HTC Vivid

The HTC Vivid is a lovely high end phone with enticing specs and a vivid (sorry, but it is) qHD display. The problem? It's one of the homeliest phones HTC has turned out in years and its 4G LTE launch mate, the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket shows it up in some, but not all, respects. But for HTC fans and Samsung not-fans, the Vivid has enough going for it that we can easily recommend it. The HTC Vivid joined the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on November 6 as AT&T's first true 4G LTE phones. We're lucky enough to be in an LTE coverage area, and download speeds have been rocking 25Mbps on average, with 12Mbps upload speeds. Our top download speed was 38.4Mbps according to the Speedtest.net app! Of course, once the network is peppered with LTE devices, speeds will come down, but it bodes well for AT&T's new true 4G network. The HTC Vivid has much in common with the Skyrocket: both have 4.5" displays, Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread with promised upgrades to Ice Cream Sandwich, 8 megapixel cameras and dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs. The Vivid has a higher resolution Super LCD that's qHD 960 x 540 pixels, and it lives up to its name with rich and accurate colors that pop. Design and Ergonomics HTC is usually the paragon of elegant design, with complex curves, sculpted surfaces and classy soft touch finishes. The Vivid is the Pontiac Aztek of phones: a confused mix of textures, shiny plastics and an odd angular design that's neither comfortable nor attractive. The truncated pyramid that is the back is gloss black plastic that adores finger oils, isn't particularly comfortable to hold and is hard to grip. The flat finish metal back is a little jarring next to shiny plastic, but it redeems the phone from a quality materials perspective. The Vivid is also available in white, and from the photos it looks more attractive, though we haven't seen one in person yet. I hate to harp on appearances, but consumer electronics devices are an extension of personal style, so looks do count. And we have high expectations from HTC because their high end smartphones usually use top quality finishes and are good looking and well made. In terms of quality, the phone is solid and weighty as HTC devices often are. It feels more durable and rugged than the waifish Skyrocket and Samsung Galaxy S II, though we haven't intentionally abused the trio to see who best survived a bounce off the pavement. The power button is small but easier to operate than the sometimes maddening HTC Rezound, and the volume controls don't rattle or have play. The micro USB port is on the phone's left side and the 3.5mm headphone jack is up top. The microSD card slot is blocked by the battery, so you'll have to power down the phone to insert or remove a card. AT&T isn't as generous as Verizon: no card is included. But you do have 16 gigs of internal storage and the phone sells for $100 less than Verizon's LTE smartphones.

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HTC Vivid Video Review

Horsepower and Performance The HTC Vivid isn't the fastest kid on the block, though the 1.2GHz dual core CPU is solid enough. It scored 2159 in Quadrant and a middle of the pack 4526 in the Sunspider JavaScript test. The Vivid has to work harder to drive the higher resolution display, and that accounts for some of the benchmark differences, along with the not huge 0.3GHz clock speed difference. On paper, the Skyrocket is faster. In use, the Skyrocket feels a bit more responsive as well, but the Vivid never struck us as anything but quick. It's just not lightning fast. HTC Sense 3.0 is on board, and that may have something to do with it. We actually like Sense and the ease of use improvements it offers over stock Android, but it does consume more RAM and the highly customized app drawer with its enforced vertical page-at-a-time scrolling style can make it feel slower than it is. The phone has a gig of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage with 8.83 gigs available for your use. Like all recent HTC phones, it has a protected bootloader (important for those who want to root and install custom ROMs), but we assume HTC will offer a way to unlock the bootloader at the possible expense of your

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