Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The HTC Rhyme comes to the user as a fairly blank slate apps-wise. Perhaps this is a nod to the burgeoning choice of the Android Market store, but the only things pre-loaded on the handset of note are Twitter, Facebook, Tango (a Skype-like calling app), Polaris Office, Gmail, Reader e-books, Maps and a fantastic-looking fitness app called Endomondo. That's pretty streamlined: not a single game/game preview in sight.
There are some minor functionality apps though which are good – the flashlight app, mirror, task manager and Wi-Fi HotSpot are amongst the handiest touches.
It's interesting that a fitness app should be one of the biggest apps pre-loaded onto the HTC Rhyme, but Endomondo truly looks awesome, with options to track your workout via GPS, set a goal, beat a friend's PB or just beat yourself.
It would be interesting to know if HTC included that for the female market specifically or whether they included it to entice the male buyers who are less entranced with purple phones.
The Android store is well-stocked with all the big-hitter news and social media apps plus the ubiquitous mobile games. What's a nice touch is the way most can be used not just as shortcuts from the home screens but as their very own widgets as well.
The Tumblr one, for example, is particularly nice; a simple dashboard bar that allows you to shortcut to say, the camera for snapping and quick uploading of a photo.
The Foursquare app also has to widgets – one to display friends' latest check-ins and one to display the nearest places to you for easy check in.
The mapping capability of the HTC Rhyme is, of course, excellent with Google Maps and Locations as standard. Once opened the GPS is quick to lock on and very accurate.
All the usual excellent navigational tools are included such as sat nav and the various satellite/terrain/transport line views.
Locations takes a fair whack of data and time to download the country-specific maps, but with a Wi-Fi connection it's not really too much of a bother, and handy to have if you find yourself somewhere without an internet connection.
