Earlier this year, HTC announced the follow-up to the original One, known as the One (M8). Fast-forward a few months and the company has done the same with the mini version of the OG One.
HTC today officially took the wraps off of the HTC One mini 2. As its name suggests, the One mini 2 is the successor to 2013’s HTC One mini. It features a design similar to the flagship One (M8), including rounded corners, brushed finish and on-screen buttons.
Looking at its concrete specs, the One mini 2 features a 4.5-inch 720p display, which is just a hair larger than the original One mini’s 4.3-inch screen. The new One mini 2 also packs a 13-megapixel camera on its rear, 5-megapixel shooter on its face, quad-core Snapdragon 400 chip, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. There’s also a 2100mAh battery powering the whole package.
So what are the big differences between the One (M8) and its new, smaller sibling? For starters, the One mini 2’s display is 0.5 inches smaller and is 720p, not 1080p. The One mini 2 also loses the Duo Camera setup of the One (M8), but in exchange for that second rear shooter, the One mini 2’s main rear camera crams in more megapixels. Finally, while the One (M8) packs a quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, the One mini 2 takes a couple of steps down with its quad-core Snapdragon 400 CPU.
The HTC One mini 2 will launch with Android 4.4.2 running beneath HTC’s Sense 6 user interface. The device will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia starting in June in Gunmetal Gray, Glacial Silver and Amber Gold color options. There’s no word yet on a U.S. launch, but the original One mini was offered by AT&T, so there’s a chance that Ol’ Blue will pick up the One mini 2 as well.
While the HTC One mini 2 isn’t exactly the true shrunken flagship that many folks have been hoping for, it still sounds like a respectable option for anyone in the hunt for a “small” Android phone. Some of the One (M8)’s major features may be missing, but the One mini 2 does manage to retain the design of its big sibling as well as its combo of KitKat and Sense 6.
Now that it’s officially official, what do you think of the HTC One mini 2? Would any of you like to have this thing as your daily driver?
