I’ve had a couple of issues with my personal phone lately. While it was fixed by my phone carrier, thankfully, I still had to wait a few days for the repair. So I decided to bide that time by trying out a new phone.
I had a couple of choices, but the phone that I gravitated to was the HTC One Mini, available through AT&T.
The One Mini is the little brother to the One Max, a phone so large it could be considered a “phablet,” or part smartphone, part tablet. I liked the Mini better because I could hold it. (Those darn small hands strike again.)
The Mini doesn’t have the fingerprint scanner found on the Max, or the extra-large screen. However, it does have an impressive camera, a nice screen and a speaker system users might not expect in a phone.
The phone includes a dual-core, 1.4-Ghz processor. While there are speedier processors out there, this one does a more-than-adequate job for the phone. App launches were very fast, as were downloads.
Downloads are helped along by the phone’s 4G LTE network capabilities - currently the fastest network generally available. The One Mini uses it well. I updated most of the apps on the phone in a matter of minutes.
The HTC One Mini is not really all that mini. It has a 4.3-inch screen, which is a nice size. The screen is capable of high-definition 720 ppi resolution, which makes videos look great, even on the smaller screen.
The phone is thin and light with a brushed-aluminum exterior. While it has a soft, slick feel for the hand, the thin sides make the phone easy to grip. The corners are well rounded, which should distribute the force of small impacts. I wouldn’t drop the phone from a great height, however. The screen, which covers nearly the entire front of the phone, could still be vulnerable.
The One Mini includes an Ultrapixel camera based on new technology HTC introduced with the original One phone.
It’s complicated, but essentially the 4-megapixel camera has a bigger sensor than most smartphone cameras. So even at half the megapixels offered by others, it still delivers sharp photos, and its images are very impressive in low-light conditions. It also can record HD video. The front camera, at 1.6 megapixels, is pretty standard for video chatting.
The most impressive thing about the Mini might be the audio.
You might have heard of Beats by Dr. Dre, one of the hottest-selling audio lines. The technology behind the bestselling headphones is put into the HTC phone. Rather than the standard small speaker on one end of the phone, the One Mini has two full speakers, one at each end of the screen. The front-facing speakers really boost the sound. That’s a good thing because the sound is absolutely excellent. I would venture to say it’s some of the best I’ve heard on a smartphone. It certainly made my Pandora Internet radio app far more enjoyable.
There were a few things that frustrated me on the phone.
The biggest hitch is the digital keyboard. It wasn’t as sensitive as I’d hoped, which resulted in a lot of missed letters and misspelled words. It did suggest words at the top of the keyboard, but that did little to help when the right words didn’t come up or when I was trying to type proper names. At first, I thought it was just me not being used to the keyboard. It did improve some, but not completely, so it got to be rather frustrating.
One more thing to note: If you use social media on this phone (Twitter and Facebook, specifically), for crying out loud, do not allow HTC to set it up so it notifies you when something is posted, unless you have next to no activity on your pages. Otherwise, the phone vibrates and beeps every time there is a new notification, and that can drive you nuts.
Sure, you can turn it to silent, but then what’s the point of having the notifications in the first place? It’s better just to turn them off or not set them up in the first place.
The HTC One Mini isn’t the first phone I would purchase, but it does have some nice features. While the screen sensitivity could use a tad more work, the camera and sound are excellent. The speed is certainly up to par, and though it’s called the Mini, I rather liked the size.
I almost hated to give the phone up once mine was repaired. Then again, it was good to get all my apps, photos and data back into my hands. Funny how you don’t know how much a smartphone can keep your life organized until you go without it.
Melissa L. Jones can be reached via email at [email protected].
Where it’s @
The HTC One Mini phone is available through AT&T. Currently, the $429-retail phone is available for $99 with a two-year contract. More information is available at htc.com or wireless.att.com. Photo examples are available at www.facebook.com/ pages/Tech-Spotlightcolumn/143770982301273.
Business, Pages 23 on 02/03/2014