HTC One mini vs Samsung Galaxy S4 mini: Young guns

Performance

The HTC One mini and Samsung Galaxy S4 mini use similar Snapdragon 400 chipsets with dual-core Krait CPU and Adreno 305 GPU, but they have their differences.

The HTC One mini uses two Krait 200 cores clocked at 1.4 GHz with 1 GB of RAM while the Galaxy S4 mini has two slightly refreshed Krait 300 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz and 1.5 GB of RAM. We also suspect that the GPU on the Samsung smartphone is clocked higher seeing its performance in the dedicated tests.

So let's get to it - BenchmarkPi gives the individual CPU cores calculative performance a run. Surprisingly here the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini was almost twice as fast - much more than the difference in the clock speed suggests.

Linpack gives multi-threaded performance a test. Here the difference is smaller but still notable and in favor of the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• HTC One mini
  293

Linpack

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  413
• HTC One mini
  320

Geekbench 2 is a compound benchmark testing CPU and memory performance. The Galaxy S4 mini scored another victory here and again by a comfortable margin.

Geekbench 2

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  1937
• HTC One mini
  1417

The HTC One mini continues its uninspiring run with AnTuTu, finishing well behind the Galaxy S4 mini. Next, the other compound benchmark - Quadrant shows a smaller gap but still puts the Samsung device comfortably in front.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  14518
• HTC One mini
  11434

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  7153
• HTC One mini
  6048

Next up are GPU-stressing benchmarks. First up is GLBenchmark 2.5's off-screen test, which tests the raw power of the graphics units, disregarding the native screen resolution of the two. Strangely, the score was in favor of the Galaxy S4 mini, which as we said probably has its Adreno 305 GPU clocked higher. The difference isn't huge, but when you consider that the HTC One mini has nearly 80% more pixels things look somewhat more dramatic.

The 2.7 GLBenchrmark off-screen test tells a very similar story - a small advantage for the Galaxy S4 mini.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  17
• HTC One mini
  15

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  6.4
• HTC One mini
  5.6

Finally we come to web-based benchmarks. They have the job to evaluate how fast these phones would do when loading pages. SunSpider focuses on JavaScript performance while BrowserMark 2 gives HTML 5 a stress. Vellamo combines both into a single app.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has the upper hand in SunSpider and BrowserMark 2 but loses in Vellamo. However differences in all three benchmarks were very small.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  1185
• HTC One mini
  1237

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2314
• HTC One mini
  2164

Vellamo

Higher is better

• HTC One mini
  2252
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  2019

Synthetic benchmarks are mainly geek-oriented things which don't necessarily reflect the real performance of a device. Sure the HTC One mini lost this round but in real life it doesn't lag or hiccup and when put side by side with the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini doesn't feel that much slower.

Both devices run pretty smooth throughout their UIs, which could be thanks to good optimization on their manufacturers' part or could be accredited to Jelly Bean's Project Butter. It's only when faced with heavier apps and web pages that you can spot the difference, but you'll really have to be looking hard.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S4 mini. The more capable chipset gives it an edge, although the difference isn't huge.