We like the HTC look but the difference here is the colour. Most of HTC's phones come in black, grey or white, but the Rhyme comes in purple, grey or a silvery blue, with three different shades on each.
Our review unit came in the deep plum purple, which looks nice but is obviously not for everyone. It's nice to see some variation from the typical black and white options with which we are all too familiar.

Comfortable size and weight
The Rhyme is a medium sized and weighted handset. It's 61x119mm, which we found fits very nicely in the palm of the hand - a tiny bit larger than the iPhone 4S for reference. You can easily reach every corner of the screen with your thumb without stretching. The phone isn't the lightest around, but at 130g it's hardly going to strain your wrist. The Rhyme is a reasonable 10.9mm thick.

Once again HTC has gone for a uni-body design, so the metal flows nicely from the front to the back. The rear has two rubbery plastic sections, of which the lower one is removable and hides the SIM card and microSD card slots. The battery is under here too but annoyingly can't be removed.

HTC has opted for a 3.7in touch screen which is on a par with the Nokia Lumia 800 for size and 480x800 resolution. This screen size is a happy medium. It's large enough to believe you can do things with it, but is not cumbersome. We were impressed with the quality of the screen, which has a pixel density of 252ppi. Text and images look crisp and clear while offering good contrast and brightness.

The remaining specifications don't make for very exciting reading, with a 1GHz single-core processor, 768MB of RAM and 1GB of available internal storage. HTC makes up for the relatively small storage by providing an 8GB microSD card, but we wouldn't want to pit the Rhyme against dual-core processor rivals, and that's a common feature in high-end devices.

Surprising performance
Regardless of the numbers, we found the performance of the Rhyme very impressive. Swiping between home screens was slick and lightning fast, while opening apps didn't prove to be a problem. We expected a bit of a slowdown with tasks like graphically rich web browsing and gaming, but the Rhyme remained solidly responsive throughout.

The Rhyme has decent connectivity behind the scenes, including Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and Digital Living Network Alliance technology.

Rounding off the hardware are the front- and rear-facing cameras which, like the previous specifications, don't spark much excitement. The rear camera is 5-megapixel with an LED flash and the ability to record video at HD 720p, while the front camera is VGA quality. We weren't expecting any amazing results from the Rhyme in this area.
However, we were pleasantly surprised with the rear-facing camera, which took excellent photos outdoors and inside. Our test shots came out very sharp and colourful, and the camera app is a joy to use. There are plenty of settings to fiddle with if you know a thing or two, and there is a range of effects you can use. Shutter lag is minimal, which helps a lot.

We found video to be nothing special. The picture quality is good like the still shots, but we found the footage a little jerky at times. Unfortunately the front camera was as we expected, with a fair amount of graininess to the picture. But it's alright for the odd video call.

Android Gingerbread with Sense
The Rhyme ships with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. Although Google has launched Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, HTC makes up for this a bit with version 3.5 of its Sense user interface.
Apps and web browsing
There are plenty of preinstalled apps, including Adobe Reader, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, HTC Watch and Polaris Office, meaning there's something for everyone. We particularly like the Usage Monitor, which is a feature of Android ICS that we didn't expect to get. It details your minutes, text messages and mobile data use, but regrettably you can't set any limits to make sure you stick within your tariff.

HTC will upgrade its handsets to Android 4.0 ICS at some point, but the Rhyme isn't on its list of eligible smartphone models at the moment.

As with every HTC device we've seen this year the web browser is of a high standard as is the on-screen keyboard. We found it easy to use the web browser, which uses the entire screen on the phone and displays tabs in a nice graphical way. Our only small quibble is the odd limit of six tabs open at once.

The keyboard makes the phone easy to use across the board with a simple and well thought out design. The keys are nicely spaced and it's very handy to have a second function, or modifier, on every key. Predictive text, auto correction and auto punctuation mean that the Rhyme offers efficient typing performance.

Accessories are included
One of the best things about the Rhyme is that it comes with accessories, a welcome surprise. For starters you get a pair of reasonable quality in-ear headphones that have in-line controls and match the colour of the phone. Secondly you get what HTC calls a 'charm', which is a small cube on the end of a corded lead - again in a matching colour. This notifies you of an incoming text or phone call by flashing if, for example, your phone is buried in a bag. Depending on the individual this could be handy, but you have to remember to attach it every time you use it.

The last bit of additional kit is a docking station, which is our favourite and easily the most useful of the lot. It comes in black and is magnetic so the phone is held well. Docking the phone charges it and puts it into a special dock mode that displays things like the clock, weather and music. We found this a great place to keep the phone on a desk, but the headphone socket is obstructed by the dock, which is slightly annoying.

HTC provides a 1,600mAh battery with the device, which is about average. We got a couple of days out of the Rhyme with a reasonable amount of use, but heavier users will probably need to charge it every night. We found that having the docking station helped keep it topped up.