HTC Raider 4G / Reviews

As trite as it may sound, the Vivid is the Tim Tebow of AT&T’s smartphone roster. What it lacks in finesse and flair at first, it makes up for in performance and brute wireless speed in the end—serving a solid Android experience. HTC’s new mobile welcomes an impressive spec sheet, which is quarterbacked by a powerful dual-core chip that generates swift results and handles multitasking with ease. Ma Bell’s second LTE phone also garners fast data speeds and the huge display produces great picture quality.

Even though it boasts enough firepower and visual aesthetics to get it passed the wild card round, the phone's still a long shot against the more attractive and powerful AT&T handsets such as both Atrix models and the Samsung Skyrocket. Still, if you’re all about mobile capability and execution, you’ll feel comfortable placing your chips on the Vivid.

Read original review at Complex.

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The Raider is likely the first of many LTE offerings by HTC. In this case, it is the first LTE device on the market, and good thing too, since Samsung and LG will be competing very soon.

Besides LTE, the Raider is a capable beast, a monolithic artifact outdated before its time. Its tapered design coupled with glossy plastic and aluminum backing harkens back to the Windows Mobile-powered HD2. Some users will find it uncomfortable to hold; others too plain; more not different enough to justify an upgrade. The Raider does everything right, and yet we can’t help but yearn for the second-generation LTE devices that will inevtiably arrive in six months, with power-efficient designs and improved battery life. We can’t help but be disappointed that in light of the LG Optimus LTE and Galaxy Nexus the Raider does not have an HD screen.

Its one virtue — and gosh is it ever — is the ability to blow all other smartphones out of the water when it comes to throughput. We like the Raider the way we love comfort food: it’s consistent, stable and comfortable. Fans of HTC on Rogers or Bell should have no problem justifying its purchase. For the rest, wait a few weeks while we sort out which LTE handset is king.

Read original review at Mobile Syrup.

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The battery is not long-lived...if you are not careful it will dial numbers because you touched it incorrectly...sometimes slow to react....as soon as I can I will be getting an IPhone...it has many for advantages...it is much more dependable according to other family members who own them...we had to work very hard to find a ring tone that could be heard...missed important emergency calls.

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This phone has no battery life to speak of. It also shuts itself off at will. Once it erased all my data. I sent it away for repairs, they reflashed the software. I upgraded to Android 4.0.3 and it still does its shut off routine. It is also a very quirky phone and does not always do what you want. The human interface and some of the options are poorly thought out - when I got it and listened to the sales guy, it seeemed like a prefect little smartphone. After using it for three months I think I'll put it up on eBay and get something decent like an iPhone or a Blackberry.

It also has a very quiet ring. I downloaded some loud ringtones and that makes it a little better but in a loud place still not nearly good enough.

The screen is too sensitive, even with a protector. Sometimes it willl react if your finger happens to be close but not touching.

This phone's support is also poor. My suppliers support staff (Rogers) are semi-educated in the functions and HTC's support is arrogant and not much better.

Stay away from it.

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Really like the screen, the camera and the LTE download speed, but the battery life is unacceptable.

One day the battery went totally flat in 5 hours after I took 20 pictures and 4 mins of video.

Even after installing a battery management app and turning off auto brightness on the screen, any significant use drains the battery rapidly.

The specs claim extended standby time, but I calculate it to be 48 hrs even with zero use. Even when not illuminated, the screen takes significant battery power, using over half of the total draw according to the battery app.

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Unless you live in an area where LTE network is available do not but this product, i just went through 2 of these in 3 days and well because i dont live in an area where LTE is available im hooped

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