HTC Rezound: a powerful smartphone infused with Beats Audio (first impressions)

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Summary: HTC’s Rezound is built with music in mind. Will the rest of the smartphone market follow suit?

HTC’s Rezound is a device with a mission. Like the widely popular line of Beats Audio headphones that preceds it, the Rezound is, in the words of Beats Audio owner and music producer Jimmy Ivone, designed to rectify ”the destruction and degradation of sound caused by the digital revolution.” So it clearly has its work cut out for it.

The Pitch

The Rezound’s gist is simple: Featuring Beats Audio technology, the Rezound is being billed as the ideal smartphone for those who don’t want to sacrifice music quality in their handsets. To that end, HTC is shipping the Rezound with its own pair of custom Beats Audio headphones. The Rezound is no slouch on the non-audio side either. Featuring a 4.3-inch 720P Super LCD screen, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and 8-megapixel camera, the Rezound is as powerful of an Android smartphone as any.

Incredible on the Outside

If it feels like you’ve seen the Rezound before, then that’s probably because the device very strongly resembles HTC’s Incredible line of phones.  So the device doesn’t do anything particularly new, design-wise.

HTC Plays Apple

Far more interesting than the Rezound’s externals are its innards. Channelling Apple, HTC opted to furnish the Rezound’s insides with translucent red plastic. HTC says that the move was inspired by the desire to give users a peek into the care that went into the device’s engineering, which sounds a whole lot like what Steve Jobs said about the iMac G3. In any case, HTC’s design decision is sure to make the process of swapping out the Rezound’s battery, SD card, or SIM card slightly more stimulating.

Red Through and Through

From the device’s colored accents to the wire that stretches from its top, the color red plays a major role in the branding of the Rezound. That, of course, stems largely from the device’s connection with Beats Audio, which is also a brand that also features lots of red. And that bold “Z” that cuts through the Rezound’s logo? It looks an awful like the red “Z” in Verizon’s own branding. Intentional or pure coincidence? You decide.

Ice Cream Sandwich Ready

While the Rezound won’t ship with Ice Cream Sandwich, HTC was quick to note that the device will ship “Ice Cream Sandwich-ready” which means that, whenever the final build of Android 4.0 is ready, so will HTC and the Rezound.

$299 - an Unbeatable Value?

Similar to what we’ve seen with the Droid RAZR and others, the smartphone in late 2011 is getting more and more expensive. The Rezound will sell for $299 with a two-year contract, which is an awful lot. Then again, considering that the device ships with its own pair of custom Beat’s headphones, perhaps $299 isn’t too much to ask.

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications.

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The Nook Tablet is a $249 swipe at Amazon's Kindle Fire (first impressions)

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Summary: With Kindle Fire drawing near, Barnes & Noble needs a hit more than ever. But will the Nook Tablet be it?

Since the release of the Nook Color last year, two major events occurred that have meant a tremendous amount for Barnes & Noble and its future. First, on the traditional book side, there was the death of Borders, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. It’s no secret that traditional book sellers are struggling a bit in the increasingly-digital book world, so the news that Borders was closing its doors was undoubtedly very troubling for Barnes & Noble. But the news on the digital side was perhaps more of a concern: In September, Amazon announced the Kindle Fire, a 7-inch tablet that promised to eat up a sizable portion of the 7-inch tablet marketshare that Barnes & Noble had worked so hard to build up. So you might say that Barnes & Noble has quite a stake in the Nook Tablet, its latest product.

Following The Follower

Listening to Banes & Noble CEO William Lynch talk about the tablet rivalry between his company and Amazon, it felt as it it was Amazon, not Barnes & Noble, that had already released a tablet to the market. “We are trying to lead, not follow,” said Lynch, who proceeded to dedicate full minutes of his presentation to discuss the various ways he saw Amazon’s tablet as deficient. Is Amazon the underdog, or is Barnes & Noble? No one, not even Barnes & Noble, seems to be sure.

A Curated App Ecosystem

Like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Color, the Nook Tablet features a version of Android so significantly skinned that it barely resembles the Google OS. That’s a good thing because it hides many of the rough spots that Android is so famously home to. But it also poses a problem for the tablet’s app ecosystem, which is significantly smaller than the default Android Market and subject entirely to Barnes & Noble’s critical eye. But the company isn’t particularly concerned. Thousands of apps will be available the Nook marketplace in the coming year and all of them will be optimized for a 7-inch form factor. So maybe there is less here to worry about than it might initially appear.

The $50 Amazon Advantage?

In terms of specs, there isn’t a tremendous amount that separates the Nook Tablet from the Kindle Fire. Same screen size, similar power and battery life make the tablets more or less indistinguishable. But then there’s the pricing. Barnes & Noble plans to sell the Nook for $249, a full $50 more than Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire. Barnes & Noble justifies the price increase based on the Nook Tablet’s 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, which is double what Amazon offers with the Kindle Fire. But Amazon had good reason to skimp on storage: It aimed to keep costs down, for one, and it also made a heavy emphasis on the wonders of the cloud. Which side will consumers take? We won’t have to wait long to find out.

The Video Concern

As with the Kindle Fire, media plays a big role in the mission of the Nook Tablet. Barnes & Noble is loudly singing the praises of its video parters Hulu Plus and Netflix, not to mention music services like Pandora and games like Angry Birds. But Hulu Plus and and Netflix are streaming services, which means that users are are on their own if they want to watch videos while not connected to the Internet. Which service will step in to fill this void? Barnes & Noble isn’t saying quite yet.

The Barnes & Noble Advantage: Brick and Mortar

With the announcement of the Nook Tablet came another interesting development: Barnes & Noble is introducing the Nook Digital Shop, a section of its stores dedicated solely to its digital product portfolio. This gives Barnes & Noble a significant strategic advantage over Amazon, which relies on third-party retailers to get its products in consumers hands. In all, the Nook Digital Shop will likely make the Nook user experience feel similar to that of Apple’s products, which are supported via Apple’s own physical stores. This is something consumers will without a doubt notice and respond to.

Ricardo Bilton writes for ZDNet's The ToyBox. His work has appeared in The Japan Times, The New York Observer, and The International Business Times, among other publications.

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