HTC Rezound Review

HTC is one of the most renowned names in the mobile phone industry when it comes to making high quality smartphones and they have shown their commitment in rolling out high quality Android devices. With phones like HTC Evo 4G, Nexus One under their belt HTC is further trying to heat up the Android competition by launching HTC Rezound. HTC Rezound will try to make its presence feel by being HTC’s second generation 4G LTE devices. Rezound competes with Motorola Droid Razr but does it have it in to become a top notch Android smartphone. Go through our exclusive Rezound review to know more about this phone.

HTC Rezound Looks and Design

The design of Rezound looks very much similar to that Droid Incredible 2. Nevertheless it is quite a solid handset which skins gunmetal like bezel, rounded corners and soft touch back cover. Thanks to the soft touch back, we had no problems in gripping the phone.  The phone has an attractive rectangular shape with soft edges. At dimensions standing at 129 x 65.5 x 13.7 mm, the phone is fairly compact. When it comes to weight, then Rezound comfortably beats iPhone 4S and Droid Razr.

Rezound weighs approximately 170 grams whereas iPhone 4S and Droid Razr weighs 140grams and 127 grams respectively. For a phone constructed primarily out of plastic, this is quite an amount of weight. Controls are quite minimal with just a tiny power key on top close to the headphone jack and a thin volume rocker button on the right edge. Overall Rezound is a solidly constructed device.

HTC Rezound Display

Rezound is the first phone which is vended through a US carrier with a 720p display. The display is capable of displaying pictures of resolution measuring 1280×720 pixels. The extra pixels made watching HD Youtube trailer of RaOne a delight to watch. The playback was also smooth and the mammoth 4.3 inches display boasts of a pixel density of 341ppi. The pixel density is more than the retina display of iPhone 4S whose pixel density is 326 ppi.

The viewing angles of the display were also quite good and the images were quite crisp. We could easily read the tiniest of texts. Our only complaint with the screen is the poor outdoor visibility. In direct sunlight we faced problems in reading the screen contents and this is where the AMOLED screen of Samsung Galaxy SII scores over the display of Rezound. The touch-screen is quite responsive and it responded quite well to our touches. However we found a bit difficult to adapt to the physical buttons. The feel was not up to the mark.

HTC Rezound Features

Let us check out some interesting features of Rezound:-

Keyboard

Rezound is equipped with an onscreen virtual QWERTY keyboard. If you are familiar with other handsets of HTC, then you will find that typing experience on Rezound is very much similar to that of other handsets of HTC. The keys are quite spacious, large and the haptic feedback is quite good.

Software and Interface

The phone runs on Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) and if you love HTC Sense then you will surly like the software of Rezound. The phone runs on the latest Sense UI 3.5 which adds the ability to delete home-screen along with giving the browser a cleaner look. Just like HTC Rhyme and Sensation, the digital lock screen displays a digital clock with date and time. There are icons for messages, mail, camera and phone. One gets to choose from 7 customizable home screens which the users can choose from.

Apps

Verizon is the carrier of Rezound and hence there are some typical Verizon software such as

• VZ Navigator
• VCAST Music
• VCAST Videos

There are some HTC Apps too such as

• FriendStream Widget
• HTC Watch App

Users can download their favorite apps from the Android market.

Beats Audio

This is perhaps one of the most outstanding features of Rezound – Beats Audio. A few years ago this was found on HP laptops, but now the technology debuts on Rezound. Along with the software being installed inside the phone, Rezound is equipped a set of Beats ear buds. The audio process starts automatically when the phone finds out a headset compliant with Beats. The software improves the audio quality manifold.

HTC Rezound Camera Quality

Similar to HTC’s Amaze 4G, Rezound is equipped with 8MP camera which clicks photos of resolution measuring 3264×2448 pixels. The camera application has been updated. It supports 14 different visual effects apart from manual image adjustments. The camera also offers users to select 9 different scene modes. We were once again disappointed to find that there is no physical camera button in HTC Rezound. The camera is equipped with a dual-LED flash which helps to click sharp photos in dim light. The photos came out quite well, though color wise they were a bit on the on the saturated size. But they were quite vibrant, robust and detailed.

HTC Rezound Video Quality

The phone captures 1080p videos at 30fps in MPEG format instead of .3GP format found in Vivid. The videos were quite smooth and noise-free. But the quality was marred because of the lack of details.

HTC Rezound Connectivity

The phone gives users a wide range of connectivity options. Along with support for 2G and 3G networks, the phone also packs 4G LTE connectivity which loads complex sites quite easily. Apart from these, there are usual set of connectivity options like GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/a and mobile hotspot. There is a 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB 2.0 port which further consolidates connectivity of the device. The Wi-Fi hotspot supports up to 10 devices.

HTC Rezound Multimedia

The presence of beats audio enhances multimedia experience of Rezound. Music lovers will also love the SRS WOW HD sound enhancement and with Beats headphones plugged in, we really experienced high quality bass. The internal speaker is quite strong with its volume output and one can easily share the multimedia contents with the help of MHL port.

HTC Rezound Battery Life

The battery life of Rezound is quite strong. In our battery test, the battery lasted for about 5 hours over 4G which is quite impressive.

HTC Rezound Call Quality and Performance

In our test calls on Rezound, the voices were quite clear and sharp and our callers had no problems in hearing us. The phone is equipped with a dual-core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon processor along with 1GB of RAM. This performs quite well and in everyday use, the phone felt quite agile and responsive. The phone opened apps with great speed.

HTC Rezound Box Contents

While unboxing Rezound, we found the phone to be equipped with these stuffs:

• HTC Rezound
• microUSB cable
• Charger
• Beats Headphone
• Start Guide
• Product Safety & Warranty Information

HTC Rezound Price

Price of HTC Rezound is approximately $ 350 while price of the phone in India is approximately Rs 15,000.

HTC Rezound has the capabilities of a top class Android device. It boasts of blazing 4G LTE speed, high quality 8MP camera, Beats Audio and 720p display. If you are looking for a top notch Android smartphone, then HTC Rezound will surly please you.