 2 features dual speakers in the front of the device. This design was first showcased by HTC with its’ Butterfly series of smartphone. The One took it further and on the HTC One Mini 2 it looks like there’s been evolution. The HTC One Mini 2 speakers are loud. This phone’s speakers are loud enough for you to probably not having an external speaker to listen to songs in a room. They’re not so loud that you do away with them completely, but in a phone and especially this one, the speakers are loud to set it apart from the herd. Listening to music or streaming content or even during gaming, the speakers do not disappoint. They’re not loud enough to replace speakers or sound systems, they are loud enough however for them to get noticed. I liked the placement of the speakers and do honestly believe that this placement actually helps in improving the overall experience of owning a smartphone. The flipside of having both speakers in the same side is that, if you, like me, keep your phone in a pocket with the screen inwards. In such a scenario there’s a good chance you could miss out on that important call. However the vibrations will save the day.
The HTC One Mini 2 features a sealed body which means that you cannot access the battery of the phone no matter how much you try. The battery changing therefore has to be done at an authorized service station. The HTC One Mini 2 comes with two battery saving settings that allow you to get the most out of the One Mini 2′s battery. Trust me the phone’s battery can last a long time. I’ve already accidentally tested it in Power saver mode and come back astonished and impressed.
Having done that I decided to run the phone in Extreme Power Saver mode to see how long could the phone last if it were indeed put into such a setting. Let’s understand that when you activate the Extreme Power Saver mode, the phone essentially converts into a dumb phone. Data syncing happens only when screen is turned on. The solution is not good if you want to use your Mini 2 like any other smartphone. If you are however trying to get this phone to last you for a couple or more days, then yeah this setting is for you. Mind you this setting dumbs down your phone and that could be frustrating. I would have liked it if HTC had blocked access to data by other apps when in Extreme Power Saver mode. Right now every time the screen turns on, all the apps start talking to the servers and download new content, that’s when it starts looking stupid. Any and all notifications will beep when the screen is switched on, however you can’t do anything with it because those apps cannot work. It’s even worse if you were planning to take a selfie or a regular photo. There’s no access to the gallery or the camera. This ruins the whole experience.
I managed to get a screenshot of the battery graph only because the phone was notifying me of low battery and charging the phone. The Extreme Power Saver Mode is a useful feature and I’m glad it’s there in this phone. The feature does need work though. The way it currently works is good but not without some frustrations, mainly due to how apps continue to sync and notify but you can’t do anything about it unless you exit the Extreme Power Saver mode. In daily use the phone lasted a good 16-18 hours before needing a top up. Those figures are quite good for a 2110mAh battery. HTC, Qualcomm and Google seems to have really worked on making the phone capable of lasting really long through hardware and software.
Overal HTC have made a fantastic mid range device that may seem like it’s not so good (on paper) but when you use it, you’ll be surprised with what it is capable of. This probably in a long while that I’ve had to really dig deep to find issues with hardware in a device. I’m glad the HTC One Mini 2 does not disappoint in hardware. I’m happier that it proved my perceptions wrong. The pricing of the phone is an area that left me shocked and I do hope HTC revises it as it’s currently priced too dearly (AED 1799 in the UAE). The price of the One Mini 2 is high and one could buy the Nexus 5 32GB at that price. HTC needs to work on the price element for the Mini 2 to be a roaring success.
The post HTC One Mini 2 Review: Hardware originally appeared on TechView and is subject to our Copyright.