Marketing whiz-bang gadgets to girls has always been a bit of a fool’s gambit. The assumption from marketers is that girls want less industrial design, no talk of specs or operating systems, and plenty of media features- cameras, video, music and radio. A budget price never hurts either.

Thankfully in the current smartphone market many high-end components are cheap and easy to pack in, so these phones need not be low-powered or light on hardware. The HTC Rhyme packs plenty of processing power, with a 1GHz…with a fast processor and a decent camera on board. Less impressive is the 4 gigabytes of storage, but that’s where the accessories come in.

The Rhyme comes with a hearty amount of swag in the box, including a velvety pouch to protect from scratches, ‘tangle free’ headphones, a docking station, and a very impressive 8 GB micro SD card. Also included are the requisite USB cables, and a purple charm that lights up when a call or text is coming in.

Some of the girly innovations (the softer curves and, um, the charm) are not going to win any awards, but the tangle free headphones and flat-tape style USB cord are more interesting. By addressing the more universal truth that most women like to throw things into their bag willy-nilly, and then offering some relief from the tangled spaghetti of peripherals, HTC may have actually provided a genuine, girl-centric innovation. Of course, one hopes that even men will one day be able to take advantage of such features.

HTC have pushed their relatively harmless Sense skin over Android, offering crisp menus, plenty of camera tweaks and an FM radio interface, as well as slo-motion recording. These user interface tweaks do help bring a gentler feel to the experience, so HTC gets points there too. Otherwise, this is another well-decked out HTC smartphone.

PRO
Lots of accessories
FM Radio
Nice Camera

CONS
Not listed as Android 4.0 compatible, so you’re probably stuck with 2.3
Average display
Fixed battery, can’t be replaced