HTC One mini comes back for seconds, we shoot another hands-on video with it

Our first encounter with the HTC One mini was shorter than we would have liked so we invited it back for round 2. It made a good first impression, let’s see how it will fare once the feeling of novelty has subsided.

Holding it for a second time, we still think the One mini offers a more premium feel than many high-end phones do.

We’re not thrilled about the plastic strip that runs the side of the device, but other than that the HTC One mini is a spitting image of its bigger namesake. The aluminum unibody, the gorgeous screen, the symmetrical BoomSound speakers, the UltraPixel camera, this phone ticks all the right checkboxes.

The downscaling process did result in the loss of several features – the quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM and the Optical Image Stabilization are perhaps the worst, with the 16GB-only storage coming a very close second. We wish HTC would introduce a 32GB model. Also missing are NFC, the IR blaster, and the MHL functionality on the microUSB port and the battery has taken a 500mAh cut to 1,800mAh.

Still, you get the exact same software package on the HTC One mini you do on the big flagship, meaning Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5, BlinkFeed, Zoe features for the camera and gallery and even a fully-featured Office document editor.

Here’s a quick demo of these features following a tour around the hardware:

There’s not much left to do now but start the benchmarks, battery and camera tests and see if the HTC One mini can back up its premium looks with premium smartphone performance.