HTC Rezound Announced:LTE, Beats by Dre and HD SuperLCD on Verizon
by Jason Inofuentes on November 3, 2011 4:10 PM EST- Posted in
- HTC
- Qualcomm
- Gingerbread
- Smartphones
- Android
- MSM8660
- Mobile
- Laptops
- Rezound
- Sense
We knew this was coming, but HTC still had some surprises in store. The HTC Rezound will hit retail channels for $299 on November 14th. This latest halo phone comes to us with an emphasis on the audio, but it's the display we're particularly keen on seeing. Let's dive into the specs and have a look at what we can expect.
Performance will be driven by the familiar MSM8660 clocked at 1.5 GHz, we explored this platform at this clock speed in the Mobile Development Platform we explored. The MDP's performance was stellar, but it wasn't held back by power optimizations necessary to make a viable everyday cellphone. So while our MDP data gives us some idea of what the top end of our expectations might be, we're certain a retail device will look more like the performance we saw in the Evo 3D review.
When Anand took a look at the TouchPad, seemingly an age ago, he noted the Wolfson Micro silicon inside which provides the hardware to implement the Beats Audio software. The Rezound is billed as the first Beats Audio smartphone in the US, kin to the Sensation XL available in the UK. We're not sure whether the Rezound will have a similar Wolfson Micro codec, but the Beats Audio technique is capable of drastically improving the audio quality by providing improved low and midrange frequencies. The Beats by Dre ear buds that will ship with the Rezound won't have you leaving your favorite Shures in the drawer but they should be an improvement over the usual cheap buds that come with phones these days.
The Rezound comes with the venerable MDM9600, speeds will mirror those of the rest of VZW's LTE fleet, but even it's 1620 mAh will not drastically improve battery performance over other LTE devices. The other specs are halo phone par: 8MP/1080p rear shooter, 2MP front shooter, 16GB on board storage, 16GB microSD included, 1GB RAM and the usual Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities.
Where the Rezound raises questions is in the display technology. At 4.3" and with a 720p resolution, the Rezound has a stupendous 341 ppi pixel density, and the stated display technology is Super LCD which should thrill the AMOLED detractors amongst you. What we don't know is whether there remains a Pentile matrix, as we've seen on the Droid 3, in an RGBW format. If not, this could be amongs the finest displays on a phone this year. But even with a Pentile matrix, the subpixel density should far exceed the human eye's ability to detect a Pentile grid, leaving just the color representation as a concern.
We're reaching out to HTC for more information, and are excited to get our hands on it. Stay tuned.
| Physical Comparison | ||||||
| Galaxy Nexus | Galaxy S II (International) | Motorola Droid RAZR | HTC Rezound | |||
| Height | 135.5 mm (5.33") | 125.3 mm (4.93") | 130.70 mm (5.15") | 129.5 mm (5.1") | ||
| Width | 67.94 mm (2.67") | 66.1 mm (2.60") | 68.90 mm (2.71") | 66.0 mm (2.6") | ||
| Depth | 8.94 mm (0.35") | 8.49 mm (0.33") | 7.1 - ?? mm (0.28" - ??") | 13.7 mm (0.54") | ||
| Weight | 135 g (4.76 oz) | 115 g (4.06 oz) | 127 g (4.48 oz) | ??? g (??? oz) | ||
| CPU | 1.2 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 OMAP 4460 | 1.2 GHz Dual Core Exynos 4210 | 1.2 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 OMAP 4430 | 1.5 GHz Dual Core Snapdragon MSM8660 | ||
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 540 (@384 MHz) | ARM Mali-400 | PowerVR SGX 540 (@304 MHz) | Adreno 220 | ||
| RAM | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB LPDDR2 | 1 GB LPDDR2 | ||
| NAND | 16 / 32 GB NAND | 16 GB NAND with up to 32 GB micro SD | 16 GB NAND, 16 GB microSD class 4 preinstalled | 16 GB NAND, 16 GB microSD preinstalled | ||
| Camera | 5 MP with autofocus and LED flash, 1080p30 video recording, 1.3 MP front facing | 8 MP with AF/LED Flash, 2MP front facing | 8 MP with AF/LED Flash, 1080p30 video recording, 720p front facing | 8 MP with AF/LED Flash, 1080p30 video recording, 2MP front facing | ||
| Screen | 4.65” 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED | 4.27" 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus | 4.3" 960 x 540 Super AMOLED Advanced | 4.3" 1280 x 720 Super LCD | ||
| Battery | ?Removable 6.48 Whr | Removable 6.11 Whr | Sealed 6.56 Whr | Removable 5.99 Whr | ||
Source: HTC (pdf)
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Omega215D - Thursday, November 3, 2011 - link
You fail to realize that they charge $299 for the 32GB iPhone while this phone has 16+16GB and the expansion slot can accommodate 32GB should 16GB card not be enough.Also, this phone has an LTE chip, higher resolution and maybe some other things. The Droid Razr and Galaxy Nexus have their merits as well. It would be really nice to see this phone debut at $250 and great if it comes to $200 but one has to remember that we were paying north of $300 for a smart phone some time ago.
I'm pretty happy with snagging my T-bolt for $150 due to Verizon giving me some kind of loyalty discount or whatever that was.
vision33r - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
So you're saying that $299 is justified because the phone has 16GB internal and a 16GB flash card.Got news for you, 32GB iPhone 4S has 32GBs of NAND based SSD not some cheap Class 6 Flash memory.
LTE is not important as coverage is bad, Verizon has the worst data speed without LTE transmission.
It's overpriced.
Camikazi - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
Think their point was both come with 32GB, but you can upgrade this one to more space while you are stuck with what you buy on the Apple. As for speed, I have a Class 2 SD card in my Incredible and have no problems with copying or file move speed, yea SSD will be faster but really it's the same as the whole browser war, the difference really won't be noticed by normal users.summershine - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
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alent1234 - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
This is crazy how HTC is releasing an almost exact phone on different carriers with slight differences and under different names. screws up their branding, resale value, etcwhy can't they just pick a name, make a phone and release it on all carriers under the same name like apple and samsung? i had an HTC inspire for 6 months and will probably not buy another HTC phone again. the resale value is crap due to their idiotic naming scheme. if i go android again it will most likely be samsung
Camikazi - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
You mean like Samsung has the Fascinate, Captivate, Vibrant, Mesmerize, Epic, Continuum, Indulge, Showcase and a few others? All same basic phone with tiny differences for different carriers :P They seem to be changing that for the Galaxy S II, but they were not always that way.Penti - Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - link
Samsung also redesigns their phones between different vendors, same for Motorola and the rest too basically and is something endemic to the US. Something that comes due to the network operators, different tech and so on. Basically the operators that rebrands them.For example a Droid Razr is a Verizon phone, a Razr here in Europe is a 3G HSPA phone not LTE/CDMA, and it's Verizon that owns (licenses) the Droid naming.
dalcool - Friday, November 4, 2011 - link
If you like the Ice Cream Sandwich wallpapers I found a site that has them. It's formatted for mobile so they are easy to install. It's a pretty cool site, it has a ton of other free wallpapers as well. www.freedroidwallpaper.com