HTC Rezound First Impressions/Reviews

[jsmuli2]

I started out as an OG Droid owner. Then I won a contest and got the Droid Incredible. I've had the Incredible for over a year and loaded CM7 onto it maybe 4 months ago (used stock ROM before that). CM7 made the DInc feel like a completely new phone. It was fast, and it almost never let me down.

Last week I bought the Rezound. In short - I love it. It should have been named the Incredible 3.

• Aesthetics
  It's like a bigger Droid Incredible, not too big, but enough to have to get used to. I sometimes have trouble thumbing across the screen.
• Screen
  4.3" is perfect for me. Big enough to view plenty, amazing definition.
• Hardware
  One of the best spec'd phones out there right now.
• Phone - including bluetooth & speakerphone usage
  Minimal use of a BT earpiece, it works fine as far as I know. Speakerphone works well.
• Overall User Interface (including HTC Sense)
  I used to hate Sense on the DInc, but with a dual-core, I'm waiting a little til I load a cleansed ROM (CM9). I feel like Sense get's some good use out of the GPU and is pretty responsive, so I can deal with it.
• Widgets
  I used to hate that flip-clock + animations. Now I love it (because my phone can truly handle it)
• Signal quality (Compared to other devices)
  So far, the signal quality is just as good, if not better, than the DInc.
• GPS
  I noticed that one certain roads I was maybe a meter or two off (technically putting me on the sidewalk or on people's front lawn). Not a big deal, but the driving directions worked perfectly.
• Social Networking
  I never use the FB/TW for Sense
• Email/Calendar
  I use GMail, calendar works just fine. Nothing special, although, you can "search" within the calendar, which can be very useful.
• Battery Life
  Crappy - probably my biggest complaint, but then again, I've been keeping 4G on all the time, and I'm used to extended batteries. Waiting for Anker to come out with a high capacity, but same sized battery. As of now I get a solid 8 hrs of use. 10hrs from little use.
• Performance
  FAST. YOU NEED SOMETHING FAST HERE! BAM! HAZAH!
• Media (music, movies, DLNA)
  Netflix, Google Music, HBOGo all work great and look great. Although Netflix seems to not know the the Rezound can show HD.
• Keyboard's
  I use FlexT9...'Nuff said
• Camera (both still & video)
  I friggen love the camera. It's quite crisp and fast shutter speed (IMO). Some people knock the camera, but wtf? You want quality? Go buy an SLR for 500+ bucks. Clear as day when using Skype and Qik.
• How the Rezound compares to your previous smartphone (if applicable)
  I loved the Incredible, and still do. I'm keeping it handy in case something goes wrong with Rezound. But so far, I am loving Rezound more and more each day. So fast and smooth.
• Disappointments (if any)
  Battery life - I have a feeling it's mostly the crappy bloatware that constantly trying to connect to network in the background.
  Sense - can't disable Animations and still can't customize those 3 docked buttons. Seriously, when are they going to get it? I don't want the Phone and settings buttons there.

Other Thoughts:
I'm waiting to see how the official ICS works on this baby. I do plan on rooting soon, but I don't want to void my Verizon warranty just yet. Also, I'm waiting for CM9 to blow our minds.

[Holmzy31]

I'm new to droid in general and my Rezound is the first android phone I have ever owned. As a new user the experience has been great. I am still learning everything I can do with it. Battery Life doesn't bother me because I knew what I was getting into. The camera doesn't bother me. I'm not a camera guy and couldn't tell you much about it. So far the phone has been rather seemless and fluid. The touchscreen is responsive and it flows through panels/screens with ease. As an ex-apple Technician, I find this phone rather enjoyable. My only issue is I have had it occasionally powercycle on me. I'm not sure why but it never seems permananent and always corrects itself after one or two tries. Not sure if their is a fix or something I should look at to correct it.

[VZWRocks]

Originally Posted by Holmzy31

I'm new to droid in general and my Rezound is the first android phone I have ever owned. As a new user the experience has been great. I am still learning everything I can do with it. Battery Life doesn't bother me because I knew what I was getting into. The camera doesn't bother me. I'm not a camera guy and couldn't tell you much about it. So far the phone has been rather seemless and fluid. The touchscreen is responsive and it flows through panels/screens with ease. As an ex-apple Technician, I find this phone rather enjoyable. My only issue is I have had it occasionally powercycle on me. I'm not sure why but it never seems permananent and always corrects itself after one or two tries. Not sure if their is a fix or something I should look at to correct it.

The camera on this phone is actually one of the best I have used (Samsung GSII being the best) and battery life is pretty decent too.

The phone should not power cycle. Check to see what apps are running when that happens and then consider removing them. Also make sure that the battery door is on tight, and contacts not bent or broken. That caused occasional reboots on the TBolt with the extended battery door for some reason.

[humpagardengnome]

Originally Posted by Holmzy31

I'm new to droid in general and my Rezound is the first android phone I have ever owned. As a new user the experience has been great. I am still learning everything I can do with it. Battery Life doesn't bother me because I knew what I was getting into. The camera doesn't bother me. I'm not a camera guy and couldn't tell you much about it. So far the phone has been rather seemless and fluid. The touchscreen is responsive and it flows through panels/screens with ease. As an ex-apple Technician, I find this phone rather enjoyable. My only issue is I have had it occasionally powercycle on me. I'm not sure why but it never seems permananent and always corrects itself after one or two tries. Not sure if their is a fix or something I should look at to correct it.

That powercycling is a stinker. First, I've heard of it occurring w/ the Rezound. If you're running alot of apps, I'd consider just swapping out, over perusing for the culprits. I recall owners of the Dincs 1&2 randomly experiencing it previously. For the majority, it didn't recur post swap. It definitely is a software glitch of some sort.

[VZWRocks]

Originally Posted by humpagardengnome

That powercycling is a stinker. First, I've heard of it occurring w/ the Rezound. If you're running alot of apps, I'd consider just swapping out, over perusing for the culprits. I recall owners of the Dincs 1&2 randomly experiencing it previously. For the majority, it didn't recur post swap. It definitely is a software glitch of some sort.

I would not swap the phone unless you think it is a hardware issue. Easy way to see is do a factory data reset on the phone install only trusted apps and see what happens. If you continue to get reboots you may have a hardware problem.

Swapping phones over software issues costs the carrier money and in the end we all pay more for devices.

[ptco911]

I had Rezound a week old that had mobile data radio fail. It would intermitently pick up a signal and just drop. Even in places of know strong signal. I was standing in a room with 4 other people with android phones and had no data signal while all of them had strong signal. Did a factory reset on the phone that did not resolve the issue. Exchanged the phone for another Rezound that day at Verizon store.

[humpagardengnome]

Originally Posted by VZWRocks

I would not swap the phone unless you think it is a hardware issue. Easy way to see is do a factory data reset on the phone install only trusted apps and see what happens. If you continue to get reboots you may have a hardware problem.

Swapping phones over software issues costs the carrier money and in the end we all pay more for devices.

Place blame on 90% of the people overreacting to their phones heating up while using them, as is a normal occurrence, for the inflation, not issues like powercycling.

[VZWRocks]

Originally Posted by humpagardengnome

Place blame on 90% of the people overreacting to their phones heating up while using them, as is a normal occurrence, for the inflation, not issues like powercycling.

It's both issues actually. All I am saying is do a little troubleshooting before you assume you got a bad device (they do happen) but the vast majority of electronics returned as defective actually has nothing wrong with it.

[TitansJonne]

Question. Coming from my Nexus, how do you guys feel about Ice Cream Sandwhich. Yes we are going to get the update but it's not like it will be without HTC sense. Are you guys angry or excited? And hw is dev support? Is anyone working on getting ICS to this thing via custom rom?

[VZWRocks]

Originally Posted by TitansJonne

Question. Coming from my Nexus, how do you guys feel about Ice Cream Sandwhich. Yes we are going to get the update but it's not like it will be without HTC sense. Are you guys angry or excited? And hw is dev support? Is anyone working on getting ICS to this thing via custom rom?

I'm actually looking forward to finding out how HTC will merge Sense with stock ICS and improve on it. I like a lot of the things that they did in ICS but I still like Sense better overall.