Samsung Galaxy S2 vs HTC Sensation

Hmm, that is a tough one then. You're basically right in between both phones, I suppose many of the big plus points of the Galaxy S II don't really apply to you in many cases.

The only phone I can genuinely say feels very premium is the iPhone 4. The Desire series, Samsung series and Sensation don't seem to emit the same 'expensive' vibe that I find the iPhone 4 does.

The only thing that would worry me (from your perspective) is the battery, I generally find TechRadar to be quite fair and this is what they said about the battery -

The HTC Desire was fine for us when it came to lasting a day, but others found it would be dead by 7PM. The Desire HD was more universally panned for a poor battery, but still some chastised our verdict of it being unacceptable.

Well, it's going to happen again with the HTC Sensation, as the battery life, to us, seems woeful and not up to scratch. We're talking dead by 8PM with no push email, minimal Wi-Fi and about 30 mins of music and video at the most.

We've cycled it a few times to see if it can be improved, but the same things happens: it holds charge averagely well mostly, but then will get very warm and discharge at a rate of 10% per hour... which is a familiar scenario with the Desire HD.

We constantly kept the applications killed and the notifications to a minimum - but it seems only turning off the background synchronisation altogether helped the issue. And don't even think about hammering the camera in the middle of the day, or you'll be without a phone come the evening for sure.
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There is a slight possibility they had a dodgy unit but it is exactly the same behaviour that the Desire HD had, which is worrying.

I still think the Galaxy S II is probably the better option for you but its hard to say, I'd go and try them both again properly and have a fiddle with TouchWiz on the Galaxy S II. I thought it was a little bit nasty at first but its grown on me and you can remove the majority of it with LauncherPro.

As I said earlier, the new Sense UI isn't getting much praise at all. Its generally good but has a few issues (from the Engadget Sensation review) -

Overall, the new Sense UI is designed to make a great first impression, but scratch below the surface and you'll find little substance. We still aren't great fans of the onscreen keyboard, in spite of the extra room on this larger-display handset, and though HTC explicitly promised to improve its input prediction algorithms, we weren't struck by any great improvements there either. Precise text selection and cursor placements are also uniquely challenging on HTC devices, with the execution being arguably worse than on the default Android Gingerbread software. Finally, the move to a more graphically intensive UI does ocassionally take its toll on the phone's otherwise exemplary responsiveness, with detectable traces of lag cropping up here and there.
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Anyway, to answer your requirements specifically, I'd say this -

[TW]Fox;19249682 said:
Important things:

a) Perceived quality. I am a huge perceived quality nut. I like my products to feel like they are hewn from the finest granite even if they are in reality not. I hate plastic stuff. Also with thise goes pleasing styling.

This could go either way, you probably will prefer the Sensation though.

b) User interface. I love a nice user interface.

Sense is going to edge this, no doubt about it. TouchWiz is worth a proper look though.

c) Functionality as a phone. Thats what it is for me - its a communication device first. Phoney features are important. I want to know at a glance if I have texts etc etc.

The Sensation is probably going to edge this as well due to the LED, but its fairly even.

d) Web browsing - I like to check out the forums when I'm out and about. Though I don't exactly do 1 hour browsing sessions on my phone.

OCUK will display slightly better on the Sensation's screen, but the colours aren't going to be as good and generally the pages will load a bit slower.

The Sensation is also going to be more laggy when scrolling through threads.

Things I use, wouldn't be without, but are not high up the priority list:

a) Camera. I don't want to take pixel perfect shots from 2 miles away. I use the camera for the odd random shot and nothing more. If I want proper photos when I'm somewhere nice, I've got a compact camera that no phone will compare with.

The Galaxy S II makes a great general camera, I use it a lot and I'm happy with the results, even for more serious pictures. The camera interface is great, too.

The Sensation is not as good, but its still a step up from the Desire and Desire HD phones.

b) Media. Obviously the ability to play media is essential but I am not a heavy user. I installed Rockplayer on my Desire and have used it about 8 times in total. I do not listen to music on my phone at all really.

This can only go in favour of the Galaxy S II.
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I don't know, flip a coin? :p
 
[TW]Fox I too had a Desire, But I made the choice to get the SGSII over the HTC Sensation.
I have grown to love this phone more and more its the little things that count go ahead make the leap....i did.
 
If perceived quality is the most important thing to you fox (which it being 'a' in the list i assumed it must be) then i'd recommend the iphone4 over the others. No android phone feels as 'well built', they're sturdy and functional, but they rarely feel as expensive.
 
It seems the Sensation may have an iPhone-esque antenna design flaw... but worse :eek: -

Looks like there might be trouble in paradise for HTC fans. Nordic Hardware’s tests have proven that the new HTC Sensation also suffers from the same dreaded death grip as the iPhone 4 but this time it also affects the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity of the phone.

Update: We saw some users suggesting that putting on a cover on the Sensation might solve the death grip issue as it does on the iPhone 4. The thing is, the reason a cover works on the iPhone 4 is because it prevents the user from bridging the gap on the antennas on the side and shorting them. On the Sensation, it happens because you are physically blocking the antenna, thus reducing it's effectiveness. So in case of the Sensation, a cover might just make things worse.
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GSMArena

:(
 
This comment was quite funny :p

herp derp said:
Both SG II & Sensation proved to have some major flaws! The samsung with it's yellowish colors on the screen and the htc with it's antenna problem.

Yes, this indeed proves that specs mean nothing if there is no quality! This all proves that the SE Xperia arc is the best andriod phone till date! Yes it's a single core but it kicks a* and the quality is really high compared to the huge issues found on samsung.

Enjoy your defected dual core phones and let us enjoy the best experience + looks with the Arc.
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BRB buying an Xperia Arc now.
 
To herp derp, it seems your name probaby lives up to what you have said. The only thing I could with you on slightly is tHe SGS2 display being yellowish; however, this time around it is so much less so than before that I would willingly buy it and not be bothered by it. Otherwise, derp.

I agree with Robbo on all this, apart from the browsing forums bit; however, an easy remedy is just to download Opera; compared an SGS2 with my DHD running Opera, and they come out pretty much indentically for scrolling, genuinely couldn't pick one over the other, as they looked pretty much the same. As browsers...that's one's decision, Android Stock or Opera.

I've said it before and will willingly say it again, Sense either needs to go if you buy the phone, or be heavily reworked if it wants to stay. You can get ALL of Sense's capabilities (albeit with less UI consistency) with stock Android and a few apps, with no performance hit.

Finally, the battery drain, definitely something not right there, could be a Sense bug or something. However, it isn't helped by Sense itself, or by having a huge display. As much as I hate it, even I think that LCD's need to go off large touchscreen phones, with the amount of juice they pull. That said, I'm going to have a crack and log my usage tomorrow, to see what kinda battery life I get, just as a little test. Maybe if somebody with an AMOLED phone, maybe specificaly a Galaxy S2 wants to have a crack at it too, just to compare? I doubt that there will be much difference between a DHD and a Sensation in battery life, so it is an okay comparison...
 
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Streeteh said:
The S2 displays with a yellow tint? Haven't noticed it with a months usage so it clearly isn't an obvious issue.
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Some of them seem to have a very slight yellow tint on the left of the screen if displaying a certain colour of grey and at a certain brightness.

I can't find it on mine.

I'm assuming that is what he means, unless he means that SAMOLED tends to have a slightly more yellow tint to it than other screens which have a more blue tint.

Either way its clearly a poor troll attempt :p

Worth a look -

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19284232&postcount=6091

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19284260&postcount=6093
 
Just tested it, i suppose there is a slight yellow tint if you really REALLY stare at it... when it's displaying a solid grey background... at 20% brightness.

Bit of a non issue eh
 
Compare it with a non-AMOLED device and you'll see that it is pretty yellowish. However, it really isn't that big a deal.

What is it like at full brightness?
 
Mine has virtually no yellowness, it is there a tiny bit but only visible at the lowest brightness settings. Anything above 20% or on auto it's not there.

Next to iPhone 4:

sgs-gg_vs_ip4_text_th.jpg


The iPhone 4 screen is more yellow in tint.
 
Its only on some things you can spot it really, like certain pictures. Its not so much yellow, just the way the screen is showing the colours. Its hard to describe, but in comparison the iPhone 4 screen the general colours of the iPhone look more 'natural'.

Its a similar sort of thing on the Omnia 7 SAMOLED too.
 
Khaaan! said:
Mine has virtually no yellowness, it is there a tiny bit but only visible at the lowest brightness settings. Anything above 20% or on auto it's not there.
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I really haven't noticed any tint on mine either... guess I got lucky or it's such a minimal effect that I just can't see it.
 
This is all from the HTC Sensation thread but some of it should go in here.
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Screens -

The resolution difference is much more noticeable when using the phone in portrait, there is a smaller difference in landscape.

Small text is MUCH easier to read on the Sensation, absolutely no question about it.

Sorry for the poor pictures, I'm not good with an SLR camera and taking pictures of screens is awful. Remember, the LCD doesn't photograph as well as SAMOLED, it never has.

Both screens are on max brightness. The screen doesn't look anywhere near as washed out as it does in the pictures, I actually quite like it -

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I shall add more later on :)
 
Plenty of sites doing comparisons google is your friend and plenty on youtube, pretty much the GS2 comes out on top in all of them and the tests they do.

For me its a simple choice and comes down to, if you are a Sense lover then go with the Sensation but if you use custom launchers like pretty much everyone does on Android then its the GS2 it just does things better, failing that try both phones or order both on contact and keep the one you like the most.
 
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Pretty much everyone uses custom launchers? I don't know about that... :p

My point here is that technically the Galaxy S II is noticeably better, its generally snappier and its media performance is better. However, the Sensation is a charming phone in its own right and is appealing to other people for those reasons. It's very easy to look at the specs on paper and write it off (I did this myself), but it isn't that straight forward.

As I've said and you said, its each to their own. You can and should be happy with the Galaxy S II, its a powerhouse.
 
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