HTC Rezound review

Maps

The HTC Rezound packs a fairly standard Android Gingerbread 2.3 Google Maps feature. The same one you'll find on other HTC devices.

We found it was quick to locate us, and quick to find directions for us - the rest was status quo. Apps, however, were a bit of a different story.

Apps

The HTC Rezound is packed with extra apps, courtesy of Verizon. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter of personal preference. Luckily, the Rezound quarantines all 16 of the Verizon apps onto their own page, and you can judge for yourself if you want to keep them.

They've added everything, from the ubiquitous Backup Assistant to Blockbuster and Amazon Kindle. Verizon Video offers TV episodes and other video content, or you can try streaming music with the Slacker Radio app.

HTC adds there own extras including Footprints (sort of like Google Latitude), Watch (yet another video store), and some more useful items like Friend Stream, which combines your Facebook and Twitter feeds into one constantly-updating stream.

Friend Stream is convenient, for sure, but if the near-constant updates don't encourage you to prune your various virtual "friend" lists, nothing will. There's a dedicated Friend Stream app, but it also works well as a Home screen widget for quickly keeping up to date with everyone's lunches, cat pictures, and observations that no, it's definitely not 5:00 yet.