In a word, sleek. The device may not be the slimmest 3.7-inch smartphone out there but it looks very sleek measuring in at 10.9mm thin. One of the unique features of the Rhyme is that is comes with the HTC Rhyme Charm. The Rhyme Charm attaches to the device and emits a soft glow when a call or text message is received.
Here’s a quick look at the first impressions of the HTC Rhyme
The body colour of the device is very unique and a definite eye catcher. The HTC Rhyme comes in 2 colours – Clearwater and purple.
The device feels a little heavy in our hands at 130gms but it is very well built.
The display is very vibrant thanks to its SLCD nature. The size is the popular 3.7-inches with a resolution of 480×800.
Under the hood, the device has a 1GHz Scorpion processor and 768 MB RAM making it quite snappy. The rear of the device has a 5MP camera with an LED flash that is also capable of shooting video in 720p HD. The front has a VGA camera.
The HTC Rhyme runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and is skinned with HTC Sense version 3.5. You can customize up to 7 home screens on the HTC Rhyme.
HTC has gone the Apple way with this device making the battery inaccessible to users. The good thing is that you can remove the SIM card and the microSD card without switching off the device. The down side is users cannot replace the battery themselves.
In terms of connectivity, the Rhyme has a 3.55mm headphones jack along with the sleep/wake/on/off button at the top. The right has the volume rocker. The left of the device houses the micro USB port but it is neatly hidden under a flap.
The bottom of the screen has the four touch sensitive buttons i.e., home, menu, back and search. Many manufacturers have given up on the search key in their devices but its nice to see that HTC has still maintained it as we fell the search key has utility.
The Rhyme is scheduled to receive the Android Ice Cream Sandwich update but no specific time period is known for its availability. Till then stay tuned for an in-depth review of the device coming soon…
