HTC has announced a new Windows Mobile phone at its press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The new model will be called the HTC HD mini and follow in the same footsteps as the hugely popular HTC HD2, however as the name suggests be a smaller version.

That means a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen over the HD2's massive 4.3-inch offering.

Putting a strong emphasis on design, HTC has introduced a number of design features that are there because they can be rather than because they have to be.

"We wanted the design to be fun, beautiful, but also to have purpose", Eric Lin from HTC told Pocket-lint. Translated into reality that means that the four screws found on the rear of the phone are the four screws that hold everything together.

"We had to redesign the innards from scratch to make them real rather than fake", confirmed Lin.

More one for the style set than the tech crowd, anyone removing that black plate to swap out the battery or SIM card will be met with a bright yellow inside. When asked why, Pocket-lint was simply told "why not?"

Back to the specs that make a difference to your everyday life and the HD mini will sport a 3.2-inch display, a Qualcomm 600MHz processor and Windows 6.5.3. Around the back you'll get a 5-megapixel camera with flash.

"It is the same HD windows experience but in a smaller screen", said Lin summarising the phone in a nutshell.

Expected early Q2, HTC has confirmed that even though Windows Mobile 7 has just been announced at Mobile World Congress, the handset won't be getting the upgrade to the new OS. This is a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 handset for life the company said. 

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