HTC Sensation

Overview

Get Truly Entertained

HTC Sensation is another one of the sensational phones by HTC. The phone is packed with features and a stunning look.

HTC Sensation Design and Build Quality

HTC sensation is a touch bar phone. The phone weighs 148 grams and the dimensions are 126x11x65mm. The phone is little on a thicker side and the weight feels heavy on the hand. The phone curved around the edges and it gives a nice fell to the phone. The phones body made of plastic and aluminium (which feels like plastic). The build quality is good and the three tone grey colour of the body gives it a very sophisticated look. The phone is comfortable to hold in hand and but if you are planning to watch movies on it then it is probably not a good idea. The battery of the phone is a big disappointment and it does not even last the whole day with minimal usage.

User Interface and Comfort to Use HTC Sensation

The screen size is big (4.3) inches and it has the four standard touch screen buttons under it. The phone runs on 1.2 GHz Dual core processor and Android 2.3 OS. The phone starts in few seconds and the interface is very fast. Watching videos, playing games, or switching between the applications is an easy task. HTC’s S-LCD screen with 540x960 resolutions comes with 3D scrolling which means that you can move between the screen easily and scroll across as a virtual cylinder. Drop down widgets make switching between apps very easy. HTC Sense V 3.0 is very different from the previous HTC phones. HTCsense.com lets you find your phone from a far. You can also lock your phone remotely, ring it loudly, or enable call forwarding using the website. The phone has an internal memory of 1GB and comes with a SD card of 8GB. The memory of the phone can be extended up to 32GB

Telephony and Phonebook

The native people app is available on the phone in place of the usual contacts. Contacts can be imported from Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Exchange. Multiple entries can be made for on number. Every account has a link button on the top of it and you can manually link contacts. Status updates appear beneath a person’s name. Going through a contact entry gives you many options such as ways to contact, threaded message conversation, etc. Call quality of the phone in both 2G and 3G networks is good but not above par. The microphones of the phone have the ability of noise cancellation and therefore even in the crowded areas your voice will come out clearly. Unfortunately the earpiece is just average and do not expect it to perform well at maximum volume.

Messaging and Emails

The messaging is integrated with the People app and it is very easy to sort out messages etc. The generic Gmail app and POP/IMAP email option on the phone lets you integrate any number emails you want. The social media messaging does a good job of bringing Facebook and Twitter together.

Gallery, Photo Viewer and Video Player

Photo viewer in the phone can pull out photos from Facebook and Google and put it all in one place. The camera photos are also stored in the app and can be directly uploaded to a social media site. There is no dedicated video player on the phone and under the videos on the gallery, you can see the thumbnails of videos but cannot see the details. The videos play well on the phone and the display is exactly what you want it to be but move more than 45 degrees to the side of the phone and you will not be able to see anything. Also if you want to see anything on the screen in bright sunlight then the brightness has to be turned up to the full. The phone does not support mkv formats but you can download third party video player apps easily.

HTC Sensation Music Player and FM Radio

Music player on the phone is not sensational but it is not too bad also. You can use virtual SRS enhancement features to adjust the music but there are not too many options on it. The earphones that come with the device are of average quality. Listening to music in the room gives a passable performance. The phone has DLNA streaming enabled so that you can listen to music from the other device on your phone.

HTC Sensation Camera and Image Quality

The phone has an 8MP camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and zoom. The autofocus is a pretty nifty feature on the phone and you will enjoy taking photos in optimum lighting with this phone. The lag between shutter press and the click of photo is very less. Fast moving objects are difficult to capture with the phone camera. ISO, white balance, and exposure sliders are some of the features available on the phone’s camera. The front camera of the phone is strictly meant for video calling only as the pictures that we took from the camera were grainy and not usable.

Video Camera and Video Quality

Video trimming feature makes it easier to upload directly to the web from the phone. Video quality of videos taken from phone is not as sharp as we did expect from a dual core processor.

HTC Sensation Connectivity Options

Standard Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, and GPRS connectivity options are available on the phone. We don’t know why the phone does not have a HDMI output because the phone supports HDMI. You will have to buy an adapter if you want to have any HDMI connectivity. DLNA streaming lets you stream music, photos, and videos effortlessly from other devices.

Organiser and other utility tools

The phone has basic inbuilt tools such as the organizer, watch, alarm clock, weather widget, calendar, officer document viewer, eBook reader, multi touch input, and voice dialling and voice memo.

Web Browser and Applications

Flash integration and HD resolution to the browser make the web pages appear very crisp and definite. You can share the web pages directly from the screen, the pinch to zoom feature works like a treat; multiple tab browsing, seamless video integration, copy paste, and look up features make the browser certainly about the class. Applications like Google, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Weather, online movie store, Google Maps etc. come preloaded on the screen and many can be downloaded from the marketplace.

Google Maps and GPS

In built GPS on the phone is very quick to latch on to the satellites and give you pretty accurate location on Google Maps.

Distinctive Features of HTC Sensation

The two most distinctive features of the phone are Activation ring and DLNA streaming. The activation ring on the lock screen directly lets you unlock to the app. DLNA streaming makes sharing easy.

Value for Money

The phone is priced at approx. INR 25000 (approx., may vary) in the Indian market. The phone almost justifies its pricing on the basis of its unique features.

Verdict

HTC sensation approaches perfection but not quite. We would give the phone a 4.5 starts out of 5 for the lack of a good screen and poor battery life.