The HTC Rhyme is something of a departure from the rest of the herd -- a smartphone designed for women. Underneath the girly plum exterior, you'll find Android OS 2.3.4 running on a 1GHz processor, a 3.7-inch touchscreen display, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 5 megapixel camera on the back plus a VGA camera on the front for videoconferencing.
The HTC Rhyme is available exclusively from Verizon Wireless for $200 with a new two-year service contract. That price goes up to $440 if yu don't qualify for a subsidy.
BUILD & DESIGN:
The most refreshing thing about the Rhyme is its size -- after handling all of the recent smartphone giants, it's nice to hold something that really fits in my palm instead of forcing me to deal with a monster. It measures 4.7-inches tall, 2.4-inches wide, and 0.4-inches thick and weighs less than five ounces. It fits easily into any pocket and doesn't weigh me down, which is a nice change of pace. Based on size alone, it will be hard to go back to those large-screen monster phones after using the Rhyme full time for a couple of weeks.
It's also very cool looking, as much as I hate to admit it. When I first pulled open the box (with a pull-out drawer that more closely resembled the fancy packaging of a holiday makeup kit than a mobile phone box), I just fell in love with the cool purple exterior of the Rhyme. It's sleek and modern with low-profile buttons. The back is made of very slightly textured rubberized material that is easy to grip, and there's also a wide metallic band with the HTC logo just below the camera lens.
Display
The display is a 3.7-inch super LCD screen running at 480 x 800 resolution. It's nice, but it isn't going to blow you away like the gigantic Super AMOLED Plus displays on bleeding edge smartphones. Colors come across a little muted, and if you look closely you can see some jaggy edges on text. It's nothing horrible, not by any stretch of the imagination, but there are better displays on other current smartphones if that's your most important consideration.
Keyboard
There's no physical keyboard here, so you'll be typing on a virtual onscreen one. This is one bad thing about the relatively petite size of this phone; smaller display means smaller virtual keys. Then again, the female consumers that this phone is aimed at do tend to have smaller hands, so it may not be that big of a deal.
HTC did do a good job with the keyboard, as there is less space between the virtual keys so that the keys themselves can be as large as possible. I was a little slower using this keyboard during my texting trial than normal, but it's not too bad.
Other Buttons & Controls
You'll find the headphone jack and the large, easy-to-activate power button on the top of the device. The long, single-piece volume buttom is on the upper right side. You may have a hard time finding the charge/sync port, as it's on the lower left side, covered by a small flap.
The HTC Rhyme comes with a charging cradle/speaker dock, which is a nice bonus and something you'll definitely want to use. Much as I hate to mention the cliche notion of breaking a fingernail in a review of a phone aimed at women, it actually applies here. The flap covering the charging port is extremely difficult to open, and I did split a nail when I tried to plug it in.
With the cradle, you don't have to connect or plug in a cable because the charging pins in the cradle line up perfectly with a matching receiver built into the back of the phone. It holds the phone at an angle, though I would have preferred a slightly steeper angle to make the phone easier to use as a desk clock while it's charging. It's so convenient that you might even want to take it with you when you travel -- it's certainly better than breaking a nail every time you try to plug in your phone to charge it.
You also get a few other extras -- a purse dangle that lights up when you receive a call and a set of ear bud headphones with a flat cord that isn't supposed to tangle up. Everything's color-coordinated, of course, and I found the purse dangle to be fairly useful. It plugs into the Rhyme and clips securely to your bag so that when the phone starts ringing, you don't have to rummage around to find it in the bottom of a bottomless purse. It keeps blinking even if you miss the call, reminding you to check your phone.
The headphones are really nice too, with good sound quality and a good fit -- they don't tend to fall out. Two extra sets of rubber ear tips are included, and there's also a volume control integrated into the cord for convenience. The flat cord doesn't tangle, though it does mean a larger overall package when you're rolling up the headphones for storage.
PERFORMANCE
After being spellbound by the giant displays found on flagship devices like the Galaxy S II, the smaller HTC Rhyme feels a little crowded at first. It's obvious that the designers at HTC thought about this issue, since the homescreen is greatly simplified. Instead of a mass of app icons, you'll find that everything has been pared down to the minimum -- Mail, Messages, Calendar, and Camera, plus a small clock/weather widget. There's also color-coordinated wallpaper to make everything look polished and put together.
What does the Rhyme have under the hood? It runs Android OS 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) on a 1 GHz processor. According to the Quadrant benchmark test, the Rhyme scores 1462, which puts it just slightly better than all of the reference phones including the Nexus One. That isn't stellar performance, but it's pretty good.
Communication
According to the Speed Test app, I was able to acheive download speeds of 2.496 to 2.543 Mbps, upload speeds of 468 to 479 kbps and a ping of 38 to 50 milliseconds. While I had to wait for a few really complicated web pages to load, the delays weren't too bad at all. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work exactly as expected.
I was very disappointed with the call quality on the Rhyme. I could hear and be heard, but voices are somewhat clipped and just don't sound right. One of my callers said that it sounded like I had a cold, and another said that it was just awful. Considering the fact that women really do talk more than men, you'd think that a phone aimed at women would have excellent voice quality to go along with the cool purple exterior and tangle-free headphones.
The social networking experience is very good thanks to HTC's proprietary Friend Stream app, which combines all of your Facebook and Twitter activity into one streamlined experience. All of my friends' updates appear quickly, and it's easy to scroll through and see what's happening with everyone all at once.
Productivity
Of course a smartphone aimed at soccer moms and other busy women on the go has to be capable of organizing everything, and the Rhyme succeeds on that front. It handles multiple Google calendars with ease, and of course contacts are always kept up-to-date as well, thanks to all of that Android goodness behind the scenes.
You'll also find the expected calculator app, plus a task manager. Polaris Office handles Microsoft Office documents of all kinds, and is pleasantly easy to use. Navigational duties are performed by either Google Maps or VZ Navigator, and both performed well in my testing. No matter where I found myself, my location was quickly pinpointed on the map and I was able to get directions in a flash.
Entertainment
The standard Android Music app is included, but you won't find any games or game demos pre-loaded on this device. That's not surprising, considering the intended demographic, but even busy women on the go like to play games now and then. The only included entertainment app is the Amazon Kindle eBook app, but of course there are plenty of free and paid apps available in the Android Market.
The Rhyme has a 5 megapixel camera, which is a definte step back from the more typical 8 megapixel cameras on competing phones. I found the Rhyme to take good photos but not exceptional ones. It's fine for everyday use, but if you're attending a special event, I wouldn't rely on the Rhyme to be good enough to capture it; I would want to bring along a separate camera to chronicle everything.
Battery Life
I was pleasantly surprised by the very good battery life, but perhaps I shouldn't have been. The smaller display and slower processor just aren't going to eat up the juice like other phones, and I was easily able to get through a full week before having to charge the phone. It's refreshing to find a device that finally lives up to the quoted battery life specs.
CONCLUSION
I really wanted to love the HTC Rhyme -- even though the techie in me wanted to be insulted by the idea of a phone specifically aimed at women, my heart did melt a little when I first opened up the box and saw that sleek purple exterior. The charging cradle, headphones, and call indicator dangle are great additions to the overall package, but unfortunately the phone itself failed to deliver in key areas.
Yes it has great battery life and adequate performance, but the camera is somewhat underpowered in the resolution department and the voice quality is extremely disappointing.
Now that I've had some time to think about it, I have absolutely nothing against a female-oriented phone -- as long as it delivers. But unfortunately, the Rhyme falls somewhat short of impressing this techie goddess; though for many women who may not be quite as hard to please, the Rhyme may be an intriguing option worthy of closer examination especially if size is an issue.
Pros
Cons
