Looks of HTC Sensation XL
HTC and big phone displays go back a long way - remember the Titan? Carrying this large tradition forward is the HTC Sensation XL, which comes in cool white and black colours with some silver bling.
The red Beats logo at the bottom is a stark contrast to the black background and stands apart. The device has a sleek waistline, although some might find it to be on the heavier side. The uni body-like design exudes style and the glass coated front panel adds a shiny look. HTC has placed a mini USB port on one side and the volume rocker on the other while the 3.5 mm jack and the power key are on the top. While the design remains trademark HTC, the device does exude quality and sophistication.
Hardware
The device runs on a 1.5GHz Scorpion single core processor. The 4.7 inch S-LCD screen gives ample real estate for visual delight but we did expect it to have higher resolution. It has 16 GB internal memory, but no expandable memory option, which can be an irritant considering that it can record and play HD videos and has a 8.0-megapixel camera. There is a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera too for video chat & other apps. The 1600mAh battery just about makes it through the day with continuous e-mail, calling, Wi-Fi and document editing. Playing music might cut it even shorter. For connectivity the Sensation XL can offer 3G speeds along with Wi-Fi.
Software: Be Smart
The Sensation XL runs on Android 2.3.5 with HTC Sense 3.5 sitting on the top to offer the seamless and fluid experience. There are seven screen panels which can be easily customized and you can download more themes and skins etc from the HTC Hub. There is another app called HTC Likes which is a curated app store that recommends games and apps for your mobile phone. Apart from that, one also gets the complete Google application suite on the device.
The People tab enables you to see your social network contacts, their activities and updates from the tab itself. There are dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps, while the FriendStream function lets you see all the activity from your Facebook, Flickr, Plurk and Twitter accounts in one place. You can easily set up an e-mail account on the phone be it a POP or IMAP or even Microsoft Exchange. The Web browser of the phone comes with full Flash support, and Polaris Office offers full MS Office file editing functionality, which is actually very convenient.
Multimedia: Get Grooving
Although the Sensation XL has been marketed as a music phone, there are no music related apps for things like song recognition, Internet radio, music streaming, etc. There is a standard music player that sorts music on the basis of artists, albums and genres, and you can create your own playlists as well. There is a sound enhancer feature that works only in the headset mode (the phone comes with a funky pair of headsets). The killer music feature, however, is the sound enhancer option that has two profiles, HTC Enhancer and Beats Audio. While HTC Enhancer increased the bass effect, Beats Audio was a bit treble oriented. In both cases the sound quality was great, both through the headphones as well as the loudspeaker.
For shutterbugs, the Sensation XL comes with a 8.0-megapixel autofocus snapper, with various scene modes like portrait, landscape, panorama, close up, etc. Picture quality was good, although we were hampered by the absence of a physical camera key. The camera is also capable of capturing 720p (1280 x 720) videos and turns out decent videos. There is no dedicated player but the device is capable of playing 1080p videos.
User Experience: Live it up
Our experience with the Sensation XL was great as we were easily able to do almost anything on the device – from writing and editing documents to watching videos to listening to music to playing games. The big display and Android OS along with HTC Sense make it quite comfortable to use. However we would have loved to have expandable memory and HDMI capability, which would have made transferring and sharing content easier.
Performance of HTC Sensation XL
Voice quality is very good in the earpiece, better on the strength front, and a tad less on clarity. The noise-cancelling microphones are doing a great job to filter out environmental noise for the receiving end, and only relay our voice.
A 1600mAh battery is rated for nearly 7 hours of talk time in 3G mode, and 460 hours of standby. With average use we managed to get about a day and a half from the handset, which is good for an Android handset with a large screen.
I liked -
The screen is vibrant, bright and clear. It's even nice and crisp, despite being pretty big with a lower resolution than its Sensation siblings, and video looks great on it.
HTC Sense 3.5 is a nice little upgrade (though nothing to get too excited about) to an already excellent Android overlay. The Dropbox deal is great, and the Notes app is an understated marvel.
Despite being a 'mere' single-core processor, this is generally a phone that responds quickly and smoothly. The speed tweaks to the camera are also very welcome.
In fact, the stills camera is rather good overall. The backside illumination pays off well, and we got lots of nice, crisp images from it. We did some head-to-head tests, and the iPhone 4S beats it for detail with the flash off, but it's still hugely impressive, and better than just about every other phone.
And the Beat audio integration is a great addition, and one that makes the phone stand out. Music sounds really, really good, and that's what counts here.
I disliked -
As we said above, the phone is fast and responsive for the most part, but it does stumble here and there and often enough for us to bring it up again here. We're not talking about catastrophic crashes or anything, but it's frustrating when all you want to do is flick to the next Home screen and the carousel goes whizzing away.
And as we mentioned in our review, there can be a disconnect between HTC's apps and what else is there. You've got two email apps, and Friend Stream and Twitter/Facebook often clash and confuse, and there are plenty of other duplicate options. It's not what we'd call crystal clear from a user's point of view.
It's a real shame to have 16GB of built-in storage as the only option – why not an SD card slot as well? Similarly, it's a shame there's no FLAC lossless support for music files, since this is such a music-focused phone.
The video recording was absolutely terrible, which is even more of a shame when you look at the quality of the stills camera. It's also an eyebrow-raiser that this doesn't do 1080p when the Sensation and Sensation XE both do, even though this is MORE expensive.
Final Verdict on HTC Sensation XL
If you have larger hands, and are only looking at the hardware specs, you’ll think that you’ve finally found the fairly compact, slim and affordable Android handset with a huge screen you’ve been waiting for.
Single-core chipset, average pixel density and lack of memory expansion slot should mean a 4.7” screen for the masses, but HTC doesn’t think so. It is priced as much as the high-ends with better (yet smaller) screens, and dual-core chipsets. The bundled premium headphones are not an excuse, as the Sensation XE has them too.
At that price, we would also consider phones with a tad less screen real estate, but better features - like the HTC Sensation XE or the Samsung Galaxy S II. Much cheaper alternative with features similar to the XL is also the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S, which has the smaller 4.2” display but is also way more compact.
Price Tag
The Sensation XL is a great amalgam of HTC hardware and Android software. However, at 37,000 it really doesn’t score high in terms of value for money, especially as you can get dual core processor powered devices for lesser. For some more affordable options, you can opt for Sony Ericsson Arc S for Rs 26,000, Nokia Lumia 800 for Rs. 24,000 or Samsung Galaxy S II for Rs 30,500.
