HTC Rhyme review

This article originally appeared on V3.co.uk

HTC has launched yet another smartphone, this time a colourful number called the Rhyme. Out of the box the Rhyme conforms to the classic HTC look with an oblong but curvy shape, wide front speaker and a set of four buttons below the screen.

We like the HTC look but the difference here is the colour. Most of HTC's phones come in black, grey or white, but the Rhyme comes in purple, grey or a silvery blue, with three different shades on each.

Our review unit came in the deep plum purple, which looks nice but is obviously not for everyone. It's nice to see some variation from the typical black and white options with which we are all too familiar.

Comfortable size and weight
The Rhyme is a medium sized and weighted handset. It's 61x119mm, which we found fits very nicely in the palm of the hand - a tiny bit larger than the iPhone 4S for reference. You can easily reach every corner of the screen with your thumb without stretching. The phone isn't the lightest around, but at 130g it's hardly going to strain your wrist. The Rhyme is a reasonable 10.9mm thick.

Once again HTC has gone for a uni-body design, so the metal flows nicely from the front to the back. The rear has two rubbery plastic sections, of which the lower one is removable and hides the SIM card and microSD card slots. The battery is under here too but annoyingly can't be removed.

HTC has opted for a 3.7in touch screen which is on a par with the Nokia Lumia 800 for size and 480x800 resolution. This screen size is a happy medium. It's large enough to believe you can do things with it, but is not cumbersome. We were impressed with the quality of the screen, which has a pixel density of 252ppi. Text and images look crisp and clear while offering good contrast and brightness.

The remaining specifications don't make for very exciting reading, with a 1GHz single-core processor, 768MB of RAM and 1GB of available internal storage. HTC makes up for the relatively small storage by providing an 8GB microSD card, but we wouldn't want to pit the Rhyme against dual-core processor rivals, and that's a common feature in high-end devices.