Earlier today, we showed you the first press shots of the HTC Rezound, coming to Verizon Wireless. We found out last month that HTC was planning a press event for this afternoon, and the smart money was on us finally seeing an official reveal of the Rezound. Sure enough, HTC, with the help of Verizon and Best Buy, announced that the Rezound will arrive on November 14 for about $300.

It was in late September when we first heard of the name Rezound linked to the HTC model we had been following as codename Vigor. A leaked MAP list from last month mentioned that $300 price tag, and though we’ve heard a few rumored launch dates, November 14 matches the schedule in one of the most recent leaks.

By this point, the Rezound’s hardware specs aren’t a surprise, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less impressive. The phone won’t arrive running Ice Cream Sandwich like the Galaxy Nexus (though HTC promises it’s ICS-ready), but the Rezound certainly looks like it will hold its own in the hardware department. It’s HTC’s first model with an HD-resolution 720p display (4.3 inches), and features a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, one gigabyte of RAM, 16GB internal flash, a 16GB microSD card, eight-megapixel main camera, two-megapixel front-facer, LTE radio, and of course the latest Sense 3.5.

As you can see from the logo on the Rezounds’ back panel, this is another of HTC’s recent smartphones to play up its relationship with Beats (first in the US). HTC really harped on this at today’s event, giving nearly fifteen minutes to Beats and the Rezound’s musical prowess. Is anyone really more attracted to HTC phones since this partnership began?

Maybe it’s just me, but I have one nice pair of headphones that I use with all my gadgets. Trying to force brand-name Beats earbuds upon customers who may only be interested in your smartphone itself just feels really odd, like if Pepsi partnered up with Solo and you couldn’t buy a 2-liter bottle without getting half a dozen red plastic cups with it. Just sell me the soda; I have my own cups at home. And as for the “Beats audio profile” on the Rezound, a good audio playback system shouldn’t be tailoring its output for any one device, but passing on the signal as untouched as possible, not doing any “shaping” of the sound or EQ work; if you need to do so in order to get a good experience out of some headphones, it means they’re not very good headphones! Processing audio like this may make it sound bigger, or bassier, but that’s not an accurate reproduction of the original recording. Shouldn’t that be the goal in a phone claiming to cater to music lovers?

Does the Beats arrangement seem like a smart business move to any of you?

Source: Phone Scoop