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Product: HTC Sensation 4G
Price: $199 with qualifying T-Mobile contract after $50 mail-in-rebate.
What It’s Good For: Taking HD video, surfing the web, making phone calls.
Who It’s Good For: T-Mobile users who want a fast, feature-packed Android device with great battery life.
Limitations: T-Mobile’s 4G network isn’t all that fast; the phone is pre-loaded with lots of extraneous and unneeded applications.
Bottom Line: The Sensation 4G is the best phone currently available for T-Mobile — just be aware that 4G is more of a marketing tool than an actual speed upgrade.
A Closer Look at the HTC Sensation 4G
T-Mobile might be in the process of getting acquired by AT&T but that doesn’t mean that the network isn’t still actively trying to bring newer, better phones to its network.
The HTC Sensation 4G hits all the spec bullet points for a modern, fast smartphone in 2011. It features a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has a crystal-clear 4.3″ qHD screen (with a resolution of 540×960) and has front and rear cameras. It can even record video in 1080p.
The device feels good in the hand and is solidly built. Aesthetically, it looks a lot like the typical HTC smartphone, but the 4.3″ qHD is just ever so slightly curved at the edges. Incidentally, the screen is fantastic. Video playback, in particular, looks great on this device. The higher resolution of the device, especially when compared to other 4.3″ displays, means that small details pop and text looks extra sharp.
The HTC Sensation 4G comes with the latest version of Android — Gingerbread — which is a nice touch. Unfortunately, HTC didn’t go stock Android with this device, but instead layered its Sense UI 3.0 on top. We’re of two opinions about Sense 3.0: on the one hand, the lock screen is really fantastic and we like the new custom 3D coverflow-esque rotation for the home screens. We also approve of some of the quick-access settings in the notification area, including access to recently used apps. On the downside, we don’t like the overly-animated weather widget (which includes sound) and other superfluous add-ons.
T-Mobile is promoting the Sensation 4G as a media device of sorts, thanks to the included HTC Watch and HTC Listen apps and the T-Mobile TV service. The movie and music selection from HTC’s Watch and Listen stores is serviceable, but it sill doesn’t compete with iTunes (or even Amazon). It’s nice that such an option exists, but frankly, we’d rather have Netflix support.
The T-Mobile TV app does allow users to watch live TV and select on-demand content, and it works about as well as one would expect — which is to say, the on-demand/downloaded stuff looks great. The live content is hit or miss.
The phone has a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor and, while we didn’t notice any appreciable lag when using the phone (unless lots of apps were open at once), it didn’t feel demonstrably faster than any of the single-core devices we’ve tested. Still, the processor does what it’s supposed to do. The accelerometer and gyroscope functions work well, and scrolling and pinch zooming was smooth and stutter-free.
The device comes with 1GB of on-board memory and an 8GB microSD card. The nice thing about Gingerbread is that most apps will automatically install directly to the card.
The 8-megapixel rear camera is good — though we’d skip using any of the built-in filters in the included HTC photo app. Use something like PicPlz or Magic Hour instead. The 1080p video is quite nice with one caveat: It will run down your battery.
1080p video recording aside, the battery life on the HTC Sensation 4G is stellar. We easily got through an entire day using the phone as a primary device and still had battery room to spare. The standby time is also impressive. I left the phone on, but unused, in my purse for almost two days before I remembered it was there, and discovered it still had battery life.
T-Mobile is selling the phone as a 4G device, but that’s marketing speak. T-Mobile’s version of 4G is actually just HSPA+, or 3G in the rest of the world. Sure, the theoretical limits of HSPA+ indeed approach the 4G speeds that Verizon is boasting on its 4G LTE network, but in practice, users aren’t going to get those speeds.
In our tests, after spending just under a week with the phone, we found that AT&T’s 3G data connection on the iPhone 4 was consistently faster than T-Mobile’s 4G network. It goes without saying that the HTC Sensation 4G doesn’t even approach the data speeds we saw with the Droid Charge.
All in all, the Sensation 4G is a great phone for T-Mobile customers. It’s fast, feels good in the hand, has a great screen, strong battery life and lots of gusto.
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The HTC Sensation 4G is the best phone currently available on T-Mobile.
Not only is the dual-core handset fast, but it also has a great screen, incredible battery life and can record video in 1080p.
The Sensation 4G has a 4.3" qHD screen with a great resolution of 960x540.
The Sensation 4G looks a lot like any other HTC phone-- it feels great in the hand and has a smooth, supple backplate.
Although we like some aspects of the Sense UI, we could do without some of the superfluous applications and overly animated widgets.
The weather widget, for instance, looks great, but the animations can be bothersome and the addition of sound is disconcerting and grating.
The Sensation 4G comes with HTC's Watch video player and a movie rental/purchase service.
iTunes this isn't. We commend HTC for creating a movie store of sorts, but the selection is limited to mostly Paramount films.
The 8 megapixel rear camera takes nice photos. The tap to focus feature works the same as it does on the iPhone.
We'd skip the built-in filter options for the HTC camera and instead post-process in Photoshop, Lightroom or a mobile app like PicPlz or Magic Hour.
T-Mobile's definition of 4G doesn't really match our definition. Upload speeds are certainly above par, but download consistently fell below what we get on an iPhone 4 running on AT&T.
Don't let the 4G in the name fool you; expect fast 3G data speeds at best.
One of the features we really like from the Sense UI is the ability to change lock screens to display custom widgets or quick access to apps.
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