Leak after leak, we have been hearing more and more about the HTC One Mini 2 and now, at long last, the device has been officially announced by HTC themselves. That maeans that the speculation can stop and we’ve got all the facts when it comes to what made the cut when bringing the experience down to a smaller, more affordable device, as well as what HTC have done differently with their latest addition to the One family. As we saw with last year’s HTC One Mini, this smaller version of the M8 looks much the same as its bigger brother, as it’s built using the same sort of materials. On the inside though, things are a little different.
A good deal of the M8’s headlining features have made it down to this smaller device, and the display is quite a bit smaller at 4.5-inches, but still has a very good resolution of 720p. As for the beating of this year’s Mini, HTC have gone with the same Snapdragon 400 (again backed with 1GB of RAM), which is also at the heart of the Moto G. It’s not the best processor out there and is designed more for power efficiency than raw performance, but for everyday tasks and some light gaming it’ll get the job done just fine. The device is running Android 4.4.2 KitKat as well as Sense 6 with many of the same features as its older brother. As for storage, the device is to feature 16GB onboard as well as the ability to use microSD cards up to 128GB in size.
Hardware wise, the HTC One Mini 2 is packing a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, but there’s no UltraPixel or DuoCamera here, instead the One Mini 2 has a regular 13-megapixel camera with a fairly bright f/2.2 aperture. Not shipping the device with the UltraPixel camera is a strange decision for HTC as last year’s miniature had their fancy camera tech. BoomSound Speakers are here for the ride and as a result of the larger display, it comes in at 1mm thicker than last year’s and measures 137 x 65 x 10.6mm. All of the usual connectivity options here such as Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with GLONASS and of course, 4G network support.
The HTC One Mini 2 will be available in Gunmetal Grey, Glacial Silver and Amber Gold in Europe, the Middle-East and parts of Asia later this month, with North Asia coming in June of this year. There’s no word on American availability just yet, but we’re pretty certain HTC is to bring this little guy to the States.
