HTC Rezound Supports GSM Networks Too!!

If you’re a regular visitor to online blogs and forums, chances are, that all you’ve been reading lately is about Ice Cream Sandwich firmware leaks, MIUI v4 ports, the odd rumor about a much-anticipated device which might or might not be unveiled at the MWC in Barcelona next month, or another new app in a really crowded Android market.

Well, here’s something to really set your juices flowing. All of you non-US, GSM-using droids out there, who have been drooling at the HTC Rezound, but secretly disappointed that it is a CDMA-only device — here’s some breaking news for you! XDA forum member i rule123, who is located in Europe, or the UK to be precise, ordered a Rezound accidentally, as he was under the impression that it would work in a GSM environment. Although it was too late to cancel the order, post many folks pointing out the misconception he had, he still went ahead with it.

Upon receiving the shiny new beast, he tried out a T-Mobile UK SIM card on it, and turned off the LTE option on the phone — and SURPRISE –-a menu with options like “Global Mode”, “GSM only”, “WCDMA only” presented itself.

To top that, he was able to place voice calls and use data with no problems whatsoever. The only hitch that he came accross was the inability to send SMS texts, which is a problem that persisted despite changing ROMs. You can check out more details in the original thread at XDA.

The HTC Rezound is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 SoC, which is in fact, equipped with GSM and UMTS support too — meaning that voice and 2G/3G data should technically work (and going by the experience above, it does).

I’m wondering why HTC chose not to make this known; given the excellent feature set and chiseled looks the Rezound sports, I have no doubt in my mind that it would have had the mobile store shelves on fire in Europe. Do you think so too? And now that we know that it works, are you planning on getting yourself a Rezound? You can always order one off Ebay. Let us know your thoughts in comments below.