HTC-Rezound
HTC has proven its worth as a top smartphone brand with phones like the HTC EVO 4G and Nexus One that previously won the hearts of many. Now, with the HTC Rezound, HTC brings something new to the smartphone industry by producing the first phone with a 720p screen. Besides that, the phone also packs some audio punch with its Beat Audio support. This phone might just be another one of Verizon’s successful 4G LTE phones with the recent success of the HTC ThunderBolt. So let’s find out if this could be dubbed as HTC’s second generation 4G LTE device.

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Design
The HTC Rezound borrows its design from the HTC Droid Incredible 2, so there’s nothing much that’s new in terms of design for this phone. The bezel that is gunmetal like and its rounded corners brings us back to the days when we first saw the HTC Droid Incredible 2. We liked the back of the phone as it is soft touch tiered thus allowing you to keep the phone in your hands at all times rather than letting it slip. HTC Rezound is not one of HTC’s trademark uni-body phones but it is still a solid feeling phone although being built mostly out of plastic. Since it’s made of plastic, you might think it would be a light phone to carry around. However, that’s not the case as the phone is rather heavy. At 5.06 x 2.58 x 0.54 inches, it is not a thin phone either rather it is twice the thickness of some phones out there.

Most of what we have said so far about the design might not have impressed you, but the HTC Rezound brings the phone to another level with its 720p screen. This 4.3 inch screen is the first ever phone in the US to have a 720p screen that is definitely going to win the hearts of many. Better yet, this is where the race for better screens begins. Of course under the screen we have the four capacitive Android buttons. These buttons are well positioned such that you avoid accidental presses and they also glow a deep red color when pressed.  The power button as well as the standard audio jack sits on the top of the phone while the volume rocker is on the right but they are not our favorite buttons as they are very hard to differentiate from the chassis. On the left is the microUSB port which also doubles as a video-out port when there is a MHL adapter available. Flip the phone and the back you will find an 8MP auto-focus camera with a couple of LED flash.

Features
The HTC Rezound gets a real makeover with its processor as it sports a 1.5GHZ dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660 processor when compared to the HTC ThunderBolt. This is a necessary improvement and it’s great that HTC has done it because the 720p screen is going to need some real juice. The 1GB DDR2 RAM onboard also helps to make things run smooth on this phone. Sadly though, when you run live wallpapers, things slow down a wee bit even though HTC Rezound has an Adreno 220 GPU running inside.

The phone comes with the latest version of HTC Sense 3.5 and runs on top of the Android v2.3.4 Gingerbread. The only other Verizon phone that has the HTC Sense 3.5 is the HTC Rhyme, so this GUI is still new and offers a lot of interesting features with a high level of customization at your fingertips. For those who are wondering if this phone will get the Android bumped up to Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the answer is a resounding yes. You will be able to upgrade come early 2012. The contacts app is amazing as not only do you get all your contacts lined up alphabetically with their picture on the side, but you also get updates from their Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts. This is definitely one easy way to stay in touch. The HTC Rezound also has a good calendar onboard as it also integrates with your social networking accounts and puts all your appointments in one place. Thanks to the super awesome CPU and RAM onboard, your keyboard is ultra responsive and also very well spaced out too. Adding to that is the fact that the keyboard also offers tertiary characters in the main layout itself. So sending texts would be a great experience on the HTC Rezound.

So let’s move on to the stand out feature of this phone, its 4.3 inch 720p screen which is the first of its kind. This when compared to the likes of WVGA (480 x 800) and qHD (540 x 960) is simply amazing. You actually get a pixel density of 341 ppi which means it trounces the iPhone 4S screen which offers 326 ppi. As you would expect, seeing tiny text or just text for that matter was extremely clear on the HTC Rezound. It goes without saying that other details also pop out and gives you an experience out of this world. The display also has some deep and vibrant color tones which makes up for its rather poor viewing angles. The screen is also not bright enough to handle the sun.

The camera app has now got many different visual effects that are handled well by the phone’s brilliant CPU. It also offers a large array of settings to play around with for camera junkies. So all you got to do to take a photo with the HTC Rezound is press the shutter icon on the right side of the screen and you’ll have a picture almost immediately. We would have loved to see a dedicated camera button though. The 8MP camera does a decent job at taking photos especially macro photos. The colors are sometimes too saturated and there is a purple hue at times. Also, the camera lacks detail in its shots. Videos are recorded at 1080p at a rate of 30 fps. Although recordings are smooth and noise free they lacked detail.

With Verizon’s 4G LTE internet connectivity, you can expect some super fast page loading times. Thanks to the CPU that we have mentioned a few times already, Flash contents are a breeze to run on this phone. Since you get amazing details from the screen, you don’t have to squint to make out those tiny words, plus you can always zoom in without fearing of lag issues.  When it comes to connectivity options, the usual stuff are onboard like aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0 as well as Wi-Fi with the mobile hotspot feature.

When it came to calling quality, HTC Rezound didn’t disappoint. It delivers exactly what we want with some loud and clear sounds on both ends. The speakerphone is great but you might hear some crackling when you put the volume at maximum. The phone however only has a 1620 mAh battery onboard causing the battery to last for only 10 hours given the screen’s high resolution. So this might end up to be a real problem for most users.

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Pros and Cons
The screen is brilliant and the first of its kind with the 720p resolution. HTC Rezound also has good headphones that come ready in the package as well as great calling quality.

Sadly the phone is a bit large and heavy. We also would have preferred a better camera.

Conclusion
The HTC Rezound as you would have gathered by now is an amazing phone that runs amazingly fast and has that superb screen too. However, we think you might be able to get a phone that is better designed and equally good in terms of performance like the Motorola DROID RAZR. Nevertheless, if you have the cash and don’t mind the size, HTC Rezound is definitely a great buy.

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