HTC Rezound Price, Release Date, Specs Compared

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC's answer to the iPhone 4S and Galaxy Nexus has finally been unveiled, in the form of the HTC Rezound. Powered by Google's open-source Android operating system, it sports top-tier specs and a distinctive textured case.

Price, release date, and carrier:
The HTC Rezound will be available from Verizon, starting on November 14. The $299 price tag (on a 2-year contract) will include a pair of Beats Audio earbuds, which are designed for deep bass and exceptional sound quality.

The Galaxy Nexus will release soon on Verizon, for the same price tag. Apple's iPhone 4S is already available on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T for $199 on a 2-year contract.

Hardware and display:
The HTC Rezound has a thick chassis, with a bright red textured back. It has a full 720p HD display, comparable to the one on the Galaxy Nexus, but its screen is a bit smaller than the Nexus' at 4.3 inches across.

The iPhone 4S has a smaller, aluminum chassis, and its 3.5 inch Retina Display has a slightly lower resolution, but displays pixels so fine that they cannot be seen by the unaided eye.

Android operating system:
The HTC Rezound will be running last year's Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system on its November 14 launch. HTC has announced that the Rezound will be "Ice Cream Sandwich ready," but it will probably be upgraded to the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system in early 2012. It uses the latest version of the HTC Sense customizations, which feature large full-screen widgets and sleek black styling.

As Google and Samsung's flagship phone, the Galaxy Nexus will ship with Ice Cream Sandwich already installed, and feature limited carrier and manufacturer customization. Upgrade dates for other Android smartphones vary, and many low- to medium-range smartphones will not receive an upgrade at all.

The iPhone 4S features Apple's proprietary iOS 5 operating system, and most existing iPhones of earlier models have already received a free upgrade to the latest version.

Under the hood:
The Rezound is equipped with a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GBs of internal storage plus a 16 GB microSD card, and an 8 megapixel camera with the ability to record 1080p HD video. This places it in the top tier of smartphones, along with the Galaxy Nexus, and may allow it to post benchmark scores similar to the iPhone 4S'.

As a 4G LTE device with a large screen, though, it will probably have several hours' less battery life than the iPhone 4S does.

C Spire to sell iPhone 4S

Apple Inc. has said that C Spire Wireless, the country's eighth-largest phone company, will start selling the iPhone 4S in a few weeks.

That's a major coup for the small company, which provides service in Mississippi and surrounding states. So far, only the three biggest carriers sell the iPhone in the U.S. C Spire is bypassing the rest, including T-Mobile USA and U.S. Cellular, in getting the right to sell it.

Neither C Spire, which was known as Cellular South until a month ago, nor Apple explained why C Spire was getting the phone rather than the No. 4 carrier, T-Mobile.

Analyst Jan Dawson of Ovum found the announcement puzzling. He said, "Leapfrogging T-Mobile certainly feels like a slap in the face, and you could argue that there are others that should have come first".

The iPhone 4S isn't compatible with T-Mobile USA's high-speed wireless data network, so Apple would have to change its design or make a version specific to T-Mobile. But Dawson believes that's a minor hurdle to overcome. The iPhone 4 exists in two versions for different networks already. Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp.'s network is compatible with one of them, but it isn't selling the phone.

Sprint Nextel Corp. began selling the iPhone last week. AT&T Inc. had it exclusively for more than three years, until Verizon Wireless started selling it in February.

Verizon, the largest carrier, has more than 100 million phones and other devices on its network, which compares to 1 million at C Spire. While it's tiny in comparison to other U.S. carriers, there are several overseas iPhone carriers that have fewer subscribers.

Hu Meena, the CEO of C Spire, testified in Washington in 2009 that small companies like his were denied access to the most attractive phones, as those were tied up with exclusive arrangements with the larger carriers.

C Spire, which is based in Ridgeland, Miss., has subscribers in Mississippi as well as the Memphis, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. areas.

iPhone 4S faster than all Android Phones

Apple does not even list the new iPhone 4S' internal technical specs - RAM, graphics performance, and processor speed - on the iPhone's "Tech Specs" page. Though, reports have surfaced, which suggest it's basically the same on the inside as an iPad 2. Arnold Kim of MacRumors notes it has the same Apple A5 processor and 512 MB of RAM as an iPad 2, but "is likely underclocked" to 800 MHz compared to the iPad's 1 GHz speed. The underclocking may be necessary in order to fit such a powerful processor into a smartphone chassis and have reasonable battery life.

According to benchmarks compiled by Anand Lal Shimpi and Brian Klug of Anandtech, a stock iPhone 4S outperforms pretty much every phone on the market out of the box.

Graphics - Rendering Egypt offscreen:
The 2.1 version of an app called GLBenchmark forces smartphones and tablets to render graphics onto an offscreen canvas, roughly the size of a laptop monitor. The original iPhone 4 was at the bottom of the benchmarks, rendering the scene at only 11.2 frames per second - slowly enough to be noticed as choppy. Slightly above it was the Nexus S - a single-core superphone - then the LG Optimus 3D, the 10.1 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, and the Motorola Droid Bionic. The Samsung Galaxy S 2 was the only real standout from the Android pack, but the iPhone 4S beat it handily, rendering the scene at over 70 frames per second compared to about 40. Only the iPad 2 beat it, due to its higher clock speed.

Browser performance:
The "Sunspider" Javascript test is a measure of how well a device can handle (non-Flash) interactive web pages. Older smartphones like the original Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS took about 5 seconds to render the test page, while the iPhone 4 beat out even the Galaxy S 2 at 3.5 seconds. The iPhone 4S, on the other hand, took only 2.2 seconds, and was just barely beat out by the 8.9 inch Galaxy Tab. The iPad 2 did not appear in the test results.

Processor speed:
Processor benchmarking seemed to confirm the theory that the iPhone 4S is clocked at 800 MHz. Its dual-core processor was benchmarked as having almost double the power of the old iPhone 4, though, which had a single-core 800 MHz processor.

Android devices were not compared in the processor speed benchmarking, but the iPhone 4S beat them all by a mile in every other measurement.

Sprint gets its 1st iPhone

Apple stores got the longest lines as the new iPhone model launched Friday, but there were lines at Sprint stores too, as the carrier got a chance to sell the phone more than four years after the first model was launched.

Product chief Fared Adib said, the iPhone had broken Sprint's record for first-day sales of any phone. Sales were above the company's expectations.

Sprint Nextel Corp. joined bigger carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless as a seller of the phone. Spot checks in Philadelphia and San Francisco showed that the lines outside Sprint stores were longer than at its rivals.

Meanwhile, a representative for AT&T said, it had activated a record number of iPhones and was on track to double its previous single-day record for activations.

Sprint is struggling to compete with the bigger carriers and expects the iPhone to help it keep subscribers.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Ben Abramovitz said talks with about 50 people in line for the phone at a Sprint store revealed that most of them are current Sprint customers looking to upgrade, particularly BlackBerry users looking for a more Internet-friendly phone. He also found some AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA customers looking to switch.

Sprint will be paying a lot of money to put iPhones in customer hands: It's subsidizing each iPhone 4S by about $400 to get it down to the $200 price for the 16 gigabyte version. It's also selling the cheaper iPhone 4.

Credit ratings agency Moody's Investor Service downgraded Sprint's debt, sending it further into speculative-grade, or "junk" territory. Part of the reason is the cash drain that iPhone sales will cause before they start paying off through higher monthly service fees.

The chief reason behind the downgrade, however, is Sprint's decision to upgrade its wireless network for faster data speeds. Sprint revealed that decision a week ago, to the dismay of investors.

Apple Releasing a Voice Interface for the iPhone

With the iPhone 5 being unveiled next week, the rumor mill is working overtime. In fact, even the invitation for the Oct. 4 event, which reads "Let's talk iPhone," has sprouted rumors that the new model will offer new voice-recognition features that could transform the way smartphone interaction works.

Previous Apple invitations have included hints about the coming product. If the "let's talk" invitation is a hint, the voice-recognition features could represent a fully integrated voice-control interface that accompanies, and in some cases replaces, the touch interaction.

This new voice control could include the ability for a voice-based virtual assistant to access data stored in calendar, contacts, music files and other locations, and use them in conversations between the device and the user. The possibility of new voice features is supported by the fact that Apple bought voice-recognition application provider Siri in 2010. The company has previously released some voice-to-text features.

Various Apple-watching sites are describing the voice-recognition features as a dramatic change, not only allowing the user to schedule an appointment or find a retailer, but offering a revolutionary voice-based interface that once again changes the expectation for smartphones. The aptly named Assistant, according to some reports, will also be able to ask the user questions if, for instance, it's not clear which phone number to use.

Hopes that the newest iPhone could support 4G transmission technology are not high, given reports that the company is waiting for smaller and less power-hungry 4G chips that won't be available until 2012. There have been reports in past months that the company was testing iPhones with 4G Long-Term Evolution support, but the consensus is that, for Apple, elegant style will triumph over speed, at least until the new LTE chips are available.

A research vice president from China Unicom said at the Macworld Asia conference that the iPhone 5 will support HSPA+, a not-quite-true-4G technology with speeds up to 21 Mbps, compared with 7.2 Mbps for 3G.

There are also reports that Apple's internal inventory system shows three new iPod Touch models, likely in the same 8 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB configurations, as well as updated iPhone 4 models and a next-generation iPhone, with a dual-core A5 processor and 1GB of working memory. Some observers have suggested that the next-generation device will be marketed as the iPhone 4S, not as the 5.

Apple suppliers making cheaper 8GB iPhone

Asian suppliers to Apple Inc have begun manufacturing a lower-priced version of its hot-selling iPhone 4 with a smaller 8 gigabyte flash drive.

According to some unidentified sources, the flash drive for the 8GB iPhone 4 is being manufactured by a Korean company. Apple currently sources its flash drives from Japan's Toshiba and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

The existing iPhone 4 was first launched in June 2010 with 16 GB and 32 GB versions, with a white version added to the lineup in April. The 8GB version is expected to launch within weeks.
Some analysts said the cheaper 8GB iPhone 4 could help Apple boost sales in emerging markets.

The Launch of iPhone 5:
In addition to the launch of the smaller iPhone 4, Apple is targeting an end-September launch for the next-generation iPhone 5.

The new iPhone, which some call the iPhone 4S because of its largely identical appearance to the existing iPhone 4, is expected to have a bigger touch screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera.

The iPhone 5's two manufacturers have been told to prepare production capacity for up to 45 million units altogether. The phone will be made by Hon Hai and Pegatron.

Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones in the second quarter versus an expected 17 million to 18 million, and is increasingly looking to Asia to boost future earnings.

Asia-Pacific - which accounts for about one-fifth of its total revenue - and Greater China in particular, helped Apple's revenue surge 82 percent to $28.6 billion in April-June.

Sprint and T-Mobile to get the iPhone 5

There is no shortage of iPhone 5 speculation. The latest rumor says that the handset will launch on all four major networks, adding Sprint and T-Mobile to the mix. Whether that it is the actual iPhone 5 or is instead the iPhone 4S is still unclear.

Analyst Chris Larsen notes that the iPhone 5 will be available “on more networks, specifically Sprint and T-Mobile in the US.” He also says this would increase Apple’s market by 30-percent. Android has more and more become a force to be reckoned with. Given its growing industry presence and market share forecast, Apple is wise to consider easily boosting its own user base by expanding to all four major US carriers.

It would also make sense considering the unit shipments Apple has allegedly requested for the iPhone 5 or possibly iPhone 4S. It was recently revealed that Apple had placed hardware orders for the handset, requesting 25 million units be built in 2011, a number that was called “quite aggressive.”

Last month we also heard that Sprint’s research and development team was internally testing the iPhone, but it was uncertain whether the iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 would be the first iOS device to make it to the carrier. There was the possibility that Sprint would introduce the iPhone 4 around the same time as the iPhone 5 makes its debut, a la Verizon’s iPhone unveiling. But now it sounds as if the real deal, next-gen model will be the carrier’s first iPhone.

And of course, T-Mobile customers have always been likely to get the device, considering its pending acquisition by the original iPhone peddler, AT&T.