By the end of November, Verizon may have the three best Android smartphones ever created all to itself. The HTC Rezound is one of those three, boasting next-gen specs, Beats by Dre audio enhancements, 4G LTE connectivity, and one of the first 720p HD screens even seen on a mobile device. On paper, this phone might be better than the DROID RAZR and Galaxy Nexus, the two phones it will compete directly with. In real life use though, can it use its sound-inspired name, HTC Sense skin, red accents, and spectacular design to come out on top of this epic end of the year battle? It’s going to be tough, but we have spent enough time with it over the last week to at least provide our opinion on that matter.  

We were very happy to receive one of Philips’ anticipated docking stations for Android in the mail a little while ago and knew that lots of people have been looking for something just like this. Finally, a docking station for our Android devices that has good quality speakers that can rock the house and charge our devices at the same time. A simple device that turned a bit complicated due to software constraints and silly ‘non-existent’ requirements. Let me try to explain.

This weekend, after more than a week with the DROID Bionic, I felt it was finally time to put my thoughts on the device together in one of our standard reviews.  Since most of you know the story of the Bionic, there is no need to rehash all of those bad times, so instead, I will just jump right into this.  This device was supposed to be game changing.  Is it?  In some ways it most certainly is.  But is it game changing enough for you to buy it now instead of waiting the month to see what may be the beginning of an era of smartphones that we never dreamed would come.  Let’s find out.  

As you all know, we try to give new phones a thorough run-through of at least a full week before posting up a review on it.  We definitely do not do the 1-day press review as that seems completely unfair to both readers and to the device itself.  With that said, we know that the DROID Bionic is a hot topic right now and also that many of you are waiting to hear our thoughts on it before jumping in and buying one.  Since our full review is still some time away and many of you are contemplating whether or not you should pick one up this weekend, we thought we would toss out a few quick thoughts, bugs and other stuff that we have experienced with the phone.   

And a DROID Bionic is in our possession.  I obviously haven’t had enough time with it to do a full review or anything, but can give you my first impressions on a device that has been 9 painful months in the making.

So what do I think of Verizon’s first dual-core and 4G LTE device?  All good so far.  I am loving the feel in hand – the build quality lives up to Moto standards.  It’s a heck of a lot lighter than I expected it to be.  Is thinner than I expected it to be.  Is definitely snappier than the DROID3 even though they have almost identical specs, aside from the doubling of the RAM of course.

“But what about the screen?  Is it PenTile Matrix?”  Yes, unfortunately it is.  However, it’s not completely killing my eyes at this moment.  You can definitely see some black pixels and some not-so-straight lines, along with it struggling to produce green.  This will be a problem, but we are going to try our best to not focus just on that as one of its downfalls.

Again, so far I am really liking the phone.  With that said, let’s not jump to any crazy conclusions until we have some real time with it to decide if it should be your next device or if you should pass on it for the HTC Vigor or Nexus Prime.

Gallery after the jump!  (Video added)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that just landed on Verizon beat the Motorola XOOM to market as the world’s first 4G LTE tablet.  It also managed to sneak in at cheaper price points, a lighter weight, skinnier build and with varying storage sizes and colors.  At first glance, it’s pretty obvious that this would be the tablet to jump on over the majority of the other offerings, for many of the reasons I just listed.  The thing we really need to look at here though, is whether or not this tablet is worth the 2-year contract that you will be asked to sign in order to avoid paying an outrageous full retail price.    

We finally decided to give the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 4G LTE a spin even though it has been available from Verizon for a couple of weeks now.  The device, as many of you know, is exactly like the WiFi versions that have been in retail stores for a month or so, but packs that extra special 4G radio, making your mobile life outside of home that much faster.

We got a hold of the white 16GB version ($529 on 2-year contract) and will be putting it through the proper tests over the next few weeks to help you decide if you should pick one up or wait to see what the holiday lineup will look like.  If it’s anything like the our special edition I/O version, we’re more than likely have some nice things to say about it.