HTC Sensation
The New Android Smartphone from HTC. HTC Sensation A hotly anticipated smartphone with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a "Super" 4.3-inch screen, and a manufacturer-skinned version of Android 2.3. it feels small. 4.3-inch smartphones, starting with HTC's own HD2, have always been impressive beasts, but beasts is what they were -- ungainly, crude, and occasionally harder to handle than an angry carp. Not so with the Sensation. This handset is only 6mm taller, a single millimeter wider, and -- at 11.3mm -- actually slightly thinner than the 4-inch HTC Incredible S. Putting aside the measuring tape and grappling with the pair confirms what those numbers suggest: the 4.3-inch Sensation is nigh indistinguishable from its more modest family mate.

The display has a 540x960-pixel resolution and a 16:9 wide-screen aspect ratio. That's plenty compared to most phones, which tend to have resolutions of around 480x800 pixels. But it's not quite on a par with the amazing sharpness of the iPhone 4's 640x960-pixel screen. Nevertheless, the screen is stunningly bright, and text on Web pages looks sharp even when you zoom in as far as you can go.


Powering the big screen is the Sensation's 1.2GHz, dual-core processor. This processor packs plenty of power for Android apps, and puts the Sensation in direct competition with the Samsung Galaxy S 2. The Super LCD on board also seems to be consuming energy with restraint, making that frankly average 1520mAh cell look very good indeed. If battery life is an important consideration in your spec-for-spec comparison with the Galaxy S II, score this as a win for the Sensation.

Sense 3.0 features whizzy 3D animations everywhere. Swiping between home screens, for example, reveals depth and layers on each HTC-designed widget. Transitions like this tend to require a surprising amount of processing power, so Sense 3.0 may not come to HTC phones with slower CPUs, such as the Desire S.

The HTC Sensation swaggers with smart-phone confidence. Its beefy metal case, huge screen, powerful dual-core processor and glossy user interface make it feel like the alpha phone in the mobile pack. Despite a few software slip-ups here and there, this phone justifies its name.