How Sensational is the HTC Sensation?

HTC Sensation deals

When the HTC Sensation came out, most people agreed that it really did live up to its name. Powerful, with a big screen and the latest version of Android, it was one of the top contenders in the market. That was just over a year ago now, but a year is a long time in the mobile phone technology market. Not so long that it's no longer considering however. In fact, it is still a very good device and if you can find the right phone deals then it's well worth checking out.

Sensational Specs

The stand out features on the HTC Sensation are its high resolution, large screen, it's powerful processing capability and impressive user interface.  Check out the full HTC Sensation specs on the HTC website.

The Sensation comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed, which was the latest version of Android at the time. At the time of writing that title goes to Jelly Bean, but Gingerbread continues to be a very good operating system. And HTC continues to be one of the few manufacturers which has managed to improve upon the pure Android OS with its Sense user interface.

In the Sensation HTC you are treated to the Sense 3.0 UI which nicely combines popular social network sites facebook and twitter with your google mail address book for optimum convenience and ease. There are also a number of good widgets, including the weather widget which is a favourite for many HTC users. The widgets have also been given a nifty 3D effect, which takes up a lot of processing power to do. So is it powerful enough?

An argument could be made that the processing power of this phone is too good. The speed with which menus scroll can make it seem a bit jittery, but that's a minor complaint and the truth is that the dual-core 1.2GHz CPU is more than welcome. These days of course some of the latest phones come with quad-core processors but it's actually questionable whether that much processing power is really necessary. As it is, the HTC Sensation will be able to handle all but the most demanding 3D games and will continue to be a good performer for most of the content available for a while yet.

A well powered processor is also necessary for the screen, which is nice and large at 4.3 in. Sometimes larger screens can be less sharp than those with smaller screens if the resolution isn't increased, but that is not the case here as they have gone for 540 x 960 pixels so everything is crisp and vibrant. That's also a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is perfect for watching videos.

Super Supplements

If you are interested in using your HTC Sensation to watch videos then you might be interested in the HTC video store which comes with the device, known as Watch. This is like Apple's iTunes, only you can't get music, only videos. Whether a film or a TV show, there's a lot available. They are a tad pricey but they'll look great on your large, high resolution screen.

There are two cameras, the main one on the rear taking pictures with 8 megapixels, which makes for a pretty good shot. You can also record video in 1080p, the highest HD standard. The front facing VGA camera can be used for self portraits or video calls.

The case is made out of metal and is plenty stylish, feeling nice and solid in your hands. It does mean that this is not exactly the lightest phone out there, at 148g you'll feel it's heft.

Summary

While the specs of the HTC Sensation are not as spectacular as when they first came out due to recent advances in the latest phones, this is still a beast of a phone and if you can do without the very latest tech then it's well worth checking out HTC Sensation monthly contract deals. Or if you're looking something similar but a bit lighter and closer to the pure Android OS, then Samsung Galaxy S II deals might be more up your street.