We’ve always expected the HTC One mini 2 to be a considerable downgrade over the HTC One M8 in hardware, but if the latest revelation from evleaks is to be believed, the mini M8 could also lack some of the software features that differentiate HTC’s Sense UI from the competition.
According to evleaks, the One mini 2 “loses Zoe, Fitbit, Motion Launch, and Pan 360 photos.” While you can grab the Fitbit app from the Play Store and use a third-party camera app for 360 panorama photos, both Zoe and Motion Launch are proprietary features that come with a device itself. The lack of Motion Launch – which lets you wake up the phone or launch an app by using gestures – can be justified as this is a mid-range handset and could be constrained by the hardware, but it’s hard to think of a reason why Zoe would be left out, especially since it was present on the original HTC One mini.
HTC recently launched Zoe to the Play Store, so it’s possible it will make the app compatible with the One mini 2 after launch instead of making it an inbuilt app. There are always some compromises one has to make with mid-range smartphones, but hopefully HTC will not be asking us to make too many.
