HTC One Mini announced; coming in August with 720p display and UltraPixel camera

HTC has officially announced a little brother for its flagship One. The HTC One Mini brings the same design language but in a smaller package and, as is common with the Mini moniker, there are some compromises in terms of specs. The phone will hit stores in August, according to the company.

The display has been trimmed down, but a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution on a 4.3-inch display is still quite good in these days of 1080p phablets. The pixel density is not sky-high like the HTC One, but 341 ppi is nothing to scoff at. It’s still the same brilliant SuperLCD3 we saw in the One, so there’s no doubt about its quality.

Looks just like big brother

Under the hood, there’s a 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 SoC along with 1GB of RAM and Adreno 305 GPU. The RAM seems a bit low for a device that’s said to come with "no compromises", but the Krait cores should be able to take quite a bit of load and not crack.

Software-wise, the One Mini will come with Android 4.2.2 out of the box ,but with HTC’s Sense 5 on top. Just like the One, the Mini will come with the UltraPixel camera; however, OIS is missing and this seems like a huge omission, considering how much it helps in low-light shooting, which is said to be one of the strengths of the UltraPixel camera. The front camera is a 1.6 megapixel BSI sensor, pretty standard for a mid-range phone these days.

The Mini clearly is a derivation of the One and the front face of both phones are nearly identical (barring the display size, of course). Even here, HTC has stereo speakers above and below the screen. They look smaller, but we’ll have to listen first hand before passing judgement. The edges of the phone have a slight gloss to them, which is more prominent in the white version. However, the back is aluminium. In true HTC fashion, the battery of the One Mini is not removable. Making matters worse is the relatively small 1800 mAh battery, which could prove to be its biggest downfall.

In terms of connectivity, the One Mini is an LTE-compatible phone and also comes with support for dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Unlike the One, this one has no NFC.

Is HTC’s rendition the ideal version of a "Mini"? Or will the compromises weigh it down? Have your say.