In this article I will try to provide an extensive in-depth overview of the HTC HD Mini, the latest Windows Mobile device from HTC.

At first I would like to guide you trough the functional hardware design of the HTC HD Mini and compare the device to its bigger brother the HTC HD2 and with the Zune HD. Second I will focus on different software aspects of the HTC HD Mini, like Windows Mobile 6.5.3, HTC Sense and a few installed applications. Finally I will look at the connectivity and multimedia features and wrap-up with a summary and conclusive thoughts.

1.  Introduction

However let’s start with a brief introduction of the HTC HD Mini. In the overview section of the HTC HD Mini product page on the HTC World Wide website you can read:

“HTC HD Mini
Massive impact, Sensible size.

Say hello to HD Mini, the impressive experience of the HTC HD2 in a compact package. Crisp display and refined construction fuse with an intuitive HTC Sense interface that empowers you to use the rich phone features from your very first moments with the HTC HD Mini.”

The HTC HD2 has been reviewed on this website in the article “HTC HD2 review – A new era in Windows Phones’ history“, with the unanimous conclusion (based on three different perspectives) that the HTC HD2 was a real powerhouse that raised the bar of innovation in many different area’s of the product. Not only was the HTC HD2 the first Windows Phone with a capacitive touch display, but the 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor made it extremely powerful as well.

With the conclusion in mind I was very excited to read about the announcement of the HTC HD Mini back at Mobile World Congress 2010. I this review I will look how and to which extend HTC was able to transfer the HTC HD2 experience (a new era in Windows Phone history) to a significant smaller package.

2.  Specifications HTC HD Mini

On the HTC HD Mini product page an extensive overview of the HD Mini specifications is provided:

• Model:  HTC HD Mini
• Processor:  Qualcomm® MSM7227™, 600 MHz
• Operating System:  Windows Mobile® 6.5.3 Professional
• Memory:  512 MB ROM / 384 MB RAM
• Dimensions (L x W x T):  103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm. (4.09 x 2.27 x 0.46 inches)
• Weight:  110 grams (4 ounces) with battery
• Display:  3,2″ capacitive touchscreen with HVGA resolution (320×480) and multitouch support
• Network:  HSPA/WCDMA: Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz, GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz,
• GPS:  Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity:  Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g, Wi-Fi Router, 3.5 mm audio jack, Standard micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)
• Camera:  3.2 5.0 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
• Audio:  supported formats .aac, .amr, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .mp4, .qcp, .wav, .wma
• Video:  supported formats .wmv, .asf, .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v, .avi
• Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, Capacity: 1200 mAh
• Talk time:  Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA / Up to 435 minutes for GSM
• Standby time:  Up to 500 hours for WCDMA / Up to 340 hours for GSM
• Expansion Slot:  microSD™ memory card (SDHC compatible up to 32GB)

In terms of form factor and most of the specifications the HTC HD Mini shows strong similarities with the HTC Touch2.

3.  HTC HD Mini hardware design

In this section of the HTC HD Mini review I will focus on the functional hardware design of this Windows Phone. Furthermore I would like to zoom in from an engineering perspective on some of the design highlights, and complement this hardware section with a few comparisons.

3.1  HTC HD Mini look and feel

However let’s start with a simple device overview to get a basic idea of the look and feel of the HTC HD Mini.

Front view

The picture above shows you the front surface of the HTC HD Mini when you put it down on a desk or table.

The most eye-catching aspect of the front surface is the 3.2″ capacitive touch screen with a 320 x 480 HVGA resolution. However the screen is less dominant compared to the 4.3″ capacitive touch screen on the HTC HD2. Remark for example the (black) spaces above the screen, between the bottom of the screen and the buttons and below the buttons and the bottom edge.

In the middle of the top edge of the front surface of the HTC HD Mini you see a small chrome part, with directly below the grille of the front speaker of the HTC HD Mini. Between the grille of the front speakers and the screen there is a nice silver HTC logo in the middle of the device (width).

Below the screen you can see a row of five touch buttons: (1) start call button, (2) home button, (3) start menu button with windows flag, (4) back button, and (5) call end button. These are the same five buttons that you see on the HTC HD2, however the buttons on the HTC HD Mini are touch buttons while the HTC HD2 has mechanical buttons (that you can really press down).

Right side-view

The right side-surface of the HTC HD Mini is shown in the picture above. As you can see the surface of the right side is clean and without any buttons.

Bottom view

The bottom surface of the HTC HD Mini is shown in the picture above, and in the middle of the device you can see a micro USB port to sync and charge your Windows Phone. I’m happy that device manufactures (although not all of them) have agreed to use micro USB as the standard to sync and charge their devices.

Slightly right from the micro USB port you can see a slit, via which you can attach the HTC HD Mini to a lanyard. I’m really curious if anyone really uses this design feature ? On the left side of the micro USB port you can see a small circular hole, which is the microphone to make voice calls.

In this picture you can also clearly see that the five buttons are touch buttons (and not mechanical buttons) completely embedded in the glass surface of the capacitive touch display.

Left side-view

The picture above shows the surface of the HTC HD Mini’s left side. While the surface of the right side was completely without any buttons, you can see that there are silver/chrome sound control buttons on the left surface of the HTC HD Mini. You furthermore see the + and – signs on the black cover of the HTC HD Mini, with its excellent rubber finish like the HTC Snap.

Top view

In the picture above you can see the top surface of the HTC HD Mini. The most striking fact here is the return of the dedicated power button in the left side of the silver/chrome middle part of the HTC HD Mini. I must admit that I have always enjoyed the dedicated power button, especially on Windows Mobile Standard devices, where the quick list was mapped to this button to easily switch profile.

Furthermore you can see the 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack on the right of the center of the HTC HD Mini. People will be happy being able to use  their own preferred headphones, for example the AIAIAI Y-Com in-ear headphones, with the HTC HD Mini.  Luckily this is becoming more or less the standard after a battle between various headphone connectors.

Finally I would like to bring the slit in the center of the HTC HD Mini (just below the silver/chrome part) to your attention. The idea is similar as the implementation implementation on the HTC HD2, where you can put in your finger nail in the slit to remove the battery cover. However the word battery-cover is not the appropriate in the context on the HTC HD Mini.

Back view

The backside of the HTC HD Mini is shown in the picture above, and you directly notice the four bolts that hold the device together. Where did I see this four bolt construction before ?

Furthermore you the silver/chrome grille which protects both the speak on the backside of the HTC HD Mini and the 5 megapixel color camera with auto-focus. The camera lens(surface) is not embedded in the “surface” of the device cover, but is about 1.0 mm. deeper into the device. The advantage is that the camera lens is better protected against scratches, while the disadvantage of this construction is that it becomes difficult to clean the camera lens from smudge and dirt.

Finally you can see a silver/chrome HTC logo in the center of the HTC HD Mini, just below the camera lens. The HTC logo is not printed on the backside of the HTC HD Mini, but seems to be pressed / embedded into the cover. More to the bottom and difficult to see is the line “WITH HTC SENSE” just above the bottom bolts, which is printed on the cover.

3.2  Another “unibody-like approach” a little different than on the HTC Legend

In the description of the back view of the HTC HD Mini you have noticed that there are four bolts that hold the device together. In addition you might remember a great design feature of the HTC Legend called unibody. If not you certainly want te check out the video of Dieter Bohn, MVP Mobile devices and Editor on the SmartphoneExperts community-network, published on AndroidCentral and in which John Wang from HTC discusses the unibody design of the HTC Legend.

The HTC HD Mini front surface is completely the glass surface of the capacitive touch screen. If you put the finger in the slit on the top of the HTC HD Mini you can completely remove the cover that encloses and protects all surfaces of the HTC HD Mini (except the screen).

In other words there is just one single cover that protects the HTC HD Mini. The picture above shows you the front view of the HTC HD Mini with the removed cover. You can see that the cover adds a few mm. to the overall dimensions of the HTC HD Mini.

3.3  Internals – A yellow surprise ?

The picture above shows you the back view of the HTC HD Mini with the removed cover. A colorfull surprise comes to the surface, since the complete “inside” of the HTC HD Mini is yellow. It is not only a welcome deviation from the standard black and silver colors, but it also shows the craftsmanship of HTC.

3.4  HTC HD Mini hardware comparisons: Zune HD and HTC HD2

The picture above the chapter 3 heading shows a comparison shot of the HTC HD Mini with a few other mobile devices. From left to right: Zune HD 32GB, HTC HD Mini, HTC HD2, and on the right HTC Snap.In this section I will provide a more detailed comparison with two devices.

HTC HD Mini vs. Zune HD 32GB

The picture above shows you the back view of both the HTC HD Mini and the Zune HD 32GB. At first you may notice that both devices almost have similar dimensions.

In the previous description of the back surface of the HTC HD Mini I pointed you to the construction with the four bolts that hold the device together. Furthermore I asked the question “Where did I see this four bolt construction before ?” The answer is: “Zune HD” and the picture above clearly shows this. The same special bolts are used, and I would like to know what type these bolts are (no Torx).

The picture above shows you the front view of the HTC HD Mini and the Zune HD 32GB. I included this picture to show you that the screens in both devices have an almost similar size as well (in addition to similar overall dimensions). Someone might argue that it is not fair to compare a mediaplayer with a smartphone, however I think the hardware similarities are a solid argument for comparison.

HTC HD Mini vs. HTC HD2

Since the HD Mini is marketed as ”the impressive experience of the HTC HD2 in a compact package“, it makes sense to put the devices side by side. The picture above shows you the front view of the HTC HD Mini and the HTC HD2.

The most remarkable and eye-catching difference is the effective screen size. The HTC HD2 comes with the biggest capacitive touchscreen on a Windows Phone, making it very attractive for multimedia-purposes for example. I personally can read PDF-files attached to an e-mail very well and without much of zoom and browsing web pages or viewing a YouTube video is excellent. On the HTC HD Mini you simply get less effective screen size, and you should think about that in various applications. Furthermore you can see that the HTC HD2 has mechanical hardware buttons, while the HTC HD Mini shows a  row of touch buttons.

In the picture above, that provides the back view you can clearly see the different approach in terms of the used cover. Also the design and implementation of the camera is completely different. The HTC HD Mini camera lens is more protected by design as on the HTC HD2. While on the HTC HD2 you can see the dual LED flashlight, which is obsolete on the HTC HD Mini.

4.  HTC HD Mini from a software perspective

The previous sections about the hardware design have been quite extensive, but in addition to great hardware you need excellent software to make a smartphone powerful and a real commercial success.

In this section I will focus on several software aspects of the HTC HD Mini. However I would like to start with the following remark for the dear English readers.

REMARK:

The received HTC HD Mini has a localized Dutch ROM preloaded on the device, so therefore the screenshots consist of Dutch translations. However I honestly do hope that you will be able to get an idea of the device software and its functionality.

4.1   Windows Mobile 6.5.3

Back in February I wrote an article about Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and its features, and despite the fact that it is a dot-dot-release it includes a significant set of incremental improvements.

While the Sony Ericsson Aspen was announced as the first Windows Phone running on Windows Mobile 6.5.3, the HTC HD Mini is for me the first Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device that I can test. So I’m excited to test a few of the incremental innovations described in the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 article on this website:

• Soft keys are replaced by touchable tiles;
• Icon drop bar;
• Drag and drop icons in the start menu;

In the screenshots above you can see the one of the most striking changes in Windows Mobile 6.5.3, where the soft keys are replaced by touchable tiles. You can see that the bottom toolbar is slightly higher, while the top toolbar is a little smaller compared to Windows Mobile 6.5.

When you tap on the right corner of the top toolbar you activate the icon drop bar, which results in the “notifications” screen we have already seen on the latest Windows Mobile devices from HTC. Furthermore the lockscreen is customized, and I really like the changed position of the unlock-slider, that was in the top area of the HTC HD2.

• Horizontal scroll bar replaces tabs;
• Internet Explorer for Windows Phones;

Another improvement in Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is the more touch friendly horizontal scrollbar that replaces tabs in the previous Windows Mobile versions. The scrollbar has a larger area and is therefore more easy to touch. In the left screenshot above you can see the horizontal scrollbar in the time and alarm screen.

The final change in Windows Mobile 6.5.3 that I would like to address is Internet Explorer for Windows Phone. As you can see there is a row with touch optimized buttons in the bottom area, which was also present in Windows Mobile 6.5. However new in Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is the optimization for touch of the top toolbar, especially remark the favorite button and the pull down address field.

4.2  HTC Sense – Make it mine, stay close, discover the unexpected

HTC Sense first introduced on the HTC Hero is ”an intuitive, seamless experience built upon three fundamental principles - make it mine, stay close, and discover the unexpected.” HTC Sense on Windows Mobile is more or less the successor of the TouchFLO interface.

The HTC Sense interface on the HTC HD Mini has a similar structure as on the HTC HD2. In the HTC HD2 review the complete HTC Sense interface was described in more detail, and in this section I will only highlight some interesting points that are different or I didn’t discover before. This is the familiar structure we all know.

1. Home ;
2. People;
3. Messages;
4. Mail;
5. Internet;
6. Calendar;
7. Stocks;
8. Photos & Videos;
9. Music;
10. Weather;
11. Twitter
12. Footprints;
13. Settings;

If you compare the version- and build numbers of HTC HD2 and HTC HD Mini you can see that HTC Sense is under continuous development, and a significant part of the value proposition of HTC devices.

You might have noticed the fresh new background on the HTC HD Mini, which of course can be changed to your personal preference. In the home tab I could notice that by default there three applications pre-configured in the 3 x 3 icongrid when you make a swipe gesture from the bottom to the top. HTC decided to preconfigure the (1) camera application, (2) Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and (3) YouTube application on the first row of the grid.

In the people tab I haven’t seen any significant changes, however if you tap on the more button you can notice new icons in the bottom toolbar. These new icons are shown in the left screen shot above and consist of (1) all contacts, (2) favorites, (3) groups/categories,  (4) updates, events, and (5) call log.

For the messages- and e-mail tabs I would consider the software keyboard the most important change. When you tab and hold on the keyboard icon in the bottom toolbar of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 you can see that there is only one input method left, while on the HTC HD2 there were several types of software keyboards. Furthermore the layout of the keyboard has slightly changed:

• There are no arrows anymore to navigate the cursor, which I really did like in the HTC HD2 software keyboard;
• There is a button to change the language of the text-prediction, in the left bottom corner next to the shift key;
• There is no button anymore to switch between the XT9 text prediction and the simple ABC input;

Honestly I don’t like the XT9 text-prediction in general (so not just on the HTC HD Mini), however HTC has tackled the problem for people like me who communicate in different languages (Dutch, English and German). Furthermore the software keyboard supports also landscape mode, like we have seen on the HTC HD2. This results in slightly larger keys in the familiar QWERTY layout, AND the return of the arrows for cursor navigation.

Jack Cook, Windows Mobile MVP & Editor in Chief of ExperienceMobility and Mike Temporale, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in chief of MobileJaw discovered a limitation within the calendar tab of HTC Sense.  Apparently “HTC Sense on HD2 will not Allow Birthdates Prior to 1941” and this is also the case on the HTC HD Mini.

You might remember the really nice feature on the HTC HD2, which showed you several pictures if you turned the Windows Phone into landscape mode (and the g-sensor recognized this change). However this coolness isn’t available on the HTC HD Mini, which is caused by the significant smaller screen. It probably makes no sense to implement this feature on the smaller screen.

In the music tab of HTC Sense on the HTC Hd Mini I discovered a feature that I wasn’t aware of before (mainly because I use the Zune HD as my media player). However if you use your Windows Phone to listen to music, you can update/add album art with just two clicks. At first you select the option update album art, and second you choose to update the album art for (1) all songs, (2) the current song, or (3) all songs on the current playlist.

I didn’t find any huge changes in the other tabs of HTC Sense, and if you would like to have a more general overview I would like to recommend that section in the HTC HD2 review.

4.3  Applications on HTC HD Mini

In terms of applications there are a lot of similarities between the HTC HD2 and the HTC HD Mini, which is good for the end-user in my opinion.

Of course the default Microsoft applications are included like Internet Explorer for Mobile, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Office Mobile 6.1 , Windows Live for Windows Phone and Microsoft MyPhone.

In addition you can find applications like the YouTube client for Windows Phone, Facebook for Windows Phone, Google Maps and a trial version of CoPilot. Furthermore you can find applications like Adobe Reader LE, Internet Sharing, Worldcard Mobile and a Calculator developed by HTC.

In the multimedia folder you can find some additional applications developed by HTC like the Audio Booster, MP3 Trimmer, Streaming Media application and the FM Radio application for which you need to connect the headphones to the HTC HD Mini.

However I think there are two additional shortcuts in the start menu of the HTC HD Mini that deserve some attention. At first there is a link to the configuration wizard to easily set-up your device (at first use). This is the icon with the magician hat in the left screenshot above.

The other icon has the label more information (green circle with !), which fires up the Opera webbrowser on the HTC HD Mini. This results in a kind of hosted knowledge base for the HTC HD Mini, where you can learn more about the device.

You can select to navigate to the (1) how to section, which consist of 10 items now, or (2) the guide section, that consists of the user manual and quick start guide. I think this somewhat replaces the default Windows Mobile Getting Started Guide that was introduced with Windows Mobile 6.1.

Furthermore I addressed that the HTC HD Mini features a 3.2″ capacitive touch screen with a 320 x 480 HVGA resolution. Currently I use two applications that don’t support this resolution, and therefore can’t be installed on the HTC HD Mini. The applications are the touch optimized TouchTwit twitterclient and the WinMoSquare Foursquare client.

5.  Connectivity

Overall I think it is fair to conclude that the HTC HD Mini features every connectivity option that you need. In the left screenshot above you can see the Comm Manager on the HTC HD Mini.

Probably the most striking fact is the included Wi-Fi Router application, that transforms your Windows Phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot (was first introduced on the HTC HD2). This is a great application and I’m happy that HTC implemented this on the HTC HD Mini as well.

Furthermore the HTC HD Mini features Bluetooth 2.1 ith Enhanced Data Rate (EDR). While the avaialbility in current smartphones is a no-brainer you sometimes forget to look at the implementation on a device. Since HTC also has done some work on the graphical user interface front (GUI) I would like to elaborate a little on the bluetooth implementation.

If you access the bluetooth icon from the settings menu, the first question you need to answer is “Do you want to turn on bluetooth in order to use this function ?” In the left screenshot above you can see this question and the answer is a simple yes of course. This results in a redirection to the middle tab of the bluetooth settings that gives an overview of devices that the device has been paired with (right screenshot above). You can clearly see that HTC has done some touch optimization work here.

Furthermore to you can see the two additional tabs of the bluetooth settings in the screenshots above. The left tab is mainly focused on the bluetooth functions itself, while the right tab of the bluetooth settings mainly focuses on the “environment” and data exchange.  For example you can exchange business cards or sent a bluetooth object, while in the left tab of bluetooth settings you can configure the visibility mode, change advanced settings or simply add a bluetooth device.

The HTC HD Mini also features GPS functionality. While on the HTC HD2 there was still a Quick GPS shortcut available in the startmenu to a stand-alone application, it now seems to be integrated in the location services menu item of the HTC Sense settings tab. As you can see in the left screenshot you can set the automatic downloading of the file with satellite positions. Furthermore Google Maps and CoPilot Live 8 are preloaded on the HTC HD Mini and work seamlessly with the GPS hardware of the Windows Phone.

When you insert a SIM card for the first time in the HTC HD Mini, this SIM card is recognized and the cellular data settings and sms center are configured automatically. HTC also has implemented a configuration wizard that I mentioned in the applications section. This configuration wizard helps you to set-up your device connections to a Wi-Fi network,  Twitter- Youtube- and Facebook accounts, and ofcourse your e-mail accounts as well in a step-by-step approach. This is a more user friendly way of device configuration that really helps end-users with the sometimes painful process of setting up their device.

6.  Multimedia

The final main area that I would like to zoom in on are the multimedia capabilities of the HTC HD Mini.

In the hardware section of this review I already mentioned the use of a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus, however without a flash like on the HTC HD2. HTC has done a really nice integration job in the photos and videos experience, since it connects and to some extend integrates four different applications: (1) HTC Sense, (2) Camera application, (3) Camcorder application, and (4) Albums application.

Click here for the original-sized version

The sample picture above is taken in less light conditions outside in the backyard. I don’t know if the dual LED flash would have made a real difference in this setting. While I do think that the camera on the HTC HD Mini is sufficient for capturing simple pictures in everyday life, you can’t compare the camera on a mobile phone with a professional digital SLR camera. However my judgment would be “more than sufficient for the majority of people” !

The screenshots above show you the albums application, and the options in the albums menu. You can easily select the slideshow mode or share a picture via e-mail or on Facebook. However you can’t upload to other online services, for example Flickr. On Android devices there is an integration with the Flickr service, and I hope this will become available for Windows Mobile as well.

If you select the album tile from the bottom toolbar you will get an overview of your pictures and albums. As you may notice the location doesn’t seem to matter since a kind of aggregated view is provided. In addition you can see a tab with the Facebook logo in the bottom toolbar, that gives you access to the Facebook albums on your account. You might remember that HTC released a HTC HD2 hotfix to “repair” this Facebook integration.

Finally the right screenshot above gives you an overview of the multimedia applications in the start menu of the HTC HD Mini. Windows Media Player is still the default media player for Windows Mobile 6.x devices, but you can also see Audio Booster, MP3 Trimmer, Streaming Media application and the FM Radio application, all developed by HTC. Combined with the Music tab in HTC Sense there is also a great music and audio experience on the HTC HD Mini.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTtCGiykDW0

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

The HTC HD Mini is a really nice compact and powerful Windows Phone that has an impressive set of features. It reminds me of the HTC Magician, which was my first converged Windows Mobile device. There are a lot of similarities in terms of software and usability.

If you would like to make the comparison with the HTC HD2, the main differences are in my opinion the screen (and screen size) and the pricepoint.

1. The HTC HD2 has an impressive 4.3″ capacitive touchscreen while the HTC HD Mini has a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen. The colors, contrast are better on the HTC HD Mini, despite the fact that the overview of the e-mail inbox is sometimes a little harder to read. The cleartype screen options seem to be hidden or removed from the settings menu;
2. The HTC HD Mini is on sale for €379,- (including vat) and without a subscription while the HTC HD2 is on sale for €499,- under similar conditions. The price difference is €120,- and the question remains if you are willing to pay this or not.

If your primary use is not aimed at multimedia and web browsing, the HTC HD Mini is a perfect allround device that gives you a lot of value and power. Remark the Wi-Fi Router application or the special features below:

“Lowers ringer volume automatically when you pick up the phone, or raises ringer volume when the phone is in your bag or pocket;

Mutes the ringer when you flip the phone face down;”

The HTC HD Mini is snappy (really impressed with the Qualcomm MSM7227 at a clock speed of 600 MHz), very small and HTC has pushed new boundaries in terms of design and craftsmanship. Finally you really get a lot of HTC HD2 for your money, just not the impressive 4.3″ capacitive touch screen.