HTC HD Mini - Review

“Windows works well and offers plenty of features on this HTC smartphone. Unfortunately HTC’s usually excellent Sense user interface makes using the phone confusing”

HTC HD Mini

The HD Mini is quite compact

The HTC HD Mini (compare deals) is ideal for smartphone novices because many of its features are similar to those you would find on a PC.

For example, the smartphone runs cut-down versions of Microsoft Word and Excel to make creating and editing documents on the go a real possibility.

The smartphone also includes Internet Explorer (IE) so browsing the internet from the mobile phone is similar to the experience of surfing the web from your desktop PC or laptop.

Helpful improvements have been made to IE on the HD Mini, however, with an icon added for zooming in on and out of webpages using the phone’s touchscreen.

Business users will also like the HD Mini because its wi-fi tethering app lets laptops connect to the internet using the smartphone’s wireless connection. This feature does eat into your mobile internet allowance, though.

Many of these features, which immediately put me at-ease with the HD Mini, are possible because the smartphone runs a special mobile phone version of the Windows operating system (OS).

The software - Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional - is really easy to use because you navigate around the phone by clicking on icons. This is exactly how the iPhone 4 and smartphone running Google Android work.

Android smartphone

A camera flash would improve pictures

HTC has overlaid Microsoft’s smartphone OS with its own user interface, known as Sense.

HTC has done this on many of its existing smartphones with great effect, but in this case Sense makes the phone a little confusing at times because some icons are needlessly duplicated.

Nonetheless, the number of useful apps pre-installed on the HD Mini impressed me. These included a sat-nav smartphone app called Co-Pilot and Google Maps for everyday pavement navigation.

You can also choose your own free and paid-for apps from Marketplace - Microsoft’s answer to the Apple App Store.

Marketplace is surprisingly well stocked and even includes some of the apps available on the iPhone, such as Facebook.

Images taken on the HD Mini’s 5Mp camera were sharp and crisp, but unfortunately also quite dull or badly lit because the camera isn’t twinned with a flash.

The phone’s limited image settings (a sepia filter, brightness adjuster, etc) did little to improve this.

I couldn’t write documents, text messages or emails very quickly on the HD Mini because its touchscreen keyboard is quite small. The gentle vibration of each key did make pressing the correct one slightly easier, however.

Google Maps

Pictures were pretty dull

Another advantage of owning a Windows-based phone, such as the HD Mini, is that moving music files on to the phone is easy, provided you’re a Windows PC user and don’t have all your music stored in iTunes.

A handy app for trimming music tracks down into ringtones is even included on the HD Mini.

It’s also worth noting that you can remove the smartphone’s sim card and Micro SD memory card without removing its battery.

Though why HTC decided to paint the phone’s interior under the battery cover bright yellow is totally beyond me.

Click here to compare HTC HD Mini contract and pay-as-you-go deals