HTC Rhyme review: Pour Femme

Introduction

Alright. This one's a bit different. So we act accordingly. And because we're not quite versed in all things fashion, let's move straight to what we're good at. Meet the HTC Rhyme.

HTC Rhyme official pictures

Key Features

• Comes in colors no man can name
• Has a purse charm
• Mirror app preloaded

Main disadvantages

• There’s no period calendar pre-installed

Seriously, now. Tough job building a ladies phone - but hey, that's what accessories are for. Before we get to them though, the HTC Rhyme is a delicious little phone, except that it's not that little at all. The good thing is the trademark unibody design is less industrial but softer and more delicate. And the colors… Apart from the accessories, the paintjobs are the only thing that makes the handset different. Feminine?

The HTC Rhyme is hard to define. It almost feels like they didn't plan this one as a phone for girls. When they later decided to target the female audience, they came up with all sorts of relevant accessories. You'll never hear anyone at HTC call it the ladies smartphone. But it's being marketed as one. They are extra careful to avoid references to Android and don't even call it a smartphone in any of their ads.

That's not what we're gonna do. We'll look at the smartphone inside the Rhyme. And see if it could be his smartphone too, as much as hers. That's what HTC would gladly have people think. It'd be a win-win for them.

But let's see what's in the HTC Rhyme for users. We have the full list of features and possible deal-breakers coming up.

Key features (the real thing)

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 3.7" 16M-color capacitive S-LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
• Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.5
• 1 GHz single Scorpion CPUs, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
• 768 MB RAM; 4 GB storage
• microSD card slot (class 4 8GB card in the bundle)
• 5 MP autofocus camera with single LED flash; face detection, geotagging, HDR mode, image auto-upload
• 720p video recording @ 30fps, slo-mo videos (2x at WVGA)
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensor
• Front facing camera, video call
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• Smart dial, voice dialing
• Office document editor
• DivX/XviD video support
• HTC Locations app
• HTCSense.com integration
• HTC Portable Hotspot
• Ultra-fast boot times
• Rich set of accessories

Main disadvantages (sadly, the real thing)

• Average display
• Non-user-replaceable battery
• No dedicated camera key
• Pricey for a single-core smartphone (generously accessorized though)
• Wi-Fi death grip issues

So, what's so special about the Rhyme? No, it’s not another Beats Audio phone - although we love the headset it ships with. We're looking at a pretty much standard unibody package running a familiar Android Gingerbread/Sense UI combo. But the accessories and paintjobs do make it different from the slew of Android handsets. There is a leather pouch, a docking cradle, specially designed headphones and the eye-catching Charm cube that lights up upon an incoming call or message.

HTC Rhyme live pictures

It’s a feature-rich smartphone and the box is full of surprises, and useful too. Wanna have a closer look? Read on for our traditional unboxing and hardware checkup.