HTC Rezound with Beats Audio hands on

We just got a glimpse of the HTC Rezound with Beats Audio for Verizon Wireless, an Android smartphone whose focus is to deliver the best video and audio quality you can get on a smartphone. Whether it lives up to those claims is still up in the air, especially since we’ve only had about five solid minutes with the device. Our initial impressions, however, are generally positive.

No need to get into specs here, for those, you can just click here.

In the hand, the HTC Rezound feels pretty solid, like most HTC handsets do, but it isn’t very thin. Personally, a little heft and size is my preference, and it certainly never hurts. Its thickness is a little expected in a 4G LTE device since the only LTE Verizon device that is exceptionally thin, so far, is the DROID RAZR. The Rezound’s thickness isn’t so bad that it’ll deter anyone from buying it, but it is noticeable in an age of razor-thin smartphones.

The HTC Rezound was pretty responsive when I played around with it. Perhaps it’s largely thanks to its 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Opening up several applications and switching back and forth between them was seamless, and I saw no lag or stuttering. Again, this was only a few minutes of testing, so it might not reflect everyday usage. However, it is a good sign that it didn’t struggle during our hands on.

Onto the highlights: the screen and sound. The screen looked pretty nice, though under the changing and extreme lighting conditions, it was hard to get a good look at the display’s vividness, contrast and color saturation. Under the bright lights and glare, however, the display still seemed to be pretty good.

Of course, this wouldn’t be complete without taking a listen to the Rezound’s music system. Coupled with Beats by Dre, the Black Eyed Peas have never sounded better — take that how you will. Bass was deep and mids and highs weren’t muddled. Everything sounded pretty clean and balanced. It’s hard to say whether you’d get the same experience due to the headphones alone, but the pairing definitely sounded great. For obvious reasons, we couldn’t test the in-ear headphones that come with the device, so you’ll have to stay tuned for our review for that one. Otherwise, the sound quality was great and users who already own Beats by Dre over-the-ear headphones won’t be disappointed.

Check out our photo gallery below.