If you held a wake for WinMo 6.5 after Microsoft announced the (rather exciting) Windows Phone 7 series back in February, you probably celebrated the OS’s demise a little prematurely. HTC has decided to give the platform one last gasp at life in the form of the HD Mini, launching today through Harvey Norman stores.
Costing $599 outright and unlocked, the phone has to be one of the last Winmo 6.5 released in Australia. With HTC Sense splashed liberally over the old and dated OS. Given the wide range of awesome Android handsets on the market, and the excitement starting to build for Windows Phone 7 (and especially its Xbox Live integration), it’s actually surprising this got to see the light of day at all down here…
HTC LAUNCHES COMPACT SMARTPHONE – HTC HD MINI
Sydney, Australia – 17, August 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced the HTC HD mini – a HTC Sense™-based Windows® Phone sporting a high degree of usability along with its own unique and compact design.
“HTC constantly assesses customer feedback, and it was with this feedback in mind that the HTC HD mini was developed to meet the needs of people who want a smartphone with a more compact design without losing key features, usability and style” said Anthony Petts, Sales and Marketing Director ANZ, HTC Corporation. “The integration of HTC Sense on the HTC HD mini gives customers an additional choice for an advanced Windows Phone that is rich with features, simple to use and loaded with valuable applications. The HTC HD mini is the first device, to be launched in partnership with Synnex, one of our key distributors in Australia.”
HTC HD Mini Overview and Key Features
Hold great craftsmanship in your hand with a unique design that is simple yet beautiful from inside out.
Clean lines, compact form, and elegant construction give the HTC HD mini the looks that fit any place, time or circumstance. Precision fasteners used to assemble the phone are externally visible, displaying a high level of craftsmanship. The strong design ethos continues under the battery cover so that a bright yellow internal structure offers an unexpected surprise when the phone is opened.The HTC HD mini features HTC Sense™ – a user experience that revolves around the three core tenets of Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected – which is simple to use, amazing to look at, and loaded with valuable applications.
Make It Mine
Create a perfect phone for yourself by putting shortcuts to the most important people, web sites, or most used applications right on the home screen. Prioritise your essentials by arranging the tabs of the key phone features to suit your needs.Stay Close
Stay close to those you care about with all the ways to get in touch and all your past interactions neatly organised by people – not by applications. The device helps you stay close to the important friends and colleagues in your life by providing a single contact view that displays individual communication snapshots of your conversations regardless of whether it was a call, text, status update or email. The HTC HD mini continues the same focus on people-centric communication with complete Outlook integration.Go from email to a voice call in just one touch. Get everyone from an email involved in a multi-party call with a couple of taps. Take the challenge out of jumping between a calendar appointment and phone when trying to join a conference bridge – now you’re guided with a big reminder button – so you can easily join in on the call.
Keep track of everyone’s real-time Twitter™ updates on HTC’s built-in client HTC Peep. Dive easily into a conversation or share your own thoughts and pictures. You can even post your precise GPS location with a couple of taps.
Discover the Unexpected
Some design features of HTC HD mini are much better experienced than explained. For example, you can virtually feel the weather on the lifelike animated wallpaper that automatically reflects your location.Experience a phone ringer that knows when it has been heard and when it should ring loudly for your attention. The ringer volume lowers when the G-sensor on your phone detects that the phone has been picked up. On the other hand, when the proximity sensors detect that the phone is in your pocket or a purse, the ringer volume scales up to ensure that you don’t miss an important call.
Give your music collection the visual décor it deserves. With just one tap, your phone searches the web for the actual album art cover and replaces the placeholder image in your music library.
The HTC HD mini, with capacitive touch technology, is designed for pure finger touch control. Zoom in and out of web pages, word documents, PDFs, pictures, or emails with just a simple pinch. Set up calendar appointments, reply to emails, and adjust your phone settings on the interface optimized for use with your fingers.
Bring the HTC HD mini with you on the road, and you’ll never have to hunt for a Wi-Fi® hotspot for your laptop. Your phone simply connects to superfast 3.5G cellular networks and becomes your personal wireless access point – anytime, anywhere. You can download a variety of applications from the Windows® Marketplace for Mobile to further suit your own needs and style.
Availability
The HTC HD mini is currently available for an RRP of $599 at Harvey Norman.
–ENDS —