HTC Rhyme
Smartphones today have become more of a style statement along with housing some impressive power under the hood. We have devices like the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Motorola Razr that are not only eye catchers with their design, but boast of some amazing power under the hood as well.
Today we have with us the HTC Rhyme. A smartphone that has some really impressive and stylish looks, funky and unique accessories and boasts of a single-core processor in a day and age ruled by the dual-core. Are looks and feature enough to distinguish this device from the crowd, or has it fallen short of performance?
Look and FeelThe device has a candy bar form factor with a look and feel that screams HTC all over the place. The front has a 3.7-inch display with four touch sensitive buttons below it – home, menu, back and search. A lot of handset manufacturers such as Samsung and Sony have foregone the search button in their handsets but its nice to see that HTC has retained it. We think it’s pretty useful.
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The rear of the device has a nice plastic finish to it with a metal strip above the removable panel. The rear also houses the 5MP snapper with an LED flash.
The HTC Rhyme comes in two colours – Plum and Clear Water, which are a little unusual but are definite eye catchers.
In terms of connectivity, the device has a 3.5mm headphones jack on the top along with the sleep/wake/on/off button. The right of the device has a volume rocker and the left houses the micro USB port under a flap. The layout is very neat giving the device a unibody look. The lack of a dedicated camera button is missed but it isn’t a deal breaker.
Overall the HTC Rhyme looks stylish and feels solid in our hands.
Features and PerformanceWith Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Sensation family ruling the roost of dual-core smartphones in India, it’s a little disappointing to see the Rhyme with a single-core 1GHz Scorpion processor. For average everyday use the device performs adequately. It does lag a bit if you do some heavy multitasking but the single core processor is good enough to get the job done.
Under the hood, the device has a 1GHz Scorpion processor, 768MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD card.
The device runs on Google Android 2.3.5 skinned with HTC Sense 3.5. HTC says that the device will be upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
DisplayThe display on the device is 3.7-inche S-LCD with a resolution of 480x800 pixels. On full brightness the display looks crisp and the colours look vibrant but the contrast ratio feels a bit off. We saw a few YouTube videos, images and used a variety of wallpapers on the device. The screen is impressive but not the best we’ve seen. It doesn’t match the Quality of a Super AMOLED display and is susceptible to a lot of glare under direct sunlight.
The display is a capacitive touchscreen and the response is very good. We played some Angry Birds Space, typed a lot of messages and navigated through a variety of app. The touchscreen doesn’t disappoint.
HTC Sense UI
True to the HTC tradition, we see a version of the Sense UI on the Rhyme as well. The device has HTC Sense 3.5 over Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. The biggest difference between the Sense UI found on the Sensation family and the one on the Rhyme is the Home Scree Widget (it’s the same we see on the HTC Explorer). The widget occupies one of the seven customizable home screens and gives you quick access to a bunch of features. You have access to your mail, messages, music, camera and the Android market (although the Android market is now called the Google Play Store). It also displays the time along with the day, date and the current weather.
True to the HTC tradition, we see a version of the Sense UI on the Rhyme as well. The device has HTC Sense 3.5 over Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. The biggest difference between the Sense UI found on the Sensation family and the one on the Rhyme is the Home Scree Widget (it’s the same we see on the HTC Explorer). The widget occupies one of the seven customizable home screens and gives you quick access to a bunch of features. You have access to your mail, messages, music, camera and the Android market (although the Android market is now called the Google Play Store). It also displays the time along with the day, date and the current weather.
The overall experience of the home screen widget is a nice refreshing change from the one we are used to seeing on the HTC Sensation family.
The rest of the Sense UI experience is the same as any other HTC smartphone. The drop down from the top of the screen gives you quick access to a bunch of settings. You also have the option to customize the home screens with whatever widgets you prefer.
A Glowing Cube?
With the HTC Rhyme you get a little accessory called the Rhyme charm. It looks and serves the purpose of a woman’s jewelry accessory more than anything else. Plug the Rhyme charm into the headphones jack of the smartphone. The phone can be in your bag, pocket or purse. So long as the “charm” is visible to you, it is solving its purpose. And what’s that purpose I hear you ask? Well, if you receive a text message or a call or miss a call, the charm will glow. That’s about it, quite useless if you ask us.
With the HTC Rhyme you get a little accessory called the Rhyme charm. It looks and serves the purpose of a woman’s jewelry accessory more than anything else. Plug the Rhyme charm into the headphones jack of the smartphone. The phone can be in your bag, pocket or purse. So long as the “charm” is visible to you, it is solving its purpose. And what’s that purpose I hear you ask? Well, if you receive a text message or a call or miss a call, the charm will glow. That’s about it, quite useless if you ask us.
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