HTC Vivid review

Simple, all-black slabs are the norm among Android devices — and really, among smartphones in general. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that; simple can be (and quite often is) beautiful in its own right. And from a technological perspective, pushing an extra-large touchscreen out to the edges, practically eliminating the bezel in the process, limits your opportunities for meaningful differentiation.

If you'd covered all branding on the Vivid, I probably would've guessed it was an LG

Thing is, HTC has been far more talented than most of its competitors at taking a few limited design variables and crafting genuinely unique devices. The Legend, Aria, Incredible, Sensation, Amaze, Rezound, just to name a few — they've all had stand-out elements that make them distinct and immediately recognizable without compromising functionality. Somehow, HTC has lost sight of that design DNA on the Vivid. I don't want to use the term "half-baked," but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some corners cut along the Vivid's development path in order to meet AT&T's goal of a 2011 LTE handset launch — and gorgeous, unique industrial design is likely one of the easiest corners to cut.

The best way I can describe it is this: if you'd covered all branding on the Vivid and shown the phone to me before I knew what it was, I probably would've guessed it was an LG. That's not necessarily a knock on LG — it's a testament to the fact that there's very little about the Vivid's design that screams "HTC," and that's odd considering how strongly HTC's personality tends to shine through in most of its products.

But let's get to specifics. The front of the phone is dominated by a 4.5-inch qHD display that's actually advertised as a Super LCD component — there was a period of time where HTC had been shying away from using the Super LCD branding, but it looks like that might be a thing of the past. The bezel is pleasantly minimal on all four sides: on the left and right, it's maybe 5 millimeters, and the top and bottom don't seem to be any wider than they need to (the AT&T logo at the top is tastefully small). Your front-facing camera is positioned at the upper right, while the bottom has the usual pre-Ice Cream Sandwich array of capacitive buttons: Home, Menu, Back, and Search, in that order.

No complaints so far, but it's the side of the phone where things start to go downhill. I was provided with the all-black version of the Vivid for review, and I didn't care for the glossy, angled edges at all — it almost looks like an enamel coat on metal. Obviously, it's a personal preference here, but I didn't think there was anything attractive about this element of the phone's design. In the brief time I'd spent with the white version (which has a contrasting silver battery cover), I thought the look was much, much better. Glossy white generally seems to work better than glossy black.

The controls and ports along the edges are simple and typical, starting with a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top left and a chromed power / standby button at the top right. The power button was too flush for my liking, making it difficult to suss out by feel alone — I would've liked perhaps a millimeter of height here. By contrast, the volume rocker along the right edge — which, like the power button, is chrome — is hard to miss. The single-piece switch is well over an inch long, so even if you can't distinguish it from the rest of the edge by feel, you could just guess at its location during a call and odds are good that you're going to hit it. Conspicuously missing, though, is a dedicated camera key; I'm not sure why manufacturers continue to produce high-end phones without them, considering what a big difference they make in the shooting experience. The left edge has the typical Micro USB port near the bottom, and the bottom edge has a tiny mic hole — it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it.

Thanks to the inward angle of the Vivid's edges, the back of the phone is actually quite a bit smaller than the front, and the entire surface is a flat metal cover that can be disengaged and removed by sliding it upwards. The top of this area features a metal grille (the loudspeaker, naturally) with the 8-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash right below it. The cover felt like another design misstep to me: it's the only metal component on the phone and didn't really "fit in" with the remainder of the decor. On the plus side, there isn't any obnoxious branding here — just an understated HTC logo engraved into the top half.

Overall, the phone felt pretty good in the hand. It's actually extremely solid — I don't know exactly what material HTC is using for those chunky, angled, glossy edges, but there's absolutely zero flexion when you attempt to twist the device (not something I recommend you try yourself, but an interesting test nonetheless). I wasn't in love with the feel of those angles when I had the phone to my face, but I never really felt like I was in danger of dropping it. As with other qHD phones, the 16:9 aspect ratio really works to the Vivid's advantage — it's a little narrower than WVGA, so you can get away with a 4.5-inch screen size without making the shell too big to hold or to access the entire display with your thumb.

The display is definitely a bright spot on this phone — and with a name like "Vivid," I'd expect no less

Design aside, the display is definitely a bright spot on the Vivid — and with a name like "Vivid," I'd expect no less. 720p phones like the Galaxy Nexus and Rezound are poised to take the all-out resolution crown away from qHD devices like this, it's true, but make no mistake: the 960 x 540 offered by qHD still looks stellar, and at roughly 245ppi, there was no point that I felt that display elements felt too big on the phone's 4.5 inches of real estate.

Needless to say, I don't think AT&T is lying about the presence of a Super LCD here. The phone's usable viewing angle is very nearly 180 degrees, in my judgment, and you can't tilt it in a way that makes the colors wash out. If I had to come up with a complaint, it'd be that there's a noticeable gap between the glass and the display — something that devices like Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc and the iPhone 4 / 4S have made an effort to eliminate — but it's not a practical concern in day-to-day use.