HTC's Sensation - Review, Specifications

Introduction
 

It's shaping up to be super-phone season. Two dual-core behemoths, the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and the LG Optimus 2x, led the way for a little something called the iPhone 4. And it only gets better with HTC's Sensation, just launched, which also features a dual-core processor and the latest version of their Android skin -  HTC Sense 3.0 - combined with the goodness of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Hardware and Styling

HTC calls the Sensation a super-phone and whatever we have seen of the device definitely lives up-to its 'super-phone' billing.  The large 4.3 inch Super LCD display has a starring role, boasting of a qHD resolution of 960x540 protected by Gorilla glass.  The device features very traditional HTC design, which is quite mundane, but in spite of this it gives us an immense sense of quality thanks to its sturdy uni-body construction. There are four touch based Android controls on the bottom end of the display and the 1.3 megapixel front facing camera on the top end. HTC has also elevated the overall chassis from the display, providing an extra layer of protection for those users who'd like to rest the device on the display.
 
The rear of the device houses the 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash, but this is just the tip of the ice-berg as the whole battery compartment comes with a tri-colored cover made up of a rock solid plastic composite.

Multimedia

First up is the 8-megapixel camera which has a dual-LED flash and is also capable of shooting 1080p video at 30 frames per second. HTC has been gloating about the camera's speed with a quick shoot functionality baked in to the camera. This, however, is not new and these features have been seen before on other devices. The main problem is that HTC claims it is very fast but, in our opinion, the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S2 have faster shutter speeds.

Unfortunately, this experience was also somewhat inconsistent, as the device would refuse to play High Definition (HD) Divx video but  managed to play HD Mpeg-4 videos very smoothly.

Essential Apps

 
HTC always packs their devices with their own apps and the Sensation is no different. Besides these, we also get the standard suite of Google apps such as Maps, Gmail, Latitude, YouTube, and Search.

HTC has packed in their acclaimed social network aggregator 'Friend Stream' which collects all social networking info, Email info and messages in one interface. This one leads the social aggregators' pack and even bests Samsung's Social Hub.

HTC also provides us standard Facebook and Twitter apps, which do the needful. Nothing special here, but none the less very important to have, specially for those people who don't like all their information in one interface.

HTC has, as usual, put in their Weather application, which has some very cool animations. But apart from this, it does little to improve functionality, but then again it was pretty polished from the beginning.
 
HTC has included an upgraded Email application, which offers Microsoft Exchange access. This application is not the standard Email app, which ships with Android. HTC has made some subtle enhancements which improve usability. 

Tech Specification:

CPU Processing Speed

1.2 GHz, dual core

Storage

Internal phone storage: 1 GB
RAM: 768 MB

Expansion slot:

• microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

• micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection 　

Connectors

• 3.5 mm stereo audio jack

Sensors

• Gyro sensor
• G-Sensor
• Digital compass
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor

Multimedia

• Gallery, Music, and FM Radio
• SRS virtual surround sound for wired headphone
• DLNA for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to your TV or computer

Audio supported formats:

• Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)
• Recording: .amr

Video supported formats:

• Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3), .xvid (MP4 ASP and MP3)
• Recording: .3gp

Power & Battery

Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery

Capacity: 1520 mAh

Talk time:

• WCDMA: Up to 420 minutes
• GSM: Up to 500 minutes

Standby time:⁴

• WCDMA: Up to 525 hours
• GSM: Up to 285 hours

Network

HSPA/WCDMA:

• Europe/Asia/T-Mobile US: 900/AWS/2100 MHz

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

• 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Platform

Android™ with HTC Sense™

Camera

8 megapixel color camera:

• Auto focus and dual LED flash

Front camera:

• VGA fixed focus color camera

HD video recording:

• 1080p HD video recording

Internet

3G:

• Up to 14.4 Mbps download speed
• Up to 5.76 Mbps upload speed

GPRS:

• Up to 114 Kbps downloading

EDGE:

• Up to 560 Kbps downloading

Wi-Fi:

• IEEE 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth

• Bluetooth® 3.0
• A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
• FTP and OPP (object push) for file transfer
• PBAP for phonebook access from the car kit
• Other supported profiles: AVRCP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HID, HSP, MAP, SPP, SDAP

Social Networking

• Facebook® and Twitter™ for HTC Sense
• Friend Stream
• Share photos/videos on Facebook®, Flickr®, Twitter™, or YouTube™

Location

• Internal GPS antenna
• With Locations, explore maps with zero wait, zero dead spots, and zero data roaming fees

Tethering

• USB and Wi-Fi® tethering

Recommended Windows System Requirements

• Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Windows® XP
• HTC Sync