HTC Sensation Hands On Guide

The latest smartphone from HTC ( and the first from the company to feature a dual-core processor), the HTC Sensation, has been causing quite a stir since its launch. Boasting some very impressive specs and following in the footsteps of the hugely successful Desire, Incredible and Desire Z, this handset is sure to be on the wishlist of many HTC fans (and smartphone users in general).

This guide takes a look at some of the key features of the Sensation, along with our own impressions from a recent hands on test of the phone.

A multimedia superphone

Want to be entertained like never before? On-demand movies look great with a stunning qHD display, and they sound crystal clear with Hi-Fi audio technology. The HTC Sensation also includes an immersive HTC Sense experience making this phone easy-to-use and a top entertainer. The premium design, complete with contoured glass edging, feels great in your hand. The HTC Sensation is a multimedia superphone.

Premium design

HTC Sensation features unibody aluminium construction for a premium look and solid feel. The glass is contoured along the entire edge of the screen. Not only does it feel great when you glide your finger over it, but it also protects your screen from grit and sand when it’s face down. The qHD display is true widescreen, so it serves up an uncompromised movie watching experience.

Powerful performance

HTC Sensation is powered by a blazing fast 1.2 GHz dual core processor. Apps start up instantly and switching between them is seamless. The dual core performance really comes to life when pushing your phone to its limits, like when you’re listening to music, downloading email in the background, and surfing the most visually rich websites all at the same time.

HTC Watch

HTC Sensation brings you an unprecedented movie watching experience with HTC Watch, offering a full selection of Hollywood blockbusters. Just make your selection and start watching the show seconds into the download. HTC Watch also keeps tabs on your Internet connection and ensures you get an uninterrupted viewing experience.

Instant capture camera

Remember that time you pressed the shutter button and had to wait while your camera phone finished taking the picture? With the instant capture camera, the moment you press the button is the same moment the photo is captured. Never let a great shot slip away.

Richer Internet experience

Surf the web in style with multi-window browsing, a quick lookup tool for jumping to Wikipedia or YouTube and the latest Flash support for smooth video playback.

Active lockscreen

We have transformed the lockscreen into a window to the good stuff on your phone – you can check up on your portfolio, view your friends status, and more.

HTC Sensation – Hands On

From the second you take this phone out of the box it oozes quality. The mix of aluminium and matt plastic looks and feels superb and the screen, with its slightly raised lip, stands out as something just a bit different from other smartphones. Taking the back off to insert the battery is a little bit fiddly but, honestly, how many times do you need to take the back off of a phone? Considering the fact that this phone has a 4.3in screen and is the largest handset from HTC, it actually feels pretty small.

The layout of the various buttons and connection ports will be familiar to anyone who has owned a HTC phone, with the power button and headphone jack at the top, the volume rocker and micro USB port on the left side and the mic at the bottom. The capacitive Home, Menu, Back and Search buttons are positioned at the bottom of the screen. Turn the phone over and you will see the Camera lens, dual-led’s and the speaker grille.

The 960×480 pixel S-LCD display on the Sensation is very impressive, but whilst it is able to cram more pixels in than the display of this phone’s closest competitor, the Galaxy S II, it does seem a bit less vibrant than Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus screen, particularly in bright sunlight. Photo’s and videos do look brilliant when viewed on the 4.3in screen, however, and even the app icons benefit from the higher resolution.

The Sensation runs Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), overlaid with the newest version of HTC Sense (3.0). In our opinion, Sense is by far the best UI of any smartphone and the newest version doesn’t do anything to shake that belief. There aren’t any major advances to be seen, although everything seems faster, slicker and more polished, and to quote that well used saying “if it ain’t broke…”

Running apps, viewing videos and playing games on the Sensation is a joy, and you can certainly see the added power of the dual-core processor at work. Nothing we threw at it, including apps and games that our Desire HD struggled with, caused even the slightest problem. Strangely, the only time we saw a slight sign of slugishness, was when scrolling through the homescreens quickly, but even that small problem was hardly noticeable.

The 8MP camera in the Sensation is perfectly good, although it probably won’t be winning any awards for professional quality. The few shots we took we vibrant and crisp, with only a bit of blurring appearing on very bright outdoor images. A new HTC feature on this phone is Instant Capture, which works to make the lag between button and shutter as unobtrusive as possible. In almost every case, this seems to work very well.

Conclusion

We will be posting a full and in depth review of the HTC Sensation very soon, but from our initial look at this smartphone, we can honestly say that it has lived up to 95% of our expectations. It has some of the best build quality around at the moment, the screen is excellent for most applications, the camera is great and the software doesn’t disappoint. The Galaxy S II might be a bit quicker overall, but the Sensation is without a doubt one of the best phones that money can buy right now.