London – HTC plans to give birth to the HTC One’s baby brother, the One Mini, beginning in August in select global markets.
Distribution of the more compact, lower performance version of HTC’s flagship phone will be expanded beginning in September. Pricing and availability for the U.S. will be announced later this summer.
When the One launched earlier this year, it was priced by AT&T and Sprint at $199 with two-year contract for the 32GB version and at $299 By AT&T for the 64GB version. T-Mobile also launched it at $99 plus 24 payments of $20. .
The Mini features a 4.2-inch720p 341PPI display and dual-core 1.4GHz processor compared to the One’s 4.7-inch 1080p 468 PPI display and quad-core 1.7GHz processor. The Mini, however, will retain the One’s aluminum unibody design and such key features as HTC’s UltraPixel Camera with f/2.0 aperture, 1080p video capture with HDR, backside illumination, and HTC Zoe. Both also feature HTC BoomSound and the HTC BlinkFeed home screen.
The Mini measures 5.2 inches by 2.5 inches by 0.36 inches and weighs 4.3 ounces.
The Mini’s BlinkFeed feature constantly feeds social-network updates, HTC-curated information services, and other content to home-screen tiles that extend below the screen. Key applications such as calendar and music player also appear on home-screen tiles.
The phone’s “4.3-UltraPixel” front camera is said to outperform traditional 8- to 13-megapixel sensors by using large pixels is to capture 300 percent more light to deliver ghost-less HDR pictures and HDR videos.
HTC Zoe lets users simultaneously capture a picture and three-second HD video to turn a photo gallery into a gallery of photos and moving images. The phone also automatically stitches together multiple Zoe photos and videos into a Highlights Video with background music, transitions, and effects for online sharing.
BoomSound combines dual amplified front stereo speakers in landscape mode with Beats Audio sound-enhancement technology.
