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The HTC Sensation looks unassuming, but its hefty aluminium case, hugely powerful processor and fabulously whizzy, customisable software make it feel like a giant among smart phones.The Sensation's display is the same size as the HTC Desire HD's -- 4.3 inches. But, because of the phone's rounded corners and narrower bezel, the Sensation feels much smaller in the hand than the large-boned Desire HD.The display has a 540x960-pixel resolution and a 16:9 wide-screen aspect ratio. That's plenty compared to most phones, which tend to have resolutions of around 480x800 pixels. But it's not quite on a par with the amazing sharpness of the iPhone 4's 640x960-pixel screen. Nevertheless, the screen is stunningly bright, and text on Web pages looks sharp even when you zoom in as far as you can go.
Bump in the road.
Powering the big screen is the Sensation's 1.2GHz, dual-core processor. This processor packs plenty of power for Android apps, and puts the Sensation in direct competition with the Samsung Galaxy S 2.
We were all ready to fire up the benchmarking software on the Sensation and watch as it broke all previous records. But, sadly, we struggled to download the appropriate apps from the Android Market. The problem was that apps prepared to download but never completed the deed. After trying to download them on 3G and various Wi-Fi connections, we had to reset the phone completely to get it to download the apps properly.This issue may only affect our unlucky sample, and could easily be due to an Android bug that's not unique to the Sensation. But it's a big annoyance nonetheless.Once we got our benchmark tests up and running, they were a joy to behold. Compare the values below with those of the single-core Samsung Galaxy S, Google Nexus One and HTC Desire HD, and the dual-core LG Optimus 2X. The Sensation uses a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, while the Optimus 2X uses an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.
The Sensation aced the Linpack test of floating-point computing power with an average score of 46. This trounced the other phones we've tested. In the Softweg benchmark test, the Sensation's CPU tied the fastest single-core phone, the Desire HD, with a score of 2,500. That puts it slightly behind the Optimus 2X, which scored 3,000.
The Sensation was in the same position in the Neocore 3D graphics test, earning a score of 60, compared to the Desire HD's 58.7 and the Optimus 2X's 78.5. It blew away the competition in the Softweg 2D graphics test, though, with a score of 61, to the Optimus 2X's 21.
It just makes Sense It's good news that the Sensation aced its graphics benchmark tests, because its refreshed Sense user interface really puts the processor to the test. HTC is one of the few manufacturers that has managed to create a skin on top of Android that's worth having.Not only is it beautiful to look at, with heaps of whizzy clocks and a gorgeous weather widget, but it also adds some handy features to Android. It brings together your Facebook and Twitter contacts with your Google address book, for example, creating a massive social-network love-fest. It also adds an automatic prompt if the Wi-Fi network you're connected to requires you to log in on a landing page.Sense 3.0 features whizzy 3D animations everywhere. Swiping between home screens, for example, reveals depth and layers on each HTC-designed widget. Transitions like this tend to require a surprising amount of processing power, so Sense 3.0 may not come to HTC phones with slower CPUs, such as the Desire S.
In our test period, the Sensation proved fast and responsive. In fact, it occasionally felt too fast, with menus scrolling at such speed that we felt the user interface lacked the buttery feel of a smoother UI, like that of the iPhone.Made in your image
We also struggled with one of HTC's widgets. The weather on our clock widget seemed to hate updating, often throwing up a 'no weather available' error until we poked it into refreshing. One the plus side, once it's up and running, the weather app is the most spectacular of its kind.It's slightly more interesting in the flesh, but you'll be forgiven for not picking it out of a crowd. Is it the HTC Galaxy X?We wish we could say the same about the apps that Vodafone has added to its version of the phone. The 360 Shop and the Music Shop look dodgy right from the first glance -- their icons are clearly meant to look similar, but they're different sizes. They don't work if you're connected to Wi-Fi either. Even when we connected via 3G, both failed to open, with different cryptic error messages appearing. Our advice is to chuck their shortcuts in the virtual bin and pretend you never saw them.
It's easy to get such detritus off the HTC's seven home screens. Indeed, this is the most customisable phone we've ever used.Like most Android phones, you can fill up the home screens with shortcuts and widgets. HTC includes a selection of beautiful widgets, and you can also choose from the default Android widgets or get more from the Android Market. It's worth noting, however, that widgets designed for smaller screens can look tiny on the Sensation's huge display.
You can also swap between 'scenes'. This exchanges all your home screens for another set, bearing a different batch of shortcuts, widgets and wallpapers. Pre-loaded options that focus on work, play, media and travel can all be tweaked to suit you.If you crave further opportunities for self expression, there's also a new customisable lock screen. By default, the lock screen includes four shortcuts that you can drag to simultaneously unlock the phone and open an app, such as the camera.We liked this feature on the INQ Cloud Touch, but the Sensation goes one better by letting you customise which four apps are presented. In fact, you can personalise the lock screen even more by replacing the shortcuts with an animated stream of Facebook and Twitter updates, a slideshow of photos, the latest share prices, or a number of other options.
Watch phoneUnderneath Sense sits Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest version of Google's operating system for smart phones. It's packed with features, including Google Maps and good email support. Unsurprisingly, Google's apps are some of the best, but there's also the option to install zillions more from the Android Market.HTC includes a selection of its own apps on the Sensation, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We've never met anyone who uses HTC's Footprints travel app, but people have been known to fall in love with its weather service.The phone also features HTC's new video store, Watch, a competitor to Apple's iTunes. It doesn't include music, but it does offer movies and TV shows. The latest film releases cost £9.99, while rentals will set you back £3.49. Older movies are cheaper. TV shows run at around £1.49 an episode.
Bump in the road.
Powering the big screen is the Sensation's 1.2GHz, dual-core processor. This processor packs plenty of power for Android apps, and puts the Sensation in direct competition with the Samsung Galaxy S 2.
We were all ready to fire up the benchmarking software on the Sensation and watch as it broke all previous records. But, sadly, we struggled to download the appropriate apps from the Android Market. The problem was that apps prepared to download but never completed the deed. After trying to download them on 3G and various Wi-Fi connections, we had to reset the phone completely to get it to download the apps properly.This issue may only affect our unlucky sample, and could easily be due to an Android bug that's not unique to the Sensation. But it's a big annoyance nonetheless.Once we got our benchmark tests up and running, they were a joy to behold. Compare the values below with those of the single-core Samsung Galaxy S, Google Nexus One and HTC Desire HD, and the dual-core LG Optimus 2X. The Sensation uses a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, while the Optimus 2X uses an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor.
The Sensation aced the Linpack test of floating-point computing power with an average score of 46. This trounced the other phones we've tested. In the Softweg benchmark test, the Sensation's CPU tied the fastest single-core phone, the Desire HD, with a score of 2,500. That puts it slightly behind the Optimus 2X, which scored 3,000.
The Sensation was in the same position in the Neocore 3D graphics test, earning a score of 60, compared to the Desire HD's 58.7 and the Optimus 2X's 78.5. It blew away the competition in the Softweg 2D graphics test, though, with a score of 61, to the Optimus 2X's 21.
It just makes Sense It's good news that the Sensation aced its graphics benchmark tests, because its refreshed Sense user interface really puts the processor to the test. HTC is one of the few manufacturers that has managed to create a skin on top of Android that's worth having.Not only is it beautiful to look at, with heaps of whizzy clocks and a gorgeous weather widget, but it also adds some handy features to Android. It brings together your Facebook and Twitter contacts with your Google address book, for example, creating a massive social-network love-fest. It also adds an automatic prompt if the Wi-Fi network you're connected to requires you to log in on a landing page.Sense 3.0 features whizzy 3D animations everywhere. Swiping between home screens, for example, reveals depth and layers on each HTC-designed widget. Transitions like this tend to require a surprising amount of processing power, so Sense 3.0 may not come to HTC phones with slower CPUs, such as the Desire S.
In our test period, the Sensation proved fast and responsive. In fact, it occasionally felt too fast, with menus scrolling at such speed that we felt the user interface lacked the buttery feel of a smoother UI, like that of the iPhone.Made in your image
We also struggled with one of HTC's widgets. The weather on our clock widget seemed to hate updating, often throwing up a 'no weather available' error until we poked it into refreshing. One the plus side, once it's up and running, the weather app is the most spectacular of its kind.It's slightly more interesting in the flesh, but you'll be forgiven for not picking it out of a crowd. Is it the HTC Galaxy X?We wish we could say the same about the apps that Vodafone has added to its version of the phone. The 360 Shop and the Music Shop look dodgy right from the first glance -- their icons are clearly meant to look similar, but they're different sizes. They don't work if you're connected to Wi-Fi either. Even when we connected via 3G, both failed to open, with different cryptic error messages appearing. Our advice is to chuck their shortcuts in the virtual bin and pretend you never saw them.
It's easy to get such detritus off the HTC's seven home screens. Indeed, this is the most customisable phone we've ever used.Like most Android phones, you can fill up the home screens with shortcuts and widgets. HTC includes a selection of beautiful widgets, and you can also choose from the default Android widgets or get more from the Android Market. It's worth noting, however, that widgets designed for smaller screens can look tiny on the Sensation's huge display.
You can also swap between 'scenes'. This exchanges all your home screens for another set, bearing a different batch of shortcuts, widgets and wallpapers. Pre-loaded options that focus on work, play, media and travel can all be tweaked to suit you.If you crave further opportunities for self expression, there's also a new customisable lock screen. By default, the lock screen includes four shortcuts that you can drag to simultaneously unlock the phone and open an app, such as the camera.We liked this feature on the INQ Cloud Touch, but the Sensation goes one better by letting you customise which four apps are presented. In fact, you can personalise the lock screen even more by replacing the shortcuts with an animated stream of Facebook and Twitter updates, a slideshow of photos, the latest share prices, or a number of other options.
Watch phoneUnderneath Sense sits Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest version of Google's operating system for smart phones. It's packed with features, including Google Maps and good email support. Unsurprisingly, Google's apps are some of the best, but there's also the option to install zillions more from the Android Market.HTC includes a selection of its own apps on the Sensation, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We've never met anyone who uses HTC's Footprints travel app, but people have been known to fall in love with its weather service.The phone also features HTC's new video store, Watch, a competitor to Apple's iTunes. It doesn't include music, but it does offer movies and TV shows. The latest film releases cost £9.99, while rentals will set you back £3.49. Older movies are cheaper. TV shows run at around £1.49 an episode.
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