Vodafone has today announced that pre-orders are now open the HTC One Mini, a smaller version of the flagship HTC One.
Due to be in stores from October 4, it will be offered across all of Vodafone's plans, including its new Red plans, with monthly handset repayments only for the lower-priced 24-month contracts and three of the 12-month contracts.
You'll be paying an extra $10 or $5 monthly on the $30 and $40 24-month plans, or $16 on the $60 12-month contract. It will incur monthly repayments of $16 on the Red $65 plan and $8 on the Red $80 plan for a 12-month contract.
The smaller-but-still-large handset is powered by a dual core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage with a 4.3-inch screen running at 720p. It also has a smaller, 4MP rear-facing camera and a 1.6MP front-facing camera.
Of course, Voda's announcement comes off the back of reports that the HTC One Mini's chassis is in short supply, so it will be interesting to see the how it does in Australia.
Zooming toward Cat 4
Vodafone is also introducing a Category 4 LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy S4 variant to customers today, it's first Cat 4 handset, though it does already offer the Huwaei MediaPad 10 tablet.
With near-identical insides to the original Galaxy S4, the new handset with Cat 4 only differs with its Snapdragon 800 CPU.
The faster LTE technology promises theoretical speeds of up to 150Mbps, and while Cat 4 networks aren't available Australia-wide yet, the purchase should future proof 4G-technology access until you're ready for a new phone.
The Galaxy S4 is available from today on Voda's four 12-month contracts, incurring $16 handset repayments on its $60 and Red $65 plan, $8 on its Red $80 plan and $0 on its Red $100 Plan.
On a 24-month contract, it will incur $0 month repayments on both its $80 and $100 Red plans, but $5 for its $65 Red plan. It will attract monthly handset repayments between $20 and $5 for all of its lower-tiered plans.
- A bit confused with the Cat 4 talk? Here's our handy guide to 4G and LTE in Australia.
