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  • GrizzledYoungMan - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    And did you nail her or what?
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I'm not even sure how to respond, lol. She's my GF ;)

    -Brian
  • prophet001 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    what a screwed up baseless comment
  • seapeople - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    It actually wasn't baseless. His comment was inspired by a picture in the article. You should read more closely.
  • yelped - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    You left you cellphone number on the Sense 3.0 page, on the notification screenshot under voicemail. :)
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    That's not actually my number, just this loaner device ;)

    -Brian
  • yelped - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Good :) When do you think Anand will be ready with his Evo 3d review? Also, do you know if there is a HTC phone with a hardware keyboard based on the Qualcomm 8660 being released soon on Sprint?

    Thanks!
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Anand will finish up the EVO 3D review next week most likely. He's been under the weather this week, but next is the target.

    I honestly don't know about an MSM8660 based phone with keyboard coming soon. MSM8260 on T-Mobile with keyboard is coming with the MyTouch 4G Slide though.

    -Brian
  • Pratheek - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Since qHD will soon be the default resolution in high end smartphones, I would like to see how qHD S-LCD fares with qHD (SAMOLED+) with RGB stripe layout with slight adjustment in maximum brightness & white point levels...
  • iamkyle - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Pics or it didn't happen ;)
  • StormyParis - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    and I was looking forward to getting the Sensation, especially for its big, high-rez screen.

    I'm thinking of going the Galaxy S 2 route instead:
    - GS2 is much lighter (115 vs 150 grams). Less sagging pants and shirt pockets sound really nice (I currently have a 155g HD2)
    - screen seems better: fewer pixels, but much better contrast and angles
    - Samsung actively supports CM7, I'm not even sure if the Sensation is unlocked (HTC says they're no longer locking, I don't know if originally locked devices get an unlock)
    - everything else seems broadly the same. camera maybe a bit better on the GS2
  • piroroadkill - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I personally think the HTC Sensation looks much nicer than the Galaxy S II, and it also provides all 4 Android buttons, which is more useful.
    Also, Sense 3 is a genuinely nice addition, so I REALLY don't understand the lust for AOSP based ROMs.
    I know which phone I'll be recommending if people ask me...
  • kaworu1986 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I actually registered just to post this, and here it goes:
    Sense (and the other skins) just need to DIE: they're bloated, ugly and inefficient (not to mention introduce bugs that stock Android does not have); worse than that, they are way of creating vendor lock-in and force users to upgrade hardware by withholding Android updates (a very clever trick to neuter one of the greatest advantages of Android, its open source nature).
    Why can't OEMs just stick to do their job? People complain about the crapware OEMs install on PCs (which at least you can uninstall or just format) and somehow this is OK? Also, commodization is exactly what makes the PC ecosystem great: customers can shop around for the best price for their performance needs without having to worry about their devices being left without a software upgrade path or features unavailable. And with phone makers locking their bootloaders the last way of getting out of their death grip, custom ROMs, are being taken away from us.
    Finally, I'd much rather rely on software written by a good software company (Apple, MS, Google) with 100s of engineers dedicated to the project than the much smaller team an OEM can afford to put on the job.
  • piroroadkill - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Well, I have a Desire HD, rooted, s-off, I can put whatever the hell I want on it...

    Oh, and I choose to use a sense based ROM with Sense 3. I've had a phone with pure CyanogenMod, it's all well and good, the point is, as long as the phone isn't horribly locked, and xda-dev get their dirty mitts on it, you can have whatever yo uwant!
  • piroroadkill - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Oh, that said, I don't use the launcher. I use Launcher Pro.
  • Chloiber - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Exactly the same here, except I'm using a Desire (non-HD). I really like Sense. I rooted the phone about one year ago and was using Stock Android ROMs a lot. I really liked it. Now I returned to a Sense 2.1-3.0 mix and I like it even more. Some things are simply better with Sense. I also replaced the launcher with LauncherPro (also on Stock Android) because it gives you a really nice, smooth experience. In this regard, pretty much every stock browser, be it Sense or stock Android have failed thus far.

    @Brian
    Strange that Brightness, Airplane Mode and Screen Rotation is missing, as it is included in Sense 2.1 (for example Desire S). But you probably already knew that, as you listed exactly the 3 things that are included there... :-)
  • shabby - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Aosp ui is pretty archaic compared to touchwiz/sense, it lacks a lot of features that makes the phone more user friendly to the average person.
    Compare the aosp lockscreen to the sense3 lockscreen, which do you think the average person would want? Compare the widgets from touchwiz4 to the widgets of aosp... oh wait there aren't any in aosp. Catch my drift? Majority of users aren't like you and me that want a plain aosp/cm7 phone, so sense/touchwiz will never die, top selling phones will never be plain google aosp phones because that's not what majority of the public wants.
  • JasonInofuentes - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    I think it's important to keep in mind that AOSP was designed with UI modifications in mind. It's not like HTC/Moto/Sammy/LG/Lenovo/Sony got their hands on source and went to work altering it against Goog's wishes. They wanted to be supportive of modifications to the OS from corporations and amateurs alike.

    Yes, the course was lost as manufacturers delayed updates in order to implement their UI, and some of the UIs were buggy, but then again lots of popular custom ROMS are buggy and users still love them. The point is, if there's value added, which in the case of Sense 3.0 and, by reports, the new Blur then it might be worth the cost to many. But devs should work with Google to make sure that their skins add without being too deleterious. Where I think all OEM devs should back off is in integrating social media streams; unless your implementation is decidedly better than the best social media apps then it's likely going to be a redundant, unwelcome presence.
  • mikehunt80 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I don't think I've ever used the search button in previous devices, but I guess that's personal preference.

    I tried out the Sensation before buying the Galaxy S2. There was absolutely no contest. The S2 felt snappier browsing the web (A9 is 25% quicker clock for clock vs. A8/snapdragon), much lighter and nicer to hold without feeling cheap or creaking and I thought the screen on the Sensation was fairly poor in comparison. On top of that the S2 will play absolutely any video you throw at it, I'm told it'll even play 1080p mkvs and my 720p mkv Avatar makes people's jaws drop on the S-Amoled+ screen.

    The Sense launcher is nice, but I use Go Launcher EX, which has most of the features of the Sense and is almost infinitely customizable. The Sense lock widgets screen looks nice, but is useless is you use pattern or pin lock.

    Both great phones, but the S2 to the more rounded device for me.
  • piroroadkill - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Good point on the video compatibility.
    It best bloody play 1080p mkv though, since my dirt cheap chinese tablet (<$200) can play 1080p mkv without any pauses.

    That's one thing a lot of the top tier devices miss, and I agree that that actually swings things in favour of the Galaxy S II..
  • mikehunt80 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Yeah, nvidia need a slap for leaving h264 main/high out of their hardware codec in Tegra 2 and not bothering to add Neon.

    Cardinal sin!
  • metafor - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    DICE player allowed you to play 1080p mkv on the Sensation. I've even played Blu-ray rips, though not at really high bitrates (20mbps I believe).
  • ph00ny - Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - link

    search button can be triggered by holding the menu button also having the physical home button also means no accidental tiggers
  • nraudigy2 - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link

    S2 will play 1080 Adobe Flash video. Sensation will get up to 720, but G2X and Optimus only play 480p.
  • ph00ny - Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - link

    I've been recommending sensation over GSII just so that i will be the only one with GSII...

    But anyone that has tried both devices have said GSII is noticeably quicker that includes the Tmobile employee that was letting me test drive the device while she played with mine
  • Chloiber - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    There are 2 negative points regarding the Sensation which keep me from buying the phone:

    1. As you mentioned, the space between the display and the case. Many users already got dirt and dust under their display.
    2. Choppy performance. It's a dualcore phone and the browser is still very choppy - I can't live with that. I don't buy a DC phone just to see choppy browsing.

    At the same time, other high end phones like the Galaxy S2 suffer from huge problems too. The praised display has huge drawbacks. A yellowish tint and gradient from left to right and huge banding issues. It's very well documented on XDA.
    I expect those things on mediocre phones. But choppy browsing performance despite a DC SoC or problems with the display (be it dirt or just a crappy display) are a no go for a super high end smart phone for me. So I'll probably wait for the next Nexus.
  • piroroadkill - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Try Opera Mobile.
  • Chloiber - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    True, Opera mobile is really smooth, even on my Desire. I'm still somewhat disappointed in the browsing experience on stock Sense.
  • Myrandex - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    That's one of the things I love about Windows Phone 7. The smoothness of the platform, even on older hardware, is amazing. When comparing it with an Android phone back when I purchased (last November) my LG Quantum, and the Android device actually had better hardware, the choppiness was unreal. I would hope that it would be better with these DC phones but it doesn't seem to be the case.

    Jason
  • Will Robinson - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Nice review guys,wondering why the Samsung Galaxy S wasn't included in any of the benchmarking?
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    We're still waiting for an SGS2, hopefully we will get one soon from Samsung USA and be able to compare it in its final form.

    Take care,
    Brian
  • sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    brian,
    this is one of the few reviews which have praised sensation.but in my view your review is the best.
    i am saying this because i believe that unlike other reviewers you not only test mobile phones in your lab but also use them as in daytoday life as a normal user.this gives a better impression of the devices which you review.
    many reviewers have given more praises to sgs2 than sensation.they have based their views with the limited time which they had with the devices that too in their testing labs.but i believe that in real world usage sensation makes more sense than sgs2.and this has happened before with their older brothers that is desire and sgs.the reviewers had given more praises to the sgs but the actual users prefered desire over sgs.
    though samsung devices looks great on paper,users get frustated with their handsets.
    apart from htc in my view hp makes better handsets.lately they are catching up with the hardware but their design sucks.for example take pre3,may be its design makes more sense while handling and using it,but its looks are not good enough to make a good impression.now that they are putting single core1.4ghz processor in pre3,but still they are behind the competition of dualcores.but i do believe that pre3 will give a tough competition to all the dual core phones in terms of speed and performance because of a very light os that is the webos. webos is unarguably the best os out there which is slick and fast,easy to use interface,better management of memory,provides true multitasking,provides a great
    feature like just type, and a best notification system.webos is very very light when compare to ios and android,so i think it doesnt need a dual core processor and 1gb of ram.it can perform better than ios and android even with a single core processor and 512mb ram.but hp needs to work on better designs to give a better impression of their devices.

    by the way,congratulations brian for this great article.pls tell me what do you think of the observations i made above.
  • StormyParis - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    You need to be specific: what hidden drawbacks do Samsung's phones have ? and what hidden qualities, HTC's ?

    Disclaimer: my current HTC HD2 is the first phone I'm happy with in ages. I had junk from Motorola, LG, and Nokia before that had serious design flaws, plenty of bugs, bad support... or rather, all of the above. My HTC just worked from day one, now it's started a second life under CM7, and I'm very happy with it 2 yrs on.

    I was looking foward to buying a Sensation. But the lighter weight, on the whole, better screen, and better moddability f the GS2 are on the verge of convincing me to buy that, instead.
  • sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Read the review of droid charge by brian klug.He clearly mentioned that samoled+ has some serious problems such as overheating,yellowish tint and oversaturated colours.It is the slimmest smartphone in the world,but according to many users sensation is better to handle.Due to its wait and built quality it feels solid in the hand.And also remember that sgs2 is made of plastic.

    To know what drawbacks samsung phones have you need to do some googling.Just search for
    defects of sgs and sgs2.
  • bigboxes - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Please capitalize your sentences. It was quite the chore trying to read your post. If you want to be taken seriously you need to remember to correctly use those writing rules you learned in school.
  • sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    sorry,i am from a non english speaking country.despite that i can write pretty good english,isn't it?
  • SimKill - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    Do you still not capitalize stuff in your language? I'm a non-native English speaker too, and my language doesn't even have capital and small letters. I still make an effort to write well so that I can convey my message as clearly as possible.
  • sam46 - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    I will :)
  • Speed3mon - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    bigboxes... gAy
  • Visual - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Wait, what? Having white appear as red is accurate color now?
    BTW the Galaxy S II gives users a few choices of color calibration even with stock FW. And just wait and see what the hacked ones do...
  • Chloiber - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    It's just a warmer white. On AMOLED displays, the white is very blueish (at least in the tested display in this article. Some like it "colder", some "warmer". And yes: AMOLED still produces way too oversaturated colors. It's like turning contrast way too high on your TV (that's often the setting in the shops). People go "Aaahh, look at those colors!" but in reality it's just horrible.
    The best way to find out is watching a football game. If the green color of the field burns through your eyes, it's wrong ;)
  • hechacker1 - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    It's only yellow/redish in comparison to a that blueish AMOLED. Given a few minutes with the device (not comparing it side-by-side with another) your eyes will adjust to that white temperature.

    Technically, the internet color-space is designed to be 6500K. So you should want your screen to match that for color accuracy.

    Sunlight is closer to 6500K than 8000K for comparison. Ideally the screen would have the full spectrum of the Sun. In reality we can only get an approximation.
  • jaydee - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Battery life was better web browsing on 4G, than browsing on Wifi? How can that be?!
  • metafor - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I thought that curious too. Hopefully it's a software issue that will be fixed in upcoming updates. I'd hate to think that the WiFi radio actually consumes more power than HSPA+.
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    It's confusing to me as well, and something we're starting to see on a few devices lately. I was very puzzled by the result, ran that test twice and still got the same result.

    -Brian
  • Stuka87 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Lucky guy!

    And great review. HTC has come such a long ways. I definitely consider the Sense UI to be far nicer than that of base Android or other OEM's.
  • rahvin - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I haven't used Sense on Android but I have used it on Windows mobile and liked it. But you should really take a look at some of what Engadget found in regards to what Sense does to battery life. It's quite astounding really, in some phones it caused a 50% drop in battery life.
  • poohbear - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    When are you guys gonna review the Samsung Galaxy S2?? that's a beast of a phone and the best smartphone on the market today. My Korean friend has it and its insane!!! Cna't wait for it to come to America!
  • yelped - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Ok, thanks. Great job on the review!
  • introiboad - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I really want to see a review of the Galaxy S 2, given that it uses the Exynos SoC with a brand new GPU from ARM itself. Benchmark results are lacking without it :)
  • iwod - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    It looks like in Browser Benchmark, iPhone 4 with iOS 5.0 will properly rise to the top. And it is great to see after a year of its introduction, iPhone 4 is still playing very well with it competitors.

    About Screen Size, Brian would you and Anand makes notes which size of screen you prefer.

    For iPhone 3.5", I think a lot of us want a bigger screen. But what size? 4", 4.3" or even larger?

  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I think 4.3" is really the upper limit for smartphone displays. I've got the Infuse 4G here beside me, which is 4.5", and that already is almost challenging to hold sometimes, and occasionally awkward to type on. Factor in the fact that it has just a WVGA display, and those pixels are positively gigantic.

    Personally, I prefer 4 or 4.3". Anything above that is starting to just get excessive. I can only imagine what that rumored 4.7" HTC WP7 device is going to look like.

    -Brian
  • Chaser - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    After an iPhone 3G, Droid, Evo, Galaxy S and G2x this phone finally gets it right in so many ways, It never ceases to impress me.

    Sense 3.0 with Gingerbread makes it perfect!

  • dtomilson - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Being a tech blog I have always found Anandtech to publish articles on the same phone is the same phone is the same phone (Android). Any updates coming on the beta of Mango that has been released? How smooth it is and how much better it performs given the lower specced hardware the current-gen devices use..
  • karnovaran - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Brian, there has been much debate on XDA about screen quality differences resulting from the Sensation panels being manufactured by two different companies: Sharp and AUO (Acer). I'd love to know which panel you were reviewing.

    Can you tell us which panel you have? The way to check is by downloading terminal emulator from the market and running the following command: dmesg That will spit out a bunch of information, just hit menu and email it to yourself then search for "panel". Thanks.
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I always run dmesg on devices just so I can see a bunch of different things/hardware ;)

    Just grepped out panel and found the type:

    <6>[ 1.603759] mipi_novatek_panel_type_detect: panel_type=PANEL_ID_PYD_SHARP

    -Brian
  • quiksilvr - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Ahh T-Mobile. It's almost tragic. They have awesome phones but...what's the point? Once the merger happens you have to change the phones and there isn't a full guarantee that our prices will remain the same for monthly bills.
  • Conficio - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    So apparently the T-Mobile phone does not yet have the boot lock removed and knowbody knows if that will be some software update.

    Hence question what are then the "unlocked" HTC sensation phones that float around in on EBay etc.?

    I ask, because I'm about to get an HTC Sensation (buying it outright) but I want to be able to operate the phone with other carriers SIMs (internationally). So is the T-Mobile phone locked to their network?
  • Conficio - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    How much of the htcsense.com features work over Wifi. Does remote Wipe or location tracking work?

    In other words, does the location get determined by the phone and sent back to htcsense.org or is it determined by the carrier?
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I don't know about location, but I'm assuming that if it uses the Android location framework, it will work. Remote wipe and lock does indeed work over just WiFi, in addition to just cellular.

    -Brian
  • warisz00r - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Some reviews mention that, by cupping the non-metal parts at the back of the phone with your hands (like whule using it in landscape mode) seriously attenuate reception of one of the radios. Have you tested for this issue?
  • warisz00r - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    I've read the Connectivity part again now and found the mention about it, but you still didn't mention how this problem impacted your day-to-day experience with the phone.
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    For me honestly the Sensation is still in-line with other handsets I've tried. You always end up dropping ~15 dB, sometimes more and sometimes less depending on whether the device has diversity with a second antenna up at the top.

    It makes a difference when you're on the lower end of signal, but again not more than any other smartphone (excluding the iPhone 4).

    -Brian
  • Conner_36 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    What?? no side-by-side pictures with the iphone 3g/s?
  • bobbozzo - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    HML/MHL on page 4
    clos instead of close on a previous page
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Thanks, those are fixed now!

    -Brian
  • bobbozzo - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Is that an app, or built-in? I don't have it on my Evo 4g running 2.3

    thanks
  • bobbozzo - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    NM, saw the icon on one of the app list pics; It's GPS Test Plus.
  • Brian Klug - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    GPS Test Plus - it's awesome, and it's just using the raw NMEA GPS output which includes SNR to make a nice visualization. ;)

    -Brian
  • sam46 - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    brian,can it play 1080p flash videos in the browser flawlessly?
  • sam46 - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    brian,you have not yet answered my question?

    And pls dont take too much time too review these flagship smartphones.Other websites have already posted the reviews of sensation and sgs2,they even compared them.Instead of waiting for an american version of sgs2,go and get an international version and post the review with in two weeks.Keep in mind that your readers are going to other websites for smartphone reviews.
  • sam46 - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    brian,could you please respond?
  • sam46 - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    Brian,please respond.
  • nraudigy2 - Saturday, July 9, 2011 - link

    Sensation will only play 720p flash videos. Only Galaxy S2 plays 1080p. Tegra 2 phones still on 480p.
  • lazn_ - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    How can we get the manufactures to understand that we don't want their crappy bloated buggy interface UI spooged all over our screens?

    I have ruled out ever buying a HTC android product because of HTC Sense. I was looking at Motorola since my old Droid is great, but now they smear their Motoblur crap on top of everything they make..

    I mean really, MFGS: You are paying your programmers to make your phones CRAPPIER! How does this make sense?

    Some of us want a clean uncluttered functional phone without having to root the damn thing.

    COME ON! The first Dual Core, Uncluttered Android phone available to buy will be my next phone. Till then YOU ARE NOT GETTING MY MONEY. I'll consider the evil empire (Apple) before going to a "Microsoft Bob" based android phone. (and if you don't get that reference kids, Google it)
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    You'll probably have to wait for the next Nexus/dev phone to get an unobstructed Android experience.
  • aryonoco - Friday, July 1, 2011 - link

    Just wanted to thank you Brian for an awesome review. Such a pleasure to read, and the depth of knowledge really shines. In this age of gadget blogs who don't know what they are talking about, AT is just such a breadth of fresh air.

    The Sensation looks like a nice device. If I was in the market to buy a new phone, it and the SGSII would be at the top of my list. But I think my HTC Desire, running Gingerbread and with a new battery, still has some life left in it. I'll probably give this generation a miss and wait for the new Nexus phone. The rumored 720p resolution (if it is indeed true) would be amazing.
  • iwod - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    Thanks, so it is between 4 to 4.3". Lets just hope Apple introduce a 4.15" display. :P
  • erple2 - Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - link

    I disagree - I like the smaller iPhone screen, and prefer it to these giant Android screens. I think that Apple had the right idea - make the phone as small as possible while still being usable.

    I'm not saying to go Zoolander small, but anything larger than my Samsung Captivate is just too large, IMO. That's a 4" screen, I believe. I'd still like a slightly smaller screen, however.

    The SGS2 appears to be a 4.27" screen - IMO too large. I'm disappointed in that. I'm not sure what my next phone purchase will be, when I finally drop my Captivate against the wall in frustration at it's horrifyingly bad cell antenna not working at all.
  • Trisagion - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    I got tired of waiting for your review and went out and bought the Samsung Galaxy S II. All I can say is ... what a fucking brilliant phone. Without a doubt, the best smart phone available this year - right from the brilliant, crisp display to 16GB on board storage to snappy dual core goodness.

    Sensation? What Sensation?
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    No SGS2 on AWS bands. :(
  • coolhardware - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    Nice review. Never thought I'd see a gf discussion be the first comment posts on an AT article ;-)

    A note on the Sensation, it is supposed to be capable of 1080p MKV playback!
    http://www.jdhodges.com/2011/06/can-android-do-108...
    And of course the 1080p recording is pimptastic too:
    http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&i...
    Overall a pretty sweet phone IMHO :-)
  • mutu - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    pls review Samsung galaxy S2.
  • Penti - Saturday, July 2, 2011 - link

    Not to nitpick but why is it even called 4G? It's simply a 14.4Mbps device, we have 32Mbit (advertised speed) HSPA+ for "mobile broadband" here in Sweden, and nobody would care much what speed the cell phone is able to use and nobody tries to pass it as anything else. It's simply called HTC Sensation over here in Europe. Do not yet have 4G in my very little town, but 32Mbit HSPA+ is here. Expect 4G even out here in this market within a year or so though. Sooner in neighboring towns. Guess it's a good thing AT&T are picking up T-mobile USA. We will still need HSPA/+ for a while, but we are quickly moving on. Sure you could also opt for a WiMAX 16m network and the handsets is about as immature, but you need to be building your next gen network now.
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    The "4G" is T-Mobile US silly marketing speak that means nothing, of course. They tack 4G on the end of every phone with an HSPA radio capable of more than 7.2Mbps peak downstream.
  • Penti - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Yeah I know that, but why not just call it "Our old network till we get picked up by AT&T"? It's clear why they are without a next gen plan. Their customers need to be picked up by another operator for that to happen.
  • synaesthetic - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Until it's unlocked, I won't buy it.
  • tejagamer - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Excellent Review.. As usual..
    Now waiting for your comparison of SGS2 vs O2x vs Sensation and the SGS2 review..
  • bubblesmoney - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Hi Brian,

    When you review the SGS2 please compare the internal memory on it to the internal memory available on other top of the line android handsets. This is an important limitation on android handsets which are not rooted +/- rommed to overcome the app2internal memory problem of android. Full time Android users [not part time android reviewers :) ] will appreciate what i mean. None of the reviews of android handsets bother to cover this problem users of stock handsets face if they dont root their handsets.

    Handsets made by the likes of HTC severely skimp on the internal memory, more specifically the internal memory partitioned and kept for loading apps. On just a year old HTC Desire the partition available for apps is just a measly 147mb. Even on the HTC sensation it is just about 1gb. Compare this to the year old samsung galaxy s which has 1.8gb available for apps. The samsung galaxy s2 also has about 1.9gb available for apps from its 16gb/32gb internal memory. The HTC low internal memory problem does not go away by buying a 32gb card as the card is useless for apps that go on internal memory. The only option on HTC handsets which ALWAYS come with low internal memory compared to the competition (internal memory partition available for apps) is to buy a non HTC handset or to root and get rid of the problem or to use the sdk method described on xda forums.

    For a reviews of android handsets it is vital that the internal memory is compared too in a comparison chart and more specifically the internal memory available for apps need comparing too. Please exclude the useless microsd cards supplied with handsets as that is useless for apps that dont go to sd card. Hope you provide such comparison charts for future reviews of android handsets. When games by gameloft etc run into many MBs on internal memory, having internal memory of the likes of 147mb available for apps on the HTC desire will be crucial information especially for many android handset buyers.

    Similarly the rear speaker quality being poor is another HTC hallmark in my opinion after owning 2 HTC handsets. But not sure if it is just a hardware issue or HTC software issue. But things get better after loading apps with equalisers (poweramp etc) and boosting the gain. This works later even if the said apps are deleted I think.

    Software is nothing without good hardware, so i will be keeping away from HTC and go the samsung galaxys2 way. But I guess the compromise is the much poorer GPS reception on samsung galaxy s2 and other handsets made by samsung.

    USB on the go needs to be mentioned as well as competitor handstes have this feature but not the HTC sensation.

    Accessories like speaker docks, keyboard are an important differentating feature. Just have a look at the HTC website to see if their handsets can even find one speaker dock or even anywhere else on the net. These options will make a difference to buyers and need to be mentioned in handset reviews.
  • bubblesmoney - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Brian,

    In another review they seem to be saying the speaker is good. see http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_sensation_vs_galaxy_si... see the link for detailed test results
  • leexgx - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    but is not 800-900MB not enough space thought with an 8-16-32 SD card as well (i be hard pushed to use 800MB of internal storage) samsung need all that space as they have there own app store that has 3-4 games that use a lot of space, most other phones have 800-900Mb free space nowadays, i guessing most samsung phones do the 2gb/6gb split with 8gb internal space

    if you was talking about cheaper phones like the HTC desire or some random 1.6-2.1 OS phones with 500-800Mhz cpus (that are still been sold what's very lame as they are Crap) i would agree with you 110-50MB of space is not enough even with A2D (that's only on 2.2+ devices)

    i agree with the sound of the load speaker seem to be lacking on 2 HTC phones i have seen

    samsung need to fix there GPS issues there is Zero reason that GPS should be flaky at best (the jumping between to points every 1-2 seconds)

    ---------------
    i agree GPS should be tested and if the phone has less then 1gb internal storage it should be reported as it makes the phone have limited use
  • bubblesmoney - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    Having less internal memory on android phones is actually limitting the number of purchases on the android market. People like me would have probably bought almost all the games by gameloft and many other apps for work. But thats not possible now because of the crap apps 2internal memory policy on android and the equally crap stock app2sd move feature.

    The microsd cards are ok, but that does not replace the need for proper internal memory. I already have a couple of 4gb cards, a couple 16gb cards and a couple 32gb cards. Would have preffered a hot swappable card feature without needing to pull the batteries. But I guess the USB on the Go feature on the SGS2 is an alternative. My cards are mainly stuffed with office documents and presentations, teaching videos etc apart from a few songs. But still need good internal memory for apps (some games and other professional apps and loads of teaching apps for my child). Presently i am using one phone for me and another for apps for my child. If the internal memory was ok then i wouldnt need to keep switching between two phones depending on what app i want to use. Not everyone is interested in rooting and playing around with firmware. But the present internal memory hardware situation and crap app2sd stock situation doesnt leave one with much alternatives on android for people who need more internal memory.
  • ph00ny - Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - link

    http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/864/sc2011070611392...

    As for GPS, i've done multiple tests including a tunnel pass and they've been spot on. Walking sessions showed the exact side of the road that i was on (google maps showed accuracy of ~10m) and during the tunnel test, it was able to get gps signal as soon as i was out of the tunnel.
  • dtomilson - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    Let's see some Mango chatter. Let's see a new and innovative mobile OS that has cool new features that no other OS does. Other blogs have raved about it, has Google paid you not to?
  • kmmatney - Sunday, July 3, 2011 - link

    I'm still waiting for a good real-life battery assessment for a phone. How long does the battery last if the phone is sitting around doing nothing? Can I squeeze 2 days out of it if I forget my charger on a short business trip? How much charge does it lose sitting on a nightstand overnight? I'm a current iPhone 3GS user, and can get up to 3 days of battery out of my phone if I need to. I have no idea if I can do that just by reading this review.
  • JasonInofuentes - Monday, July 4, 2011 - link

    So, battery life assessments are really particular to the user and even down to what day it is. Let's cover your specific questions first.

    -Battery life sitting around doing nothing: Well, what good is the phone to you if you're not doing anything with it? And, what is nothing? If you mean screen off and not handled (as I'm guessing you mean, does that mean it's also not updating e-mail, and other apps? If you have absolutely no applications periodically pulling data and you leave any of these phones untouched until they die then they will last . . . a really long time.

    -2 days on a business trip: What do you do for a living? Again, if you don't have any apps downloading data periodically, you only ever use your phone as a phone and maybe a few e-mail sessions, then any of these phones should hopefully last that long.

    -Sitting on a night stand overnight: See the first answer.

    Don't look at these battery life measurements as an absolute, look at them as a guide. If you spend a lot of time downloading data on 3G, then make sure to get a phone that does really well in the 3G test. If 3G isn't your thing but you're on WiFi downloading data a lot, then grok the WiFi graph and pick something near the top. And if you're main use for the phone is voice calls, there's a great list of voice call data available to you. Not sure which you are? Well, it sounds like battery life is your bread and butter so just pick one from the top of the list and go for it. You've got at least two weeks to decide if it's for you and my experience is that the honeymoon period when people get new phones is about 5-7 days, at that point they'll either be happy or dragging their charger around with them.
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  • crb119 - Tuesday, July 5, 2011 - link

    so is this better than iphone4..........in terms of software avilability...ahat about skype video????.....
  • winst - Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - link

    Hello,
    Why so much emphasis on phone features and such, but little or no information
    on the fundamentals , being able to make a decent phone call in various conditions ?
    winst
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  • Skewz - Friday, July 29, 2011 - link

    Please review the gs2. Would love to see Full benchmarks and compare it to the sensation. I'm up for a new handset shortly.
  • nitink - Monday, August 1, 2011 - link

    this phone have a great potential unleach its power get full hd games with sd card data..at:
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  • trialsta - Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - link

    I am interested in how you managed the MHL to HDMI output, what dongle did you use and what steps did you have to go through to make the phone output in that way? With the cable I have nothing seems to happen despite trying several different ways of doing it.

    Thanks,

    Rob
  • trialsta - Thursday, September 1, 2011 - link

    I am interested in how you used the MHL feature and what dongle it was that you used. I have a micro USB to MHL cable yet despite trying several different methods I cannot get anything to turn up on the screen. Perhaps a step-by-step tutorial or video would be useful as there don't seem to be any available anywhere else.
  • trialsta - Monday, September 12, 2011 - link

    Quit deleting my comments when I ask a perfectly sensible question about the MHL! You left all those bloody stupid ones about your girlfriend up.

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