Resource Which? compared the battery life of new smartphones Apple iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c with some competitive solutions based on alternative platforms.

Amongst the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c took part in the test smartphones Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 Mini, HTC One and One Mini, BlackBerry Z10, Nokia Lumia 1020. The testing determines how long the device can operate from a single battery charge complete the implementation of conversations and web surfing via the 3G.

As a result, it was found that autonomy is a leader in the smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4. He demonstrated the best results in both tests 1051 minutes talk time and 405 minutes of web surfing. Moreover, the separation from the nearest competitor in the call duration was 26.6%. The second place in the overall ranking has taken the smartphone HTC One. He was second in the test for the duration of a call (771 min) and fourth in the test for the duration of web surfing (339 minutes). Finally, the bronze medal was the model Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, which was able to work autonomously 746 minutes of talk time (third result) and 394 minutes of web surfing (the second result).

The device iPhone 5s found on the fourth position for the duration of a call (651 min), and the model iPhone 5c – in seventh (564 minutes). Test for battery life when web-surfing was a failure, smartphones Apple took it the last two places: 298 minutes at the iPhone 5s and 252 minutes in iPhone 5c.

The experts Which? note that while smartphones iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are inferior competitors in terms of battery life, they still show better performance than the previous generation iPhone 5.

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Not everyone likes the big smartphones. That is why there are a lot of iPhone and mini versions of Android-champions. Just in time for the latter refers HTC One mini. This is a smaller and simpler version of the smartphone HTC One ( HTC One survey ). New on the third cheaper older brother, but kept the main feature – a nice metal case in the style of the iPhone 5 ( review of Apple iPhone 5 ). Let’s see what compromises are waiting for buyers mini flagship HTC.

HTC One – a very strong product in terms of design. The model is a slim metal body and original in design. Against the background of the flagships of the other manufacturers of plastic it looks very interesting. However, poor marketing has limited the popularity of this device, besides the camera was not as good as expected. As a result, the model lost against Samsung GALAXY S4 ( review Samsung GALAXY S4 ). But it is still no Android-flagship comparable to HTC One by image charge. And it is very important that the mini version retained that advantage.

HTC One mini too thin and the metal, but smaller, lighter, and has a simple characteristics. The latter is important because very often the mini version is perceived simply as a mobile version of the flagship. Almost always, it is not. Compared with the older HTC One here less powerful processor, less RAM and non-volatile memory, lower resolution screen, less capacious battery, no infrared port and NFC. But the price is lower than one-third immediately (HTC One at the start of sales worth $910, and the HTC One mini – $605).

An interesting point – according to our survey of the Russian audience, the largest percentage of users (22.5%) consider the optimal screen size is 4.3″. This allows you to comfortably hold the device in one hand and a finger to reach any area of ​​the display. Thus, HTC One mini refers to the the most convenient category of smartphones. 

Technical characteristics

• Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS / HSPA: 900/1900/2100 MHz HSPA +, LTE: 800/1800/2600 MHz
• Operating System: Android 4.2.2, Sense 5.0 interface
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, 1.4 GHz, dual-core
• Screen: 4.3-inch touch screen with HD 720p, 341 t / d
• Memory: 16 GB, 1 GB of RAM, there is no expansion slot
• Camera: HTC UltraPixel (4 M), aperture F2.0, 28mm, video recording Full HD 1080p, 1.6 megapixel front camera
• Communications: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS + GLONASS, FM-radio
• Battery: removable Li-Polymer, 1800 mAh
• Dimensions: 132 x 63,2 x 9,25 mm
• Weight: 122 grams
• The official price of $605

Design and Ergonomics

Appearance – this is the main trump card HTC One mini. The smartphone is made in the style of the flagship One, and thus has a metal body and is available in two colors, silver (Glacial Silver) and black (Stealth Black). The only difference is the plastic rim on the circuit, which became thicker. In my opinion, this decision does not spoils the appearance, but more practical (if the smartphone hits the end or corner), and even more convenient because of the rounded edges.

Design HTC One mini was very pleasant and stylish. Slim metal body looks great.

One mini enclosure is made up of panels, and at the ends of the plastic passes – it turns a kind of sandwich. Thus, not very well talk about a monolithic metal case. Well and repair of the body is much more expensive than replacing the plastic cover from Samsung. This is the flip side to using high-quality materials – the same with Apple. 

At first glance, One mini is not much smaller and lighter than the original One, but in practice the difference is felt. NEW little more iPhone 5 and surprisingly good in the hand thanks to the rounded corners and thoughtful proportions of the body.

HTC One mini – one of the most convenient smartphone thanks to the small size, suitable proportions and rounded forms of housing.

Weight of the metallic small smartphone, which also contributes to ergonomics. In general, One mini – one of the most convenient devices that I held in my hand recently. And here’s what to avoid not work, so it’s heat, but this is typical of the modern champions. A metal heat conductors than the same plastic.

As with the One, there is also two control buttons below the screen. They are located on the sides of the logo, and have dual functionality. This means for example, that a single press on the Home returns to the default screen, and double a menu of running applications. The center button is not present. Personally, I used a few days a week system does not cause any problems.

One mini compared with older brother lost the IR port, the rest of the set of elements of the same. MicroSIM slot on the left, 3.5 mm audio jack and the power button on top, two separate volume buttons on the right (on One rocker), microUSB connector at the bottom. The camera button is not present, there is no expansion slot, removable battery. At the front of the top and bottom speakers are located on the metal boxes, so the design is somewhat similar to BlackBerry Z10.

The Hardware

Inside the HTC One mini is much simpler than the flagship One. This is something with which you will have to accept if you want a mini-flagship model and thus a third cheaper.

Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor 400 at 1.4 GHz, Adreno 305 graphics, 1 GB of RAM. Filling HTC One mini mid-level.

Not all the software running on a smooth filling, but in most cases, the delay in response to user input is minimal. The benchmark results:

HTC One mini simpler hardware and, therefore, can be expected to increase the operating time. Alas, it did not happen. Battery capacity reduced to 1800 mAh (at One it is 2300 mAh). As a result, once we get an average of a day’s work. Video at maximum brightness is spinning a little over 4 hours. One mini game discharged by half in less than half an hour. The results of our testing:

The big drawback is the HTC One mini built-in memory – 16 GB of free expansion options, the user can use 11 GB. I recall in One 32 GB, while the One Dual Sim also has a slot for microSD. So the owner of One mini will have to save. Also, the model has no NFC and infrared port, which is the older brother. The rest of the full order – there is support for LTE, there is FM-radio, have not gone away Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.

In the mini-flagship HTC has abandoned the screen Full HD (1080p) and limited HD (720p), but it can not be considered a problem. The difference you will hardly notice: the density of the points in our hero’s 341 ppi, while the One – 468 ppi. As practice shows, at a density higher than 300 ppi to the human eye it looks about the same. Much more important is the fact that it uses a quality matrix, the picture is very nice. In comparison with competitors looks great.

Smartphone HTC One mini continues the tradition of HTC, associated with consistently high-quality screens. It has an LCD IPS matrix diagonal of 4.3 inches and a resolution of 1280 x 720 (HD), which provides a density 341 dots per inch. Maybe screen characteristics on paper are not up to the flagship HTC One with Full HD, but this is unlikely to be a problem – the clarity and integrity of the visual image here does not yield to him.

The same can be said about the characteristics of the screen. Measured at maximum brightness was 483 cd / m 2 (on the screen), a very good stock. At the edges there is a small difference: 500 cd / m 2 is closer to the highlight and 475 cd / m 2 at the opposite end. However, this visual difference is hardly noticeable, and the uniformity of the black field is high. Contrast, too, do not let us down – factor in 1100:1 until recently was obscenely high for IPS, now on many smartphones (and, in particular, HTC) is no longer a rarity. Importantly, the screen has an effective anti-reflective coating, which makes the image fade under external light. In this respect, it is similar to HTC One. But the viewing angles, as it seemed, though a little smaller than the flagship – high angle sags noticeably contrast. However, within reasonable limits, the slope is stable and legible image.

Average a little higher than the standard range: 2.42 instead of 2.2. The image looks a little darker than it should be. It emphasizes the contrast of the deep, which is not too bad if you look at the screen smartphone with moderate light. Fluctuations in the brightness of halftone not such significant, they can be easily seen by the naked eye, or that they seriously distort the image.

The average color temperature – about 7200K. The image has a slight cold shade. However, it is not very noticeable, and here’s why:

The white balance is quite linear on all scales. The average error DeltaE the gray scale – 9.42 units, reflecting the presence of a bluish tint. However, the internal vibrations of color do not exceed 2.3 units DeltaE. Although the overall tone has shifted somewhat, internal differences of the component is hardly observed. Due to this, the image looks clean and smooth in shade, and bias in cool colors will be visible only in comparison with the standard 6500K.

The color gamut screen close to the standard sRGB and adequately conveys both primary and secondary colors. The average error color DeltaE – 3,48 unit, which is very good for factory setting. Minimal color distortion and are barely detectable level, so different images on the screen HTC One mini look natural.

In general, the screen HTC One mini showed himself exclusively with a strong hand. The only gripe cause slight bluish tinge – but, ironically, it is much less pronounced than in many instances HTC One, who had been with us. The rest of the display was pleased good contrast, brightness and natural color reproduction. Yet another excellent display in the bank HTC, which can be strongly recommended to everyone. 

Camera – it’s a moot point in the new smartphone HTC. The pixel size of the sensor has been increased from 1.4 micrometer (as in the HTC One X) to “ultrapikselya” of 2 micrometer. With this new camera sensor captures up to 300% more light, and the sensitivity of 1700 mV / lux * sec. Ultrapikseli sensor located at 1/3 “. Together, these solutions must provide high-quality photos and video, even in low light conditions unfavorable.

In addition, HTC has developed an interesting feature for the treatment of Zoe footage. As for the resolution of images obtained, it is small – 2688 x 1520 pixels, which in the usual terminology is approximately 4 megapixels. Because of the increasing size of pixels while maintaining the size of the sensor had to reduce the number of these same pixels. As a result, suffers resolution images, it is necessary cost less noisy images under adverse lighting conditions. In reality, this means that you will not be able to greatly enlarge a portion of the image. On the other hand, the picture will occupy less memory space that HTC One mini Actual.

Compare HTC ultrapikselnuyu technology with the Nokia PureView incorrect, because the Finnish producers have used a different technology. Nokia uses the matrix contrary, a large number of small pixels, wherein the neighboring pixels are summed for noise suppression. In addition, Nokia has more than the physical size of the sensor. HTC in this case, go to a simpler way. Unfortunately, this affects the quality of pictures – a lot of blurry photos, the quality is average, but the resolution is low. Compared with the first firmware One is progress, but not enough, competitors better. The only scenario where HTC seems to be more advantageous, a video, and including when recording loud sound sources (such as concerts). Sample Images:

Interface Program

HTC One mini runs on Android 4.2.2. New software repeats One – here Sense 5 and all the chips HTC, namely BlinkFeed, Zoe and BoomSound. Compared with older versions of Sense interface is more stylish and functional, but lost several important features, in particular, the beautiful weather and a number of widgets, and not by the usual lock screen – with the weather, stocks, social activities, etc.

Built-in player has a beautiful rendering, not worse (or even better) than the Sony. Album covers are loaded automatically from the service Gracenote. Interestingly implemented gallery – with animation in BlinkFeed. There is also an Flash support in the browser. Turned out pretty bell service.

One of the chips Sense 5 is a newswire BlinkFeed. We can also add social updates. networks. Materials are displayed in a vertical list of rectangles of different sizes, each header and picture. BlinkFeed tape is available on one of the screens of the desktop but not a full-widget. In particular, this means that the service can not be removed. You can make the main screen by default the other, but not much more. Hi-Tech.Mail.Ru pre-installed on HTC BlinkFeed, which means you can read the materials of our website at convenient environment right on your desktop One mini (and all the other smart phones with HTC Sense 5).

Zoe – the second interesting feature Sense 5. Its main function is to combine and edit individual sections of photos. And the shooting may be stretched in time. That is, you shoot a piece of video, and then compose the desired song from it, adding effects. HTC particularly emphasizes the possibility of retouching. You can add a photo of man and change lighting, facial contours, smooth skin, etc. Also, Zoe provides “live” images in the gallery (Zoe Highlights) and the publication of the resulting collages on social networks (Zoe Share).

And the third – BoomSound. This is a set of hardware and software tools to improve the sound, as well as branded stereo speakers on the front panel. Compared to other smart phones sound great, and the speakers are much louder. Stereo effect is felt not always due to the low base, but it is, in the games it will be noticeable. There are so-called Sense Voice and HDR recording. The first is designed to reduce the amount of noise due to the new audio chip, and the second allows you to record sound better thanks to a high-quality stereo microphone.

Verdict

HTC One mini continues the idea last year’s One S. It’s nice and compact model of the middle class. Small size and weight, metal housing, good design as in the flagship One. Smartphone perfectly in the hand thanks to the generously proportioned and feel a lot like the iPhone 5. But the performance for the stated price ($605 at the start of sales) rustic. Of the biggest disappointments I note a small amount of memory (16 GB, of which the user has access to 11 GB) without the possibility of expansion, and a mediocre camera with a resolution of 4 megapixels. For many non-removable battery will be less and typically small time operation. Given the stuffing, one would expect a lower price tag. But HTC decided otherwise.

The official start of sales of HTC One mini in September, the price of $605 . For comparison, the main competitor of Samsung GALAXY S4 mini sold from July to $450 . In such circumstances it will be difficult to oppose HTC. Functionally comparable model with a small margin on the side GALAXY S4 mini (Samsung has NFC, removable battery, memory card, a better camera, faster processor, more RAM, the HTC is LTE, more memory, higher resolution screen, better speakers). Trump card One mini is a premium appearance, this model is similar to the Huawei Ascend P6, which is also made of metal. But because of sharp corners and larger width Huawei worse grip. NEW HTC almost perfect on the proportions and shape of the body, and this is its main advantage.

But if the dimensions are not critical, I would recommend to overpay a little for a full One, and even better for the One Dual Sim, they are more interested in features. On the other hand, One mini after the price reduction would be the best choice for non demanding users who want to have a small metal smartphone but are not willing to buy the iPhone 5. 

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