HTC Vivid review:

The final member of AT&T’s LTE smartphone 2011 lineup is at the start line, ready to impress. The HTC Vivid is joining the company of the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and LG Nitro HD in a bid to defend the reputation of the Taiwanese company.

Hardware wise, the HTC Vivid is a familiar sight. The smartphone is essentially put together from the parts’ bin of the HTC Sensation 4G and HTC EVO 3D, save for its 4.5“ screen and beefed up built-in memory - it packs a well familiar dual-core CPU, clocked at 1.2GHz and a Snapdragon S3 chipset.

We do suspect that HTC has intentionally omitted features such as an HD screen and a beefed up CPU in order to maintain the flagship status of the Beats Audio sporting, HTC Rezound for Verizon Wireless. Thankfully, the Vivid is priced accordingly as well.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support

21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA

LTE network compatibility

4.5" capacitive LCD touchscreen with qHD resolution (540 x 960 pixels); Gorilla glass

Android OS v2.3.4 Gingerbread with HTC Sense 3.0

1.2 GHz dual Scorpion CPUs, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chipset

1GB RAM and 16 GB built-in storage; microSD slot up to 32GB

8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash; 1.3MP front-facing unit

1080p and 720p video recording

Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA

GPS with A-GPS

Stereo FM radio with RDS

Accelerometer, proximity sensor and an auto-brightness sensor

Standard 3.5 mm audio jack (SRS enhancement)

microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v3.0

MHL TV-out (requires MHL-to-HDMI adapter)

Smart dialing, voice dialing

DivX/XviD video support

HTCSense.com integration

HTC Portable Hotspot

Office document editor

Main Disadvantages

Screen performance is not on par with the best offerings

At 177 grams, the device is downright heavy

The glossy finish plastic is fingerprint and dust magnet; especially on the black version

No dedicated camera button

As you can notice above, the spec sheet of the HTC Vivid is mostly a familiar sight. HTC have grown the screen to put it in line with the rest of the LTE offerings from AT&T.

We are not sure however, how the feeling of familiarity will bode for the smartphone – it simply does not feel like a brand new product. It is the end of 2011 now – a good eight months since HTC took the wraps off the similarly equipped Sensation 4G.

Posted in: htc,touch