As the smartphone market heats up, HTC recently announced the sophisticated and 4G enabled ‘HTC sensation 4G’. The Taiwan based mobile phone maker has come with a lot of iPhone killers, but has been unable to make a mark in the industry and is far behind ‘Apple’ and ‘Samsung’ in terms of market share.
What is it?
Though the device is an upgraded version of the ‘HTC Sensation’, there isn’t much of an upgrade under the hood. The hardware of the device is pretty much the same as its predecessor. Like most other devices from the stable of HTC, this one too has a very large display.
Key features
OS – Android 2.3 Gingerbread
RAM – 768 Mb
Processor – Qualcomm® 8260 dual core Snapdragon 1.2 GHz
Camera
An 8 Megapixel camera with 1080p video recording is a deadly combination. The phone captures some gorgeous photographs and videos. It also has dual LED flash to brighten up those images for you. You can add special effects to the images just when capture them without the need of any applications.
Display
The phone sports an SLCD capacitive touch screen which crams in 540×960-pixel resolution in the 4.3 inch screen that looks good and is very clear with 16:9 ratio. Both the text and images look equally sharp on the phone.
What’s innovative?
The carousel effect of the HTC Sense 3.0 is one of the most beautiful effects that we have seen in the Android devices. It gives a glimpse of 3D effect that was seen in HTC Evo 3D, which is lovable.
The design of the phone is another thing that will grab your attention the very first time you hold it. You are gonna notice that although heavy, it is a really sleek design and you will feel comfortable when you hold it. The design of the HTC Sensation 4G is top notch. With dimensions of 5″ x 2.6″ the phone has a thickness of 0.4″ and weighs 5.2 ounces. The phone’s structure is such that it prevents scratches on the display even when placed with the screen side down on the surface due to the raised edges to prevent contact which is smart to say the least.
Price and availability
T-mobile offers the phone for $199 with a two-year contract. For those who do not want a contract, it is available for $549 without contract.
Accessories
A 1,520 mAh battery powers the device which is a complete let down as a full charge would last for not any longer than seven hours of browsing on 4G. however, it has a standby time of 300 hours. A 3.5 mm jack for the headset is a good addition for the multimedia playback.
The up side
The interface of the device is pretty impressive, and the 1.2 Ghz processor makes your browsing experience good. 1080p HD video recording in the 8 megapixel camera is among the best things about the HTC Sensation 4. Extra large display of the device with SLCD capacitive touch screen is another up side of the device. It is bright and crystal clear and is at its best during video playback.
The down side
The inbuilt memory of the device is something that will let you down. Furthermore, there is not much difference in hardware of the older HTC Sensation and HTC Sensation 4G except for the latter being 4G capable. HTC devices are known for being battery unfriendly. Though promises to be a bit better, HTC Sensation 4G is also not different. Speakers of the device are the worst part about the HTC Sensation 4G.
Our experience
The 1.2 Ghz processor inside makes this device lightning fast and we can easily term it to be among the fastest phones available in the market today. There is no lagging and the device efficiently prevents the dreaded buffering bar.
The multimedia playback is not the best but is decent enough.The phone has a 3.5 mm jack for the music which was necessary as the speakers of the phone are disappointing.
The inbuilt memory that is provided by the device is not at all sufficient so you have to buy a microSD card to expand the memory.
The bottomline
Apart from the little negatives here and there, the HTC Sensation 4G is exactly as the HTC tagline reads “quietly brilliant”. If it were to be given a rating out of 10, then the device easily scores 8 out of 10.