HTC One mini Review

Several months after the first market availability of the original HTC One, the HTC One mini emerges as a compact amalgamation of everything that was right about its predecessor. Working with a smaller body, a lower resolution on a sized-down display, and a processor that’s not quite as powerful as the Qualcomm SoC on the HTC One, can this miniature second wave of a smartphone strike true for those of us with a smaller palm?

Hardware

This machine’s 720 x 1280 display (across 4.3 inches of screen real-estate) does not disappoint. While the HTC One is slightly sharper mathematically, we’re well into the “I wouldn’t have noticed if you’d not said something” zone. This machine’s display is so close to the surface of the glass that protects it, it’s difficult to tell that they are, indeed, two separate pieces of hardware. Right from the moment you turn this smartphone on, you can feel HTC’s efforts continue to hit top-notch.

The HTC One mini comes in at 132 x 63.2 x 9.25 mm in size and 122g in weight, shaving off just about as much on its left and right as it does on its top and bottom, feeling in the end to be essentially the same thickness – even if it is a smidgen different (0.05 mm thinner, to be exact). Where the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini feels like a shadow of the full-sized Galaxy S 4, the HTC One mini feels like a companion to the HTC One – more like an alternate reality approach.

While it would appear at a glance that the HTC One mini’s plastic ring around its edges were placed there only to be a differentiator for the final build between this and the original, it does serve to make one feel less fearful of dropping the whole unit. It’s not as if this ring is going to do a whole lot more to protect the front or back of the smartphone from a concrete slab ground, but there’s more of a sense of safety here, even if it does dare us to suggest that it makes the device feel more like a Samsung handset (it doesn’t).

Instead it would seem that the aluminum back panel and two speaker grill-filled front panels serve, with the single pane of Gorilla Glass up front, to keep this device well in the premium build universe. Up front you’ve still got the double-dose of sensors peeking out at you on the left up top, and one of two high-powered cameras up on the right.

There’s also a notification light up in the topside speaker grill – 12th hole in from the right, second row from the bottom – one single pin hole and a world of difference for those who demand such a shiner. This light serves to tell you the HTC One mini is being charged up, for the most part, but you’ll also find a set of checkmarks you can toggle in settings under “Notification flash”, including Calls, Voice mail, Messages, Calendar, Mail, and Alarms.

Behind the speaker grills up front are stereo speakers, working with HTC’s own branded audio setup BoomSound and sounding every bit as powerful as they do on the HTC One. It’s surprising, really, that HTC brings this premium feature to devices other than the HTC One – you’ll find it in HTC 8XT as well – though we’ve yet to test that unit for comparable ear-shattering. Here on the HTC One mini you’ve got the same best-in-glass speaker setup first delivered with the HTC One, top and bottom both.

On the right side of this smartphone you’ll find two volume buttons instead of a rocker – this is modified from the HTC One which used a single piece of metal with a circular pattern through its form. Up top is a standard-sized headphone jack alongside a power / lock button that, instead of having an IR-blaster built in, is simply a bit more aluminum this time around.

The left side of the HTC One mini holds this device’s single microSIM card slot which can be popped out with an HTC-provided pin, while the bottom holds one of two mic holes (the other is on the back panel) near an off-set microUSB port for power and PC connections. This is an offset port in that it’s not right in the center, where many major smartphones’ usb ports tend to find themselves.

The back panel of the HTC One is split into three – there’s a top section that’s roughly the same size as the bottom, then a center single panel that takes up the majority of the machine. This center panel holds the 3D alternate-shade of aluminum spelling out HTC as well as the second of two HTC One mini-bound cameras and a single LED flash. The second of two microphone holes sits on the left between the top and middle panels, the opposite side of the hole on the HTC One.

You’ll also find the Beats Audio brand intact here, this time a bit more subdued (at least on this light silver edition) than the original (which blasts the logo out in hot red). FCC and other certification data finishes out the package at the bottom in a silver so light you can barely see it.

Inside you’ve got 4G LTE and HSPA compatibility with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 (ready for LE/ Bluetooth Smart in Android 4.3 eventually) as well as aptX support for high-powered wireless audio. You’ll not be getting any NFC this time around, unfortunately – not a deal-breaker for most, but as the NFC universe expands, one must consider such a thing.

Software

The software is nearly a perfect replica of what’s found on the original HTC One here on the international edition of the HTC One mini. The big differences come in the app selection and the compatibility (or lack thereof) with certain functions due to hardware changes. No IR-blaster means no Sense TV, no NFC means no Android Beam. These are compromises you should be willing to make when you jump in on this miniaturized version of the full-sized hero.

The HTC One mini adds Mocana’s KeyVPN app right out of the box – this allows you to connect to secure networks, of course, and does so as one might expect. Google’s full suite of Google Play apps is here, including Play Movies, Play Music, Play Magazines, and Play Books, these running alongside HTC’s iterations with additions like “Music”.

HTC’s music app is the same as it was on the HTC One, here delivering the ability to play lyrics from songs and show wild animations during track playback. HTC also includes a simple PDF Viewer that can access the device’s own storage as well as cloud apps like Dropbox. Editing of PDFs is done by Polaris Office.

Dropbox is also – once again – included with the basic build of this HTC smartphone. You’ll also be seeing music sales with 7digital, music identification with SoundHound, and internet radio with TuneIn Radio. These along with Play Movies and YouTube have HTC making sure you’re going to be putting your BoomSound speakers to good use.

The first page you see when you enter past your HTC One mini’s lockscreen is a system called HTC BlinkFeed. This first appeared with the HTC One and continues here with its entire set of abilities still ready to roll.

You’ll be able to collect news sources and updates from your social networking profiles to create one big image-intensive collection of quick-views. Each of these rectangles is able to be tapped to expand, and you’re able to turn each of your news sources on/off at will.

The system is set by default to refresh only when on wi-fi, but you can change it to work with mobile data if you wish. By all eyeballing accounts, this and every other part of the UI in the HTC One mini appear to be moving every bit as swift as the original, despite the lower capacity for processing power in this smaller device’s interior architecture.

Performance

The HTC One mini works with a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. This means it’s not quite up to the task of taking on the HTC One’s Snapdragon 600 with its four CPU cores, but here on a device with a smaller device with a smaller display with a lower resolution, the results appear the same. We’ve noticed no slowdown in everyday use, and we’ve not yet seen lag even when opening some of the most demanding games on the market. It would appear that we’ve reached a point in the smartphone chip-making world where the power has out-run the demand.

Have a peek at the benchmarks above and see what you think. While this device doesn’t make too much of an effort to break down any top-tier barriers, it’s well ready to do its own job, and do it well.

Camera / Battery

The camera here continues to work with HTC Zoe, Full HD (1080p) video recording and high-quality results on both the front and back-facing camera. The back-facing camera continues to work with the full HTC One-born UltraPixel setup, complete with results just as impressive as the original.

While it might seem that working with a slightly less powerful processor might result in lower-quality results in image processing, or at least slower processing therein, the differences are minor, if noticeable at all. This device has the same f/2.0 aperture in play as well as the same dedicated ImageChip 2 image processor – this is in addition to the main device processor, mind you.

What you’ve got is a system that shoots photos and video as well as the HTC One, with one difference: the HTC One mini does not work with Optical Image Stabilization. The big place this takes effect is in filming videos, which here can be a bit more “shaky” as a result. If you’ve never used the HTC One and felt that bump in quality, this change-over won’t make a difference to you.

Have a peek at a collection of sample shots above and let us know what you think of the system compared to the original. It certainly feels the same, and as always, it’s as much about the photographer as it is about the camera.

Battery

The HTC One mini works with a non-removable 1800mAh battery which, paired with Qualcomm’s battery conservation features in its Snapdragon processor and HTC’s own battery saver mode in this phone’s settings, you’ll be getting a massive amount of battery life on standby. In fact, if you leave your device in your pocket and turn off data altogether, you might just get a few days’ worth of life out of it.

If you’re a heavy user, on the other hand, this phone will need a charge by the time the day is through. If you’re doing nothing but streaming video and playing games, you’ll get no more than 8 hours out of the HTC One mini, while light users – email, chat, and the like, will easily get a full work day without plugging this machine in to the wall.

Wrap-up

In the end you’ll have to base your decision to purchase this device on whether or not you’re willing to make a trade-off in size and for a few odd features for a lower price point. If you’re not seeing this decision between the HTC One and the HTC One mini as a trade-of, and instead simply want a smaller device that fits your hand better than the original, then you’ll be good to go! In the end, this machine takes everything that was great about the HTC One and jams it into a smaller package.

Let us know if there’s anything else about this device that you’d like SlashGear to test – this is a living review, after all, and we’ll continue to update as you, the reader, would ask us to. We’re here to provide you with the information you want on the HTC One mini – the same being true of all our reviews – stay tuned!

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Nokia's Lumia 1020 is a smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system

Nokia's Lumia 1020 is a smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 mobile operating system.
No, wait. It's a 41-megapixel camera jam-packed with everything you might ever need from the best DSLR point-and-shoot devices.
Wait, wait, wait. It's a smartphone because it can use apps, make phones calls and send text messages. Hold on, it’s a digital camera that you can use with a "loss less" zoom, motion enhanced pictures, the ability to change apertures and exposure times and an array advanced photo techniques. 
It’s a smartphone. It’s a camera. A smartphone. A camera.
Let’s just call it a smameraphone.

Nokia Improves The Dimensions

When Nokia released its flagship Lumia 920 last year, the result was less than compelling. It was big and bulky and didn't have a defining feature that made you say, “Wow, I must have this phone!”
Size and weight were the real dealbreakers for the Lumia 920. One person said to me at one point, “I feel like I could beat somebody up with this thing.” At 185 grams (6.5 ounces), it was heavier than just about every other top-end smartphone on the market, and thick (10.7 millimeters) to boot. The main culprit was the wireless charging feature enclosed in the 920's (otherwise high quality) polycarbonate unibody shell.

Thankfully, Nokia has done away with the wireless charging inside the Lumia 1020 (a wireless charging case is available as an optional accessory). That makes the device thinner and lighter while sporting nearly the same dimensions (4.5-inch screen, 130 mm height and about 71 mm wide). The Lumia 1020 weighs in nearly an ounce lighter, at 158 grams (about 5.5 ounces); it would weigh considerably less if it didn’t also feature a significant bump on its back that is its 41-megapixel PureView camera.
(See also: Nokia Is Doing The Impossible: Making Windows Phone Cool)
About that bump. The camera on the Lumia 1020 protrudes significantly from back of the device. When laying flat, the bump props up the phone, like a kickstand or an off-center see-saw. The bump does not quite make the phone awkward, but it's distinctly noticeable. It's palatable because you know what that bump is: the best camera ever to be put into a flagship smartphone.

The Camera

2013 is the year of the smartphone camera. BlackBerry got the ball rolling in late January with new features in its BlackBerry 10 smartphones that allowed users to edit faces and movement within still pictures. HTC followed up a few weeks later with its "ultrapixel" smartphone, the HTC One (which also boasted motion features and unique sharing features). Samsung, as is its wont, went way overboard in March with the camera in its Galaxy S4, which sported different modes for capturing motion, panorama and other features with a 13-megapixel camera.
Nokia takes all of that and steps it up a notch with the Lumia 1020.
What Nokia has done was to essentially take the camera from its PureView 808 smartphone (which ran its dying Symbian OS), soup it up and shoehorn it into a Lumia-quality smartphone running Windows Phone 8. For all its faults, Windows Phone 8 is more robust than Symbian and allows Nokia to do more with the camera capabilities in the Lumia 1020.
The Lumia 1020 sports two camera modes: Nokia Pro Cam and Nokia Smart Cam.
Let’s break down the features.
Nokia Pro Cam:

• The Pro Cam gives you the features of a good dedicated digital camera (i.e., one that isn’t also a smartphone). You can set features such as aperture, exposure time and white balance, and either focus manually or let the app do so automatically. 
• It sports a Xenon flash, optical image stabilization, Carl Zeiss optics (which is really just a fancy brand name at this point) and six-lens optics (Nokia has actually built six lenses into the camera that float with the optical image stabilizer). 
• The PhotoBeamer function allows you to share photos to any screen—theoretically, anything from another smartphone or tablet to laptops, PCs and televisions—from the Lumia. It will scan a code and briefly store your photos on Nokia’s servers so you can share an album with a friend.
• Cinemagraph is a feature that allows for movie and still photography mixtures similar to the features that Samsung instituted with the camera capabilities in the Galaxy S4. 
• The camera's “oversampling” feature allows great shots in low light conditions and creates color-rich, high-definition photos. It is very similar to what HTC does with the "ultrapixel" camera in the HTC One. Basically, the oversampling will create a 5 megapixel image that is rich on detail but still able to be printed or shared easily without losing the high definition from camera that produces 38 megapixel or 34 megapixel pictures depending on the setting of the camera. If you really want to learn exactly what is going on with the Lumia 1020 camera and "oversampling," check out Nokia's whitepaper on the subject here [PDF]. The same feature also works with the camera's video mode, allowing for some good HD video recording on the Lumia 1020.

Nokia Smart Cam:
The Smart Cam is Nokia’s equivalent to the features that Samsung, BlackBerry and HTC have brought to market earlier this year. It allows for “Best Shot” in-photo editing, combining multiple shots into one picture, “strobe” effect that emphasize movement and the ability to remove movement from still photos or choose a “best face” from a series of photos.
Nokia also has some augmented reality capabilities within the camera app through Microsoft’s Bing “Vision” feature and its HERE Maps product. These features are interesting to play with, but not a primary selling point for the device.

Is The Camera Really That Good?

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was positively giddy on stage in New York City during the announcement of the Lumia 1020 earlier this month. Like a kid playing with a new toy. It's always hard to credit hype from a CEO trying to get the most buzz from a product that is about to launch. Will the features really work like they're supposed to? Like the commercials say they will?
In the case of some of the gesture and movement related features that Samsung touts with the Galaxy S4, the answer is no. But the camera on the Lumia 1020 is the real deal.
I take a lot of smartphone pictures, usually for events or on vacation or of other smartphones for various articles. Often, the camera is lacking and I have to find that perfect balance of angle and lighting and the ability to hold really, really still to get the right picture. If I'm any real distance from an object or it's too dark, I'll usually get something of middling quality (which is actually a great improvement over smartphone cameras from even a year ago).
The Lumia 1020’s camera eliminates most of those problems. The digital zoom works much better than most other smartphone’s digital varieties. Low light conditions are impressive and photos are rarely blurry.
Updated to clarify the difference between optical and digital zoom in the Lumia 1020. 
Zoom
Lumia 1020 outside, sunny, no zoom

Lumia 1020, outside, sunny, 3x zoom
Low light: Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. Lumia 1020
Samsung Galaxy S4 in low-light conditions, no special settings

Nokia Lumia 1020, low-light conditions, no special settings
Inside

Outside (cloudy)
Nokia Lumia 1020, outside, no zoom

Nokia Lumia 1020, outside, 3x zoom

There's A Phone In Here Somewhere

Yes, this camera has a smartphone in it. Excepting the camera, its hardware specs are good, but not great. The Lumia 1020 has a 4.5-inch display with a 1280x768 resolution (334 pixels per inch, similar to the iPhone 5 but well behind the HTC One and Galaxy S4). Its battery is 2000 mAh, which also lags the HTC One and S4. The Lumia 1020 has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage and comes with 7 GB of free cloud storage through Microsoft SkyDrive.
The screen sports all the good features that the Lumia 920 offered, including a highly sensitive touch screen (that supposedly works even if you're wearing mittens), a display you can read even in direct sunlight and sculpted glass.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.5 GHz processor also lags the quad-core processors of the HTC One and Galaxy S4 and other top smartphones of 2013, at least from a pure hardware perspective.
Nokia may have been able to significantly upgrade the camera, but it appears that a lot of the hardware in the device lags that offered by top Android manufacturers.

Then there's Windows Phone 8. Some people like it, some people hate it. Nokia is trying its best to emulate the approach Samsung takes to Android and build its own features into Microsoft’s mobile operating system. With the Lumia 1020, Nokia released a software developer kit (SDK) of its camera capabilities so that apps could take advantage of the superior photography features in the smartphone.
As yet, only a handful of partner apps are using the SDK, like Path and Hippstamatic. What it comes down to is that Nokia needs to be on the forefront of developer adoption for Windows Phone apps or the platform will forever lag behind the behemoths Android and iOS. The camera SDK is a good start, but it won’t solve the problem of developers declining—or, in the case of Instagram, outright refusing—to build apps for Windows Phone.

The Value? Depends On Your Priorities

Nokia’s distribution strategy is a little perplexing with the Lumia 1020. It's releasing the phone exclusively to AT&T at $299 for a two-year contract. Elop can keep insisting that AT&T has been a “great partner” to Nokia, but U.S. sales don't really bear that out. For what it is, the Lumia 1020 is both a little pricey and locked to one carrier. It's not a great combination.
Whether or not you feel like embracing the Lumia 1020 may depend on how much you value the camera. Is it enough to trap yourself into using Windows Phone 8 on AT&T for the next two years? The camera is good and will stand the test of time over that period, but if smartphone photography is only of tangential interest to you, then it's probably not worth it.
The lack of some apps on Windows Phone 8 will also be a hindrance in the short term, at least. Nokia, of course, will keep trying to improve its developer relations while Microsoft continues to work on persuading top developers to port their apps to Windows Phone.
The bottom line is that the Nokia Lumia 1020 is a superlative camera and a middling smartphone, punctuated by a big question mark hovering over the future of Windows Phone and its app ecosystem.

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