There’s been talk of HTC launching a more affordable version of the popular metal-bodied HTC One for a while now, so we’ve pulled together all the latest rumours in one place.
- HTC M4 will be budget HTC One
- HTC One Mini pictures and price leaks online
- HTC One Mini specs and pictures leaked online
- HTC One Mini name and 720p display confirmed by leak
Name
When rumours initially broke of a cheaper HTC One it was under the codename ‘HTC M4’, which lined up with the fact that the HTC One itself had gone under the name HTC M7 until closer to its release.
More recently though, we’ve actually seen solid evidence that the device will be called the HTC One Mini. The most compelling bit of info on this so far came in the form of a ‘User Agent Profile’ from HTC’s official site, which detailed the HTC One Mini name. It also sits with rumours about the HTC T6 ‘phablet’ which could be called the HTC One Max.
Design and Display
The word from day one has been that the HTC One Mini would very closely mimic the HTC One in design and build, the main idea being that it would offer the same premium feel and aesthetic in a more compact and more affordable package.
Leaked product renders and hands-on photos have since cemented this idea as being more-or-less true. One thing worth noting though is that earlier leaks have largely shown the black model and as with the HTC One it appears both the metal bodywork and plastic trim are the same colour, making it difficult to discern any notable changes to the design.
More recent leaks have shown the ‘white’ version, which like the HTC One is largely a silvery bare-metal with white plastic trim.
Interestingly, however, it appears that there’s more plastic on the HTC Mini than there was on the HTC One, it is mostly metal, the entire back panel appears to be aluminium and the two panels housing the punched speaker grilles at the top and bottom of the front fascia are also metallic.
But, there does seem to be a thin plastic bezel around the phone’s face, which extends round the sides slightly so that, from the side, it looks as though it’s half plastic, half metal.
Aside from this it’s a virtually identical, albeit miniaturised, clone of the HTC One, which can only be a good thing as that particular device is very rewarding to handle and looks great.
Naturally, with some shrinkage of the device comes shrinkage of the display panel and instead of the HTC One’s 4.7-inch setup the HTC One Mini is said to have a 4.3-inch display with a 720p resolution.
We can estimate this could give a pixel density of 341 pixels-per-inch (ppi), which should be quite a sharp image quality. However, there have been no leaked details clarifying what kind of display technology HTC will implement.
The HTC One uses Super LCD3 (SLCD3) but this is quite advanced and would likely be too expensive for a cheaper smartphone model. It is possible HTC would opt for the older SLCD2 technology, but it’s very much up in the air at this point.
Hardware
Leaked specs hint at a 1.4GHz dual-core processor which is suspected to be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with 2GB of RAM while onboard storage is thought to be 16GB. MicroSD storage hasn’t been mentioned.
A tipster has specifically mentioned that the HTC One Mini won’t pack an infrared blaster for TV control like its larger HTC One cousin.
Software
A separate set of leaked details has confirmed Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean will be pre-installed on the HTC One Mini and it while the specs don’t mention HTC Sense you can be sure it will be packing the latest version just like the regular HTC One.
In fact, the leaked product render would appear to confirm this as well as the use of the BlinkFeed homescreen. The lack of an IR blaster would suggest it will not have HTC’s customised channel-surfing software.
Camera
There’s very little info about the HTC One Mini’s camera capabilities at present. Some early rumours have suggested it will feature the same 4.3-megapixel ‘Ultrapixel’ camera as the full-size HTC One, complete with the HTC Zoe editing suite. If that’s true you can expect some pretty decent pictures and video.
Price and Release date
We’ve seen earlier reports saying the HTC One Mini would arrive in June or July but more recent leaks have indicated HTC will make an announcement during the Autumn, but possibly the earlier end as several rumours point to August specifically.
Very few leak and rumour reports have said anything about a price, though it is of course expected to be cheaper than the regular HTC One. One source, Forte, did suggest the handset could cost as little as 400 euros.
If you translate that at the exchange rate it’s £340, which would put the HTC One Mini at a lower price point than Samsung’s similar Galaxy S4 Mini priced at £390. Considering the Galaxy S4 Mini has half the storage space (assuming the HTC One Mini’s 16GB is accurate), that’s not bad.
The alternative, of course, is that it the price could be translated directly into GBP – so £400 – which would mean it’ll cost about the same as its rival.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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