HTC just officially announced the Rhyme — that womanly handset otherwise known as the Bliss. As it happens, HTC isn’t explicitly marketing this as a lady phone, though it bears all the markers of a device pandering toward those of us with XX chromosomes, which is to say, it’s petite and purple with middling specs.

What you’re looking at is a handset with a 3.7-inch WVGA display, a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm CPU, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage space, a non-removable battery, microSD expansion slot, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS radios and dual 5MP / VGA cameras. The phone runs Android 2.3 with “next-generation” Sense (that would be version 3.5) layered on top.

You can pair it with an optional “Charm Indicator,” a bubble that glows purple when the phone is ringing so that you’ll never again miss a call because your phone is buried beneath nail files and fifty tubes of lipstick. Other accessories include a wireless dashboard speaker for the car, a dock and a workout armband.

As that tell-tale FCC report revealed, the purple version you see up there will land on Verizon as a 3G device, with a silver version arriving in Asia and Europe next month. It’ll sell for the typical $199 on a two-year contract (which includes all accessories), with pre-orders starting on the 22nd and availability pegged for September 29th. A bit steep given the specifications, but hey — you’ll pay a premium for style, right ladies?

As for global markets, it’ll soon be available on an unspecified amount of European carriers, where it’ll be hawked as the “Hourglass,” tinged in a “sand-like color.” All other specifications and accessories will remain the same, though.

SOURCE via HTC