We’re here at HTC’s swank New York City press thought as the mood lighting and floral centerpieces are as unabashedly girly as the Rhyme, it is freshest handset for lady folk. We just spent a few minutes wrapping out hands around the device, exploring the ports (not which there are a lot of) and poking around the latest version of Sense (v3.5). Do you just like purple? Are you a person of style? Sure you are. So what are you waiting for? Meet us afterwards the break as we will run down our first impressions and saw what this thing has to offer aside which cute design.
Maybe it is because yours really is a woman, but the Rhyme does not’t feel
small, per se; it is just not as gargantuan as the entire the 4-, 4.3- and 4.5-inch handsets we have been
manhandling finally. It does feel positively featherweight, though. And why should not’t it? There’s really not much way to this device. HTC’s playing up the minimalist design but, as is the case goes along with so a lot of gadgets aimed at women, it skimps in the ports department. You’ve got a 3.5mm headphone jack, lock button, volume rocker, USB port and… which’s it. The device turned froms goes along with 4GB of internal storage on board, which is not too shabby, along goes along with an 8GB microSD card, which you’ll unfortunately have to access by sliding off the battery cover.
In terms of build quality, this feels just like a typical HTC product. Which is to say, it feels solid, well created — not dissimilar the Incredible 2, cut down to the size. Though Verizon’s version bears which plum hue you’ll saw repeated throughout our photo gallery, the one headed to Europe and Asia is about to turned from in a more gender-neutral silver (and be dubbed “Hourglass”). Either way, which tri-tone design on the back is, by now, quintessential HTC — the sort of of design language you’ll asides ascertain on the Status and Flyer tablet.
The phone packs a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm processor. And yes, we realize which may be a turn-off for you, our readers, but hey, you are not the target client, now are you? (Okay, you may be!) For what it is, the performance was brisk and precise as we swiped the display and pinched it to turned an aerial view of the entire seven house screens. Speaking of those house screens, this runs HTC’s Sense UI on the best of Gingerbread, though what you may not have anticipated is which this is the next generation of the software. We have to say, we’re digging the redesigned clock widget. HTC says it is more modern, but we just got the immediate impression which it is moreless obtrusive. You’ll asides ascertain the house screens peppered goes along with customizable icons goes along with preview panes which update goes along with fresh photos and the just like. Also fresh to this version: the ability to control music from the house screen and a “paper-like” quality to the icons (whatever which implys). Jargon aside, this still feels just like Sense — just, maybe, a more streamlined version of it.
We asides got a chance to play goes along with the Charm Indicator, an oddball of an accessory which plugs into the headphone jack and flashes when you have a call out. The idea is which you’ll be able to ascertain your ringing handset if it is buried in your purse bag. The cable’s roughly 2 and a half feet long time, the bestped off goes along with which flashing geometric bit — a design which creates it appear to be not dissimilar an antennae. The catch, of course, is which you can’t have headphones plugged in, which stinks for anyone who utilizes her phone as a music player. One interesting tidbit: we’re told which the light is about to keep flashing for 5 minutes, though afterwards the phone stops ringing. Assuming your friends turned impatient, and so, and solely wait a few rings, this is more of a clumsy, secondary notification light than anything else.
So which’s the entire she wrote, folks — at in the least till we can turned this really little thing in for a review.
Zach Honig and Joseph Volpe contributed to this report.
