Introduction
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.
Design and build quality
The HTC Vivid surely isn’t a design statement. The smartphone is certainly not the best looking offering we’ve seen from the Taiwanese company. It does however, look unmistakably like an HTC and we believe that this fact will appeal to plenty of people.
The build quality of the smartphone is solid. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the choice of materials. The HTC Vivid is predominantly dressed in glossy plastic. While we didn’t find any flaws in its quality, it proved to be a massive dust and fingerprint magnet – that was especially the case with our black review unit.
This is highly unusual showing for HTC. We were always impressed by the materials and their implementation on the actual devices. Sadly, this is not the case with the HTC Vivid.
The measures of the HTC Vivid are 128.8 x 67.1 x 11.2 mm, while its weight is the whopping 177 grams. The smartphone is certainly not the most pocket-friendly offering you will encounter – even among the 4.5” Android devices. Once again however, this has never been an issue for the HTC loving crowd.
The smartphone is available in black and white color schemes – a fact, which should help it appeal to a seriously wide audience.
The 4.5” LCD screen of the HTC Vivid has the familiar qHD resolution. The display has the flaws of all its predecessors to date. Its viewing angles and outdoor legibility simply do not cut it in this price range. The unit is no match for the Galaxy S II’s Super AMOLED Plus unit or the award winning AH-IPS screen of the LG Nitro HD.
Below the screen are the typical four touch-sensitive buttons. Above the display is where the earpiece, ambient light and proximity sensors, the LED notification light, and front-facing camera unit can be found.
There is nothing but the microUSB port on the left side of the smartphone. On the right is where the volume rocker resides.
The power/lock key and the 3.5mm audio jack keep each other company on top of the HTC Vivid. There is nothing but a mouthpiece on the bottom of the device.
The back of the HTC Vivid is covered by a great looking, matte black metal cover, which has tiny dots etched to it to give it texture. There, you will find the 8MP shooter with its LED flash, as well as the speaker grille.
There are no surprises under the battery cover of the HTC Vivid. The SIM card and microSD card slots are not hot-swappable.
The 1620mAh battery of the HTC Vivid, despite appearing modest in capacity, achieved impressive overall score in our battery test. It needed a recharge every 42 hours when used for an hour each of phone calls, web browsing, and video playback.
You can find out everything about the battery test of the HTC Vivid here.
The smartphone handled well for its size. It is narrower than a Galaxy S II Skyrocket for example, so even single-handed operation is possible.
User interface: Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and HTC Sense 3.0
The HTC Vivid runs a familiar software combination. Android 2.3.4 and Sense 3.0 can be found on a number of HTC devices on the U.S. market including the Sensation 4G and EVO 3D, as well as the HTC Amaze 4G.
Check Out this Video
A decent 8MP shooter
The HTC Vivid packs an 8MP camera that does stills of up to 3264x2448 pixels and records 1080p video @ 30fps. There’s a dual-LED flash / video light too. The camera unit has wide aperture lens for better low light performance.
The camera interface is space efficient. Most of the controls are on the right side of the viewfinder, with the virtual shutter in the center. There’s a virtual zoom lever on the left. By default the viewfinder image is cropped so that it fills the entire screen, but you can switch that off (note that cropping reduces the resolution).
You can focus by touching the screen. Geotagging is on board as well. When focusing, the camera unit makes a sound, suggesting it is taking care of business.
The camera of the HTC Vivid loads fast – you can access it straight from the lockscreen. The process takes less than a second.
The HTC Vivid produces nicely detailed photos with faithful colors and low noise levels. We’re pretty pleased with the results – they are on par with what the LG Nitro HD offers, for instance.
Full HD camcorder
The interface of the camcorder is similar to the one found in the still camera. You can set the video resolution, recording limit and add effects.
Videos are shot in 3gp, not the best quality container for a FullHD footage. We have prepared a couple of camera samples for you. Don't forget to click 1080p on the Full HD video sample and open the video full screen to really appreciate it.
We're generally pleased with the video quality. The framerate is less than 30fps, but it hovers around 27fps so it's an acceptable deviation. The video is nice and crisp though the colors are somewhat on the dull side, but this could be just us.
Connectivity has all you need and some more
The HTC Vivid has a complete connectivity set. This department benefits the most from the presence of the Snapdragon S3 chipset. There’s quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G.
The icing on the connectivity cake is, of course, the LTE network compatibility. The speeds which we encountered with the HTC Vivid on AT&T’s brand new 4G network often topped 50 MB/s for downloads – faster than most people enjoy in their homes.
The local wireless connectivity has Wi-Fi b/g/n and full DLNA support (both client and server, for images, videos and music) and Bluetooth 3.0.
The Connected media app handles all sorts of DLNA connections – it plays media to and from devices on the network with just a couple of clicks. Apps like the gallery have such functionality built in too.
You have a long list of options for connecting to a PC - Charge only, Disk drive (mass storage), HTC Sync, USB tethering (use the phone as a modem) and Internet pass-through (the phone uses the computer’s Internet connection). The Charge only and Disk Drive now have big, thumb-friendly icons, which is great since they are used most often.
Last but not least is the HTC Portable Hotspot. It can support 1 to 8 devices (default Froyo app maxes out at 5), you can WEP, WPA or WPA2 encrypt the hotspot and you can enable “allowed users” only to connect or leave it open for all (unsecure, but the quickest setup).
The app can be set to power off automatically after 5 or 10 minutes of inactivity, saving your battery in case you forget to switch it off manually.
We're not over covering the connectivity - the "microUSB port" as we called it for convenience is actually a MHL port. If you plug a MHL dongle in it, you can output HD video over a standard HDMI connection.
The phone's UI is mirrored on the TV - the qHD resolution has the perfect 16:9 aspect ratio for connecting to HDTVs.
Final Words
Back in April when we caught the first look of the HTC Sensation 4G, we were thrilled by its design and complete feature set. It was obvious that HTC had put a massive effort into developing it.
It is December 2011 now and we’re talking HTC Vivid. The phone has practically the same specs and functionality, save for the bumps in the memory and screen departments, along with its LTE radio.
HTC have raised the bar for themselves with their previous dual-core Android smartphones. The Vivid is nicely spec'd and it's also nicely priced although the materials that went in it are not as premium as we've come to see from HTC.
Currently, the HTC Vivid sells for $99.99 with a two-year contract. If anything, the device is priced well for a dual-core Android smartphone, not to mention the LTE connectivity. Let’s take a quick look at its alternatives now.
If you are an HTC fan, the Sensation 4G, Amaze 4G, or EVO 3D will all give you better value for your money unless you are into LTE specifically. All three devices will offer you a significantly better build quality and looks to go with the exact same functionality. The HTC Sensation 4G sells for $ 199.99, while the Amaze 4G and EVO 3D will set you back $239.99 and $99.99 respectively. You can always shop around at an authorized reseller and get a much better price than what the carriers are asking for them – especially if you are signing a new contract.
There are plenty of other options and they all do not bode well for the fate of the HTC Vivid. It's obviously priced below the high-enders but its build quality is not as good as it should have been. And the cut-throat competition these days doesn't leave much room for compromise. It's still a quite capable droid with ample screen estate and a nice camera, so it's worth a shot if you are ok with its looks.
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