HTC One mini 2 Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Joshua Ho on May 26, 2014 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Mobile
- One mini 2
Battery Life
Battery life is now one of the most important aspects of a phone, and with Snapdragon 801, the 28HPm process brought enormous gains in battery life, enough to near the 12 hour mark for LTE battery life in both the Galaxy S 5 and HTC One (M8). Of course, while the MSM8926, Snapdragon 400 SoC in the One mini 2 is still on 28LP, the change from dual core Krait to quad core A7s, along with a newer MDM9x25 modem and a larger battery is enough to change things up quite a bit. As always, our battery life tests are run at 200 nit display brightness, and we run a standardized workload on the device from a fully charged to fully discharged state.
In WiFi, the One mini 2 has around a seven percent uplift from the One mini, and overall it performs solidly, but Motorola has them beat with the Moto G, which is around 20% better in battery life for this test. The difference in battery life is curious, especially because they have similar resolution, similar battery capacity, and the same SoC. I've also checked and neither has panel self-refresh, so there's nothing glaringly obvious that could cause such a large delta.
In WCDMA, the gap between the two narrows significantly, although Motorola holds about a ten percent lead over the One mini 2.
In order to add tests that stress SoC more heavily, we turn to the GFXBench and Basemark OS rundown tests to get a more complete picture of battery life with the smartphones that we test. The GFXBench test is an endless loop of T-Rex onscreen, and the Basemark OS test is an endless loop of the tests in Basemark OS until the battery dies.
In GFXBench, the difference between the two is effectively nothing. As seen below, performance ends up being the exact same as the Moto G. It’s quite clear that the Adreno 305 in both the Moto G and One mini 2 is gating performance in order to achieve high battery life.
In Basemark OS, the One mini 2 trails behind the Moto G, but as seen by the performance at the end of the run, it appears that the One mini 2 is simply throttling less during this test, which explains the delta in battery life.
Overall, while the One mini 2 has quite solid battery life, it's not quite as incredible as the Moto G's performance in some areas. I suspect that this may just be software, but it's unclear how much of it can be mitigated with future software updates.
Charge Time
The One mini 2 ships with a 5W charger in the box. A full charge takes a little over two and a quarter hours. Note that unlike its big brother, the One mini 2 lacks support for Qualcomm's Quick Charge 2.0 standard.
We typically plot power draw over the entire charge time in our smartphone/tablet reviews. Most of the time the graph looks like a flat line with a downward slope near the end of the charge cycle. The One mini 2 produced a graph that was a little less boring:
There are periodic drops in charge current, regardless of what charger I use (I tried both the One mini 2's in box charger as well as one from the M8). I don't think these drops will materially impact charge time, but I don't have a good explanation for them otherwise. HTC tells me that they are expected, but it didn't offer any additional explanation.
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devione - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
Why, oh why, can't more manufacturers follow the Sony Z1 Compact route..Johnmcl7 - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
I'd be interested to see the sales figures for the Z1 Compact in Europe where the phone is widely available to see if Sony's strategy of producing a flagship phone with a smaller screen has worked out for them. On paper the phone looks pretty much exactly what everyone has been wanting for a while in Android with a top end SoC, camera, micro SD, decent screen even weather sealing and without much compromise either as the price is reasonable as is the batterylife. It makes a complete mockery of the HTC Mini 2 as they both appear to be a similar price despite the Sony being a much more capable device.Yet I've not seen anyone with a Z1 Compact despite plenty of other Android phones and I've hardly seen any second hand for sale (I want a cheap one for going out cycling) whereas there's quite a few S5's around even though it's only recently released. I realise none of that's statistically relevant hence I'd like to see the sales data.
I do think Sony were too slow releasing the Z1 Compact, I think if they'd released it around two years after the Galaxy S2 they'd have been in the perfect position to catch those who wanted a similar sized phone with top end specs. I knew quite a few people who had S2's and didn't want an S4 due to the increase in size however as there wasn't anything suitable in a smaller form factor with Android they went with the S4 and find the size is fine.
A few friends and family have 'mini' phones particularly the S3 Mini and S4 Mini but they didn't just want a smaller phone they also wanted a cheap phone so wouldn't have considered a Z1 Compact if available.
Laxaa - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
My brother just bought the Z1 Compact, and it's an impressive piece of kit. I only wish it had OIS and a better camera app(like Nokia Camera on the Lumias)Death666Angel - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
From the article: "HTC then proceeded to launch the One mini, a phone that was the size that everyone had been asking for"From Johnmcl7: " On paper the phone looks pretty much exactly what everyone has been wanting for a while in Android".
Really? Everyone wanted a phone like that? I didn't. I was fine with 4.3" in my SGS2 when the iPhone established the 3.x" form factor. I liked my 4.65" Galaxy Nexus when that was becoming the norm and I like the 5.2" LG G2 which is doesn't feel much larger than the GN. So count me out of that "everyone" group, please. Not everyone is looking for smaller flag ship phones, just like not everyone is looking for microSD card slots, replaceable batteries or phones made out of aluminum. Some are, others aren't. I'm someone who is fine with lugging around his Nexus 7 when I'm wearing a jacket. The 5.2" G2 fits perfectly fine in all my trousers and I have never thought "bly me, that size is really bothering me".
Johnmcl7 - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
OK, wrong turn of speech - my own phone is a Sony Z Ultra (6.4in screen) so I certainly appreciate the benefits of a larger screen.fokka - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - link
i'm really happy for you and you're right, not "everyone" wants all those things you list. the problem is that for people who are happy with 5"+ phones there already are many options - the whole flagship-segment caters to them.but for those who want all the power in a slightly smaller form factor there is exactly one viable offering - not much considered the dozens/hundreds of models on the market. and even this lonely smartphone will be "obsolete" in a matter of months, considering the specs of current and coming flagships.
in a market like this, i think it's clear and also warranted, that people are complaining. but even if we aren't "everybody", it's still important that we voice our opinions. sorry if you felt collateralized ;)
sfuzzz - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
I feel exactly the same. Z1 Compact is a great phone (with some flaws like other) and the right size for everyday life, you don't have to carry a bag or a jacket only for your phone. I own a Nexus 5, coming from a Xperia U (perfect size for me) and this summer will see if i go mad feeling it in my pockets all day. As for the sales (of Z1 compact) It's difficult to tell the real figures, here in Italy is available for 450/420 euros or less, but anything that is not Samsung or iPhone is a "niche" phone. I own a N5, my sister owns a Moto G, and we are considered some kind of "geeks" only for that :)Gich - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
4xCortex-A7 can't keep up with 2xKrait 200 on benchmarks that do stress all core... and it should be worst on "normal" apps.Isn't this... very bad?
Gich - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
Also "it’s not much of an improvement"? I feel is more of a step back.tipoo - Monday, May 26, 2014 - link
Yeah, I'd take dual krait over any number of A7 cores any day.