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HTC HD Mini Review

The HTC HD2 was one of the best Windows Mobile phones ever. Now comes the HTC HD Mini which is a watered down version of the HTC HD2. It is much more compact than the HD2. HTC seems to still have some faith in Windows Mobile, when almost everyone else seems to have abandoned it.

HTC HD Mini Specifications:

  • Dimensions: 103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm
  • Weight: 110 g
  • Display: 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen, 320 x 480 pixels
  • RAM: 384 MB RAM
  • ROM: 512 MB ROM
  • Processor: Qualcomm 600 MHz
  • OS: Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional, HTC Sense UI
  • Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
  • GPS: GPS with A-GPS
  • Camera: 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus
  • Radio: Stereo FM Radio with RDS
  • Battery: Li-Ion 1200 mAh

Design:

The HTC HD Mini has a nice compact design with superb build quality. It looks great in black. The front face is dominated by the display and the keys – Call, End, Home, Win, Back. There is a volume rocker on the left side and the MicroUSB port on the bottom. On the top lies the 3.5 mm audio jack and the power key. The back sports the 5 MP camera and the battery cover.

Display:

The HTC HD Mini sports a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. The display quality is very good with good contrast and vibrant colors. The sunlight legibility isn’t much to speak of though.

OS and UI:

The HTC HD Mini runs Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional. It comes with HTC’s Sense UI. It can run all the Windows Mobile applications available online. HTC’s Sense UI is very user-friendly and is visually appealing. You can access your messages, contacts, photos, videos etc directly through Sense. The OS performance is very good thanks to the huge amount of RAM and the 600 MHz processor. You can also check out Facebook and Twitter updates.

Camera:

It has a nice 5 MP camera with autofocus which takes shots at a resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. The camera interface is very user friendly and easy to use. The camera can also record decent video at VGA resolution at 30 FPS.

Multimedia:

The built in image gallery is pretty impressive. It is fast and has nice graphics. It also supports multitouch gestures. The music player supports all the standard features like playlists, album art, sorting and equalizer. It also has an FM radio with RDS. The audio quality on the HTC HD Mini is superb. It can easily double up as a pocket music player. Video is handled by WMP. It can play 3GP and MP4 videos only. However, you can install 3rd party applications like Core Player to play any other formats.

Connectivity and Other Stuff:

The HTC HD Mini sports all the standard connectivity features like GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. It also supports USB connections through the MicroUSB port. It comes loaded with both IE Mobile and Opera Mobile. It also has a built-in document editor which can handle Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. You can also view PDF documents with the bundled Adobe Reader LE. It also has a GPS receiver with A-GPS.

All in all, it is a nice phone. But in the same budget, I would rather prefer an Android phone like the HTC Legend.

Rating: 3/5