HTC Sensation

There was a time when HTC effortlessly dominated the Android arena: it built the first Android handset (the T-Mobile G1) and went on to cement its credentials as a top-quality Google Phone manufacturer with the best-selling Hero and Desire.

In recent years, however, the Taiwanese company has been joined in the Android sector by the likes of Samsung, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson, all of whom are committed to making sure their production lines are churning out the best smartphones available.

With Samsung’s hot-selling Galaxy S now updated with a swanky new dual-core edition, HTC had to pull something spectacular out of the bag in order to move to the top of the pile once again.

The HTC Sensation is the firm’s most powerful phone yet, and is firmly at the cutting-edge of a technological wave that shows no signs of abating.

The big news is that this is HTC’s first dual-core handset, running at 1.2GHz. This puts the Sensation at the vanguard of the processor revolution, but this isn’t immediately apparent when you first boot up the phone.

Surprisingly, moving around the HTC Sense user interface isn’t as smooth as we’d like. When you consider how silky the original Desire's operations were, it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed at the occasionally jerky performance of the Sensation.

The difference here is that the Sensation is having to do a lot more work. Sense 3.0 is a brand-new UI with 3D transitions and loads of slick animation, making the proprietary ‘skins’ found on rival phones feel positively static in comparison.

Another new addition is HTC Watch – a movie-viewing application that allows you to purchase films and watch them from the comfort of the phone’s 4.3-inch Super LCD display.

Predictably, moving images look gorgeous, although we’d have preferred a Super AMOLED screen if we’re perfectly honest.

Thanks to the power provided by the dual-core CPU, the Sensation is perfectly capable of capturing smooth 1080p video, and using a special adapter cable (sadly not included in the box), it can fire out this footage to your TV via HDMI.

While the specs of the Sensation are stunning, its physical attributes are rather less breathtaking. The design of the phone is disarmingly similar to what has gone before, and HTC has combined elements from devices like the Nexus One, Desire, and Desire S.

In striking contrast to Motorola’s angular designs, the HTC Sensation has a curved aesthetic, with rounded edges and barely a single straight line in sight. The back of the phone is a fusion of brushed metal and rubberised plastic, and while it may not be to everyone’s taste, it does at least sit comfortably in the hand.

HTC has decided against an innovative unibody design – as seen on the HTC Legend – and has instead given the Sensation a unique feature of its own. The back panel curves around the entire body of the phone, and when you remove it to insert your SIM or change your battery, you’re left with a curiously vulnerable-looking device.

Although it feels hopelessly dainty when the back panel is removed, this design does have its benefits – there are no creaking joints or unsightly lines to break the aesthetic.

As a gaming device, the Sensation is naturally aided by that aforementioned powerhouse processor. 3D games present no problems for the phone, and it runs demanding software without even breaking a sweat.

The large 4.3-inch screen makes playing games a true pleasure, allowing you to fling your finger around with ease.

The HTC Sensation is easily one of the best Android devices we’ve seen yet. The only thing that slightly ruins this striking impression is the rather dumpy design.

When placed alongside the Samsung Galaxy S II or the iPhone 4, the Sensation looks uncomfortable, unfashionable even.

But then it’s what’s inside that counts, and the presence of a dual-core 1.2GHz processor means that this handset is going to be capable of handling anything Android developers can throw at it for at least the next twelve months.