HTC Sensation 4G Specs Review

The HTC Sensation 4G will undoubtedly be one of the top Android phones to get this year in the US, at least until the holiday season, so let's examine if HTC has managed to create a compelling argument of a phone on paper.

Design

No matter how you slice and dice it, we've now allowed only powerful phones with large displays to occupy the top slots of the Android food chain. There is no argument that the HTC Sensation 4G is exactly such a device, that is why it is very important how the designers stroke a balance between making a phone comfortable to hold, and still cramming a big, shiny screen together with all those high-end bells and whistles that are now staples for Android's best.

Luckily, with HTC we are mostly aware how the Sensation 4G will feel. The company is known to produce somewhat hunky handset with large displays, but it usually manages to translate the word “heavy” into “solid”, when you actually hold the device.


You can compare the HTC Sensation 4G with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.
 
As is clearly seen from the size comparison above, the HTC Sensation is larger and heavier than some of its main dual-core competitors. We'll leave the design to personal preference – when we handled the Samsung Galaxy S II it was almost uncomfortably thin and wide, but very light, and still we prefer our phones with large screens this way, rather than “solid”, bordering on bulky. Still, single-sheet aluminum body beats plastic and soft-touch plastic as choice of materials any day, so some might find the HTC Sensation 4G's exterior preferable.

The display on the HTC Sensation 4G is a first for the company, with the newfangled qHD resolution (540x960 pixels), which is just a step below the iPhone 4's Retina Display pixels, and is 4.3”, which makes it one of the largest phone screen with qHD resolution, together with the HTC EVO 3D. Moreover, HTC boasts that it has a true widescreen 16:9 format.

We loved the display when we handled the HTC Sensation at the CTIA 2011 show last month, moreover, it has another unique feature under its belt – its Gorilla Glass is contoured for added protection:


One connectivity feature that only the HTC Sensation 4G, and the Samsung Galaxy S II phones have so far, is the MHL port (Mobile High-Definition Link), which combines the microUSB and HDMI-out ports in one. HDTVs and other gear with support for MHL will start shipping this year, so you won't benefit much from it right now. Here’s a nice presentation of MHL that will answer all your questions about this upcoming cable connectivity standard: 



Hardware and Multimedia

The dual-core chipset in the HTC Sensation 4G is of the third generation in Qualcomm's Snapdragon family. We've been hearing about this MSM8260 chipset being shipped to manufacturers since last June. Since it usually takes six to eight months before manufacturers test the chipset, and put it in production devices, it's normal that we are just now having a handset that is about to be released with it. The third generation is both produced with the efficient 45nm manufacturing process, and having two cores humming with 1.2GHz each.

Let’s not forget, however, that each Scorpion core in the dual-core Snapdragon chipset is still heavily-modified Cortex-A8 design, not the more advanced Cortex-A9 that the others are sporting, so we'll save judgment before a retail version is measured against its peer group with more than one CPU core.

We are delighted to see, however, that this dual-core Snapdragon has other virtues that make it unique. First off, it is a true system-on-a-chip, with baseband connectivity radio (14.4Mbits download speeds in the Sensation 4G case), and all other radios tacked on in one complete package, which should make it a more energy-efficient choice.

This Snapdragon is also the first crop from Qualcomm that has Netflix streaming support hardwired into the chipset, optimized codecs and all. “Snapdragon processors are designed to deliver dynamic performance and media protection features in a turnkey package, allowing the devices they power to more easily pass through the approval process required for Netflix certification. Additionally, Netflix video decoding is handled by highly efficient dedicated hardware, extending battery life and improving picture quality”, said the presser. This should finally allow for a decent Netflix streaming app on an Android handset, like what was demoed with the LG Revolution back at MWC this year.

Other perks include the Scalado Camera Framework, an imaging technology tailored specifically to work with Qualcomm's MSM8x60 chipset. The HTC Sensation 4G obviously employs Scalado's Zero Shutter Lag enhancement, since upon unveiling the new Sense UI 3.0, HTC said shot-to-shot lag has practically been eliminated, and you can capture the next image instantly.

This camera framework also allows you to do other neat things, thanks to all that dual-core might - when shooting group portraits, you can use Scalado's Rewind application, which lets you pick face expressions of your objects on different photos, and combine them all in one single perfect shot, among other possibilities.

And, of course, thanks to the dual-core chipset, the HTC Sensation 4G's 8MP camera shoots  1080p (Full HD) video with 30fps, and with stereo sound, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S II. You can see samples of said videos with a prototype HTC Sensation here - white balance and exposure adjustments are a bit slow to react while panning around, but the quantity of detail caught is just amazing for a phone camera in Full HD, and the colors have enhanced contrast to them, which most people will find appealing. Bear in mind that in the retail versions things might be improved even further. HTC is usually delivering average results with the camera sensors on even its best phones, so the Sensation 4G might be the turning point. Have a look at a video sample with the pre-production version of an HTC Sensation below:



The other notable hardware features are the 768MB of RAM (again, nothing different than the rest of the high-end HTC handsets), 14.4Mbps HSDPA downloads, and 1520mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy S II slightly beats it on all counts here, but the Sensation 4G overcomes the T-Mobile G2x's specs.


HTC Sense 3.0

Starting off with the lock screen on the HTC Sensation 4G, you will notice that it now allows you to pin photos or various widgets, for example the weather or FriendStream ones, to it, as well as up to four app shortcuts. Thus you will be able to launch your most used apps, and have an instant glimpse at the weather situation or your friend's Facebook updates, without even unlocking the phone.


The homescreens have also received a new 3D transitional animation and endless carousel, so you can swirl through screens, widgets and shortcuts, floating around, until you find what you are looking for. Speaking of eye-candy, the Weather widget now occupies the whole screen, and those 3D effects we mentioned, are now dispersed throughout the main menu as well.

HTC has included its own productivity goodies in Sense 3.0, like a video editor, task manager, support for Wi-Fi printing, and HTC Trace, a Swype-like text entry method. The limit on tabs you can have open simultaneously in the browser, has also been removed. Social networking integration has been deepened, with even the ability to see if the friend that is calling you has a birthday today, if you have synced your Facebook account.

With HTC Sense 3.0 the firm introduces HTC Watch – a one stop shop for multimedia downloads, be it music, movies or TV series, taking on everyone else who has its own store, like Apple or Samsung.

We don’t know the prices in there yet, so don’t get overly excited about this one. It might turn out with pricing more akin to Samsung Media Hub, which also offers movies and TV series, but they don't come cheap.

The next improvement is that the Sense UI now lives up to its name, as it uses the information from the phone's sensors intelligently, to know if the handset is in a pocket or a purse, and ring louder, until you take it out, then the ringer diminishes volume.

Conclusion

The best take from this preliminary specs review of the HTC Sensation 4G is that it is future-proof, and not only because it has a dual-core chipset, but also since the screen is with the largest resolution of all 4.3” phone displays out there. It is a strong package also with the other goodies like hardware Netflix streaming support, the Scalado camera framework, and the newest Sense 3.0 – all these features combined will keep it relevant at least until next year, and that’s an eternity in Androidland this day and age.