HTC Rezound
Phone Scoop Review
Nov 21, 2011 by Eric M. Zeman
HTC's first Beats Audio-enhanced phone lands at Verizon's doorstep with LTE 4G, a 720p HD screen, and custom headphones to bring a better audio experience. Here's Phone Scoop's in-depth report, wherein we put Beats Audio to the ultimate test. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
So far pleased.
I have had this phone about 3 days now and so far I am very happy with it. I went to this phone after using the DroidX. I had a small problem initially that had me back in the Verizon store one day after I had gotten the phone: The phone would not automatically convert from 4g to 3g nor would it connect to the Internet without a 4g connection. At the store they reinstalled my SIM card and reset my phone and that seems to have fixed the problem. So far so good.
Pros: Feel: I love the way this phone fits in my hand. Truly it is neither to wide, thick, heavy, or angular.
Call clarity: very clear. Better than my X which I was pretty happy with.
camera: I don't know yet if it is as good as the one on the iphone but its the best on an Android phone that I have played with. Focuses and shoots fast and the pictures look good.
Cons:
It took a little time to learn the layout on the phone. Very different from the Motorola UI. I really miss somethings like the ability to call up a contact and get every communication option. It doesn't work that way with this phone; at least not that I have found.
Battery life: this is OK. I was prepared more or less because I have read plenty online about battery drain and 4g phones. One charge lasted me about 12 hours. That is with texting, some browsing, a few calls, and playing with the phone. I tend to turn off the 4g to conserve power.
So so far I like the phone. I want to try the Galaxy Nexus when it comes out but I am a little put off that it will be a big phone like the RAZR. If that is the case, I will prob be sticking with the Rezound.
I don't get it...
I don't get why this phone has so little press. It really is too bad that it is in the shadows of both the RAZR and the Nexus Prime when it clearly stands out above them both. I have owned a lot of phones over the years and I have to say that this phone is by far the best.
Pros:
It is VERY fast
Smooth screen transitions
Excellent camera quality
Fast web surfing
Plenty of storage
Easy to use UI
Very customizable
Amazing screen resolution
Superb voice quality
Great sound both with and without the headphones
Decent battery life considering the 4g drain
Removable battery
Cons:
None that I can see.
Absoutly the best ever
I have been a PDA phone user since the release of the first color PDA phone the Samsung i300. This is my 6th Droid with 5 of them being 4g smartphones. I have only had this phone since 11/17/11 and have put it to quite a few test thus far. It is sooooo fast.
I must say this is as close to perfection I have seen, the design is superb, screen is brilliant and its performance is exceptionalâ¦I mean exceptional. It feels good in your hand and not bulky in your pocket.
I actually went through a complete day before having to recharge the phone.
All and all I think this is the best phone I have ever owned. I am happy that HTC kept the same design that allows me to surf the web, receive and send emails in 3g and 4g. Thank you.
I am looking forward to the test next week as i travel to 4g areas to see how it will function.
Quailtiy and a nice camera
This phone has everything , it fast, the perfect ,for the palm of your hand .
The moto raxr felt clumsy and awkward
The cameras are the best Ive seen and I have own them all
Awesome Phone
This is my third HTC phone and I love it!!!! My friend has the Bionic and we had a phone off last night and the Rezound kicked it's but over and over. As far as the thickness to the phone my friend not knowing much about the Rezound said wow it seems thinner than my phone.(Bionic) I give it a 4.5 because in my opinion the 5 star has yet to be created, but this phone Rocks!!!!!! It is a bit expensive but all of the phones now are like mini computers and with demand comes a price. Im very happy with my choice and cant wait to see ICS on this thing.
Top dog for a while in spite of the Nexus
I came from the Droid X and never had any Sense..HTC Sense, that is. There is definitely a lot to learn about this interface. I am enjoying all the cool little things I am discovering here and there. It's my favorite phone thus far.
When I went to Verizon a couple days ago to purchase it, I had done my research and knew exactly what I wanted and why. The first thing I noticed was how hard the salesman was pushing the Razr. Once he realized that I wasn't to be swayed, he finally admitted that although the Rezound is older than the Razr by a coupe weeks, it's the "top dog" and probably will be for quite a while in spite of the Nexus. He said he had hands on with the Nexus and it's way over hyped. Once people get over all the hype, the Rezound will still end up on top.
Beautiful
Not surprised that there aren't any reviews on this phone as verizon has buried it under razr.
Pros:
The screen is sexy 720p
Dual 1.5ghz processors = lag free and fast
Feels sturdy
Better shutter speed than previous HTC devices. I'm not having bluring as before
Sense 3.5 Lock screen has 4 customizable shortcuts
Cons:
Beats audio seems like a gimmick and wasn't involved in my deciding factor to get this phone. It's a silly algorithm and some fancy headphones. Should be able to purchase the phone for less without the headphones.
Proprietary charger
A lot of concern has been focused on the thickness. It's not too think by any means and I actually like the way it feels in my hand. To compare it to the razr, which feels awkward, i think it's much better. Battery life isn't as good as the motorola startac or nokia 252 but it's decent. Verizon has loaded their typical crap on the phone and it's even integrated into sense now...yuck but s-off will take care of that. Overall, it's a beautiful piece of machinery steamrolled by verizon's love affair with motorola.
Spoiled by Incredible
I owned the original Incredible. Fantastic phone, but the phones with the larger screens we were seeing out in the wild were making us want more.
I'm sorry that I suggested this phone to my wife. The Incredible was good, this one not so much.
I soon realized the problems my wife was having weren't operator error because I bought the same phone. Hers is slightly worse than mine, although I suspect it's because I'm a battery changer, so every once in a while I will do the same with the wife's phone and it stops acting up.
The pros. It's android, the Android OS is fantastic.
Large bright screen, and responsive when it isn't acting up.
Now to the nitty gritty. There are two modes to run this thing in, LTE/CDMA or CDMA alone. Both phones experience bouts of not being able to connect with either, and reseating the battery has to be done to fix it. Wouldn't be too much of a problem, except the back is very difficult to remove.
The screen becomes unresponsive at times. It happens more on my wife's phone, but she doesn't exchange the battery as often as I do.
The phone runs hot. If you use it for anything that is processor intensive the phone gets hot and it starts doing all manner of weird things.
Seems to be very sensitive to interference listening to music.
Battery life blows, in moderate to heavy use.
Asthetically Pleasing But ...
I had this phone for six months. I really loved the feel of it, quite comfortable in the hand and the overall look of it. The HTC sense was something that I really enjoyed. I had two major problems with this phone ... the data signal was TERRIBLE. I don't live or work in a 4G area and truly didn't expect to get 4G anyway, but I rarely got 1G. The WiFi worked great at home, but I don't work out of my house. My original Motorola Droid always pulled in a solid 3G. In fact, it was so good that I used to stream Pandora while at work. I exchanged my initial device because of the weak data signal. The second device not only had a problem with the data signal, but I was dropping calls like crazy. Again, never a problem with my Motorola Droid.
I now have a Motorola Droid Razor and I love it! I won't deny missing HTC Sense but while my data signal fluctuates while I'm at work, I've been able to download things over 3G successfully and I think I dropped one call in the month that I've had this phone.
I would definitely say that if you live close to a cell tower, the HTC is a solid option. If you live between towers as I do, stick to Motorolas. They're feature packed and pull in better data and phone signals.
Coming from a Droid Bionic
This is mostly a comparison to the Bionic:
In the past, I have had a Droid, a Droid X, and a Droid Bionic. I'm used to the Moto Droid interface and I like it. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of the Sense UI. I gave myself almost 2 weeks to try to get used to it, but it never grew on me. If you're someone who likes the Sense UI, then you will like this phone.
On to the Rezound: I think that people overhype the speed of this phone. It's generally pretty fast, but there's still some lag from time to time. Sometimes, when going back to the homescreen, I get a white background with the HTC logo for about 5 seconds before the homescreen regenerates and appears. 5 seconds doesn't sound like much on paper, but when you're playing with your phone, you expect quicker responses. Also, the weather presentation on the live wallpaper and the lockscreen is pretty cool, but even those animations sometimes get laggy. Speed-wise, I would say this is just as fast as the Bionic - no faster, no slower.
4G - I had somewhat frequent issues with my Bionic data connection. From time to time, my 4G connection would spontaneously stop working. And I mean it got no data at all, not even 3G. I often had to reboot to get the data back. The Rezound has the same problem, so I suspect that it's due to the network, not the phone. If you're still on a 3G phone, and are considering 4G, you may want to wait, until this issue is fixed.
Some unique things about the Rezound: this newest Sense UI has 4 apps easily accessible directly from the lockscreen (kind of like how most Droids allow you to silence your phone directly from the lockscreen). This is pretty handy. However, it doesn't give you the ability to silence the phone from the lockscreen. This is a big negative in my book.
I only used an extended battery on this phone and it occasionally didn't make it through a whole day. This could be due to continuous sketchy coverage, but I think my Bionic (with extended battery) lasted longer.
