Our hands-on with the Rezound was just a preview to our in-depth take on the Verizon’s first LTE Android device with a 720p HD display and Beats Audio by HTC. We were able to spend a lot more time with it using it as a daily driver. HTC’s newest adds to Verizon’s new high-end devices and having just recently released the DROID RAZR by Motorola and the Galaxy Nexus by Google on the way, Verizon is gonna make choosing your next high-end Android device a difficult one. We hope to make that choice a lot easier for you. We aim to answer to the question: Is a 720p HD 4.3inch touchscreen and Beats Audio/earbuds enough to make this you next smartphone purchase? Our analysis lies inside.
Display
After spending more time with the Rezound on a more daily basis, you realize that the 720p HD display isn’t anything to scoff at. Of course on paper, it shouldn’t be that huge of a difference between this new display and that of a qHD display but there is. A noticeable one. The clarity of the new HD display w/ 1280 x 720 resolution can sneak up on you like a too much of a smooth vodka as HTC’s Sense UI doesn’t truly show of visual capabilities. You truly experience the difference when pull up an HD video (whether on YouTube or even one of the two demo videos included) then you realize that this is not the qHD. Yes, this is even a better visual experience than the super-thin, new Razr. This joins Apple’s Retina Display as the top two touchscreens in the phone market right now.
Performance/Battery Life
The Rezound is powered by Qualcomm’s latest S3 Snadragon 1.5GHz dual-core processor that was last seen on the Amaze 4G. This works quite well with Android 2.3 & HTC’s notable skin for a damn near lag-free experience. It kept up with me loading websites lightning fast, and playing songs from Google Music with only a second or two load up between songs. For those of you who are into phone specs, this chipset is comparable to Samsung’s Exynos processor in the speed/performance department. I was able to get speeds of 13Mbps on the download side of things and 5Mbps on the upload side in my area of northern NJ. With LTE on a phone, speed will not be a problem unless you are outside of a 4G area.
With HTC equipping the Rezound with a 1620mAh battery sounds like a bad idea. With the S3 chipset and LTE, you may think the battery maybe too small but it is not. While manufacturers still have yet to solve Android’s battery management issues, the Rezound offers decent amount of juice. Depending on your usage of course. I was able to get a little of 6 hours of battery life on average while at work, which consisted of me streaming music from my Google Music library, 15 minutes of phone calls, some light web browsing/emailing and some Tweeting. This actually averaged out similar to the 1730 mAh battery inside of the Amaze 4G. But that’s me doing hours of music streaming along with other stuff. Making phone calls, regular browsing, emails, and Facebook will get you closer to around 10 hours of juice – which is pretty good. But like any other Android device, keep your charger nearby.
Cameras
HTC made sure that the Rezound was using their latest camera lens and interface as its has a 2MP in front-facing camera capable of 720p HD video and a 8MP f/2.2 rear-facing camera lens w/ auto-focus, dual-LED flash, and capable of 1080p HD video. The front-facing camera actually offer an improved quality for a 2MP lens. The image is not as grainy as most front-facing cameras to make you actually want ot video chat with someone. The rear lens does a great job of catching quality photos on the go with a variety of shooting options Panoramic, HDR, Macro, and Lowlight along with face/shake detection. The speedy software allows users to take a photo, process/save it within less than second so you’ll never miss a shot. The 1080p video recording on the Rezound works as well as one can expect. The quality isn’t terrible but you won’t trading in your FlipCam or camcorder for this.
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| Rezound sample pics |
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| Rezound sample pics 2 |
Sound
Being HTC’s first Android device available in the US equipped with Beats Audio inside, the Rezound hopes to out-do the competition in smartphone sound. First and foremost, don’t expect every sound from the device to have improved. Currently, most third-party apps won’t be sonically enhanced by Beats. Mostly notifications and music are blessed with the touch by Beats. For all of you audiophiles out there, the Rezound does come equipped with a custom -pair of iBeats earbuds w/ mic which retails for $99.99. If you have never heard music through a Beats By Dr.Dre headset, you haven’t truly heard music. The iBeats offer great clarity and sound reproduction that allows you to hear everything track, instrument, & sound in whatever record you are listening to. This is the type of quality you won’t hear on your Skull Candy earbuds.
“The Rezound is the perfect embodiment of great sight and sound on an Android device.”
TG 2 Cents
HTC’s latest offering reminds me of the DROID Incredible 2 on some serious anabolic steriods as we thought the DInc 2 was the perfect phone. The matte finish on the back makes for a great grip and feel of the device. It has a little heft in the rear but not a ridiculous bump like the ThunderBolt w/ an extended battery. The HTC Rezound makes TechGuySmartBuy’s smartphone pick for premier Android smartphones as the Ice Cream Sandwich update is scheduled to arrive in the near future. The Rezound is the perfect embodiment of great sight and sound on an Android device. To wrap everything up, let’s answer the question in the introduction. This is definitely an Android smartphone that tops the list of devices to check out. Up there with the Galaxy S II. Although the Galaxy Nexus could trump this one, nonetheless great job HTC with this one.
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