HTC HD mini

There was a time when Windows Mobile used to rule the smartphone seas. Then along came Symbian but that’s a whole other story. It was touchscreen that showed to all the willing challengers that Windows Mobile is just too big to turn around quickly enough and catch the new wind. HTC however seem to disagree and dispel doubts of jumping ship. They have not given up on the cause and the HTC HD mini is the living proof.

So, mini is perhaps the right approach to users who would otherwise feel timid about giving Windows Mobile a try – especially with so many touchscreen temptations around. On the other hand, it does matter whose mini version it is. The almighty HD2 was the first PocketPC with a capacitive screen and a Snapdragon core.

Now, the HTC HD mini is obviously shorter on size, resolution and processing power. But it may be well worth the resources invested in making it what it is – a pocket-friendly, but still powerful handset with solid build, slick design and a touch-friendly UI.

Check out the HTC HD mini key strengths and possible turn-offs in the lists below to get an idea if this is the handset that will suit you.

Key features 3.2" 65K-color HVGA capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch input Compact body and bold industrial design Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional OS with Sense UI Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz CPU and 384MB RAM Quad-band GSM support with dual-band HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps Wi-Fi connectivity Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support 5 MP autofocus camera with touch focus CIF video recording at 25fps microSD card slot Standard microUSB port and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP Standard 3.5mm audio jack Stereo FM radio with RDS MS Office Mobile document editor Opera 9.5 web browser YouTube client, Facebook and Twitter integration Very good audio output quality Excellent loudspeaker performance

Design and construction The all-black body of the HTC HD mini probably won’t blow your mind but we do appreciate the solid gadgety feel of this stocky bloke. The time-tested formula of quality build and minimalistic design has worked once again for HTC. It’s the accents they added however, that work quite well too.

The HTC HD mini is targeting a younger audience than the HD2 and those are exactly the kind of people that might appreciate those oddities.

Strangely enough, the HTC HD mini rear cover notably adds to the phone’s size. It covers the sides of the handset too. One would think that designing a mini handset, they’d need to shave every possible millimeter off but maybe HTC opted for ruggedness instead.

Moving on to the front inevitably brings us to the 3.2” capacitive touchscreen of HVGA resolution. Its image quality is pretty decent, though nowhere near Super AMOLED standards (not even regular AMOLED). In the TFT world the HD mini doesn’t rank too bad at all.

The HD mini has a HVGA display, instead of the WVGA unit of the HTC HD2. The downsides are obvious but the good news is the mini doesn’t need a 1 GHz Snapdragon to offer similar performance.

The lower screen resolution is most noticeable in some applications like the web browser (where less content fits on the screen) and image gallery (where the photos look less detailed). But still the HD mini display doesn’t fare too bad in terms of pixel density. After all, if the iPhone can get away with stretching HVGA over 3.5 inches, then why should the HTC HD mini be criticized about it.

We have discussed the 65K-color limitation of Windows Mobile many times before but here’s the short summary. You will notice banding when looking at single-color gradients on the HTC HD mini but the 3.2” display makes it less prominent than on 3.7” and larger screens.

Finally, an area where the HD mini fails to impress is sunlight legibility. The HTC latest device isn’t the worst we have seen but is still less than enjoyable to operate in the bright sun. Windows Mobile phones have never actually done particularly well under direct sunlight so fans of the OS are probably used to it by now.

Below the display we find five capacitive controls – the two call keys along with the home, menu and back buttons. It’s the same layout as the HD2 but this time they’re all touch-sensitive instead of actual press buttons. The haptic-enabled capacitive keys are well sized and spaced. The transition from and to the display is always seamless.

There is no flash of any kind so the HD mini won’t be doing much of a job in low-light shoots.

The screw heads at the four corners at the back might not be everyone’s cup of tea but we do like them. Another design quirk is only revealed if you remove the rear cover. The phone’s inner body – including the battery – is flashy yellow. The lower bit is semi transparent and you can see the bits and pieces the thing is made of, a bit like a Swatch watch.

You’ll also notice that the screws are real, not just decoration. Not that you’ll possibly have – or need – the right screwdriver.

Under the hood we find the SIM card compratment, the microSD card slot and the 1200 mAh battery. Despite being under the cover, the microSD card is fully hot-swappable. We had no issues with a 16GB microSD card so we are guessing 32GB won’t be any trouble too.

The HTC HD mini lasted for two days on a single charge under what might be considered regular use (15 minutes of telephony, 30 minutes of browsing over Wi-Fi, several shots with the camera and 30 minutes of fiddling with the other apps a day). If you tend to push your phone harder, chances are you’ll have to charge daily.

The build quality of the HTC HD mini is commendable, the handset feeling sturdy in the hand and all. We suspect the rubbery rear panel might start showing signs of wear and tear sooner than the rest of the body but we cannot be certain of that.

As to styling, we do like the solid gadgety feel and the industrial accents. This mini lives up to its name – it looks and feels friendly and inviting. At the same time, a 3.2” capacitive screen is quite a good deal in a handset this size. The great response is an added gain. Of course, sunlight legibility and resolution are less than stellar, but you can’t have it all in a mini. Basically, you get what you signed for: a smaller (and cheaper) HTC HD2.

User interface – Windows Mobile is all but gone HTC are reportedly pondering their own OS – we’re this close to thinking they’ve done it already. Starting with TouchFLO and following with Sense, HTC have been continually painting over the aging interface of WinMo, and aside from a few blank spots, everything is silky smooth Sense UI on the HD mini.

The Programs menu uses the honeycomb pattern from Windows Mobile 6.5.3, and that’s one of the better changes 6.5 brought.

Icons within the main menu are easy to rearrange: a press and hold is enough to move the frequently used icons to the top. However, the menu structure is flat and can quickly become overcrowded with icons.

There are a few folders, but you can’t move shortcuts into them or create new folders.

Other places left untouched by HTC’s pixie dust are the file manager, the email app and the advanced options when editing a contact, but when using the HD mini you’ll spend most of the time in Sense UI land.

Time to look at the centerpiece of the Sense UI – the homescreen. It uses the well-known tabbed interface, with plenty of eye candy for anything from the weather forecast to messages, photos and so on.

A lot of the key functionality resides on the homescreen – there’s a tab for almost anything you can think of. In the HTC HD2 review, we had an in-depth look into each tab, so you can check it out for more details.

We’ll go over each tab again, but we won’t waste too much time – they are quite intuitive and you can get going without a manual.

The Home tab gives you access to the revamped calendar, world clock and alarm. Swiping up brings out a dock in which you can assign nine quick links to almost any app or setting on your phone.

The Home tab has its own context menu, where you can change the homescreen wallpaper - there are both animated and still backgrounds, but you can also opt for a weather wallpaper.

Twitter and Footprints tabs The Twitter tab is a full blown Twitter app – you can read tweets but also post new ones. The tab automatically handles things like URL shortening, adding a photo (from the gallery or a new one) and geotagging the tweets. The URL shortener and photo upload can work with several services.

Contact manager is great, embraces Facebook Windows Mobile is no longer targeting corporate users mainly but top notch contact management and synchronization features are still easily taken for granted. HTC however have turned the ugly duckling of an interface into a beautiful Sense UI swan, but also built on the features to make the contact app even better.

Contacts use a tabbed interface, similar to the homescreen and you can navigate it the same way - by dragging a finger over the shortcut bar or by onscreen sweeps.

You can search for a specific contact with the alphabet scroll or by gradual typing of the name. There are two ways to organize contacts – favorites (the ones from the People tab on the homescreen) and Groups. Favorites is like a special group and it gets its own tab in the Contacts app.

The next tab is Updates & Events, which displays updates from your contacts and has a shortcut to your unread messages. The last one is the Call History tab.

Excellent call management Making calls is always a priority for any phone and PocketPCs such as the HD mini are no exception. And like most other recent HTC handsets, this one keeps to the high standard of in-call quality, crisp and loud sound and strong signal reception.

When you dial someone, the HD mini vibrates to let you know when the call is connected. The proximity sensor automatically locks the display when you put it at your ear to prevent accidental presses.

The Phone application offers Smart dialing, so you hardly ever need to go to the Contact list in order to dial a number.

Very good audio output The HTC HD mini is among the louder handsets we have tested recently but fortunately that does not come at the price of increased distortions. On the contrary, the audio output of the WinMo hadnset is very good overall, with no major weaknesses.

Video player hasn’t heard of DivX The HD mini comes with the standard - and sadly underperforming - Windows Media Player. It only manages mp4 and 3gp and for DivX/XviD support you will need a third party application.

Watching videos on the HD mini is enjoyable but videos will either have to be cropped or watched in a letterbox format – and of course converted to a format that WMP can handle.

5MP snapper needs further tweaking The HTC HD mini has a 5 megapixel auto focus camera producing photos with a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. It’s left bare without a flash.

The camera interface is intuitive user interface and shoots in landscape mode.

It lacks a dedicated camera key, but autofocus is handled the iPhone way – it automatically refocuses whenever you move the device. Once focus is locked, you can take the picture by pressing the virtual capture button. There is touch-focus too.

Depending on the settings, the viewfinder is cropped to full the entire screen or there’s a black strip on the right. The second option has its advantages – you can see the entire scene and the black strip is where the two constantly visible controls are (they can’t be hidden).

In terms of camera features, the HTC HD mini has the usual and offers the standard self-timer, white balance presets, ISO settings (up to ISO800), effects and a viewfinder gridline.

Connectivity to match the HD2 When it comes to connectivity the HTC HD mini is an equal to the HD2 - HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth + EDR. Wi-Fi support is limited to b/g, which is something to consider if you use the n standard at home.

The HD mini has quad-band GSM support and dual-band 3G - 900 and 2100 MHz bands are supported (that is Europe and the like - you’re welcome to check out our Worldwide GSM Network Bands distribution database).

USB 2.0 connections are supported as well, through a microUSB port rather than ExtUSB, which is featured on most HTC phones. When connected to a computer, the HD mini prompts you to select among ActiveSync, Mass Storage or Modem mode.

The 3.5mm audio jack for the audio purists is also onboard.