HTC Rezound Set to Challenge Galaxy Nexus

HTC announced a new audiophile-targeted phone, Rezound, which will be Android 4.0-ready when it is released.

The phone will ship with the current Android 2.3, Gingerbread, but will receive Android's newest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich, when it is released to the wild early next year. The first phone to get Android 4.0 will be Samsung's Galaxy Nexus when it launches sometime in November.

The Rezound sports some impressive features. It has a 4.3-inch display with a 1280 by 720 pixels resolution. It will have a 1.45 GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. It also comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera. It will be a 4G capable device.

The phone seems to be targets towards those who love music since it supports LTE radio and Beats audio support. Beats are high-performance headphones brand-backed by Dr. Dre.

HTC touts the phone's audio capabilities on a press release:

The HTC Rezound enables customers to hear music the way the artist intended with unique audio tuning that delivers thundering bass, soaring midrange and crisp highs with stunning clarity and incredible stereo sound. Unique to HTC, the HTC Rezound also includes a pair of new lightweight Beats^TM headphones, created exclusively to integrate with the Beats' Audio^TM profile on the phone.

Though to get the full effect of the audio, users will have to load their phones up with better quality sound files than MP3s, which are a notoriously bad music format. There will be 16GB of on-board storage and it will come pre-loaded with a 16GB microSD card. Usually those cards can be replaced with a 32GB card after purchase.

The phone will ship on Nov. 14 and will be available at Verizon Wireless stores and Best Buy. The Rezound will cost $300 with a new 2-year contract.