HTC brings Beats to the U.S. with the Rezound smartphone

Sponsored links, if any, appear in green.

HTC Rezound

HTC Rezound

HTC Rezound

HTC has unveiled its first Beats-branded smartphone for the U.S. market, the Rezound, which will be headed to Verizon Wireless. The Rezound sports a 4.3-inch, 720p display and the obligatory 4G LTE support for Verizon's speedy network.

The Rezound is the first HTC smartphone to pack a 1280 x 720 pixel display, and it is powered by a dual-core, 1.5GHz processor. It has 1GB of RAM and comes with 16GB of internal storage plus a 16GB microSD card pre-installed. The Rezound features a black finish, and its capacitive buttons for home, menu, back, and search glow with a red hue. The phone measures 129mm x 65.5mm x 13.65mm (5.1in x 2.6in x 0.54in), so it is in no way the thinnest phone on the block. HTC has packed support for 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 into the Rezound, and it is powered by a 1,620mAh battery. There is an 8 megapixel camera with a 28mm, f/2.2 lens and flash on the back of the phone, and a 2 megapixel unit up front. The Rezound is capable of recording 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixel) video with the rear camera.

The Rezound runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but HTC says that an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be coming in early 2012. It features the latest version of HTC's Sense interface, and comes with HTC's Watch app to rent or purchase video content. HTC claims that the Beats integration and the included Beats headphones should provide the "best audio experience of any mobile device."

Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, and Best Buy Mobile stores will offer the Rezound on November 14 for $299.99 with a new two year agreement.