Review: HTC Rhyme for Verizon Wireless
The Rhyme ships with the newest Sense software from HTC on top of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread. With a 1GHz processor spinning this Rhyme's engines, performance of the system software was excellent.
The Rhyme includes HTC's newer lock screen. When the display is woken from sleep, there are four (customizable) app shortcuts at the bottom of the screen. Out of the box, they are the phone, email, camera, and text message apps. Pick the one you want and slide it down, and the phone will go straight to that app. Awesome. If you want to go to the home screen, grab the circle from the bottom of the lock screen and drag it up.
Aside from the lock screen, the main home screen panel has been slightly revised. Stacked on the left side are shortcuts to the email, messaging, calendar, and camera apps. What's great is these shortcuts are dynamic, with little trays that slide open to show you the most recent email, SMS, calendar appointment, and image. It's a cute way to take a peek at your most recent messages without fully opening the associated app. There are also two large software buttons in the bottom corners that take you to the main menu and the phone app.
The rest of the Sense home panels are mostly unchanged compared to previous versions, though if you swipe left/right fast enough, you can make all seven panels spin like a merry-go-round. There's no practical reason for this, but I guess some might think it's fun. The panels are stuffed with HTC's typical widgets as well new music and video widgets.
Sense offers amazing flexibility for adjusting the look and behavior of the home screen and menus thanks to its scenes, skins, lock screen adjustments and on and on.
The main app menu uses the new Gingerbread-style set up with some added HTC flair. The apps are listed in grid fashion with 16 apps visible at a time. Swipe up and the entire screen slides up until there are 16 new apps to show. There are HTC-made controls at the bottom for marking favorites and looking at recently downloaded apps. The main app menu can be customized heavily depending on user preferences. This includes the addition of folders and other tools to organize applications.
HTC Rhyme for Verizon Focuses On Usability and Reason
HTC Rhyme
