- 4.3-inch TFT LCD display
- Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking with mobile hotspot sharing with up to 8 devices plus Wi-Fi Calling capabilities; Ultra-fast 4G-enabled, Android 2.2-powered smartphone
- 8-MP camera; HD 1080p video capture; Bluetooth 3.0; 4 GB internal memory plus 8 GB microSD card; DLNA capabilities; web browser with Flash 10.1; dual-core 1.2 GHz processor
- Up to 6.7 hours of talk time, up to 400 hours (16.7 days) of standby time; released in June, 2011
- What's in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, charger, 8 GB microSD card, USB cable, quick start guide
- 8-MP camera; HD 1080p video capture; Bluetooth 3.0; 4 GB internal memory plus 8 GB microSD card; DLNA capabilities; web browser with Flash 10.1
- Ultra-fast 4G-enabled, Android 2.2-powered smartphone with 4.3-inch qHD touchscreen display and dual-core 1.2 GHz processor
- Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking with mobile hotspot sharing with up to 8 devices plus Wi-Fi Calling capabilities
I am a long-term Blackberry user that uses his phone mostly for business but also for managing personal accounts. For several years, I have used Blackberry to handle my messaging demands including two (2) exchange accounts and four (4) personal accounts. I had been waiting to move to phone that could smartly handle these needs, and I have found it with the HTC Sensation. I bought this phone early and have been using it since 6/10/2011.
Email / Exchange Capabilities
HTC has customized the email application, and it is smooth, elegant, and fast. I had no problems configuring my Exchange, MSFT Live, and various POP accounts with the phone. The Sensation quickly synced all my accounts with ease. The Exchange integration is exceptional: you get push email, push calendar, and push contacts integration.
HTC also features a flexible presentation model where it unifies your emails into a single box and color codes the email by account received. You can also use a dropdown menu and select to view a single mailbox at a time. This mail implementation is better than anything offer with the BB, and more robust than the messaging application on the iPhone.
When you receive an email, you will get a notification through Android's notification menu AND and LED indicator will flash. BB's universal implementation of a notification light is a simple yet necessary function for me, and I am glad that HTC has decided to include a notification light. It is not as bright as the one found in my BB, but it does the job.
I don't use gmail, but interestingly, that is managed by a separate Google provided email program.
Contacts Integration
HTC has again included its Contact management application instead of the Android stock, and it is an elegant solution. One of the benefits of their application is that it will link duplicate entries into a unified contact account. So, if you have someone listed in your Exchange, POP, social networking address book, it will allow you to link these into a single contact entry to simplify your contact list. It's a great feature and helps you organize everything.
Push Calendar
No issues with it. I believe that the included application looks great and has no problems syncing with Exchange.
Build
This phone has exceptional build quality. It is made of aluminum and plastic and feels great in your hands. Not only the phone comfortable to hold, but it feels heavy. I like a heavy phone: it speaks to the quality of the build materials and does not feel like it will break apart with use.
The main navigation buttons are virtual, haptic buttons located at the bottom of the phone. The one issue with these virtual buttons, is that sometimes I accidentally trigger the "back" button when I intend to depress the space key. This is not a major issue, and one that with practice you begin to avoid.
The power/wake up button is on the top of the phone. It is responsive and has proper travel and response. The only other physical buttons are the volume rocker on the left of the phone. The one thing I miss is a dedicated physical camera button. Instead, you have to trigger the application through the menu system and then use the virtual shutter button on the screen. Again, I wish there was a physical camera button, but it's not a deal killer.
Phone Audio
Phone calls are loud and crisp, and the large ear grill allows you to hear calls very well. Callers commented that they had no problems hearing me as well. When this phone makes a call through Wifi, the call quality increases even more and the voice quality becomes even more outstanding.
The speaker is on the bottom of the phone; so, if you turn the phone over, the volume picks up. My Blackberry has the advantage of having the speaker on the top of the phone; so, this phone flip is not necessary.
Keyboard
The other important departure from the Blackberry was the physical keyboard. I was very skeptical and had not been impressed by other Android based keyboard's such as the one on the Galaxy S. HTC has implemented two custom input methods. Its keyboard substitute works very well and functions like the excellent keyboards found in Windows 7 Phone phones. The large screen also minimizes errors. HTC has also implemented its own version of a Swipe keyboard. It works fine, but I prefer the HTC keyboard. Coming from the Blackberry physical keyboard, I am actually faster with the HTC virtual keyboard, which was my biggest surprise when using this phone!
Android Wifi Calling
I relied on Blackberry and T-Mobile's UMA implementation. This allowed me to get perfect service from my home, receive signals at work, and make calls when traveling internationally. T-Mobile has integrated its version of UMA calling the HTC Sensation. It works just as well at the Blackberry's UMA implementation. Once you active the feature, it signs-in seamlessly with WiFi networks without further intervention. This is such a huge feature that T-Mobile should aggressively advertise, since it allows you to place calls in locations where no phone can receive cellular signals.
Conclusion
In short, buy this phone. It's fast, well-built and packed with a great package of software features that make it perfect for business and pleasure.
Buy HTC Sensation 4G Android Phone (T-Mobile) Now
Let me start this review by stating one thing first : This is an EXCELLENT "SMART"Phone.This phone is a pure joy to hold it in your hand. The Build quality is top-notch and the back of the phone feels rich and stylish.
The front is full Gorilla glass top grade.
Due to it's smart design, this does not feel big, its just the perfect size for a smartphone and fits perfectly in the front shirt pocket.
The screen is absolutely breathtaking and gorgeous. I have compared this with the Samsung Galaxy S 4G screen, and my personal opinion is that this blows Galaxy S out of the water.
Okay, that takes care of the look and feel of the phone.
Lets get right down to the actual review.
I bought this phone on 22nd June and have been using it extensively for the past 5 days.
Voice Quality :
The biggest drawback of this phone is it's Voice quality.
The in-call voice quality is not up to the standard of a Blackberry.
The in call speakers have a buzz/rattle/crackle and this is very very annoying, specially since I have grown accustomed to the excellent voice quality of a Blackberry.
I have done extensive research on the web about this issue, and this issue exists with all Sensation phones, other people are also complaining about this.
Th equality is just average to passable, and this is something that I don't expect from a high quality smartphone like this.
Very dissatisfied by this.
Speakerphone Quality :
The speakers are really really weak. Whenever someone is on speakerphone, they sound very tinny.
And this issue is when using the speakerphone for calls.
Again I am comparing the speakerphone to my previous Blackberry. They were excellent, and the Sensation speakers for voice calls are just not up to the mark.
Again did some research on the web and this seems to be the issue with all HTC phones.
This is very unfortunate that HTC did not care to improve upon this feature for such a high end phone.
The good thing is, the speakerphone is good when listening to media, like music and movies.
So it's very surprising that media sounds good on this speaker whereas voice calls are very very bad on the same speaker.
Lag Issues :
Even though this phone is a beast as far as specs are concerned, I can still feel some lag on some applications and web browsing it is smooth, but still stutters a bit. I can actually see the web browsing and scrolling struggling bit and this becomes annoying pretty quickly.
I just feel that this is a software issue and is fixable with a fix from HTC.
It just feels that such a beast of a hardware is held back by the software.
Dissapointed a bit by this.
Camera Quality :
Excellent 8 mp Camera with dual led flashlights.
The outdoor pictures are crisp and clear and I think this is the best smartphone camera that you can get.
Though the software sometimes makes some portions of the picture a bit soft, still this is an excellent camera.
Video recording at full 1080p stutters a bit, but 720 p video is smooth and of great quality.
No complaints here at all.
Web Browsing :
Apart from the lag issue mentioned above, web browsing is a joy and gives a very satisfying experience overall.
It feels you have a small laptop in your hand.
Email and Calendar integration :
Email and Calendar integration is excellent. You can have pop3, yahoo, gmail, live etc all integrated in the email app.
The exchange calender integration is also top notch, no issues here.
To wrap this up, this is an excellent smartphone if all you want to do is web and the smart stuffs.
If you want to use this heavily as an actual phone for voice calls, you might be a bit dissapointed. Thats jus my personal opinion, many people will be just fine with the voice quality, I am not.
Thanks for reading this review and may god bless you all.
Comments always welcome.
Thanks,
Sujoy
Read Best Reviews of HTC Sensation 4G Android Phone (T-Mobile) Here
I've had my HTC Sensation (T-Mobile) for a week now and I just love it. I upgraded from a myTouch3G, which rocked my world when I first bought it but which had become very frustratingly slow and confused and easily overburdened. Not this phone, holy cow! I've tried to stress this phone and I can't. The data transmission rate and the dual-core processor are both incredibly fast. The display is beautiful. Sound quality is great.Let me tell you the things I don't like, although believe me, I'll live with them.
I don't like that the USB port is on the side of the phone, and on the left side in particular. I prefer it at the top or bottom. It's hard to hold the phone in your left hand with the cable attached to the port.
The cable that came with the phone is ridiculously short.
I'm not thrilled with the lock button feature. If the screen goes dark, in order to activate the phone you have to press the lock button on the top of the phone and then swipe a ring that appears on the display at the bottom of the phone. When the myTouch went to sleep, you could wake it up with two taps of the menu button.
I'm unimpressed with the battery life, but that may be simply because I can't put down the phone. LOL I'm on the Amazon site now to order a spare battery.
It's a beautiful phone, you're going to love it.
Want HTC Sensation 4G Android Phone (T-Mobile) Discount?
I just upgraded from the HTC Touch Pro 2 to the HTC Sensation 4G and the difference is incredible. Granted, the Touch Pro 2 was running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 while the Sensation 4G is running Android 2.3 so it's not an apples to apples comparison but the features of the Sensation are all there. Being able to record video in 1080p/High Definition is really nice and the rear camera and its 8 megapixels really takes nice pictures. The only disappointing item I've found after using this phone for a day has been the speaker phone. The sound isn't as loud or clear as the Touch Pro 2 but if you aren't using the speakerphone much, it's not a show stopper by any means. I would highly recommend this phone.
So you'll know where I'm coming from... a quick background: I've been an iPhone user since the first iPhone 3 came out (can't remember if that was 2, 3 or 4 years ago). But I used the iPhone 3 for a year or so then upgraded to the iPhone 3GS when it came out. And I'll be comparing this to the 3GS.
PROS vs. iPhone
4G is awesome. It's much, much faster than the iPhone. The 4G speeds combined with the much faster operating system, makes web pages download at seemingly blazingly fast rates.
FASTER PROCESSOR: 1.2 GHz dual core makes a huge difference in speed. Opening programs and web pages are very fast. You get accustomed very quickly to the blazing fast speeds. I don't play games so I can't really comment on that aspect.
BIGGER SCREEN: The screen is BEAUTIFUL! The BIGGER size really is nice. It's amazing how much more of a web page you can view on this screen. And how much more of a book page for you eReader fans that you can view. Reading books is really a pleasure on this device.
BATTERY LIFE: The battery life is great compared to the iPhone. If I had written this review when I first got the phone I would have said it was abysmal. However, I made a couple of discoveries that have greatly improved the battery life and I can now say it's much better than the iPhone's!
I had purchased an app, JuiceDefender, for about $3.50 that was supposed to improve battery life but I couldn't detect any change. However, a few days later I was playing around with the phone and got around to the Quick Settings screen and noticed you can easily disable whichever network/communications features you don't need. By disabling even just the GPS the battery life improved immensely!
You can also disable WiFi (which helps a lot too). I have WiFi Hotspot disabled unless I'm actually going to use it, but I leave Mobile Network (which you have to have enabled in order for the phone to work as a phone) and Bluetooth on.
As a comparison, two hours ago I had this phone and my iPhone fully charged to 100%. Then I unplugged them both from the chargers. I have not even turned on the iPhone and it is at 79% charge right now! (And since my phone service with the iPhone is cancelled it's not even using 3G anymore). The Sensation is still registering at 99% with some light use a few text messages, and a couple of 3-4-minute phone calls. So with actual use it's doing far better than the iPhone which is only running WiFi right now!
If GPS and WiFi were enabled however, the Sensation would probably be around 80-85% right now. So the GPS really makes a big difference in battery usage.
My concern in disabling GPS was that I wouldn't be able to find the phone using T-Mobile's phone finder service, and if I went out and lost the phone while forgetting to turn it on I might never be able to find out. However, it's still findable. The accuracy is a little bit less, but it'll get you close. You can also still send an audio signal to it and you can still lock it and/or wipe all the data from it in case you lose it. So I find that GPS is only really necessary if you actually need to use a maps/navigation program.
INTERACTIVE HOME SCREENS: And after 3 or 4 years with the iPhone, I was so sick of looking at that static, stale screen I thought I was going to shoot myself if I had to look at it one more day! One of the "themes" on the HTC phone is "weather". It's completely interactive. The background changes depending on the time of day and weather. If it's day time and partly cloudy, you'll see blue sky with clouds. If it's nighttime and cloudy you'll see dark sky and clouds. Last night I was surprised when instead of looking cloudy it looked foggy. And sure enough I looked outside and it was foggy!
I love using this theme because it constantly changes and it gives you valuable information at the same time. No more getting tired of looking at the same stale screen day in and day out. All the themes and backgrounds that come installed with this phone are far more visually appealing than any that come with the iPhone. And that makes a big difference when you have to look at it all day every day!
The weather screen also automatically picks up your location. With the iPhone weather apps you had to request that they pick up a new location. So this saves a step or two and puts the information right up front along with the big easy-to-read clock.
CAMERA: The 8-megapixel camera is far better than not only the iPhone camera but even the newest iPad2 camera! The apple products simply don't compare when it comes to quality of images and videos. It's amazing that this little phone takes such higher quality videos than the much larger, more expensive and supposedly cooler iPad2!
STORAGE: I really like that we can use SD cards for storage and easily add space when we need it. Can't do that on the iPhone. And the iPhone becomes vastly more expensive when you buy the models with more storage. The base price of the HTC is the same regardless of which $30 storage card you decide to put in it.
KEYBOARD & TYPING While the keyboard looks very similar to the iPhone's, somehow amazingly I'm able to type on it a lot more accurately! It may be the actual tactile feedback you get when you hit each key, or maybe their automatic spell check is better. But I make far fewer mistakes.
And the Swype feature, where you can type simply by dragging your finger from one letter to the next across the keyboard is really amazing! Even on the first few uses of that feature my typing speed was about 70% of my regular typing speed. But as I've gotten more used to it it's now about 90%. I expect the more I use it that it will eventually be faster than regular typing. But interestingly I make far fewer typos with it than I do with regular typing! So it's a very cool feature that makes a real difference. If you have large fingers like I do it can be hard to do regular typing with two fingers. But the Swype feature makes it really easy to do the typing with just one finger.
ME.COM VS. MY.TMOBILE.COM If you used me.com for its phone finder service, the ironic thing is that it didn't work with iPads or iPhones! By which I mean that if you were out with your phone and your iPad and you happened to lose one of them and wanted to use the web browser on the other one to login to me.com and find it it would tell you that the service doesn't work from your device's browser! You'd actually have to go find a real computer to connect to me.com from to find your device. How idiotic is that!?
The T-Mobile finder works fine from any device including iPads and iPhones! It also works exactly the same way the iPhone phone finder worked. It will locate your phone and display it to you on a map. You can send an audible signal to the phone, and you can lock and wipe data from the phone. It also has an additional function which allows you to choose to send your phone's location to the service periodically, you can choose the time frame, every few minutes up to every 90 minutes. That's handy if you ever want to track the route your phone has taken. Could help you catch a thief by tracking his tracks.
SYNCING: Syncing this phone to Outlook calendars and contacts works flawlessly. I used to use Apple's horrible me.com service to sync over the air. It worked great for a few weeks, then it stopped working all together. It also destroyed my Outlook calendar and it still hasn't recovered (it creates multiple entries for everything I enter to it... enter an appointment and it shows up 5 times)!
But I was very happy when this phone connected and synced perfectly with Outlook on the very first try. You can also create a folder to hold files that you want to sync with the phone and it does a very good job at that as well.
WEB BROWSING: Just one word: FLASH! It's amazing how many sites use Flash these days not just for fancy graphics, but for basic functionality. On any Apple mobile device you're totally locked out from viewing that content and functionality. The Sensation works flawlessly with Flash and it's so nice to actually be able to use ANY website and have access to all its functionality. Steve Jobs, you really need to wake up on this one. It's a major reason I switched.
Also, the larger screen makes it possible to see a lot more content. There's also a feature where when you double-tap to zoom in on the text of a page it will actually resize the text in that column so you can easily read it. On the iPhone you'd sometimes have to turn the phone sideways so the text could enlarge to fit the wider screen. But this does it for you automatically without having to re-orient the phone. You can also turn this feature off if you don't like it which is another thing you don't get much of on the iPhone: CHOICE!
FREEDOM: Last but not least is the feeling of FREEDOM you get with Android and the Sensation! I'm not sure I can totally put my finger on it... but I think iPhone owners will understand this. There's just a feeling with Apple products that everything's so restricted. They try to control every single little thing. Maybe it's "Digital Rights Management" and the way the use of audio files is so restricted, even your own audio files. You MUST transfer files only through iTunes. And you can never transfer any audio file on your iPhone back to your own computer. If you ever connect to iTunes on another computer you own you can transfer what's on the phone back to that computer. It's really infuriating... it's almost like you don't own the things you've purchased... or created on your own. Or maybe it's the fact you can only buy things from the apple app store and they must be approved by BIG BROTHER APPLE before they can be put into the app store (you won't believe how many legitimate things they won't approve). With Android there's just a feeling of choice and doing things your own way... even if a few of them aren't quite as "perfect".
CONS
FOLDERS: This is the biggest drawback in my opinion and the reason I give the phone 4 stars instead of 5. Android doesn't come with the ability to create folders. There are apps that try to emulate this ability but none of them really come close. They're all very cumbersome and convoluted to use. Nothing comes close to the simplicity and ease of use of the iPhone folders.
Within the first two days I had already decided to create home screen shortcuts to enough apps that I filled up the first two home screens. (that's 24 8 on the main screen and 16 on the others). And I hadn't even begun to download apps I knew I'd want.
So without the ability to create folders, you'd end up constantly cycling through the various screens to get to what you wanted. A real nightmare for people who have a lot of apps.
The Droid folders programs that I've tried at least solve that problem but not with the visual appeal and ease of use of the iPhone folders. For instance, when you create a folder (through a very convoluted method involving the opening of two other programs!), you have to select a single icon to represent the folder. So instead of actually being able to see the contents represented by tiny little icons you just see the one icon that you chose.
Charging Cradle: There is no cradle that I'm aware of at the moment to set it in. I just lay it flat on my desk. Wouldn't mind if it had a cradle like the iPhone to prop it up so you could actually enjoy seeing the screen. Especially since unlike the iPhone this screen will actually stay on for as long as you like giving you a new clock and weather center within an easy glance.
NO CLOCK RADIOS MADE FOR IT: I have iHome clock radios all over my house. Wherever I am I can take the iPhone, plug it into the radio and it will charge and play music or podcasts. I'm not aware of any similar products for this phone.
PODCASTS: I used the iPhone pretty heavily for podcasts that changed daily. iTunes downloads them automatically and the sync to the phone whenever you sync it. So it was totally hassle-free to update those daily podcasts. You can still do this with the Sensation but it takes your human intervention. I now copy the podcasts I want to transfer to the phone to a separate folder and I tell the phone to sync with that folder. That does the trick, however, it's not as automatic as it is with the iPhone.
In fact, nothing with this phone is as automatic. Pretty much everything you can do with the iPhone you can do with this phone, but this phone just takes a little more work to get some things working the way you might want them.
CLOCK: The clock on this phone is a little primitive. For instance, you can't set the timer to turn off the music player. I used to like to go to sleep with my iPhone playing some audio files and I'd set the timer to 15 minutes and instead of playing a sound at the end of the 15 minutes you can set the iPhone to shut off the iPod player. But not on this phone.
Also, the stopwatch is a little quirky. I liked to turn on the stopwatch when I go to sleep. Then when I wake up in the mornings it's really easy to tell how long I slept. And I'd leave it on all day until the next. If the stopwatch read 24:00:00 that would mean exactly 24 hours has elapsed since the last time I went to bed. If it read less than 24 hours I knew I was getting to bed a little earlier than the night before (always a good feeling)!
But the default stopwatch, when it gets into hours it goes a little crazy. The first night when it should have read 24:00:00 it read something crazy like 69:00:00. I still have no idea what the 69 was counting, but it definitely wasn't hours! I downloaded a clock app and it's a little better but it won't turn off the music player either. It does show hours, but when it goes over 20 hours you can't see the 2! So you'll see "0:00:00" or "1:00:00" you just have to know that's 21 and not 1. I'm trusting someone will come up with a better clock and soon! I'm going to time them!
EMAIL PROGRAM: The default email program basically SUCKS! It doesn't read html emails! Today most emails are html... so to not have this ability is pretty unforgivable. It's like a throwback to early 90s when email programs didn't read html. Fortunately though, you can download email apps. But that's the thing with this phone. You can eventually get it to do what you want but it will take more effort on your part. Things the iPhone does out of the box can be achieved but through some work and effort on your part.
I'm using the Gmail app although I don't use gmail for my mail. I have my own website and use email with my own domain name. So I created a gmail account and set my own email to forward a copy of all messages to the gmail account. The fortunate thing is that Google lets you customize your gmail reply-to address, so when I reply to these emails it shows my real address to the recipients instead of the gmail address. It works fine and the benefit is that gmail will "push" messages to your phone, so the minute you open up the program you'll see your latest messages. You don't have to wait for all the messages since the last time you checked to download. They'll already be there.
VOICE DIALING: Unfortunately the HTC Sensation doesn't have voice dialing. They have a very rudimentary form of it, basically you have to manually open up your contact list then click the search button and say the name of the person you're looking for. However, you can't just hit the button and say "Call Gina Rigsby". This phone's voice dialing is apparently not tied into the actually names in your contact list like the iPhone's is.
TIPS & TRICKS FOR FORMER iPhone OWNERS:
When I first got this phone there were many things I wish a former iPhone owner could have told me how to do! There were simple things I couldn't figure out how to do like when reading an email message how do you get back to the list of emails!
The main thing that I found disorienting when I first started using this phone was how to get back to where I was. So for all iPhone users, remember, the "back arrow" at the very bottom of the phone (part of the hardware) is your best friend! That's how you get back to where you came from. Remember it and use it!
If you're reading an email message you'll be disoriented because you want see a way back to the email Index on the screen. That's because it's the back space button at the bottom of the phone. Just click that and it'll take you right back to the Index.
The other thing I found really disorienting was how to get the list of programs I had just used. On the iPhone you click the round button at the bottom of the phone twice fast and it'll give you a list of your most recently used programs.
On this phone there are several ways to do it but the quickest way is just to push and hold the Home button at the bottom of the phone until the list pops up on the screen.
Another disorienting thing for iPhone users is that when you're in a program it's often not clear what you click on to see the list of program options. Turns out it's the "list" button at the bottom of the phone (the one to the right of the Home button). When you click that a list that is specific to whatever program you're in will pop up... and it will usually have an Options or Settings choice that you can use to customize the program.
Oh and the Search button also at the bottom of the phone is the quickest way to find phone numbers and calendar entries. When I first got the phone I must have messed around for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to Search on contacts! You can bring up the contacts list but there's not always a search box at the top of the screen.
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