2011 Holiday Tech Preview: Phones
November 29, 2011, By James Pilcher 0 comments
You may think you have the most advanced phone on the market, but give it a week and that "new" smartphone will be upstaged by something even smarter. The cellular market has been flooded with new gadgets this season, and it seems like every brand has revamped, renewed and overhauled their designs, introducing something new to consumers. While there are hundreds of new phones to talk about, I picked out a few of my favorites, just in time for the holidays.
HTC Rhyme
OK, fellas—you want to go tech but also be a hero to your lovely spouse? GET THIS PHONE!
It is a fully functional (and powerful) Android smartphone. But it is designed for women. And I don't just mean pretty colors (although, amazingly, the test unit sent by Verizon Wireless matched my wife's purse).
This one is functionally designed for women with one of the more ingenious things I've seen in a while. It's called "charm"—which is basically a corded light that hangs outside a purse and lights up when a call or message comes in. It plugs into the headphone jack and hangs outside the purse.
Your significant other can easily find the phone in her purse. And I can tell you that after a month of using it, I'm having a hard time prying it back out of my wife's hands.
It has a very bright screen, lightning-fast processor and the latest version of the Android operating system. Is it as powerful, bright or big as the new RAZR (reviewed below)? No, but it gets the job done.
The Rhyme currently runs about $199 with a two-year contract from Verizon, with an appropriate data and voice plan running $80–100 a month.
NEXT: Motorola RAZR
