[REVIEW] Hands-On with the HTC Sensation

At first I wasn't sure what I thought about the HTC Sensation. On the surface it appears just to be another Desire HD-esque device - Android on a big screen, wrapped in HTC Sense.

To judge it like that, however, would be doing both the device and myself a disservice, as when you get to know more about it and actually hold it in your hand, the device comes to life and impresses you like no previous HTC phone I've used.

One of the standout features for me, was the concave screen. When the HTC rep told me about the curved screen I was a bit dismissive, but when you run your thumb left to right and feel the ever so subtle upward curve to the edge there really is something 'quietly brilliant' about it. That extra level of tactile feedback to know you are nearing the edge makes every other phone feel...lacking without it. Part of me wants to get the buff out and try to reshape the screen on my Mozart now.

Speaking of my Mozart, within a week I had a big scratch in my screen - due to the very nature of the inward curvature of the HTC Sensation screen, if you place it face down on a surface the screen is given a measure of protection as only the edges come in contact with the surface. Subtle, yet genius.

"Did He say he was Checking out Woody?"

At 4.3" the screen on the HTC Sensation is bordering on mini-tablet, and yet to hold in the hand the engineering and design is so elegant and surprisingly light weight that it feels like the exact perfect size of phone (disclaimer: I have reasonably sized hands, not enormous but certainly bigger than a ladies). Fortunately with all this screen real estate the high pixel density of the qHD (540 X 960) screen makes it a pleasure to stare at. We were shown Toy Story 3 in HD on the device and I've never enjoyed checking out a Woody so much before.

With previous HTC efforts I've been somewhat dubious about their Sense UI, and in many ways still miss the old spinning cube UI from the original Touch series of Windows Mobiles - but with Sense 3.0 it feels like they are finding their rhythm and getting it together.

At the end of the day when you are looking at which top of the line big screen Android phone to choose there are probably 3 contenders, the HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Atrix, and - as they all run the same apps - the distinguishing factor will be the OEM customisation. I can't speak much of the latest TouchWiz revision or the uniqueness of the Atrix in this post as I've not spent enough time with them but HTC have done a lot of things right in this latest Sense revision.

Little things like the 7 home screens cycling back to the first one once you swipe past the end like a proper carousel, being able to rearrange the order of your 7 home screens, live content visible on your lock screen such as the Friend Stream, Stocks or even photo albums. These little touches make the system feel more complete, more intuitive and just better than anything we've seen before from HTC.

Another great feature is the quick launch icons on your lock screen. Having 4 customisable icons that you can instantly launch from your lock screen is brilliant. It means you can be tweeting in seconds, or snapping pictures - what might have taken 2 or 3 steps from the lock screen now only takes 1 and is a great initiative.

So where does the Sensation fall down? So far it seems to be ticking all the right boxes. I did notice a few small things...things that disappointed me.

Firstly, no hardware camera button. This is Smartphone 101. Microsoft built it into the Windows Phone spec requirements for a reason and Apple are retro-fitting the volume button as a shutter key for the same purpose: its easier to hold and snap a pic with a hardware key. When you consider one of the hype features of the Sensation is it's Instant Capture Camera, it surprised me this simple hardware feature was missing.

It would have been nice if the concave screen curved up before the soft-touch buttons at the base of the screen, a bit of tactile feedback to slide no further lest you accidentally jump home - however the curve flows from the screen past the buttons to the bottom lip of the device. I miss phones with proper buttons, these soft touch keys drive me crazy.

While the device is very nice in the hand, I do wonder what it would be like in a pocket - it is a large device and if you strap a cover around it to protect it from the occasional drop and tumble it might feel like your carrying a copy of the King James bible in your pocket.

Despite the few relatively minor issues I have with it, the HTC Sensation truly is a fantastic device. Sense 3.0 is far and away the best release yet and has finally started to convince me of its worth. With its dual-core processing power large hi-res screen and the ability to customise it to a level previously unseen on a HTC, the Sensation truly is a best-in-class phone that any smartphone user would be happy to call their own.

The HTC Sensation has launched in Australia exclusively on Telstra on the $79 Freedom Connect Plan, with no monthly handset charge. (You'll be pleased to know all the extraneous Telstra content has been reduced to a single 'TelstraOne' application, including a highly useful widget mode that shows your data usage as a bar graph right on the home screen!)


Check out the MASSIVE Photo Gallery from the Launch event!

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