Many smartphone manufacturers have been on the big is better roller coaster of late, blurring the lines between smartphone and tablet, creating the phablet even. When you have reached the practical physical size limits of screen size, for something that you carry around with you, there is only one way to go. That is to get smaller.
HTC have always produced some very interesting devices. The ChaCha was a huge hit with a hardware Facebook button, a hardware keyboard with a touch screen running Android operating system. HTC does seem to read the market very well and respond quickly.
The current flagship device from HTC is the HTC One. It is an extremely well designed and built device that has had rave reviews and is currently top 3 pick in the smart phone market as judged by Wired magazine.
HTC has just announced and update to the HTC One. It is not so much an update as a rebuild. The original HTC One has been shrunk from a 4.7 in screen to a 4.3 inch screen to create the HTC One Mini. This is still bigger than the iPhone but at least it might now fit in your pocket.
To enable this downsizing the resolution of the screen has been downgraded to 720P form the 1080P in the One. The processor has similarly been downgraded to a Dual Core Snapdragon 400 from the bigger quad core. Likewise the battery has taken a hit and is smaller and has less capacity.
The HTC One Mini does however keep one important characteristic of its bigger brother and that is the excellent aluminium case of the original. You can get one in August.
Maybe we will be talking about more smaller devices from other manufacturers in the near future.
