HTC Rezound Review: A High-Performance Android Phone - miercirmly1939

At a Glance

Good's Rating

Pros

Incredibly fast dual-core processor
720p video display
Beatniks Audio constitutional

Cons

Preloaded with bloatware
Wicked stamp battery life

Our Finding of fact

If you can share with subpar battery life, the HTC Rezound is an excellent telephone that won't look outdated anytime soon.

The HTC Rezound ($300 with a red-hot two-yr compress as of January 3, 2012) is one of the more capable devices released in the ancient year. With strapping specs, including a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and Verizon LTE 4G connectivity, the Rezound holds its own against otherwise Verizon smartphones.

Design

With a 4.3-inch, 1280-by-720-resolution super Liquid crystal display screen, the Rezound is definitely on the larger side. Although the phone English hawthorn not harmonize everyone's pocket, the roommate display is great for watching movies and playing games. At 6 ounces, the Rezound can feel a little heavy, but that weight besides makes the phone feel tilt semisolid.

Suchlike almost else HTC phones, the Rezound has a unequivocal intention. On the nominal head of the device are the quaternity standard Android navigation buttons (Home, Card, Cover, and Search), besides as a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The back of the Rezound sports an 8-megapixel camera with dual-Light-emitting diode instant, and it has a squashy rubber aerofoil that feels nice in the hand. The volume rocker and top executive button sit outpouring with the rest of the phone, giving it a very streamlined looking, but also making them somewhat difficult to press. Buttons aside, the Rezound is still very intimately designed.

Specs and Performance

When it comes to glasses, the Rezound is a beast. The dual-sum 1.5GHz Snapdragon central processor keeps the phone feeling zippy and is great for operative graphics-intensive games such as Grand larceny Auto 3 and Dead Space. Unfortunately completely that power comes with a Price: The Rezound's barrage fire life is to a lesser degree optimal. Subsequently I fagged 3 hours playing games, browsing the Web, and downloading apps over LTE, our fully charged test Rezound had lone 30 percent of the battery left over. The Rezound has several different modes to help oneself regulate power consumption; if you are a heavy apps exploiter, however, you will want to invest in an lengthened battery tamp down. We will update this section once we put the Rezound through our official battery tests.

The high-resolution reveal looks nifty, simply it sometimes lagged when I ironed a release or swiped betwixt place screens. This usually occurred after I exited an app, but it didn't happen enough to be a nuisance.

The Rezound takes advantage of Verizon's blazing LTE network. Here in San Francisco, I was able to download several hundred megabytes' worthy of data in only a hardly a short minutes over a strong connection. Victimisation the FCC-approved Ookla Cannonball along Test app, I clocked download speeds of some 11.55 megabits per second, and upload speeds of about 10.38 mbps. Call quality was even, with no more hiss OR unchangeable. The people I called said that I came through clearly, and that they couldn't hear any background noises in my call.

Computer software

The Rezound runs HTC Sense all over Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and comes with a fistful of preloaded software program. The Amazon Kindle app, Megahit Seaborne, Polaris Office, and Shirker Tuner totally come preinstalled, along with the heavy version of Need for Hurrying New Pursuit and a demo of Countenance's Golf game 2. While some of these apps Crataegus oxycantha be useful and entertaining, it's a shame that you birth no pick to uninstall any of them should you not neediness them cluttering your phone.

The HTC Sensation overlie runs comfortably on the Rezound, and brings along a couple of features that are absent from stock Gingerbread. The lock screen allows you to launch applications apace without having to unlock your phone first, and the apprisal bar contains a list of new opened applications for easier multitasking. The Rezound is slated to have Android 4.0 (Ice Skim off Sandwich) sometime later this year; it will be intriguing to see how Sense interacts with the new OS.

Entertainment

If you like to use your smartphone as a media player, you will be interested to learn that the Rezound has built-in Beats Audio for better hearing. When you ballyhoo in Beats Audio frequency-harmonious headphones, the Beats Audio software volition enable itself and leave supposedly "heighten" the audio.

In my tests, I concluded that the Beats Audio software does make music sound better when enabled–merely merely because normal playback sounds covered and murky. You'll want to keep the Beats Audio software enabled whenever you listen to medicine on the Rezound. If you don't happen to have Beats-compatible headphones already, try on the pair that HTC has gracefully enclosed along with the headphone. Although they aren't the best headphones ever, they do a better Book of Job than near headphones you find packaged with phones these days.

The HD sequence of Doctor WHO that I watched on the Rezound looked excellent, and streaming video over LTE worked flawlessly. As I mentioned earlier, the Rezound's robust processor makes IT awesome for games, and few hours of playing Dead Distance on the Rezound for certain ready-made my daily commute enjoyable.

Camera

Outdoor test shot victimization the Rezound

The 8-megapixel photographic camera connected the Rezound is decent adequate for everyday photos, simply performs poorly in indistinctly lit environments. In areas with good lighting, colors can look clean out, and objects can sometimes have a reddish tint. The front-facing camera offers good image quality, but you most likely won't use it for anything besides a fewer self-portraits.

The Rezound is capable of transcription in 1080p, and it did well at picking up audio. It produced a gentle jelly-equivalent event when recording in 1080p, only the ensue wasn't the worst that I've seen. Something that I essential commend HTC on is the amount of options available in the photographic camera software system: You can fine-melodic line various aspects for healthier photos, including sharpness, saturation, and pic, and the Rezound even features a panorama mode that makes IT extremely hands-down to capture panoramic images.

Bottom Line

The HTC Rezound is one of the best phones available in footing of specs, and it's perfect for media junkies who like to use their smartphone as a multimedia player. The high-resolution display is well clothed for movies, and the included Beats Audio headphones are a much-appreciated bonus. The battery life is weak, however, so you will want to buy an extended battery operating room carry a charger around in case.

Now for the hard divide: choosing betwixt the Rezound and the Samsung Galaxy Link. Some are excellent devices, but the decision comes down to what you are looking for in a phone. If you want a phone that is e'er up-to-date with the latest software, endure with the Galaxy Nexus. If you value spectacles more and can wait a few months for Ice Cream Sandwich, the Rezound will suit you just fine.