HTC Sensation first impressions

HTC today announced their new flagship Android smartphone, the HTC Sensation previously code-named as the HTC Pyramid. I was at their London press conference for the reveal and had my first hands-on with the new device.

The HTC Sensation is an Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread 'superphone' running on a dual core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM 8260 processor with 1GB user accessible ROM and 768MB RAM. It has a 4.3" Super LCD capacitive touchscreen with qHD 540x960 resolution with Gorilla Glass protection. Connectivity wise, the phone includes HSDPA, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, microUSB port with MHL support for HDMI out and DLNA.

Other features includes the GPS receiver, accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light sensor and proximity sensor. The Sensation also a 8MP camera with dual LED flash capable of 1080p video recording and VGA front camera for video calling. A large 1520 mAh battery powers the device. All of these are packed inside an aluminium unibody shell that weighs a respectable 148g. Despite the power, the phone is slim measuring 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3 mm.

Informal display comparison between the HTC Sensation, XPERIA Arc and Nokia E7

The HTC Sensation comes with the latest HTC Sense UI and like the HTC Flyer, will ship with HTC Watch, a film rental and purchase store application. The new HTC Sense includes support for endless scrolling and a new lock-screen similar to Nokia Betalabs Bubbles. Users can assign application icons onto the lockscreen and be dragged around to a launcher ring that unlocks the phone, and immediately launches the app.

HTC Watch is due to be launch with over 600 titles. Films, once purchased or rented, can be played almost immediately over WiFi. Because the HTC Sensation comes with HDMI out capability (with a microUSB MHL adapter), users can easily watch films on a big HD telly. The Watch application was easy to use and films were easy to browse. Trailers play automatically regardless of whether the user is on 3G or WiFi. Prices will be confirmed at a later date.

I had a brief hardware hands-on with the device. The HTC Sensation felt good, has a built-quality similar to that of their other phones like the Desire S. Despite the large screen, it felt comfortable to hold and use. Overall the device felt solid, light and portable. The aluminium unibody not only looked good, but also felt good to hold. With the Sensation, HTC did not stray far in terms of design. In fact I spoke to a couple of other journalists and they all agreed, if HTC did not tell us, the Sensation could easily be mistaken for one of their other past products.

HTC's Florian Seiche announcing the Sensation in London

HTC claims that the HTC Sensation is their fastest phone yet, and that it is able to open applications twice as fast as their previous single-core smartphones. Browsing is also quicker. The device not only felt fast, it has no issues despite me throwing any applications I can find at it. In fact it feels so much quicker than my Motorola Milestone 2 and the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc. The HTC Sense was a joy to use and is now easily the best out-of-the-box custom Android launcher.

In the UK, the Sensation will be exclusive Vodafone UK for one month. Three UK has also confirmed that the Sensation will be available on their network. In the US, the HTC Sensation will be known as the Sensation 4G and will come with HSDPA+. HTC has not confirmed pricing for the HTC Sensation.

This post originally appeared on Fone Arena