When HTC does something “big” it is “big”. The HTC HD Mini on the other hand, does big things in a little way. It only weighs 110 grams. That is 3.88 ounces for the folks who are not on the metric system. It is just 4.1 inches tall. It can go into a pocket easily and feel like it is hardly there.

Even though it is small, it packs a 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen that has 320 by 480 pixels of power. It can display 65,000 colors. It still runs the older LCD form of screen, but as stated, is clear and bright. It comes with the proprietary “Sense” user interface that displays HTC´s own widgets over the Microsoft operating system. It can do the multitouch acrobatics with a pinch from the fingers. It can also trade the screen mode automatically from portrait to landscape with a turn of the device.

The interior workings of the HTC HD Mini are impressive as well. It runs the latest version of Windows Mobile Professional, version 6.5.3. The Windows Mobile system can connect to Facebook and Twitter. It has a browser that you can use the multitouch option with. There is no slowness in navigating with Windows Mobile. The Mini comes with 384 megabytes of RAM memory and 512 of ROM memory. This helps the speed of the smartphone just like it does when you add more memory on your own PC at home. The CPU is a fast 600 megahertz racer. It is made by Qualcomm, which makes processors for much of the mobile devices you are accustomed to these days.

The camera on the HTC HD Mini is a very nice five megapixel design. It includes flash and autofocus. It can also take video. The quality of the photos is wonderful and all the “grainy” patterns of cheap photos is done away with. The Mini can produce 2592 by 1944 resolution for photos. The audio section includes a FM radio, a speakerphone and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack.

Call coverage is taken care of with quad band and dual band HSDPA networks. The data connections are complete except for infrared. Wi-Fi is used with the “B” and “G” modes. The HD Mini has a unique ability to be used as a wireless WLAN ( Wi-Fi )hotspot. You can feed a connection to up to five different wireless devices. This is not a free option and the carrier providing this extra feature will be the one to decide how much you pay for it.

The HTC HD Mini has a strange affinity for large screws. The back of the phone has these at each corner. When you do venture to take off the battery cover, you find that everything is yellow. Only HTC knows for sure why it is completely yellow on the inside. Perhaps they are wanting their customers to focus more on their “geeky” side ? Whatever the reason, the battery is an average size and gives a respectable 6.6 hours of talk time. This model will be offered in Europe and Asia.

This Samsung Wave comes with a large battery, quality video camera, beautiful and bright screen, plenty of memory, and is not made with breakable plastic. It is covered in aluminum. This alone would make me choose it over most of the smartphones out there. Let´s get down to the juicier details. The screen is a “super” AMOLED model, and very responsive to touch. The size is 3.3 inches or 8.38 centimeters for those of you not in the United States. It has a capacitive touch screen with multi-touch ability. The screen absolutely beats other screens in quality. It makes other AMOLED screens look like the old LCD standard. What did Samsung do to make the screen so good?

The memory is truly abundant on the S8500. It has 512 megabytes of RAM. This makes it travel at warp speed. This, coupled with the 1000 megahertz Arm Cortex-A8 Samsung processor, make this smartphone blazing fast. Things like swiping the screen for the next page and accessing social networks happen in the blink of an eye. If you are a person who does not have time to wait for a smartphone to do what you want it to do, you will love the S8500.  

The connection ability with this phone is superior to many that are available. The new BADA ( “Bada means “sea” in the Korean language )operating system is fresh and looking good. It is a direct affront to other popular open-source operating systems. This will be a huge step forward for smartphone markets that are not based in the United States. The BADA system comes with a focus of centering around social networks. The in-box is integrated into one page. All your contacts social networks and information can be shown on one page. The calender is the “push” style.

The Samsung Wave S8500 has all the creature-comforts of a high-end smartphone. The camera is excellent with autofocus and LED flash. It is a five megapixel unit. The video is taken at an incredible 720-p. There is geo-tagging, face and blink ( for the eyes ) detection. There is a FM radio with RDS. The Wi-Fi is with the faster “N” version. Bluetooth in the latest version ( 3.0 ) is used on the Samsung Wave. The battery has a large reserve at 1500 mAh. Consider that just a few years ago, most had a battery that would only last about 850 or 950 mAh. The Wave can use quad band GSM networks and dual-band HSDPA or HSUPA networks.

If you are in the United States this smartphone will probably be drowned out in a about six months. Technology is rolling forward at an incredible speed and the pace is not going to be letting up. This Samsung Wave S8500 is leading the pack in its price range at the moment.