Following the Samsung Skyrocket, the HTC Vivid is the other leading Long Term Evolution 4G smartphone for AT&T's burgeoning high-speed network. Here's a first look.
The HTC Vivid is a new LTE 4G smartphone for AT&T. It takes a different design approach when compared to phones we've seen recently from HTC. It is weighty, dense, and has an odd, trapezoidal shape that gives it a curious appearance.
With its qHD display stretching across most of the front surface, the Vivid is the plainest, blackest-looking smartphone I've seen from HTC in recent memory. Gone are the grays, browns, and other earth-like tones. It has smooth, shiny surfaces that feel slightly slippery to me. Despite the trapezoidal shape, it still manages to be conformable to hold and use, and the plastic materials make it slip into a pocket easily.
The volume toggle on the right felt good, the power/lock button on top felt very good, and the 3.5mm headset jack is placed in a good spot.
The display is excellent. With 4.5-inches of space and 540 x 960 pixels, there's plenty to like. It is bright, colorful, and HTC's Sense user interface looks really nice on it. Speaking of which, thanks to the dual-core 1.2GHz processor, everything about the Vivid's operating system was zippy and fast.
As with the Skyrocket, Phone Scoop hasn't had a chance to test the Vivid's LTE 4G performance.