We Almost Had The Perfect Android Phone, But A Miss Is As Good As A Mile

Like Samsung and others, HTC belittles the notion of a small-yet-premium Android phone.

This could have been a huge week for smartphone users, and for Android in particular. HTC unveiled the highly anticipated One Mini, which sounds like it ought to be a smaller version of the original (and amazing) HTC One. That assumption, however, turned out to be horribly misguided - and it was all HTC's fault, not ours.

To recap, the original One was and still is one of the most beautifully designed pieces of Google -powered hardware to have so far graced our bedside tables. It's a big phone with a 4.7-inch 1080p display designed for power users and media fiends, but it has become one of the few Android handsets capable of enticing mainstream iPhone owners away from iOS. That's because, despite its geeky size, HTC has managed to achieve a wonderful balance between form and function.

If the One Mini had retained all the One's aesthetics and features, while shrinking them down to a more manageable, more mainstream 4.3-inch form factor that doesn't strain the user's thumb ligaments every time they reach for the notifications pull-down, HTC would have been onto a winner. This writer, for one, would have bought it right away.

However, HTC failed to spot the niche. Just like Samsung with the GS4 Mini (and GS3 Mini before that), it made the utterly counter-intuitive assumption that people who want a small smartphone also want a budget smartphone - despite the fact that over 12 million people every month lavish vast sums on 4-inch iPhones.

There used to be high-spec Android flagships of 4.3 inches or less on the market, like the HTC Sensation or the Samsung Galaxy S II, but that was back in 2011, when Google's operating system wasn't half as powerful, fluid, or well supported by apps as it is today. Just as Android came of age, the option of a small screen in a premium device disappeared, and it makes no sense.

To be fair, the HTC One Mini is almost premium. It retains One's UltraPixel camera, incredibly loud stereo BoomSound speakers and Super LCD 3 panel (albeit with a lower resolution). But these specs have been compromised by a less impressive design, which loses the One's chamfered edges and much of its aluminum in favor of a cheaper plastic border, as well as by a cut-down Snapdragon 400 processor and that won't accomplish compute- or graphics-heavy tasks as snappily as the One does.

Most seriously, the One Mini packs just 16GB of storage, versus 32GB in the original. This would be okay if the storage space could be expanded via microSD, but it can't. In breach of an unwritten Android taboo, HTC doesn't offer expandable storage on all its handsets anymore. Having asked the company's CEO, Peter Chou, about this omission in a recent encounter, and having listened to his side-stepping response, I'm still unclear as to why it continues. In any case, the result is that the Mini is rendered useless to anyone who wants to use lots of apps or store lots of media on their supposedly smart phone.

There's really nothing more to say about it. An amazing opportunity has been lost by a manufacturer that couldn't much afford to lose it. If you want a big smartphone, please, please do us all a favor and buy an HTC One. Not only will you help to keep this silly old Taiwanese giant to stay alive, so it can have another shot at perfection, but you'll get an excellent phone into the bargain. However, if you want something equally well-designed and high-powered, but in a smaller frame that will leave your opposable digit safely in its socket, you still have no choice but to buy an iPhone. The One Mini, just like Samsung's GS4 Mini or any other Android "mini" you may care look at, simply won't cater for your needs.