HTC Vivid is the newest member of AT&T’s LTE smartphone, which already has Samsung Galaxy SII and LG Nitro HD. The phone with its massive 4.5 inch display and 1.2GHz dual core processor promises to deliver blazing speed and its competitive pricing ($199.99 on contract) does make it a head turner. Read below our exclusive HTC Vivid review to know what the phone has to offer you.

HTC Vivid Case/Design

When we first looked at Vivid, we were reminded of HTC EVO 4G, as the former bears some characteristic design similar to EVO 4G. Though the smartphone is not one of the best looking products you will find in the market, yet the build quality of the phone is solid. The phone is dressed in glossy plastic which easily attracts dust and fingerprints. This is a bit unusual for HTC as the company is always known to use impressive materials in designing its phones. At dimensions standing at 128.8 x 67.1 x 11.2 mm, Vivid is certainly not one of the most pocket friendly devices you will find in the market.

It is quite bulky too weighing a massive 177 grams. It is bigger and bulkier than iPhone 4S. It is also heavier than other two LTE phone’s of AT&T, Samsung Galaxy S II and LG Nitro HD. But weight has never been an issue with HTC lovers and hence we are not too concerned about the weight and dimensions of Vivid. Thanks to the stainless steel back cover, the phone feels durable and is quite nice when gripped. The power button and the headphone jack is at the top of the phone while on the right side, you will find the volume button and a microUSB port.

HTC Vivid Screen

Vivid is packed with a massive 4.5 inches LCD screen which has a familiar qHD resolution. Though in some of the sites, the colors appeared to be sharp, bright and crisp, yet it suffered from poor viewing angles and outdoor legibility. We found the Super AMOLED of Galaxy SII and AH-IPS screen of LG Nitro HD much better than that of Vivid. Details on Nitro HD’s screen were much better than that of Vivid. Colors, contrast and sharpness on the retina display of iPhone 4S was far better than that of Vivid.  Below the display you get the four-touch sensitive buttons while above the display you find the earpiece, ambient light and proximity sensors.

HTC Vivid Features

Vivid runs on Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread) OS and is equipped with HTC’s Sense 3.0 interface.  This is similar to a number of HTC devices such as Sensation 4G and Evo 3D. Some of the other features of Vivid are:

Keyboard

Vivid sports a virtual QWERTY keyboard which is quite spacious and is easy to type on. The keyboard is good to use either in portrait or in landscape mode. It gave us a nice gentle haptic feedback. We also liked the trace keyboard which accurately predicted our words.

Memory

Memory is an important aspect for any smartphone and HTC has done a fine job in this regard. The phone offers internal memory storage of 16GB. The memory can be increased to 32GB. This is sufficient to store a large amount of data including photos, videos and contacts.

Apps

The phone comes with several pre-loaded apps and utilities. Among HTC apps, users get HTC Movies, HTC Watch, HTC Likes and HTC Hub. There are various third party apps such as Mog, Adobe Reader, Facebook, Twitter, Qik Lite etc. The carrier branded apps includes Code Scanner, Navigator and U-Verse LiveTV.

Phonebook and Messaging

Vivid has HTC’s all noteworthy phonebook which has deep social networking addition. The phonebook helps to keep all the things in order. When you select a contact, the basic details are displayed. HTC Vivid smartphone is capable of handling all sorts of text messaging – MMS, SMS and emails. When you receive an incoming SMS, the notification area will show a line. It is very easy to convert a SMS into MMS.

Processor

Vivid is equipped with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor along with 1GB RAM. A third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is quite competent to handle almost all the tasks thrown at it with ease.

Specs

• Dimensions: 128.8×67.1×11.2mm
• Weight: 177 grams (approx)
• Display 4.5 inches S-LCD capacitive touchscreen
• OS: Android OS 2.3.4 (Gingerbread)
• GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support
• GPU: Adreno 220

Click here for full HTC Vivid specifications

HTC Vivid Email

Users get a couple of email options with Vivid. There is HTC mail and Gmail apps. While the HTC email app is capable of handling several accounts, the Gmail app supports batch operations. Both the mails are quite easy to set up and easy to operate.

HTC Vivid Camera Quality

Vivid is packed with an 8MP camera which clicks pictures of resolution measuring 3264x2448pixels. There is also a dual LED flash and the interface of the camera is very efficient. However, when we zoomed into the images, there was a significant amount of graininess. The photos captured are very nicely detailed and the colors are quite good. The quality of photos is at par with LG Nitro HD. But the sluggish shutter prevented us from taking quick shots. The dual-LED flash of Vivid helped us to click us photos in dim light. The phone also has a 1.3MP front facing camera which comes in handy while carrying out video chats.

HTC Vivid Video

The phone captures 1080p videos and the interface of the camcoder is very much the same as that of the still camera. The videos are shot in 3gp and we were quite pleased with the quality of videos. The videos are captured at 27fps and not 30fps. The colors are crisp though a bit dull. Videos are shot in 3gp.

HTC Vivid Connectivity and Multimedia

Connectivity set is great with HTC Vivid. There is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/ EDGE along with tri-band 3G. The greatest connectivity feature of Vivid is certainly its compatibility with LTE network. Local wireless connectivity in handled by Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA support and Bluetooth 3.0. DLNA connections are handled by the connected media app. With HTC Portable Hotspot the phone supports approximately 8 devices. The micro USB 2.0 cable and the 3.5mm audio jack further consolidate the connectivity of the phone.

The video player of the phone is quite good and we faced no problem while playing 1080p MP4 videos. It also handled 720p DivX or XviD. The music player is quite sensational and the SRS sound enhancement improves the listening experience of listeners. The equalizer settings can be changed by plugging in headphones. HTC Vivid also has an FM radio whose interface is very simple and it automatically searches for the nearby radio stations. But the radio took some time before to start.

HTC Vivid Call Quality

Vivid provided robust call quality. Be it incoming call or outgoing call, we never faced any distortion in calls and our listeners could hear us very clearly.

HTC Vivid Accessories

The phone has the following accessories

• HTC Vivid
• MicroUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• User Manual

Download HTC Vivid user manual

HTC Vivid Battery Life

The phone is equipped with a standard Li-Ion 1620mAh battery which offers a talk time of around 7 hours.

HTC Vivid Price

On contract price of Vivid is approximately $ 200 while price of the phone in India is around Rs 10,000.

HTC Vivid offers a good value for money. It offers great speed thanks to AT&T’s 4G LTE network and dual-core processor. If you are an Android fan looking for nice 4G LTE phone, then you can look forward to HTC Vivid.