HTC Sensation 4G Review - A Sensational Smartphone
by Brian Klug on July 1, 2011 12:38 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HTC
- Android
- Mobile
- HTC Sensation
- MSM8260
WiFi Hotspot
The Sensation includes HTC’s own WiFi hotspot software, and nothing much is changed between it and previous versions. It’s still limited to 5 users maximum, and you can view and manage each one’s connectivity. I don’t remember them being options before, but the Sensation also lets you change the WiFi channel and DHCP server settings in the advanced menu alongside the standard power timeout options. I tested the Sensation’s hotspot capabilities pretty extensively and found that things work out perfectly well. Thankfully there aren’t any bugs to speak of, which is more than I can say for the hotspot software on some other recent smartphones.
Speakerphone
Speakerphone on the Sensation isn’t quite as loud or as high quality as we’d like it to be. To be honest, this is probably the only really glaringly bad part of the whole device. I used the phone for navigation a lot while driving the 400 miles to and from California, and then on a trip or two to Phoenix, and the speakerphone volume just isn’t high enough. Listening to music at maximum, it isn’t adequate. For calls, it’s disappointingly quiet and grainy. I’m not sure what happened here or if something needed to go with the phone for it to fit into this form factor, but clearly the speakerphone took a back seat during testing and design, or there’s something flat out wrong.
There’s a grille on the plastic back of the Sensation, then another metal grille. There is a small rubbery ring around the thing as well, so it isn’t like sound is disappearing into a void between the metal case and the plastic back. It just isn’t loud enough.
Voice Calls and Audio Codec
We’re still trying to create an even better way of characterizing and presenting voice quality for smartphones. Until then we’ve provided a recording of the Sensation calling the local ASOS weathe report station by connecting the headset jack to line in. The Senation’s headset audio quality and earpiece volume also are good. The Sensation, like most modern phones, also has ambient noise cancellation which I tested by calling a friend in a very loud environment. Background noise around me was hard to detect on his end. HTC is no doubt using the Fluence noise cancellation audio chain onboard MSM8260.
I listened to lots of Google Music on the Sensation using my pair of Shure SE535 earphones, and found things overall pretty good. The Sensation uses TI’s very low power TLV320AIC3254 stereo audio codec.
Qualcomm's GPS
Last but not least in this section is GPS performance. The Senation uses Qualcomm’s Gen 8 GPS which supports standalone and assisted (A-GPS) mode. I tested and verified that I get a fix from cold start both with cellular connectivity and without WiFi or cellular connectivity. It works and it works well.
Note that airplane mode is on.
In addition, the GPS on the Sensation locks astoundingly quickly. It’s almost instantaneous, which is especially impressive after using the Droid Charge for weeks before, which often took either a few seconds or a full 30 to get a 3D fix.
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Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
We're still waiting for an SGS2, hopefully we will get one soon from Samsung USA and be able to compare it in its final form.Take care,
Brian
sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
brian,this is one of the few reviews which have praised sensation.but in my view your review is the best.
i am saying this because i believe that unlike other reviewers you not only test mobile phones in your lab but also use them as in daytoday life as a normal user.this gives a better impression of the devices which you review.
many reviewers have given more praises to sgs2 than sensation.they have based their views with the limited time which they had with the devices that too in their testing labs.but i believe that in real world usage sensation makes more sense than sgs2.and this has happened before with their older brothers that is desire and sgs.the reviewers had given more praises to the sgs but the actual users prefered desire over sgs.
though samsung devices looks great on paper,users get frustated with their handsets.
apart from htc in my view hp makes better handsets.lately they are catching up with the hardware but their design sucks.for example take pre3,may be its design makes more sense while handling and using it,but its looks are not good enough to make a good impression.now that they are putting single core1.4ghz processor in pre3,but still they are behind the competition of dualcores.but i do believe that pre3 will give a tough competition to all the dual core phones in terms of speed and performance because of a very light os that is the webos. webos is unarguably the best os out there which is slick and fast,easy to use interface,better management of memory,provides true multitasking,provides a great
feature like just type, and a best notification system.webos is very very light when compare to ios and android,so i think it doesnt need a dual core processor and 1gb of ram.it can perform better than ios and android even with a single core processor and 512mb ram.but hp needs to work on better designs to give a better impression of their devices.
by the way,congratulations brian for this great article.pls tell me what do you think of the observations i made above.
StormyParis - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
You need to be specific: what hidden drawbacks do Samsung's phones have ? and what hidden qualities, HTC's ?Disclaimer: my current HTC HD2 is the first phone I'm happy with in ages. I had junk from Motorola, LG, and Nokia before that had serious design flaws, plenty of bugs, bad support... or rather, all of the above. My HTC just worked from day one, now it's started a second life under CM7, and I'm very happy with it 2 yrs on.
I was looking foward to buying a Sensation. But the lighter weight, on the whole, better screen, and better moddability f the GS2 are on the verge of convincing me to buy that, instead.
sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
Read the review of droid charge by brian klug.He clearly mentioned that samoled+ has some serious problems such as overheating,yellowish tint and oversaturated colours.It is the slimmest smartphone in the world,but according to many users sensation is better to handle.Due to its wait and built quality it feels solid in the hand.And also remember that sgs2 is made of plastic.To know what drawbacks samsung phones have you need to do some googling.Just search for
defects of sgs and sgs2.
bigboxes - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
Please capitalize your sentences. It was quite the chore trying to read your post. If you want to be taken seriously you need to remember to correctly use those writing rules you learned in school.sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
sorry,i am from a non english speaking country.despite that i can write pretty good english,isn't it?SimKill - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link
Do you still not capitalize stuff in your language? I'm a non-native English speaker too, and my language doesn't even have capital and small letters. I still make an effort to write well so that I can convey my message as clearly as possible.sam46 - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link
I will :)Speed3mon - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link
bigboxes... gAyVisual - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link
Wait, what? Having white appear as red is accurate color now?BTW the Galaxy S II gives users a few choices of color calibration even with stock FW. And just wait and see what the hacked ones do...