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HTC Rezound for Verizon unveiled: Beats Audio, 4.3-inch 720p display, available November 14th for $299
HTC's Rezound first leaked its way into our gadget-lusting hearts in late summer. Then bearing the virile Vigor codename, we suspected a heartily specced, Beats Audio-branded destiny for the device. And today's official unveiling doesn't disappoint, setting this 4.3-inch handset on a 4G course for Verizon's LTE airwaves. Thanks to the company's financial handshake with Dr. Dre, the Rezound's inbuilt Beats Audio integration gets its first stateside debut. Of course, that's not all that lies beneath the red and black tinged surface. Living up to the machissimo of its in-development moniker, the Rezound boasts a 4.3-inch 720p Super LCD display and packs a dual-core 1.5GHz processor underneath, with 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal storage / 16GB on microSD card, 1,620mAh battery, WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 in tow. And for you Android fanatics, HTC's shipping the handset Ice Cream Sandwich-ready, but it'll come out of the box with Sense 3.5 skinned atop Gingerbread 2.3.4. As for the phone's front-facing / 8 megapixel camera with f/2.2 sensor (capable of 1080p video capture), well the company's tossed in the same suite of scene modes we saw ship on the Amaze 4G: panorama, action burst, instant capture, and new addition, slow-mo. Naturally, this Beats phone package wouldn't be complete without a pair of those customized headphones, which'll be included in-box. With the recent Big Red outing of the Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Motorola Droid RAZR, connoiseurs of high-end mobile kit have a lot to consider this Q4. Add this Beats Audio contender to that plethora of options, and you'll be scratching your head come contract-signing time. The Rezound'll be Verizon-bound on November 14th, so if enhanced audio is at the top of your 'must have' list, expect to snag it for $299 on contract. Until then, enjoy the official PR after the break.
HTC Rezound shows off its Vigor with leaked press shots, Beats Audio demo, HD video samples (update)
HTC's set to unveil its newest mobile creation in a just a few hours, and you can bet that it's likely the 4G LTE-enabled Rezound seen above. In the past few weeks, we've seen a purported pre-release unit and even some colorful renders, but today Pocketnow has snagged what appears to be the first official press shots of this rumored 1.5GHz device. The leaks don't stop there, though, as videos of the Rezounds's Beats Audio capabilities and HD video-chops have recently popped up on YouTube -- this courtesy of user worldofjohnboy, who's had his hands an early-run unit for some time now. Questions still remain regarding any official specs and that supposed November 10th release date on Verizon, but we'll surely find out in just a few hours. In the meantime, you'll find the trio of aforesaid videos just past the break, and more info at the links below. Update: And just like that, the videos have been removed from the interwebs. [Thanks, Florian]
Mobile Miscellany: week of October 17, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of October 17, 2011: The HTC Rezound (codenamed the Vigor) started showing up in Cellebrite systems, just another indicator of its impending arrival -- and likely name. [Droid-Life] AT&T's current lineup of Windows Phones, such as the Samsung Focus, LG Quantum and HTC Surround, are now showing up as EOL -- End-of-life -- likely in preparation for the trio of incoming devices we saw earlier this week. [WMPowerUser] Cricket added another ZTE feature phone to its lineup this week, called the Memo (shown above). It's got a full QWERTY keyboard and is available for $100. [Cnet] Google Maps for Android was the beneficiary of yet another update. This time, version 5.11 makes one critical feature change: it offers different-sized maps for phones with different screen resolutions. Thus, if you have a 3.5-inch HVGA screen, you're not forced to download a map designed for a 4.3-inch qHD display, saving space on your phone in the process. [MobileBurn] Vodafone 360, launched in 2009 as a LiMo-based cloud synchronization and backup service, will be officially closed by the end of the year. The carrier stopped developing handsets that took advantage of the plan last year, so it really was a matter of time before this happened. [Wall Street Journal] Toshiba Mobile Display announced this week that it's working on a new type of mobile display optimized for wide-angle viewing. Dubbed the "Soludina," it'll be shown off at next week's FPD International in Japan. [Nikkei] Sprint announced a new plan called Wireless CapTel that's designed for those who are hard of hearing. The service, which can be used on Android devices, allows the caller to view conversations in real time as word-for-word captions on their phone's screen. [BusinessWire] Telus will officially launch the 4G Samsung Galaxy S II X on October 28th, according to its website. [Unwired View]
HTC Rezound render resoundingly revealed
Hark! The first renders of the HTC Rezound have appeared online, thanks to some of the device's cases going up for pre-order. You can see that, like the Sensation XE, the phone has red-glowing soft keys -- a bit of a departure from HTC's traditionally conservative design language. If you recall, the phone formerly called Vigor is said to have a 4.3-inch screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM, Beats Audio and an 8MP rear camera. Now that you know what the Verizon 4G cellular telephone will look like, you'll be able to pick one out of a lineup when it's available, which should be on November 10th for $300 on contract.
Another alleged HTC Vigor leak: HD display, 1.5GHz dual-core, Beats Audio (update: more pics)
We know the high-end HTC Vigor exists, but we're still in the dark about its precise specs -- not least because a previous 'leak' turned out to be double Dutch. Now an Italian dude by the name of Fabio Mele reckons he's gotten hold of Verizon's ROM for the Vigor and extracted a ton of information, including tutorial videos (which yielded the render above) and key hardware credentials. And they're some credentials: a 4.3-inch screen with 720 lines of LG-rivalling HD craziness, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM and an 8MP rear camera. The reported ROM also contains HTC's much-hyped Beats Audio software, which we've experimented with on the Un-American Sensation XE. We're taking all this with a pinch of salt if you don't mind, Signor Mele, but we want to believe you, we really do. [Thanks, Giuseppe] Update: That elusive Vigor tutorial vid has popped up online and shows the handset from all angles, including what lies beneath its battery cover (hint: it's a SIM slot for what we presume to be LTE access). Check it out after the break. Update 2: And now some real photos of the Vigor have shown up online, too. Check out a couple after the break, and get the full spread over at Android Central.
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 12, 2011
This week was packed with news on the mobile front, so it was easy to miss a few stories here and there. Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of wireless for the week of September 12, 2011: Vodacom South Africa has joined the data throttling club, though this carrier is taking a slightly different spin: BlackBerry users consuming more than 100MB of data each month will find their download speeds downgraded to GPRS or EDGE. The company claims this will only affect less than five percent of its BlackBerry customers. [via N4BB] Bada fans: the Samsung Wave 578 is featured on Orange's site as "coming soon." [via The Inquirer] Motorola announced the availability of the Fire and Fire XT in India this week. [via Motorola] The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is now being sold at Vodafone UK. [via Vodafone] Parrot announced the most recent addition to its lineup of Bluetooth products, called the Minikit+, a refresh of its popular hands-free speakerphone. The new model offers simultaneous pairing and voice commands. [via Parrot] Research in Motion is hoping to put the NFC functionality in OS 7 to good use, as it announced that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9330 as well as the Curve 9350 / 9360 will support HID's iCLASS digital keys, which means corporate folks will able to use their smartphone as an access card. [via PhoneScoop] While digging through the Droid Bionic's webtop app, the names of two unknown Motorola phones were discovered: the Edison and the Common. Little is known about the Common, but a recent FCC filing mentioned the Edison and is speculated to be the follow-up to the Atrix, albeit sans LTE as originally hoped. [via Droid-Life] The manager of the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, Matt Bencke, wrote a post pleading developers to submit their Mango-compatible apps as soon as possible, as the new update is coming to existing phones soon and it's obviously very important to have Windows Phone 7.5 run as smooth as possible. [via WMPowerUser] A leaked Radio Shack roadmap indicates the HTC Vigor should be available in stores by October 20th, and the QWERTY-packing Samsung Stratosphere will be up for online ordering as early as October 6th. As this is a third-party retailer, we can't say with surety that these dates reflect the carrier's official release. [via Droid-Life]
HTC invites us to 'celebrate in style,' we try to squeeze into our prom tuxedos
Well, we know where we'll be on September 20th -- hanging out with HTC in our classiest threads. The handset manufacturer sent out an invite for an upcoming event in NYC. So, what's on the agenda? The Bliss? The Holiday? The Vigor? The Amaze? Some kind of wind machine for blowing red curtains around? Your guess is as good as ours, but feel free to mark your own calendar -- we'll be bringing you the blow-by-blow as it happens.
HTC Vigor hits the FCC with a dose of Verizon LTE
Verizon's LTE lineup just keeps looking better and better all the time. The oft-rumored HTC Vigor is the latest device to pass through the halls of the FCC whilst sporting Big Red's 4G frequencies, along with a handy dose of CDMA / EVDO. HTC's still keeping an uber-tight lid on all of the details of this phone, however, mandating that all of the juicy secrets remain confidential for now. The Vigor's rumored to have a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, but we're still in the dark despite the phone's fancy new badge of approval. We're just another baby step closer, folks, so feel free to peruse the numbers and graphs in the source link.
HTC Vigor poses for a couple of spy shots, reveals little
So it turned out that render of HTC's Vigor on a Dutch online store wasn't exactly kosher; but what might be are two spy shots that Droid Life obtained today, providing us with what would seem to be the first legitimate glimpse of the Verizon-bound, LTE-toting smartphone. Gracing its derriere is a texturized backplate, which sports the usual self-explanatory "WITH HTC SENSE" label along with a large lens plus dual LED flash; whereas on the other side we see a front-facing camera along with four capacitive buttons. Whether or not it'll arrive with the also rumored 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage remains to be seen, but you'll know more when we do.
HTC Vigor with 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and Beats sighted in Dutch online store (update: it's a fake)
Not much is known about the HTC Vigor, but if the above image is accurate, we have more than a wagonload to look forward to. A supposed render and spec list of the new superphone showed up on The Phone House, a Dutch online retailer, and was quietly taken off the site at a later time. According to the site, the Vigor will have a 4.3-inch HD display with 1280 x 720 resolution; it'll also offer a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, Android 2.3.4, and integrated Beats Technology -- which would make the Vigor the first labor of HTC's latest purchasing decision. There's no word on if the device will have LTE inside, though Verizon docs indicated previously that it's geared up to be the Thunderbolt's replacement sometime this fall. This time, let's get that battery life figured out, okay? Update: The marketing manager of The Phone House came out in response to the screenshot, declaring it to be a fake and explaining why the image is wrong. Feel free to check out the More Coverage link to get the full scoop. Otherwise, let's move along -- nothing to see here.
Vigor Collosus Skulltrail-based gaming rig gets reviewed
Intel's Skulltrail gaming platform (we're still refusing to call it the "Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform") has been out for a while now, but there haven't been too many pre-built systems based on the design -- in fact, all we've seen so far is the $6,799 Vigor Colossus desktop, which Computer Shopper just had in for a review. As you'd expect from a machine powered by two $1,499 Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors and dual CrossFireX ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards, it's not exactly slow -- in fact, it was the fastest machine CS has ever tested in certain tests, putting up a 21,902 score in Cinebench 10, and a 6,695 mark in the Futuremark PCMark Vantage full-system test. All that power isn't necessarily useful, though: you'll have to be running serious multithreaded apps to really flex all eight cores, which means GPU-bound games won't get that much of a boost. Plus you'll have to deal with some major fans, relatively slow boot-up times, and some serious heat -- but come on, you know you want one.
Vigor Gaming latches onto AMD's GAME! brand for new Force Recon SP desktop
It wouldn't be a decent pointless chip marketing program if you didn't get minor computer builders supporting the "spec" in an effort to make a name for themselves. AMD GAME! just got its first product announcement from Vigor Gaming, and it's quite the yawner. Vigor is sticking the required AMD components into its Force Recon SP desktops, with a "mainstream" version running an Athlon X2 5600+ processor, ATI Radeon HD 3650 graphics and 2GB of RAM for around $1,845, while an AMD Game! Ultra configuration bumps up to a Phenom X4 9650 chip and Radeon HD 3870 graphics for $2,733. Both systems are naturally based on AMD's 770 chipset and run Vista. Vigor offers free overclocking for the brave and custom painting for the aesthetically challenged.
Vigor's Colossus gets you close to Skulltrail, bankruptcy
We're not going to set this one up with some creepy bedtime story like Vigor does on its own website, but seriously, this beast is kind of scary. The aptly-dubbed Colossus houses Intel's Skulltrail platform along with two Core 2 Extreme QX9775 quad-core processors, and that's just the beginning. You'll also find a menacing (albeit somewhat unsightly) chassis, a 1,000-watt PSU, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, twin 74GB Raptor hard drives, 2TB of storage on a pair of RAIDed SATA HDDs, dual 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS Xtremes, a dual-layer DVD burner (skimp much?) and a 3.5-inch floppy drive for loading up your tax template from 1998. As you can probably surmise, this one won't run you cheap, so we'll leave it to you to decide if forking out a small fortune $6,799 is worth it.[Thanks, Zee]
Vigor's Force Recon SP and Force Recon BT will dismember your brain
Vigor, a PC-maker not known for its subtlety or underpowered systems, has just launched two new desktop powerhouses destined to shake you to your very core. The Force Recon SP and Force Recon BT will undoubtedly leave you in existence-questioning bafflement as you experience the sheer neck-breaking speed of their CPUs and accompanying graphics chipsets. The former tears enemies asunder with AMD's Phenom quad-core processors coupled with dual ATI Radeon HD3870 graphics -- capable of driving XHD displays at 2560 x 1600. The latter sports Intel's quad-core mind-destroyer, the QX9650 Core 2 Extreme (which trots along at 3.0GHz), utilizes the new SSE4 instructions, and supports a slew of options which blend into what Vigor refers to as the "juiced" configuration. Both models are available now, with the SP starting at $2,319, and the BT clocking in at $2,869 -- though both of those numbers can escalate quickly.[Via Yahoo!]
Vigor Gaming rolls out a bundle of new gaming laptops
It looks like Vigor Gaming's deemed it necessary to refresh its line of gaming laptops, with the company introducing no less than five new models today. On the very top end of those is the company's new Atlantis Pro model (seen above with a rather unfortunate choice of artwork), which boasts a mighty 20-inch widescreen display, along with an AMD Turion 64 X2 processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX graphics, and a pair of 250GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration. It'll set you back $2,800. For few hundred bucks less you can get the standard Atlantis model, which includes a 17-inch WUXGA display, backed up by a Core 2 Duo processor and the same NVIDIA graphics as the pricier model. Rounding out the new models, the Ares, Ares Pro, and Artorius Pro each boast your choice of Core 2 Duo processors, with 15.4 displays on the Ares models and a 17-incher on the Artorius, and various levels of NVIDIA graphics depending on the model. Each of those also comes equipped with a built-in fingerprint reader, with prices ranging from $1299 to $1925 (or higher if you opt for some of the available upgrades).
