HTC One Mini 2 vs HTC One M8

In one of the least surprising moves of the year HTC has followed up its remarkable, if awkwardly named, HTC One M8 with the even more awkwardly named HTC One Mini 2.

This was all but a given from the moment the One M8 was announced, but the specs of its mini sibling were less clear.

So what's changed? And how do the two handsets stack up?

Screen

The HTC One M8 has a gorgeous 5 inch 1080p display. As you'd expect the HTC One Mini 2 has a smaller screen, though it's still far from tiny at 4.5 inches. But as well as being smaller it's also lower resolution, coming in at 720p.

That's still enough for it to deliver crisp visuals, in fact it's roughly on par with the Retina display on the iPhone 5S, but put it side by side with the HTC One M8 and the differences are noticeable.

Design

At first glance the HTC One Mini 2 looks every bit as premium as its larger sibling, with the same brushed metal back elevating it above most other smartphones at least in the design stakes.

But look closer and it's not quite the masterpiece that the One (M8) is. While the metal of the HTC One M8 covers the edges too, the One Mini 2 has a plastic rim, though it's only particularly noticeable at the top and bottom, as the metal back curves up into the sides, leaving just a narrow strip of plastic.

The HTC One Mini 2 is also thicker than the HTC One M8, which is a bit of a surprise. The One M8 is already far from slim at 9.4mm, but the Mini 2 bumps that up to 10.6mm.

Though it is at least lighter than the HTC One M8 and the other dimensions are lesser too, which is as you'd expect given the mini moniker.

The front of the One Mini 2 is much the same as that of its big brother, with the standout feature being the speaker grills above and below the screen, speakers which deliver the same Boomsound experience as the M8.

CPU and RAM

The HTC One M8 is every bit the powerhouse you'd expect it to be given its flagship status. It has a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 2GB of RAM giving it impressive performance.

Unfortunately the HTC One Mini 2 isn't in the same league, with its 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor and 1GB of RAM.

We haven't yet experienced any performance issues with the device, but don't expect it to go toe-to-toe with the HTC One M8.