The back is done in two pieces of excellent quality soft-touch plastic, separated diagonally by a brushed aluminum strip in mahogany.
This metal strip is a part of the unibody aluminum chassis, with curved recessed glass over the 4.3” LCD display with 540x960 pixels of resolution, that protects it from scratching when facing down. A typical HTC high-quality build.
You can compare the HTC Sensation XE with many other phones
The screen is bright enough outside, with excellent viewing angles, and very good 256ppi pixel density, achieved with the traditional RGB matrix, as opposed to the PenTile arrangement of some Motorola qHD displays, for example. Text appears crisp and the colors are vivid. One advantage of the Super LCD tech of the screen is that it is usually very well calibrated and white appears almost spot on (~6500K), instead of cold blueish like on Super AMOLED displays.
The HTC Sensation XE has a 4.3” LCD display with 540x960 pixels of resolution
Well, let’s flip the phone over and see what we have on the back to set it apart in the audio department. In short - nothing but the Beats logo. We have the same slightly protruding circular camera module of the 8MP shooter next to the speaker at the phone’s rear, and five dots piercing the soft-touch plastic, for various microphone and noise-cancellation purposes.
Interface, Functionality and Software:
The HTC Sense 3.0 UI on the Sensation XE – it’s the only overlay that changes every nook and cranny of stock Android, and integrates beautiful graphics with useful functionality in one seamless, coherent experience.
HTC Sense has some of the best collections of useful preinstalled apps in it, and the Sensation XE benefits from that fact, sporting apps that range from the excellent Locations for offline navigation worldwide, through SoundHound for song recognition, to small but important bits like Flashlight.
The handset sports the most powerful chipset Qualcomm can currently supply – 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 – and it shows in the fluid performance of a heavy overlay like HTC Sense.
It might not get record scores, but have no doubt that this chipset is one of the most powerful out there at the moment, more than enough for any Android task thrown at it. The 768MB of RAM are the norm for the company’s high-ends, and you also get 1GB of ROM for installing apps, plus a 16GB card in the package (8GB in some regions).
Browser and Connectivity:
HTC’s Android handsets sport excellent browsers, and the Sensation XE makes no exception, with fast page load times thanks to the dual-core goodness, and speedy Adobe Flash performance.
The pages render in real time while zooming without any hiccups, unlike many other handsets which blur the image during the process, and then resume rendering.
The Sensation XE is loaded with connectivity options, starting from the 14.4Mbps HSDPA radio and the MHL port nestled inside the microUSB profile at the bottom, used to connect to a TV's HDMI port. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, FM Radio and DLNA round up the connectivity options, and the multimedia streaming to DLNA-enabled gear is handled by the Connected media app.
Camera:
The same 8MP camera found in the HTC Sensation is found on the Sensation XE, whose interface is very clean and easy to use, yet brimful of functions.
Thanks to the faster processor it seems that navigating is a bit more fluid than on the Sensation,There is also an auto enhance mode, which applies post-processing algorithms to smooth the pics out, but takes away some detail.
The photos are overly contrasty by default and with dull colors, which true photographers might scoff at. The camera captures fine detail, and gets tricky exposure situations right most of the time.
Video:
The Sensation XE captures pretty detailed 1080p HD video. 1080p video with 30fps is an excellent feat to have on a mobile deviceThe handset is one of the few that record stereo audio while filming, but the mics pick every tiny gust of wind, which results in an overbearing hissing sound in the videos
Multimedia:
Before we dabble into the Beats by Dr Dre endeavor HTC has undertaken with the Sensation XE, we have to say that the music player is largely the stock HTC Sense 3.0 one.
Granted, the player is a beauitufully skinned piece of software with numerous functions, but no additional audio settings have appeared for twisting and playing around with, other than the previous list of equalizer presets. The stock music player on the Sensation XE doesn't support FLAC or any other high-qualtiy audio format, except .wav. Rather strange and disappointing, considering the high-end music phone idea.
The only new thing compared to the original Sensation is the Beats Audio mode. This is a tailored sound profile, designed to “enhance” the sound by giving it the Beats by Dre signature. It pumps up the overall volume and makes changes throughout the whole audio spectrum; but it mainly boosts the (low) bass and highest treble. The Beats by Dre sound is great if you listen to modern tunes (like the music of Dr Dre himself), but not as suitable for jazz for example.
This mode works with any pair of headphones that is plugged-in - with various success rates.
There is an improvement in the supplied in-ear headphones, though. They are superior to any other headphones coming in a phone's standard package – including Sony Ericsson Walkman phones and Apple's iPhones. It seems they are a version of the iBeats in-ears, with HTC-friendly control module, and smaller number of ear plugs. Of course, they come with the “by Dre” sound signature (featuring heavy bass), and the red cable will make you look pretty cool rockin' them beats on the metro.
The loudspeaker is a bit wimpy, although a tad beefier than the one on the original Sensation. The sound is pretty clear, and as full as it can be from a smartphone, but still notches below the excellent ones on the Nokia N8, or the Sony Ericsson Xperia line of handsets, in the strength department.
Nothing worries the HTC Sensation XE as far as video playback goes – it supports DivX/Xvid out of the box, and can run clips up to those highest 1080p definitions you throw at it. Beats Audio can be turned on or off directly from the video player.
Performance:
Voice quality in the ear piece of the HTC Sensation XE is pretty svelte - loud and clear, thanks to the plethora of noise-canceling mics on the backThe 1730mAh battery is good for 7 hours and twenty minutes of talk time with 3G turned on, which is more than the original Sensation, and 540 hours of standby.
Conclusion:
Kudos to HTC for trying to diversify the Android lineup branching into specialized smartphones like the audio-oriented Sensation XE, an upgrade to one already excellent flagship.
However, at approximately 32,000 INR, the XE doesn't impress much by the minor improvements. As there is nothing new in the audio-centric hardware or the music player, the only improvements are the great in-ear headphones bundled with the phone, and the Beats Audio mode, which some will not use. Considering the price difference between the XE and the original Sensation, you buy the headphones full price.
So should you buy the Sensation XE? It depends on what you are looking for. If you want the trendy Beats branding, then yes. However, if the music quality is what you seek, the XE doesn't do anything unique .
The iPhone 4S has excellent audio hardware, records 1080p video, and you'll have the wonders of the App Store at your disposal. For truly good music experience, however, you would have to get better in-ear headphones than what's supplied in its box.
Alternatively, if you insist on Android high-end with a big screen, you can look at the Samsung Galaxy S II, which has proven to be one of the best Android pieces of hardware, and is thin and light, with Super AMOLED Plus display.
PROS
- Comes with a high quality set of headphones
- Very good background noise cancellation for outgoing calls
- Both processor and battery capacity are upped compared to the original Sensation
- Cool red highlights set the Sensation XE design apart
- Stereo audio recording during 1080p HD video capture
CONS
- Beats Audio isn't much else than a sound profile
- The microphones are set on too sensitive while recording video
- No FLAC format support
- The picture quality from the 8MP camera could be better
Stay tuned for more....
