***The Official HTC Sensation thread***

[Mekrel]

Yes, it's so logical to buy a GalaxyS II because the Sensation hardware is just THAT BAD in comparision and SenseUI can be completely recreated by free applications.

There are aspects of the GalaxyS II that I like, such as the screen and how thin it is, but the form factor in terms of width and height also put me off along with TouchWiz.

 

[mrk]

Like Sense can be replaced, so can Touchwhiz I don't use any Touchwhiz stuff, for example. Likewise I didn't use any Sense stuff on the HTC. You use what you use at the end of the day. There is no "this is the best" but there are viable alternatives.

The difference here though is that Sense apps rely on the Sense framework to be running and thus the Sense launcher too. Not an issue on Touchwhiz as that's just the launcher. Everything else is integrated with the OS and hardware accelerated.

How that caters to your usage will vary though as not everyone will benefit from this functionality because they just don't know or care about it which is fine for them.

 

[Jabbs]

Robbo is there any chance when you do some video you can upload it to somewhere like drop box the raw file as youtube compresses the hell out of it.

 

[Nexus18]

Its been mentioned 100 times already hardware specs only make up half the experience of a mobile device...... This isn't a CPU people are after - but a fully functional package with emphasis on useability.

No amount of third party apps will make up the straight-outta-the-box ease of use, sexiness and awesome integration of the sense interface (developed over years of experience irrespective of the platform it runs on). I'm more than prepared to sacrifice a couple of mhz worth of benchmarks over that. Screen is debatable as proven here by Robbo - I'd rather have more screen estate than worry about washy colours only someone else would see. Camera would have been a deal breaker but theres not much in it for both....

Each to their own - let the public decide, only they will know what is best for themselves

It's not just the CPU though and just a more vivid screen for colours:

The GS 2 is still my choice for these reasons:

- SAMOLED+ (better colours, better for battery life, better in sunlight, better for viewing angles)

- Better battery life

- Slightly better camera (especially video recording in low lit areas)

- Prefer the overall look of the GS 2 (personal preference)

- Faster/smoother (due to Samsungs drivers, GPU acceleration through out the system, which gives a nice feel as opposed to laggy scrolling etc. which is an issue for me)

- A lot more internal storage (not an issue for people, who don't install many apps, probably the people who are die hard sense fans and won't replace anything at all)

- More RAM (not too important now, but in the future with apps becoming more demanding it might prove to be, especially since sense consumes a lot of RAM)

- Lighter and thinner (personal preference)

Yeah I'm a fan of Sense and until Google or any other handset manufacturer make something as good, I'll continue to buy HTC phones.

You, amongst others, always ignore the fact HTC Sense supporters like the fact that all aspects of the phone integrate with each other. Something not possible by installing different 3rd party applications.

I would take having a functional phone, which looks good over Vanilla Android anyday, where the only benefit is scrolling to a different home screen faster by 1/10000th of a second quicker. You know, as that's so important.

Of course, not trying to change your mind at all, just pointing out that you can get a good experience with 3rd party apps installed, plus the majority of people who actually know there fair bit of android (like us) actually prefer stock android over sense UI (the older one on the desire though) at certain forums, which surprised me.

Stock android also integrates through out the system, maybe not in the same way, but IMO it is just as good, I found that HTC sense UI just added a load more sub menus and only a few certain features over stock android.

All mobiles are perfectly functional out of the box apart from the low end ones, plus it is android, you can customize it to what ever way you want, I am not talking about stock android btw, but all the third party apps like go SMS, go weather, go contacts, which are much better than stock android plus sense IMO. Plus it doesn't exactly take long to customize your homescreens and also it's not just for fast scrolling etc. but the wealth of features over any of the stock launcher.

As mentioned the screen is one of the most important factors since you do look at it non stop, use it non stop, so your going to want the best possible screen available, just like these people with £500 GPUs, who then play on a 1680x1050 TN panel, you would want to get an IPS HD panel to give you much better image quality.

Also personally I don't think the qHD screen is amazing as personally I think that you will still need to zoom in, in order to read sites comfortably and plus the extra couple of CM of a webpage being displayed doesn't win me over as your still going to have to scroll down anyway on both.

I am not against sense at all as the new one does look very nice and it certainly is a strong point of HTC mobiles especially for people who just want something out of the box that is pretty without installing third party apps.

As said though each to their own, let the public decide what they want.

 

[Andyt_uk]

Does anyone know if its possible to unlock these or whether the models from Vodafone are actually locked? I'm looking at picking one up from the bay as it looks like its possible to get one around £400 from there instead of the closer to £500 that some places are wanting for it!

 

[[TW]Fox]

I spent 15 minutes getting funny looks in the Vodafone shop yesterday and comparing a Sensation to my Desire.

I remain convinced its a fantastic phone. The screen was fantastic - so clear, so excellent. I'm sure in a geek-a-thon phone comparison contest with a Samsung it might loose on some fronts but really who cares about paper spec wars? It's about what it feels like to use and it felt fantastic.

 

[kona786]

I'm sure in a geek-a-thon phone comparison contest with a Samsung it might loose on some fronts but really who cares about paper spec wars? It's about what it feels like to use and it felt fantastic.

And you have to understand for many the SGS2 feels and performs fantastic.

 

[[TW]Fox]

And you have to understand for many the SGS2 feels and performs fantastic.

Cool, I think there is an SGS2 thread for those people?

 

[MarcLister]

Got my return pack for my Sensation on Friday. It's just a normal A4 envelope, addressed to a 'Marak Lister'. I'm sure Vodafone will be OK with me, Marc Lister, using it.

There's some bubble wrap, a little cardboard box and a posting bag for me to use to pack the phone up and return it. I'm really upset about the bubble wrap, I thought Vodafone were sending me a present to play with when the phone is gone.

Got to post the phone back from a post office and not bung it into a post box as I need proof of postage. Will pack the phone up tonight and post it from the post office round the corner from work at lunch time. Hopefully it won't take Vodafone long to get the camera fixed and they might even, as a bonus, give me 2.3.4.

Cool, I think there is an SGS2 thread for those people?

 

[Jabbs]

Had a play on a Sensation in Voda store and it was nice, not as smooth as I had hoped still had a slight lag there with sense 3.0, maybe I am being picky and used to the buttery smoothness of the GS2.

 

[kona786]

Cool, I think there is an SGS2 thread for those people?

Oh sorry was that meant to be a sensation pep talk?

 

[Robbo]

I spent 15 minutes getting funny looks in the Vodafone shop yesterday and comparing a Sensation to my Desire.

I remain convinced its a fantastic phone. The screen was fantastic - so clear, so excellent. I'm sure in a geek-a-thon phone comparison contest with a Samsung it might loose on some fronts but really who cares about paper spec wars? It's about what it feels like to use and it felt fantastic.

I don't have my Desire anymore, but the Sensation design reminds me a lot of it. It feels like I'm using a Desire rather than a Desire HD, it doesn't seem a 4.3" phone!

Have you made up your mind then?

Had a play on a Sensation in Voda store and it was nice, not as smooth as I had hoped still had a slight lag there with sense 3.0, maybe I am being picky and used to the buttery smoothness of the GS2.

It isn't going to be as smooth as the GS2, its not as powerful and is more graphic heavy, which is a bit of a lose-lose situation. However, custom rom support should improve it and it's really only some micro-stutter that makes it seem as if its lagging, there isn't a delay in the vast majority of things.

I've been comparing loading screens on some games, take Angry Birds for example, it loads about a quarter of a second faster on the GS2.

On a seperate note, the battery seems to be pretty good. At idle it drains at a similar rate to the GS2 with the same sync settings, same wifi settings, etc.

The screen under auto brightness certainly draws more power than AMOLED. If you're planning on watching a long video, or having the screen on for a long period of time, it's probably a good idea to manually set it to 20-30%.

I can't see any way you will run this flat in a day, I think with the right settings and moderate use you would get well into the evening on a second day of charge, at least.

I do wish I hadn't bothered getting it though, they're so hard to choose between Oh well.

 

[Jabbs]

Why not keep both Robbo you got it for such a great price would be mad to sell it.

 

[Wicksta]

Of course, not trying to change your mind at all, just pointing out that you can get a good experience with 3rd party apps installed, plus the majority of people who actually know there fair bit of android (like us) actually prefer stock android over sense UI (the older one on the desire though) at certain forums, which surprised me.

I don't think this is correct at all. Sure, at forums like this people prefer stock Android, these are the same people that think a Quadrant score is more important than a phone's actual useability and who would get a semi because they got 1 more fps in a 3d test. For people who actually use their phones for more useful things Sense has many many advantages and I miss it at the moment.

 

[Robbo]

I don't think this is correct at all. Sure, at forums like this people prefer stock Android, these are the same people that think a Quadrant score is more important than a phone's actual useability and who would get a semi because they got 1 more fps in a 3d test. For people who actually use their phones for more useful things Sense has many many advantages and I miss it at the moment.

Indeed. I certainly 'know a fair bit about Android' and I think Sense is great.

It is a massive selling point, when you turn on the Sensation and Galaxy S II in a shop at stock for example, the Galaxy S II looks so awful its unreal (the default layout and stuff is just ). HTC have got relatively basic customisation settings covered very well, too.

Obviously the above isn't so important to people who know their stuff about Android and phones in general, but how many people is that? Not very many.

Why not keep both Robbo you got it for such a great price would be mad to sell it.

I certainly will, but which one do I take with me when I go out?

 

[Jabbs]

I certainly will, but which one do I take with me when I go out?

I do see your dilemma now lol would be a hard choice which to use day by day.

Also not sure if you saw further up in the thread is there any chance you can take some 1080p and upload the raw file to somewhere like dropbox, we all know youtube compresses the hell out of them as ones I upload are never as good on youtube, would be good to see it as it comes off the phone.

 

[Robbo]

I do see your dilemma now lol would be a hard choice which to use day by day.

Also not sure if you saw further up in the thread is there any chance you can take some 1080p and upload the raw file to somewhere like dropbox, we all know youtube compresses the hell out of them as ones I upload are never as good on youtube, would be good to see it as it comes off the phone.

Give this thread a read, there are some raw files in it and a bit of discussion, etc - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1089723

I will do some comparisons but it's been raining nearly constantly since I got the phone and indoor tests aren't quite the same.

 

[Nexus18]

I don't think this is correct at all. Sure, at forums like this people prefer stock Android, these are the same people that think a Quadrant score is more important than a phone's actual useability and who would get a semi because they got 1 more fps in a 3d test. For people who actually use their phones for more useful things Sense has many many advantages and I miss it at the moment.

Here is just one thread of the many forums out there that prove my point:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/965704-sense-or-stock-android/page__st__45

And some people in there don't seem to be too knowledgeable on android as they just mention a launcher, which only replaces the homescreens obviously and not the actual system integration etc.

Plus I completely agree with you about quadrant and linpack etc. and just benchmarks in general for everything as they don't give any idea of real world usage (just check all my posts in the GPU section giving of to people about running 3D mark etc. ).

My samsung i5700 on a custom ROM feels just as fast and smooth if not a bit better than my bros desire on stock 2.2 yet his quadrant and linpack score are like 5-10 times higher than mine and another post indicating this as well but compared to the HTC incredible S:

http://forum.samdroid.net/f21/testing-new-htc-incredible-s-device-4630/

Plus I am on a kernel at the minute which gets no where as high as another kernel but it feels a lot quicker and smoother to me than the one with a higher benchmark and plus it is more stable as well.

Benchmarks are the most useless things ever especially for GPUs

I love customization and the choice of having what I want hence why I prefer stock android as it is lighter, not bloated with features that I would never use, many more choices on CM ROMs, which for me are much more useful than sense stuff and as I mentioned before I honestly think that there are many 3rd party apps out there on the market that are better and nicer looking than the sense stuff at default and even better after about 5-10 minutes of customizing it to your liking.

e.g.

Dialer - Go contacts, dialer one, touch dialer
SMS - handcent (too bloated now), go SMS pro, chompSMS
Browser - Miren, boat, dolphin HD and mini, xscope
Launcher - GO launcher, Launcher pro plus, ZEAM, ADW ex and the full one
Widgets - all of the pure calendar widgets, LPP widgets, smooth calendar
Weather app/widget - snowstorm, Go weather, palmary
Email - K9 (not too sure about email apps as I don't use any of them, just gmail)
Gallery/video Apps- Quick pic, mobo player, Vplayer, rockplayer
Music apps - PowerAMP, winamp, cubed, doubletwist, playerpro, 3
Camera Apps - camera 360, vignette, retro camera
Keyboard - Gingerbread, swiftkey, thumb, swype, smartkeyboard

And there are many more apps out there that IMO are better for looks/UI, functionality either free or paid, most of the ones that I mentioned there are free as well.

 

[Robbo]

That thing that proves your point is on Neowin and has 180 votes, it doesn't really show much.

While those apps you've listed are great and do work well, Sense just feels better. I tried GoSMS for example when Richdog suggested it and it's very good, but the Sense 3.0 SMS app is far nicer to me. The resolution may have something to do with it but it feels way more refined.

The same goes for the dialer, the Samsung dialer looks pretty awful and the replacements I tried weren't really great, the Sense one is very nice.

Anyway I'm not having a big debate about it, we can argue until the cows come home. I agree and disagree

 

[Nexus18]

It's only 1 site/forum that I listed, there are many more e.g. on android forums, and a few other sites, which I don't think I can mention here.

Again, not trying to change anyone's mind at all as I appreciate that there are certain people who just prefer to have everything integrated and working out of the box without any fiddling, just pointing out that the apps on the android market are much better quality now than what they where last year and that they are great alternatives to the stock android, stock touchwiz and sense etc.

I hate touchwiz with a passion, just the way it looks in the contacts system, messaging, the colours, the app drawer etc. but I do like the way that Samsung have used GPU acceleration throughout the system and HTC should have done this as well tbh as I hate lag/stuttering when scrolling through web sites, menus etc.

Just imagine sense V3.0 (with GPU acceleration) with SAMOLED+ qHD display, great battery life, Samsungs camera, 1GB RAM, 16GB of built in storage and NFC