Dec 5, 2011 3:27 PM

Review: HTC Rezound

Name: Rezound
Item: Rezound

To satisfy the music lovers and the style-conscious, HTC has tricked out its latest 4G handset, the Rezound, by adding some Beats by Dre headphones.

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$300 at HTC

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Rating:

7/10

The days of the dedicated MP3 player are dead and gone. Every smartphone ships with its own music player now, and a dozen other streaming music options are just an app download away.

So it makes little sense that the headphones bundled with smartphones are usually crap. HTC is pushing back – its new Rezound phone for Verizon's 4G LTE network ships with a snazzy red and black pair of iBeats earbuds (around $100 on their own) that are complemented by the red accents on the handset. Some built-in Beats audio software comes pre-installed on the Rezound, as well. It's a move designed to appeal equally to those who want better (and louder) music performance and those craving a bit of visual flare.

HTC bought a majority share of the Beats by Dr. Dre brand for $300 million back in August. By dressing up the Rezound in Beats livery, HTC is making good on its promise to boost the mobile device maker's brand profile in the youth and accessories market.

But what matters most is the phone itself. Inside, it's a pretty typical high-performing 4G Android Gingerbread device. As a successor to HTC's mighty Thunderbolt, it has the heft we'd expect.

A 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor and an Adreno 220 GPU ensure the Rezound performs soundly. It's got 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (plus 16 more on its microSD). Outside, it's got a 4.3-inch 720p HD display that manages to pack in more pixels than the iPhone's current Retina Display – the Rezound has a pixel density of 342 pixels per inch compared to the iPhone 4/4S's 326 ppi. The result is buttery smooth graphics and nary a pixel point to be seen.

An 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash graces the back, and a 2-megapixel camera is on the front. The rear camera takes great 1080p HD video. And for photographs, you can adjust everything from the white balance, ISO and exposure, to the type of scene you're shooting (landscape, panorama, action shots). 13 different photographic effects can be used on top of that, ranging from Instagram-like filters ("vintage warm" and sepia tones) to fun tweaks like a posterized filter and a Photo Booth-style distortion.

The Rezound's tooling is tidy, with the power button and volume rocker lying nearly flat against the sides of the phone. This does mean they are a little more difficult to press than if they were raised a bit, but it reduces accidental presses. There's no dedicated camera shutter button.

Now, on to the audio goodies.

The external speaker, which lies flush among the texturized rubber ridges that decorate and add grip to the back of the handset, is surprisingly powerful. Mids are bright and crisp (as long as the phone is face down) and bass response is better than that of most other smartphone speakers. But of course, the real Beats magic lies within the headphone jack and accompanying iBeats, not the speaker.

The iBeats are pretty stellar as far as reasonably priced in-ear headphones go. Highs can get a little harsh as they compete with the upfront mids and strong bass, a common criticism of every product in the Beats line. But overall, they toss out some good sound – way better than you'd get from the cheapies that come bundled with most phones. (If Beats brand isn't your thing, we've got a few other suggestions under $100 that may fit the bill.)

The iBeats earphones are good by themselves, but they are meant to be paired with the Beats audio features inside the music player app that comes preloaded on the handset. The player app applies a volume boost and some EQ tweaking, and the feature can be enabled or disabled inside the player. Also, the Beats audio tweaks only work within the Rezound's music app, and can only be applied to tracks you've loaded onto the handset. The features can't be applied to other music apps like Rdio or Google Music.

But inside the Rezound's player, the audio experience gains new life. I listened to a wide range of songs to check out how this feature fared, and found that most tunes benefited from the overall sound boost and EQ-ing that Beats provided. When I switched on some U2, it sounded like Bono was crooning into my ear thanks to the midrange boost. But of course, Beats' strong point is the bass, so I kicked up the 4D3D3D3 and really got my jam on.

The call quality on the Rezound is nice too, with noticeably strong background noise cancellation. On a call with my parents, I had no idea my dad was eating popcorn while he was on the line until my mom said something about it. However, the complete silence between spoken phrases on the other end can make you think your call might have been dropped.

If you plan to spend a lot of quality time with your headphones in-ear and music on, the HTC Rezound is an excellent phone for you. It provides a good quality smartphone experience overall, but has the added benefit of extra audio love from Beats by Dr. Dre which pushes it a notch above the competition.

The price tag, unfortunately, is quite steep. The Rezound costs $300 on-contract, the same price as Verizon's other high-end LTE offering, the skinnier and much lighter Motorola Droid Razr. We can only guess how much those iBeats headphones inflate the Rezound's cost, but no matter what premium features you're after – super-thin case, the best display, fancy headphones – $300 appears to be the new standard for top-of-the-line Verizon devices.

WIRED Audio is superior to comparable smartphones. Camera has a boatload of effects and adjustable settings. Verizon 4G LTE makes for super snappy data transfers; webpages load quickly and app downloads take only seconds.

TIRED No volume controls on earbuds. Camera shutter is very slow when the flash is on. Massive amount of Verizon shovelware. HTC really needs to take its Sense UI down a few notches.

Photos by Ariel Zambelich/Wired

$300 at HTC