HTC Rezound sound test: It's crisp and clear

Verizon Wireless

By Athima Chansanchai

If you listen to a lot of music on your smartphone, the HTC Rezound purports to be the smartest of them all when it comes to pleasing your ears, especially when paired with the included Beats Audio in-ear headphones. Now that the phone is available on Verizon Wireless (for $300 with a two-year contract),?we decided to put the company's claims to the test.

As we?noted in our Rezound preview, HTC's press release praises "unique audio tuning" that "delivers thundering bass, soaring midrange and crisp highs" thanks to the partnership with Beats Audio. While the included earphones are better than a lot of in-ear models out there, I couldn't find a good fit that didn't hurt my ears after a few songs. But, the bigger the fit, the better it seemed. (Try to find the biggest that will still fit comfortably in your ear.)

I'll say this: I could hear a difference, though my socks didn't exactly come off. Sound quality is nearly on par?with my iPod (and better with these headphones than with the white earbuds, that's for sure). It was for the most part, clean, and clear and made for an immersive experience. I think "crisp" would actually be a good way to put it. It didn't feel like you were there in your own private concert hall, and?I wouldn't call the bass "thundering" nor midrange "soaring." But?it's certainly better than a lot of the more tinny music emanating from other phones. Careful with the volume, though. The higher I pushed it, the more fuzz came through. Besides, you shouldn't be listening to it that loud.

I tried a variety of music, from several genres, including hip-hop (Jay-Z, RUN-DMC), R&B-pop (Toni Braxton, Rihanna) and electro-pop/alternative (Black Kids, Modest Mouse, Karen O, Yeasayer) using Music Beta by Google. I just happen to have a lot of my more recent music acquisitions on there already, so?I could compare songs on different devices without having to individually download each time. (But if you want to transfer music from your computer to this device, you can do so via USB. And if you do that, you can use the Music app pre-installed on the phone to activate sound enhancements.)

I listened to the same songs on my Samsung Droid Charge, to see if I could pick up any difference. There was a lot more noise on my Droid, almost a lo-fi to hi-fi juxtaposition that made me appreciate the focus that the Rezound seemed to have. Listening to songs on the Droid, with the Beats Audio headphones was a marked improvement over the standard earphones (I go through a lot), but it's still not perfect for me yet since the in-ear design isn't comfortable on long hauls.

Thing is, the Rezound sounded even better when paired with a larger set of high-definition headphones. I tried out Soul by Ludacris with active noise canceling. They're on-ear (for my small ears, over the ear, more like), DJ style, but they were light and comfortable for the hours I wore them this weekend.?

Signeo USA

Soul by Ludacris SL150CB on-ear headphones

It's up to you if listening to music on your phone matters enough to spend upwards of $400 for that combo ($300 for the phone + at least $100 for high-def headphones). The Soul by Ludacris SL150 model I tried out sells for $200.

Pulling up some HQ videos on YouTube showed off the Rezound's 720p high-def 4.3-inch screen, but besides being mesmerized by how sharp images came through on it, the sound matched it. One of my favorite trailers for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" features a cover of Led Zep's "Immigrant Song" by Karen O of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs along with Nine Inch Nail's Oscar-winning Trent Reznor. It looks?? and sounds?? amazing on this compact package.

With a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, the Rezound seems to crank at a fairly swift pace, and bouncing from app to app isn't a problem. It also comes with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but in early 2012 Verizon Wireless has it on its list of devices that will receive the Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 upgrade.

Other perks you'll get with the Rezound include: Bluetooth, mobile hotspot capability, 16GB on-board memory, 1GB DDR2 RAM, a 16GB microSD pre-installed, an 8-megapixel camera (and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera) and the HTC Sense interface.?

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Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/14/8792014-htc-rezound-sound-test-its-crisp-and-clear

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