HTC Rhyme to launch on 1st of November exclusive to Optus

HTC recently launched the HTC Rhyme in the US as Buzz reported a while back and now it’s set to make its way to Australian shores. The phone will be available as of the 1st of November exclusively from Optus, it will be available on a range of plans ranging from $29 to $129 – handset repayments apply for each particular plan. It will be available in the Clearwater colour so unfortunately(or fortunately IMHO) it won’t be coming in the Plum colour launched in the US.

Specs

• 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset
• 768 MB RAM
• 3.7-inch touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution @ 252ppi
• 5Mp rear camera with auto focus and LED flash capable of 720p video recording and a VGA front-facing camera
• 4 GB storage – Available storage up to 1 GB with a microSD Card Slot
• GPS, Bluetooth® 3.0, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA
• Ambient light sensor, G-Sensor, Digital compass, Proximity sensor
• Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread) with HTC Sense UI 3.5
• 850/900/2100 MHz HSPA Radio
• 1600 mAh Battery
• 116.8 x 61 x 10.1 mm @ 130gms

The Rhyme comes supplied with a ‘charm’ accessory that acts as a remote notification alert, essentially it will hang outside a bag and light up when a message or call is received. I like the idea of the charm as I was a big fan of the notification LED on the Nexus One, however unlike the notification LED on the Nexus One the Charm does not appear to have the ability to change colour based on the type of notification, it also appears to only notify for calls and texts, not for tweets/mail or anything else. FYI, from what I can tell the Charm will also only work in the HTC Rhyme. The Rhyme will also have accesories available but the Charm seems to be the most novel. Check out the accessory video below :

So do you think the charm is a big enough draw card to go out and grab one?