HTC has put Beats Audio and the Android Gingerbread on the Rezound, not the latest android but a solid build of Android. The Beats Audio is a nice bonus to the Rezound, and delivers pleasant music playback quality. Truly music phone.
HTC Rezound Beats Audio-The Droid Music Phone
In light of the Beats branding, let’s start with the monster in the room: audio performance. HTC has been talking an extraordinarily big game around the value that its Beats Audio partnership brings to the table with the Rezound and other products.
As we knows, Beats By Dr. Dre is a brand of headphones and loudspeakers marketed by hip-hop/rap musician Dr. Dre and Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records. Headphones from the Beats family include the “Beats Solo HD,” an audio high-definition on-ear headphone.
HTC Rezound Hardware Specifications:
Availability by country November 14, 2011 (USA)
Predecessor HTC ThunderBolt
Type Smartphone
Form factor Slate
Dimensions 129 x 65.5 x 13.65 mm
Operating system Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.5
CPU 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8660
GPU Adreno 220 (MSM8660)
Memory 1GB RAM
Storage 16GB
Battery 1620mAh
Display 4.3 in (110 mm) diagonal 720p HD Super LCD, 720×1280 Resolution, 342 ppi
Rear camera 8 Mpx, F2.2, low-light sensor, 1080p video
Front camera 2 Mpx
Connectivity aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Since the HTC Rezound sports Beats Audio integration, it comes with a set of iBeats in-ear headphones in matching red and black. The headphones feature an in-line remote for play/pause, forward and reverse skip, and answer/hang up calls, and are accompanied by a travel pouch and multiple size ear tips. The Beats in-ear headphones on their own range from $120 to $180 when you buy them through retail channels, so there’s a definite advantage to buying an HTC Beats music phone like the Rezound, which has in-ear buds bundled in.
HTC has put a lot of Beats Audio branding on the Rezound, with delicate red touches throughout the phone. This includes the four Android soft buttons beneath the screen, which are a mild red color. This is nice as you can see the buttons even when the phone is not on, something other phones lack.
The default music player features album art support, multiple sized home screen widgets, controls in the notification bar, and lock screen controls. The Rezound also comes with Slacker Radio pre-installed, and can take advantage of the multitude of music services in the Android Market, though the Beats Audio sound profile is only active when the default music player is used.
The top of the phone has the 3.5mm audio jack, which accepts the included Beats Audio headphones/headset (more on this later), and the power button. The volume rocker buttons are on the right side, a microUSB port for charging on the left, and nothing on the bottom of the handset.
When you plug in the Beats Audio headphones included with the Rezound, it detects the technology and enables it as indicated in the status bar. In essence it provides louder playback, with accents on the bass spectrum of the audio. It gives a good listening experience across a spectrum of music genres.
Along with the iBeats headphones, the Rezound has a Beats Audio sound profile that kicks in when you use the default music player. The music from the headphones was extremely bass-heavy, with little mid or treble response, but when the Beats Audio profile was on, the sound was a bit sharper and featured more treble.
The Audio output was fantastic between the processing and the included buds. All of my music sounded as good. Really pleasantly surprised at how good the audio quality was. When you play music through the built-in Music app, a Beats logo appears in the status bar — this is your cue that the phone is running some proprietary processing on the signal, and it makes the output sound much “bigger.” When you turn on the software algorithm, it really boosts the sound, specifically boosting the bass and creating louder, fuller, and heavier audio. It’s like playing music through your car speakers, versus pumping up a bass line you can feel thrumming in your seat.
HTC’s press release praises “unique audio tuning” that “delivers thundering bass, soaring midrange and crisp highs” thanks to the partnership with Beats Audio. While the included earphones are better than a lot of in-ear models out there.
When iphone hit the market in 2007 it was a dream coming true, but android is now providing customers devices that can do even more than an iPHONE and pretty much more affordable. With a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, the Rezound seems to crank at a fairly swift pace, and bouncing from app to app isn’t a problem. It also comes with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but in early 2012 Verizon Wireless has it on its list of devices that will receive the Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 upgrade.
