Sensation first impressions

[ragnarokx]

Tell us what you think of sensation.

1.Describe what you think of the hardware

2.The software.(Instant snap camera shutter)

3.The build quality.

4.The new Sense 3.0 user interface.

5.Do you think this phone is worthy of signing a new two year contract with T-Mobile.

6.How do you think thew camera is on this phone.

7.How is the video recording. (How well the video looks does 1080p look amazing, how is the sound quality.)

8.Video playback at 30 fps

9.Would you reccomend this to a friend whos looking for a new phone?

 

[ohyeahar]

Hello, fellow Android folks! I've not purchased the Sensation. But I did have an extensive hands-on time with it.
I've been looking to upgrade my HTC Desire and the Sensation seemed like a great choice. My mind was pretty much set and doing a test run was intially just a matter of formality. Here's what I thought:

Hardware
Great in-hand feel. Actually feels surprisingly small which is probably due to the 16:9 aspect ratio and the rounded edges. The raised edges of the screen is a nice touch. Build quality is pretty much what you would expect from HTC; that is, excellent.
I expected the qHD resolution to really pop out at me, but it really didn't. It was nice and when it comes to pixels, more is always better. But I came away at this underwelmed.

Software
The new lock screen is brilliant. But that's really it. There are a few welcomed changes to the various native apps but not much really has changed from the core UI.
Swiping the across the homescreens has a new 3d animation which reveals that some of the HTC widgets actually have 3d layers to them. But this is just eye candy.
The spinning carasol animation is completely useless. A lot of videos show that this animation is activated by swiping quickly across several homescreens. But I found that it can also be activated if you swipe hard and fast across just a single homescreen. This could get annoying in the long run.

Camera
The instant capture feature is a bit of an overstatement by HTC. Compared to my HTC Desire, the shutter seems definitely a bit faster and more responsive. But that's not saying much since the cam on the Desire (and most HTC devices) is pretty slow. Of course, results will vary with different lighting, but I was unimpressed.
I've not tried video recording, so no comments there.

Performance
Not sure how to express this. The device is fast. But knowing that it has a 1.2ghz dual core inside, it feels like it should be faster and smoother. While I was testing the Sensation, I had my Desire with me doing the same tasks side by side. While the Sensation was definitely faster than my aging Desire, the difference isn't as huge as I expected.

Conclusion
There's really only one type of people who I would recommend the Sensation to: new Android users.
It's easy to set up and Sense is very user-friendly compared to the other manufacturer custom UI's.

But it's hard to recommend it to long-time users of Android and HTC. If you've been using HTC products for a while, the Sense UI may start to feel boring to you considering the core look of it hasn't really changed since it was introduced with the HTC Hero.

Also, if you're upgrading from a Nexus One or faster, you may find the performance of the Sensation a bit underwelming as I did. Of course, it's faster than what you're upgrading from but the jump is not as huge as you would expect.

Needless to say, I left the shop without the Sensation. It's not that I don't like the Sensation. I just don't feel like the improvements are substantial enough.

 

[MattMJB0188]

Tell us what you think of sensation.

1.Describe what you think of the hardware

2.The software.(Instant snap camera shutter)

3.The build quality.

4.The new Sense 3.0 user interface.

5.Do you think this phone is worthy of signing a new two year contract with T-Mobile.

6.How do you think thew camera is on this phone.

7.How is the video recording. (How well the video looks does 1080p look amazing, how is the sound quality.)

8.Video playback at 30 fps

9.Would you reccomend this to a friend whos looking for a new phone?

1. Feels very nice compared to other single core android phones. Still not as smooth as iOS but a huge step forward. Web browsing feels very smooth because of the hardware.

2. Will update once I use it more, first impressions are ok. Didn't blow me away.

3. Build quality is definitely excellent but definitely not the best I've seen. The best would probably be the iPhone. The Sensation could feel more solid.

4. I am loving it. The animations are very intuitive. I'm still learning as its been a long time since I've used an Android but I love it. I really am liking the new lock screen. Definitely a step forward for HTC.

5. Oh most definitely, just be sure you go with at least a 5GB data plan because you won't want to put this baby down lol.

6. Haven't really played with it yet, but I did snap a couple of pictures and I like what I see. Will update once I really have played with it.

7. Can't comment, yet.

8. Can't comment, yet.

9. Oh god yes. This phone will be great for anyone looking for a powerful 2011 smartphone. Actually its once of the best smartphones out so far.

 

[Crackb3rry420]

1- Best
2- Tmobile
3- Smartphone
4- Created
5- To
6- This
7- Date
8- Ever
9-

 

[wmurphy1975]

Loving It!

I've only had the phone for about a week so I can't post a full review yet but you can read my first impressions here.

So far it seems like an awesome phone!

 

[Shroomster]

Well I'm not going to go into that much detail, but coming from an original mytouch 3g I really love the screen size and shape. It's about the sam size as the entire body of the mt3g which is really wild if you ask me.

 

[CaptZacknetdocs@paonia.com]

Tell us what you think of sensation.

1.Describe what you think of the hardware

2.The software.(Instant snap camera shutter)

3.The build quality.

4.The new Sense 3.0 user interface.

5.Do you think this phone is worthy of signing a new two year contract with T-Mobile.

6.How do you think thew camera is on this phone.

7.How is the video recording. (How well the video looks does 1080p look amazing, how is the sound quality.)

8.Video playback at 30 fps

9.Would you reccomend this to a friend whos looking for a new phone?

My week-old Sensation has become a brick and is going back to TMO for an exchange. Why? Here's just a few of the problems:

1) Lock ring requires several attempts before it will work. It also requires huge pressure on the screen to even get it to twitch, much less unlock.

2) Dialer doesn't work most of the time: a) When opened it freezes. If or when I can make a call and try to end it, I can't most of the time, there's no response to tapping or pressing the "END" button. Then,on the few times it does respond and ends the call, the entire screen goes green around the edges and the phone locks up. a warm boot doesn't fix it. Removing the battery doesn't really either...except once in a while for one or two calls.

3) More than half its awake time when I tap an app icon to open the app, nothing happens.

3) Arbitrarily it changes app icons to the generic Android HTC icon.

4) While there is a very slight reduction in time to open apps, its not really perceivable any faster than my old HTC EVO 4G. Scrolling is a bit smoother. Pinch Zoom is not much different than the EVO.

5) App and system icons and fonts are much smaller than the EVO, thus legibility on the Sensation is worse than the EVO or a Samsung Galaxy S 4G.

6) Screen clarity for apps like CONTACTS, CALENDAR, MESSAGES, INTERNET, GMAIL, etc, are no better than on the EVO and worse than on the Galaxy (nothig really compares to the Super AmoLed screen, IMO.

Capt.Z.

7) There are references in the HTC Uers Guide to thijgs that don't exist...at least on my phone...such as "Show Me".

If this Sensation wasn't fragged, I'd keep it. I like the form factor (except the USB poirt needs to be on the top or bottom. It's slim, light, and the curved corners make it easier to handle, IMO.

But I need a smartphone, not a brick, so its going back.

 

[Realsis77]

hi all im LOVING my new HTC sensation!! Personally I think the hardware is great and the software is great. Im coming from android 2.2, so yes I love 2.3, I think its built solid and feels great in my hand. its got just enough weight. I love the fact the glass is gorilla glass! The sense interface is Wonderful! personally I think this phone is well worth another two year contract with T mobile. They have been my carrier for many years now and I dont mind another contract. I think this camera takes sharp clear pictures and they look amazing. In my opinion the quality and play back of the videos is excellent! I would DEFINITELY recommend it to a friend or family. Once I started with Android a few years ago from blackberry I knew then I never wanted ANYTHING but Android , tablets included ! The only Android device I was ever disappointed with was the sidekick 4g. It had so many issues but I believe its NOT Android but Samsung that the issues were related to. Im very pleased now with my HTC Sensation. I did have to extend my contract but I DID NOT get a discount on the phone so I paid FULL price for it and I think Its worth every penny,. So far this has been the best phone I have ever owned!! I hope Issues in the future do not arise, but as of now i can say I think my HTC sensation is EXCELLENT!! I hope I can say that in a year from now too, I highly recommend it!!

 

[Pokey979]

Well I'm coming from an WM OS. I started with the T-Mobile Dash, Touch Pro 2, HTC HD 2, and finally to an android OS. Now I'm familiar with android OS by rooting my previous smartphones and decided instead of going through all the trouble of flashing roms and such...to actually go and get a android. So this is what I chose. Love the hardware. It's sleek and fits perfectly in my gorilla hands. Not a big fan of the charger slot being on the side...but BAH.. way better to have it separate with the 3.5mm HP jack unlike the mytouch 1st generation. Camera is just phenomenal. 8mp, 1080p, geez what else.... Very very very speedy machine this is. I've had this phone sine 4-7-12 and still amazed on how fast this is. Now as far as it being worthy of a 2 year contract...my reply would be heck yes...but that's just me. I would so recommend this phone to anyone thats looking for speed, quality, dun, and all around top of the line. Now here comes the bad news of the phone. No biggies. The volume for for pretty much anything sucks.. I mean really sucks but nothing but a good ol app in the market you can't find to change that. The next is it's battery. But hey..what you expect for it being the res that is it, duel core processors, and the list goes on and on. But the best solution would be to take a your usb cord with you everywhere you go. Yes I know how a pain in the rear this would be...I'm a big time users that's used to going to work @ 6am and playing on my phone all day and get home from doing either a 8hr shift or 12hr shift and still have AT LEAST HALF A CHARGE. Ya now it's like i charge it at least once while im at work but eh... best damn phone that T-Mobile has to offer thus far....imo.