HTC Sensation 4G for T-Mobile hands-on (again)

By on Jun 3, 2011 at 4:17 PM
mobile June 3, 2011

We just tore into T-Mobile’s HTC Sensation 4G, and while we saw the device before its official debut a few months back, well, there’s just nothing like your own retail unit, is there? Everything about this handset exudes quality — the build is fantastic, it’s proportionally weighted, the materials all look like high-end finishes with brushed metal and glass, and the feel in your hand is perfect thanks to the phone’s tapered edges and soft-touch plastic on the back. There is one downside to the case on the HTC Sensation 4G, though: the power button isn’t optimally placed and it’s quite difficult to press, so it makes locking and unlocking the phone a bit difficult. The qHD display really shows off vivid and bright colors and text is crystal clear. It’s incredibly reflective, but that’s probably the only negative thing we could say about. The phone zipped through any task we threw at it in the couple hours we have been playing with it, and this is already one of our favorite Android handsets to date. Hit the break for the full photo gallery and stay tuned for the official review.

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  • J. Williams

    Great looking device, but I’m gonna stick with my G2x for now.

    • http://www.facebook.com/JustinBauder Justin Bauder

      I bet you will, and you will be upset right after the return policy ends :]

      • J. Williams

        I don’t buy phones because of what others think. I know how to stand on my own, and use my judgement. Don’t need a website to tell me on what is better…G2x is just fine.

      • Anonymous

        Why should he. G2x is a great device. troll.

    • Scott

      LG = poop! 

      • Anonymous

        A big COILED poop

  • http://twitter.com/dgonzalez06 DebbieG ˆ⌣ˆ

    Drool….

  • Anonymous

    Don’t forget to compare the screen to a SAMOLED device, please.

  • Unseen

    Don’t like the look of this phone. I do love the fact that the phone is unlocked or so they say. That may come in handy when I travel to Europe or Asia. Ill keep my G2x for now.

  • Anonymous

    Sticking with the G2X for now since my unit doesn’t have any bugs. The Sensation isn’t really an upgrade to it except for the display and build quality but the Sensation’s CPU is a step backwards since it’s using the old A8 architecture and I wouldn’t be able to store all of my games/apps that can’t be moved to the SD card. Why would HTC only give this phone 1gb of app storage? Ont top of that, your not even getting a full 1gb since it has pre-installed apps and Sense.

    • Catdecorator

      I love the space g2x had for apps, I have over 80 apps and only have used 20%…no bloatware except tmobile app pac..still think even the shape of the phone is better than anything out there. Just one problem I read that it has gorilla glass, since I now have a few tiny scratches in one area, I don’t think it does have it..but other than that great phone, just like you no issues here. I did do a factory reset..but no bleeding of screen..

    • Duh Winning

      It’s not exactly the A8 architecture. It’s related, but it is its own design. And it also actually has 4gb of storage, 3 of which are used for pre-installed apps and Sense.

  • Anonymous

    How can you guys keep a G2X over this? Is it because your return period is already over?

    • Anonymous

      Nope. It’s because this isn’t an upgrade. The only thing the Sensation has over the G2X is the higher resolution display and the aluminum uni-body. Other than that, the G2X display is a IPS panel which has a higher refresh rate and better color reproduction. The Tegra 2 runs on the new A9 architecture while the Snapdragon used in the Sensation runs on the older A8 which shows in the beanchmark tests. Even the the Tegra 2 in the G2X runs .2 slower it is still more powerful and uses less power. One of the biggest reasons why I can’t move to the Sensation is because of it’s internal storage. With all of my games and apps installed, I am sitting at 2.4gb and that is after I moved everything over to the SD that can be moved. I am not even a app whore but I’m assuming it’s because of the couple games I have that can’t be moved over to the SD. I don’t know why HTC decided to only put 1GB of storage into this high end smart phone. By the time the user gets the phone, they will only have about 700mb of left over storage after the pre-installed apps and Sense suck up some of that storage. Lastly, I HATE Sense. It is a waste of resources and would much rather run my launcher of choice on top of Vanilla Android. In the end, I guess it all depends if you got a working G2X without any of the bugs it comes with. I got lucky I guess and if you did, this phone really shines. It’s super fast and plays any game you can throw at it with amazing quality. I knew about the Sensation 1 week after I bought the G2X on launch day and could have returned it then but chose not to. I will however, be trading in the G2X for the SGSII/Hercules. That phone right there is still labeled the best Android device ever made and is much more powerful than both the G2X and the Sensation.

      • Sniper1087

        The Radio on the G2X is not really great is very buggy, the phone restarts was a bug that happened to only a few, still the Sensation has 768 mb of ram which the G2X only has 512mb. the App storage is 1gb user addressable, (4gb total storage). another thing you should never follow benchmarks, because they are not really accurate. If you did a little bit of research you would have found out that Benchmarks do not tell real world performance, and the reason the G2X gets better scores is because the Sensation has a qHD display which puts more stress on the phone, thus lowering the score

      • Anonymous

        Like I said. My G2x has not one bug and the radio in it has been great. I’ve never had a reboot and I have had it since day one. I’ve never had a device with such a good GPS and WiFi connection. I would like to know how the storage on the Sensation is user addressable because I would then consider the Sensation but I haven’t seen anything saying the Sensation had a total of 5gb storage. I would also wait a little bit to get it after reading about all of its own bugs on XDA such as a yellowish display, poor reception, reboots after talking a picture and the LED light not being noticeable unless your in a pitch black room. Hopefully they address these issues.

    • JJose

      because G2X works well for us?

    • Anonymous

      Because its obviously not an upgrade. It still uses the old a8 architecture. G2x and gs2 uses a9. It only has 1 gb of usable internal memory. that’s really small for a high end device. The g2x has more than 5gb of usable memory. And we all know HTC are known to produce phones that has epic fail battery life.the acreen on g2x is still better knowing that it is an IPS. And its big and huge. will not fit into my pocket.

  • Dcjoe662

    Does it have noise cancellation?

  • Peter fitzenwell

    Look at that. White paper weight next to that beautiful HTC Sensation :-p

  • http://twitter.com/AFCarson Adam Carson

    What kind of pixel arrangement is it?  PenTile or something else?

  • http://twitter.com/_elemenopee_ Kavin Nguyen

    Meh. I’ll stick with my G2x for now. It’s running on CM7 and Trinity at 1.5 Ghz, so it’ll keep me happy for a while until the Galaxy S2 comes out.

    • Anonymous

      Same here. Besides, the Sensation doesn’t even have enough memory for me to store my apps.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1350219741 Derrick Ford

      I thought the Galaxy S2 wasn’t coming to TMO

      • Anonymous

        Its not. Something better by the name Hercules is.

  • Anonymous

    The smartphone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with the latest adaptation of HTC’s Sense UI, which now includes a customizable lockscreen that will affectation amusing updates, photos, acclimate or stock news.

    Celular Blackberry

    • liveTexas

      Ginger 2.3.2…..NOT 2.3.4 which is the Newest Build with Native Video Calling through Google Talk…Shame in you, HTC!

  • Mistermouzone

    this phone may not be an upgrade from the G2x, but i think it will be viewed as a better phone overall

    • Frustrated_G2x_Owner

      As a current G2x owner, I’ll be giving this a shot.  The optics in the LG camera are terrible and the FFC produces better quality images than the main camera.  If this device can be rooted and I can ditch all the HTC junk (Sense etc) I’ll probably make the switch.

  • http://apple.com Yes_iHave_an_iPhone

    yawn..

  • Osanilevich

    This is a pretty good phone to have for a flagship model although I do think the HTC Doubleshot will take the title with its release only bc its a myTouch model and has a qwerty keyboard. Anyhow, Tmo is making a strong push for new subscribers and if their reception wasn’t so bad, I’d be on board

  • Anonymous

    Just. Read a Sensation review on android central and I didn’t like what I saw. They said the launcher was laggy and it had one of the worst camera’s they have seen in low light settings.

    • Anonymous

      To be fair, the exact quote was “The launcher is a little slow with live wallpapers, even with two Snapdragons powering it.”

      I’ve long ago discovered that while live wallpapers are cool, they seem to cause lag in normal Android phone functions such as app-drawer scrolling, homescreen scrolling, etc. I never use them on my Nexus One because of this.

  • I AM FED UP

    What a wholly original and groundbreaking device!  Another boring slab of glass that you have to pound on to communicate with like an ape.  For everyone 25 of these tired retreads can’t HTC release one that has a portrait qwerty? 

    Ugh.

    • Anonymous

      Desire Z. Derp.

  • Matt Landish

    I really love that Sense Flip clock.  However, I have a Galaxy S and every ‘flip’ clock in the market (that I know of) doesn’t actually flip!  Anyone know of one that actually does?

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