HTC Sensation XL Review

The HTC Sensation XL has arrived with a magnificent 4.7-inches WVGA LCD display to fill your Android ambitions. HTC Sensation XL is the latest phone to launch by HTC, that was much rumoured and leaked, now unleashed upon the world. This handset picks up much of the Windows Phone 7 enabled HTC Titan and also equally provides you the Android equivalent, thrown in with a few treats.


                


The Sensation XL is the third Sensation phone to come from HTC and the second handset to feature Beats audio technology and SRS Surround Sound for great multimedia experience. But can this phone bite, more than it can chew?


Design


Let's begin with the design of the phone. HTC have fixed to their tried and experienced approach of a machined aluminium back, with a bottom section finished in rubberised plastic to ensure plenty of reception. You'll feel like a solid and hard phone holding in your hand. No plastic section has been added to creak as to manipulate it, also no sign of odd panels or coloured sections.


                  


In comparison with the regular Sensation, this phone is not that attractive in design and looks more sophisticated with it's speaker cutout and contoured screen edges. The flat front of the screen gives you four touch controls across the bottom, home, menu, back and search. On the top you have the normal standby button and 3.5mm headphone jack, with volume controls on the side. A single Micro-USB is on the bottom edge - there is no HDMI out, as you might find on rival devices. 


It does dwarf other devices. The iPhone 4 looks positively dinky next to it and HTC's existing big screened device the HTC Sensation is dwarfed too. The HTC Sensation XL just about pulls this off because it still remains usable, but at 162.5g, it's a pretty hefty phone. The dimensions are 132.5 x 70.7 x 9.9mm for stats fans.


The Hardware


The 4.7-inch touchscreen on the front is vibrant, but at 800 x 480 pixels, has a fairly low pixel density of 198ppi. OK, it isn't a low density per se, but we know that some are going to see this as a missed opportunity to pack in a higher resolution display - especially as the HTC Sensation has a 960 x 540 resolution. As a result, even though you can get plenty on the display, you'll still need to zoom to resolve finer details, such as text on a web page.


                   


Some might also question the Qualcomm MSM 8255 1.5GHz single core chipset (and 768MB RAM) rather than the more fashionable dual core processors you'll find in other large display models, including the Sensation XE. There is no external memory option, so you can't add a microSD card. Internally there is 16GB of storage, but only 12.64GB is available for the user. This might be limiting for some, especially if you want to carry a large movie selection to watch on that huge screen. 


HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio


            

Music lovers would adore this phone, however, you're probably eyeing the pair of Beats headphones that come gratis with the phone. The ear buds that you’ll get along with this phone are not the same sort you can get in the store. These ear buds are specially designed to accompaniment the Beats algorithm software in the phone. The ear buds are well designed and they fit comfortably in our ear, while playing music. As said by HTC, the headphones alone cost about $100, so this would exciting to see how much the HTC Sensation XL gets priced in the market.

Launch & Price

HTC announced that the HTC Sensation XL could arrive in the market on October 24th. Unfortunately, HTC haven't announced any price tag to the phone yet but Expansys has it pegged at £519. This is only about £20 more than the Sensation XE. 

Specifications

Networks:	2G:	GSM 850/900/1800/1900
	3G:	HSPDA 850/900/2100
Operating System:	Android v2.3 (Gingerbread)
3.5 mm jack:	Yes
USB:	Yes, microUSB v2.0
Display:	4.7-inches WVGA LCD, 480X800 pixels
Camera:	Primary		8MP, autofocus, dual-LED flash
	Secondary		Yes, 1.3MP
Memory:	Internal		16 GB storage, 768MB RAM
	Card slot		No
Size:	Dimension		132.5 x 70.7 x 9.9 mm
	Weight		163 grams
Bluetooth:	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
GPS:	Yes
Battery:	Standard Li-Ion 1600 mAh
	Stand-by		up to 360 h (2G)/ up to 460 h (3G)
	Talk time		up to 11 h 50 min (2G)/ upto 6 h 50 min (3G)
Special features:	-          Beats Audio -          Beats Headset -          Digital compass
Processor:	1.5 GHz Scorpion processor