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The HTC Rhyme leans more on included accessories and the new coloured-chassis design than it does on massively upgraded specs. It is, essentially, a HTC Desire S with a little more battery power, a refreshed HTC Sense and a pretty face.
Maybe it will only appeal to women, maybe the second non-purple colour will save it. Still, we have a lot of love for HTC and even for 'mid-range' phones they have a lot of capability – the HTC Rhyme simply displays that to a tee.
We liked
So, what we liked: we liked the solid build and swish soft-feel/aluminium unibody design. We even liked the purple colour, which we think looks pretty classy.
The Sense 3.5 update had some nice touches, such as the lockscreen shortcuts. The camera is only 5MP but still produces some nice shots, and the phone is essentially a capable blank slate with some cool accessories that you can customise to your heart's desire.
We disliked
We didn't like that it is, essentially, a purple remake of the HTC Desire S with very few different elements. The battery isn't removeable, so if it does spark out or freeze it's difficult to kickstart. It's also still a single core CPU, which puts it far behind the a good chunk of the HTC output in terms of processing power.
Final verdict
While the HTC Rhyme is a stylish version of a phone that's already great in its own right, this mid-range smartphone doesn't bring anything new to the table except a few fancy accessories - but will attract those stylistas looking for something that isn't yet another iPhone clone.
