When I first saw T-Mobile’s HTC Sensation 4G, it was what could be described as love at first site. Not because of a flashy or cool design, but simply for the fact that Sensation 4G was solid and sleek. Despite the crystal-clear 4.3 inch screen, it isn’t bulky or heavy like some other 4.3-inch-screen smartphones, such as the HTC Thunderbolt and Samsung Droid Charge. The aluminium chassis body, high-quality construction and the slim profile makes the HTC Sensation 4G one of the best-looking and most well-built smartphones you’ve ever seen to date. One of the reasons you should go for this device(like I did) is that it sure feels good in the hand and is solidly built with a contour design that gives it a concave shape, which helps prevent the screen from scratching when you place the phone with the screen down – and I bet you always do. This design also makes the phone feel comfortable when held against the cheek while making or answering calls.
Below the display screen, there are the touch-sensitive buttons for the home, menu, back, and search functions. When you look at the left side of the phone, you will find the volume rocker and Micro-USB port, while the right side you won’t find any controls. A 3.5mm headphone jack and power button are found on the top side of the device, and just below it, on the upper right side of the screen, is the front-facing camera. The 8-megapixel camera and the dual LED flash is on back side of the phone. The keyboard you use for text entry is virtual with options for full QWERTY, phone, or compact.
If you travel a lot, The T-Mobile Sensation 4G offers world roaming capabilities. Personally I enjoy the conference calling, voice dialling, video calling via Qik, and text and multimedia messaging features. Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi are all onboard, and there is support for Wi-Fi calling. T-Mobile doesn’t charge extra for this feature, but it is from your regular voice plan they deduct. However, the only thing I personally find discouraging is that Sensation 4G doesn’t offer much internal memory (1GB of on-board memory and an 8GB microSD card) – that is when compared with other 1.2GHz dual-core processor android phones. The phone’s speakers are also pretty weak.
Software wise, the T-mobile HTC Sensation 4G runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and on the screen display, aside from the basics – date, time, and other vital statistics, you can add shortcuts to your four favorite applications. By default, the phone automatically sets the shortcuts to phone, mail, camera, and messages, but you can change them. I changed mine to photo gallery, friend stream, favorite stocks, and weather. And one thing I find cool is that instead of having to unlock the phone first before you can open any specific application, with Sensation 4G, all you have to do is to simply drag the icon to the ring at the bottom of the screen. This sure saves a lot of time and stress, if you know what I mean. Also if you love having your TV move with you and you are a T-Mobile user, The T-Mobile TV application allows users to watch live TV and select on-demand content, and it works perfect — But don’t forget, the on-demand/downloaded stuff you get at your own time while the live content is either you are there or you miss out.
The 1080p video is quite nice. I can assure you, it’s one of the best you have ever seen. But one thing you can’t avoid is that tt will run down your battery. However, aside the 1080p video recording, the battery life on the HTC Sensation 4G is very okay. Several times, I’ve used it for a full day making use of all the primary devices of the phone yet still had battery to spare. On a particular occasion I travelled for two days and left the phone on, but unused, and when I came back I discovered it still had good battery life, for that that I score it above average in terms of battery life.
All in all, if you are a T-Mobile user, the HTC Sensation 4G is a great phone you should go for it without hesitation. Its fast, feels good in the hand, has a great screen, strong battery life and lots of gusto.