Some of us know what it’s like to carry a giant phone in your pocket. Our own Matt Booth liked the original Galaxy Note, and now rocks a Galaxy Note 2, much to the amusement of the rest of us over our Christmas lunch, until we came to grips with how awesome the hardware was.
Not all of us are comfortable with carrying a 5″ phablet in our pockets, or up to our heads and for us, HTC may be coming to the rescue. In order to make the HTC J Butterfly more appealing to those who (a) are happy to have a large phone/phablet but (b) don’t want to hold it up to their heads and look silly, HTC appears to be offering the HTC Mini as an in-box accessory.
Please note, the video above is not in English, so bear with it.. it’s easy enough to follow.
The HTC Mini isn’t a second smartphone to carry around. Rather, it’s a small, Bluetooth handset (which pairs via NFC — cool!) with your smartphone. It’s of the style and shape of an ordinary candybar mobile from yesteryear, but gives you a smaller, more discreet handset to use to make and receive calls.
While carrying an extra piece of equipment might be annoying for some, it does strike me as a sensible idea. Rather than carry around a dorky 24-esque Bluetooth headset constantly attached to your ear, you could (if you were so minded) leave your phablet in your bag, pocket, on your desk or on its charger, and simply use the mini handset if your phone rings, or if you need to call someone. It’s not a substitute for a smaller phone, but it certainly beats holding a giant handset up, especially if you’re not wanting to attract attention or ridicule.
For now, the HTC Mini looks to be exclusive to the Chinese market, but with enough pressure and attention, the HTC Mini might be sold (stand-alone or in box with larger handsets) in other markets too.
Its pretty clear that there is no one size fits all device. It just comes down to 2 infinite variables – needs and wants. That should be enough variable that this topic could be a permanent discussion topic. Its simple really I want the biggest screen and smallest phone. If I can’t get that in 1 device I might have to have 2 devices to cover the need. eg. a GS NOTE2 FABLET (f-fone able=because it is a great device t=tablet) and a wristwatch phone for simple tasks. It has actually become easier and easier and cheaper for manufacturers to… Read more »
So basically what everyone wants is a small budget phone that can tether to their tablets for when people want proper media… excuse me whilst i go contemplate where the innovation is
This is all I just keep thinking ….
Image didn’t work … http://i.imgur.com/DFUpONM.jpg
lol!!
So rather than carry one big phone around, you carry around a big phone and another small phone. I really don’t see the point in this….
Why not just make smaller phones? For all the multimedia features of modern phones they don’t have the battery life or the convenience to use any of them. It’s just a pointless arms race between manufacturers.
Love this idea. Hope it takes off and Samsung adopt it.
Hope this gets integrated with tablets…..so we can use for calls 🙂
What an awesome idea – they could even be manufactured stand-alone by anyone if it’s just a Bluetooth device.
Indeed it could, and I would be buying one right now if they were available.
I was thinking something similar about a year ago – these things we still call “phones” are quickly becoming general-purpose mobile computers and the telephony aspect is a minor feature (or “app” even). Perhaps in the near future the small tablet or “phablet” will become the preferred size for most people and phone calls will be made with some sort of BT earpiece or handset like this.