Smartphone and tablet manufacturer HTC recently announced that their Vivid 4G Android smartphone running on AT&T’s 4G wireless broadband network will receive an over the air upgrade to Android’s 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system in early 2012. The handset arrived on November 6 sporting the second largest display in the mobile marketplace at 4.5 inches. Android’s Gingerbread 2.3.4 operating system is currently installed, and Facebook, YouTube, Picasa and Twitter applications are pre-installed as well. The HTC Sense user interface overlays the Gingerbread OS, and social media applications are located in a central spot, called FriendStream.
As a smartphone the HTC Vivid employs the same rectangular, black slab design of most current handsets, and is about average in dimensions for all 4G phones, measuring 5.07 x 2.64 x 0.44 inches (129 x 67 x 11 mm). The average weight for a 4G smartphone these days is 4.3 ounces, and in this regard the HTC Vivid is slightly heavier, at 6.24 ounces. The 4.50 inch display mentioned earlier is an S–LCD screen which delivers 540 x 960 pixel resolution with built-in light and proximity sensors. Navigation is delivered through capacitive multitouch gestures.
Average talk time on a single battery charge is 4.60 hours, with a standby time of 12 1/2 days. The HTC Vivid contains a dual core 1.2 GHz QUALCOMM APQ8060 processor, and that is supported by 1.0 GB of RAM memory. 16 GB of onboard storage come built into the handset, and that can be ramped up to 32 GB via the on board microSD slot. A rear facing 8.0 megapixel camera offers autofocus and dual LED flash features, and shoots video in 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p HD) at 30 frames per second. The accompanying 1.3 megapixel front facing chat cam which also offers video call capability can record video in 1280 x 720 pixels (720p HD) at 60 frames per second.
Buy the HTC Vivid 4G phone starting at only $159.99.
The above-mentioned YouTube video application is on board, and accompanying video and audio players support all major file formats. That on board music player can filter by artist, play list or album, and an FM stereo is also installed. Video out is possible through HDMI access, and wireless connectivity options are offered through Bluetooth version 3.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n. The HTC Vivid 4G Android handset is available exclusively on the AT&T 4G wireless broadband network at a retail price starting at only $159 at select AT&T authorized retailers with a two-year activation.