HTC’s low cost alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S II and the LG Optimus 2x: The Sensation. One of the most awaited phones of the year and perhaps the best of the dual core phones out there, the Sensation comes as a serious completion in the dual core Smartphone market. Featuring a super 4.3 inch screen and a dual core 1.2GHz processor, the Sensation runs the Sense 3.0 UI over Android 3.0. The Scorpion CPUs are aptly supported by an Adreno 220 GPU based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 chipset. So much for speed. Featuring an 8MP autofocus camera, the Sensation means just what the name stands for.

Verdict:

If you are a Smartphone freak, then this is the phone for you. Though the Sensation lacks the hardware prowess of the Galaxy S II, it is definitely more user friendly and HTC’s implementation of the Android is near perfect, much ahead of competition.

Design and display:

The engineers at HTC have been coming up with some distinctive designs with each release, but with the Sensation, they seem to have excelled. The aluminium curvaceous body, with the easy to hold design and the superb 4.3” Gorilla Glass display makes the phone a perfect companion for everyone. The super AMOLED screen does falter a bit in the sunlight however the perfection of the display otherwise overshadows this minor issue. Below the screen are the typical Android navigation buttons all touch enabled. The sensors are placed above the screen along with the VGA call camera.

The left side of the Sensation holds the volume rocker along with a MicroUSB port. The right side of the phone surprisingly is left bare. The top holds the 3.5 mm headphone jack and the power button.

The Sensation features HTC’s Sense 3.0, which works over the Android Gingerbread is a class apart. Featuring many interesting features like the lockscreen and the “skins” feature, this version of the Sense is what makes the Sensation notch up a score over the S II. For a complete review of the Sense 3.0, click here.

Camera:

HTC has been just as elegant with the camera as the rest of the phone. Featuring a generous 8 MP camera with dual LED flash, the Sensation’s camera work is near brilliant. With features like face detection, auto focus and geo tagging, the phone is a pleasure to click around with. The interface also provides ample after effects like warp and blur. Overall, “Sensation”al camera interface.

The dual LED lights double up as video lights and help the camera outperform as a video recording gadget. The phone features video recording at 30 fps. The VGA camera at the front works just right for video calls.

Multimedia:

The Sensation features a fantastic music player complete with playlists and a search option. The phone offers SRS sound enhancement, DLNA support and equalizers. The sound quality on offer is excellent and is a crackle free and a pleasure to tune in to.

The video player fairs fairly well even with high definition videos. Complete with DLNA support and coupled with the excellent display, the video viewing experience is again a very fulfilling experience.

Miscellaneous:

The phone comes with a whole load of apps with the Android but the most notable is the email app. Available in two flavours, the Gmail style and the traditional HTC style, the Sensation makes keeping up to date with mails, as easy as child’s play. Setting up is easy and navigation can only be labelled convenient.

The phone comes with complete connectivity options right from internet to DLNA connectivity. The inbuilt browser works perfect with full processing power and without any glitches. With full Flash support, bookmarks and double tap zooming; browsing on the Sensation is as good as on any computing device.

Full specifications:

Display: 4.3 inch S-LCD capacitive screen with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels and support for 16M colours. Gorilla Glass display

Dimensions: 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3 mm.

Weight: 148 Gms.

Camera: Main camera – 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels with geo tagging, autofocus and dual LED flash.

Secondary camera – Yes, VGA

Audio: Music player with support for MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player. Built in searching, sorting, SRS support and equalizers.

Video: XviD/MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player.

Messaging: SMS, MMS, Push Email and IM.

Connectivity: Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, microUSB (MHL) v2.0.

Internet: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, WLAN, with built in browser.

Games: Built-in and downloadable.

Memory: 1GB internal with support for microSD up to 32 GB, 8 GB included.

Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1520 mAh with talk time of 6h 40 mins and standby of 400 hours for 3G.

Extras:

* Virtual full QWERTY keypad.

* Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

* 3.5 mm headphone jack.

* Accelerometer, gyro sensor and proximity sensor.

* Gorilla Glass display.

* HTC Sense3.0 UI.

* Multi touch input

* TV out

* Document Viewer

* Stereo FM with RDS

* Digital Compass

* Support for Facebook, Twitter, Flickr.

* Organizer

* Image/video editor

* Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration

* Adobe Flash 10.1 support

* Voice memo/dial/commands

* Predictive text input (T9)

* Soundhound app for music recognition

* Geo-tagging, touch-focus, image stabilization, face detection, instant capture