On paper, the HTC Amaze is our dream phone. Rounded and comfortable, dual-toned (silver and black) with a gorgeous 4.3″ qHD display, dedicated camera and camcorder buttons to accent its no-lag 8MP camera, a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor with enough RAM to feed an army. There is definitely a lot to like about the Amaze, which debuts exclusively on Telus (for now).

And since we use a lot of handsets, it is difficult to have an emotional connection with any one of them; you get in, use it for a few days, and get out. Rarely do we come off a review yearning to own one ourselves. And yet that is exactly what happened with the Amaze which is, in our opinion, the best device HTC has made in a very long time. Though it may lack the GPU firepower of Bell’s Galaxy S II or the HD screen of the LG Optimus LTE, it’s shaped right, performs right, and does just about everything we need it to do for as long as we need it to do. Don’t believe us? Read on…

Specs:

- Android 2.3.4 with HTC Sense 3.0
- 4.3 inch 960×540 pixel qHD display
- 1.5Ghz APQ8060 Snapdragon S3 processor w/ Adreno 220 GPU
- 1GB RAM, 16GB internal eMMC storage (expandable to 48GB)
- 8MP camera w/dual LED flash, f/2.2 aperture, 28mm lens with dedicated camera button, 2MP front camera
- 1080p video capture w/ dedicated camcorder button
- Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi b/g/n
- MDM8200T baseband supporting HSPA+ (850/1700/1900/2100MHz) and quad-band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
- 130 x 65.6 x 11.8 mm, 173g
- 1730mAh battery

The Phone

There is no overstating it: the Amaze is a huge phone. It’s thick, at nearly 12mm, heavy at 173g and imposing. There is no mistaking it as either an Android device or an HTC creation. The silver accent appears almost white in the right light, and the earpiece grill is taken straight from the T-Mobile’s myTouch line. In fact, the Amaze is the myTouch 4G Slide combined with the HTC Sensation. It hits all the right points: solid without being rigid, thick without being oversized. It fits perfectly in our hands, and but for the comparatively low pixel density, we preferred using it to the iPhone 4S for most tasks. There is no question that a 4.3″ screen is going to be too big for some, and the perfect compromise for others.

Build quality is excellent, as the aluminum battery cover fits over the device like a glove. Portions of the backing are black matte plastic, owing to the fact that HTC stores the MIMO antennas for cellular connectivity in plain view. These gold overlays, along with an NFC chip, are situated at the top and bottom of the inside piece, allowing for simultaneous transmit and receive while limiting attenuation. And because the Amaze incorporates Dual-Cell HSPA+ technology, there are two dedicated transmit and receive antennas for a maximum throughput of 42Mbps.

The right side of the device incorporates a lengthy volume rocker, of the same silver shade as the rest of the bezel, and two camera buttons: one for the photo app, another for video. While we’re not sold on the need for the smaller camcorder button — it takes one touch from within the app to change to video mode — its inclusion makes recording a 1080p clip a two-second practice. The respective apps can be accessed at any time, even when the phone is off, by holding down either button. Add to that the fact that the shutter is nearly instantaneous and you’ve got one heck of a point-and-shoot replacement.

The bottom houses the latch to open the battery, while the left side owns the microUSB/MHL connector which, when paired with a converter can output what’s on the screen to an HDMI port. While the connector may look proprietary, it’s actually compatible with all microUSB ports. The back of the device is stunning. Multiple microphones pepper the soft black plastic while, on the top left side the wide-angle 8MP camera lens sits like a king above two variable LED flash lights. The speaker to the right emits tinny, disquieting sound and is one of the Amaze’s great flaws (even though sounds is excellent through the headphone port). We love the two-tone style but can’t help but think the aluminum-plated areas feel too plasticky for our liking. Nevertheless the body is extremely hardy.

The Display

Without falling prey to the “not-the-best-so-it-sucks” syndrome, the qHD display on the Amaze is stunning. No, it’s not HD — it’s only 258ppi — but it’s one of the best currently on the market, and a HUGE improvement over the lacklustre screen on the Sensation. Colours are vivid, text is clear, and most importantly, viewing angles are much better, almost 180 degrees. We found, compared to the Raider, the colours are in fact over-saturated, more like a Super AMOLED screen than an LCD. Black levels are improved somewhat over the Raider’s slightly greyish tint and, since the same resolution is on a slightly smaller screen, everything is just that much sharper.

That’s not to say everything is amazing on the Amaze. The LCD glass itself, in a provocative display of showmanship, extends up and past the aluminum bezel, jutting out uncomfortably. As we glide our thumb or forefinger towards the edge of the screen we reach the precipice only to be welcomed by a sharp, discordant railing of sorts. We don’t understand why HTC didn’t just curve the glass concave with the bezel; it would have made for functional and aesthetic uniformity.

Performance

The HTC Amaze, internally, is almost identical to the Samsung Galaxy S II X. Both devices run the 1.5Ghz variant of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S3 processor, along with 1GB RAM and the MDM8200 baseband. Functionally, since we find TouchWIZ to be a great deal smoother in operation than HTC’s Sense UI, it comes down to which Android skin you prefer more or, ultimately, hate less.

Compared to the Raider, which is clocked 300Mhz slower, the Amaze is the obvious winner. Even scrolling, swiping and typing within the Sense UI itself, or launching apps, rendering web pages or playing 3D games, appear noticeably faster on the Amaze. This should seem self-evident, but at these speeds, when everything seems to run pretty smoothly, even the most subtle of performance improvements is well felt.

Benchmarks, too, speak for themselves. As you can see below, the Amaze outscores the SGS2X by nearly 100 points in Qualcomm’s own Vellamo benchmark, and routs it in Smartbench 2011. Only CF-Bench is left to the Samsung handset, likely due to its hardware-accelerated browsing experience that fares so well in Javascript tests. Neither of them can compete against the Mali-400MP GPU of the Bell Galaxy S II, though the Snapdragon chip bests it in multi-core CPU tests.

We’ve said it before, though: we feel that Sense UI, with its bloated animations and garish graphical flourishes, is becoming more a liability for HTC than a benefit. Its aesthetic has barely changed since its Android launch in 2009 on the HTC Hero, sporting Android 1.5 Cupcake. Though steadily improved, it has reached maturity in Gingerbread like an aging king — more Robert Baratheon than Tywin Lannister — no longer able to fight the battles he once relished. We hope that with Ice Cream Sandwich, HTC lets Google have more of an aesthetic influence, while remaining a leader of Android content and well-designed first-party apps. There is nothing wrong with the company continuing to focus on coherent, quality experiences but the more Sense diverts from the original Android source code, the longer it will be for updates and the more alienated its customers from core experiences.

Cameras

The Amaze incorporates HTC’s now-infamous f/2.2 8MP lens, “the best smartphone camera on the market,” so they claim. Whether marketing hyperbole or fact is irrelevant: the same optics are present on the Raider, the upcoming Windows Phone-powered Titan and, previously the myTouch 4G Slide. There is no doubt the experience is markedly better than its immediate predecessor, the Sensation: flat colours are now vibrant, laborious shutter speeds now instant, blurry subjects now clear. The UI has been polished and simplified, the excess removed, and it is now — we hate to admit it — more Apple-like in its fundamental objective of getting out of the way and allowing the user to take great pictures.

But unlike the iPhone’s interface, HTC has hidden in plain sight numerous excellent one-touch modes and settings. When you first enter the camera app there are four icons vertically arrayed on the right side: Camcorder/Camera; Front-facing camera; Flash; Effects. The bottom icon, a magic wand, brings up a list of effects on the left side: Panorama, HDR, Burst Mode, Vintage, Depth of Field, Dots, Greyscale, Posterize and more. In addition, once shot, the built-in photo editor can add Instagram-type filters for added indie cred. In all seriousness, without any filters or special modes the Amaze takes wonderful still shots. Like all phone cameras it fares less well in low light, and we honestly found it to be less capable than the iPhone 4S or Galaxy S II in this regard, but the f/2.2 sensor is a great deal better than any HTC has previously used. But as you can tell from the park shot below, the edges of photos tend to be significantly softer than the centre, exposing the disadvantages of such a small lens in its ability to focus on a large area.

If there is one area in which the Amaze, and its Raider cousin, betters any device we’ve previously used, is in its shutter speed. Because the device is constantly caching what it sees on the screen to take a photo is all but instantaneous. While multiple shots are sometimes blurry — and the Burst mode mostly useless as a result — it is possible to pre-focus, which automatically adjusts the white balance and depth of field, and not worry your object will be out of range once the shutter goes. Even the iPhone 4S, which claims an instant shutter, often needs to adjust its focus for half a second before shooting. And like its iOS competitor, the Amaze can pre-focus by tapping anywhere on the screen. Though by default the phone reviews each shot for three seconds, by turning this option off you can take hundreds of shots a minute, ensuring at least one perfect moment.

We found the flash to be more capable than the Raider’s, firing accurately and consummately to fill half a room (and not make its subjects white-eyed and pale). Like any good camera flash it fires twice, once to meter the amount of light available to the lens, and to adjust the white balance accordingly, and the second, more severe, to light the object appropriately. It appears to work well most of the time, though it occasionally overcompensates and overexposes subjects in the immediate foreground. With the Amaze’s capable face detection, a setting enabled by default, its IQ managed to adjust exposure, focus and ISO as well as we’ve seen from any phone thus far. And, due to its lower aperture, you can expect a modicum of true depth of field, something missing from last generation’s camera phones.

Like with the Raider, we also found the Amaze’s images to be sharper than the 4S, with truer colours. It must be said that the iPhone, once it gains focus, takes shots faster with less blur than the Amaze, but unless you’re trying to follow a sneaky two year old around the house the difference shouldn’t be perceptible.

The 2MP front-facing camera adorning the Amaze is on par with its Galaxy S II nemesis, and works great with Skype, Google Talk and checking your hair. While clearer than the majority of other front shooters out there, it serves an otherwise limited function.

The Amaze also takes fantastic 1080p video, though like HTC’s other products it doesn’t handle motion very well. What should be a completely flawless 30fps pan across a busy intersection quite bumpy, exposing the inherent problems of small lenses and complex compression. Though we love the quality of the end product — like its stills, the Amaze excels in capturing the most minute details of its subjects — we found compression artifacts in scenes with low light and frame rate drops in stark lighting changes. We experienced the same problem with the Raider (see sample video) but, thankfully, the Amaze handled motion a great deal more adeptly due to its faster processor. It also helps that the chassis is thicker than the Raider’s, and that of the iPhone 4S, allowing one to grasp the device more firmly.

One problem we occasionally ran into was when we held the phone as we would a regular camera — with our thumb and palm supporting the device at the front, with our index finger over the trigger — our palm would brush over the Home button and either exit the app or bring up the multitasking menu. There should be an option to temporarily disable the capacitive buttons while taking photos or shooting video.

Software

The HTC Amaze runs the same version of Android 2.3.4 with Sense 3.0 as the Raider and the Sensation before it. Ultimately it comes down to whether you can stomach Sense over Android, or whether you like Android at all. We like Sense and think that it brings a consistency and fluidity to Android that was sorely needed before the announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich. Since seeing ICS in action, however, we are less bullish on the future of HTC’s skin and its placement in the Android ecosystem. While ultimately an argument for another day, you’re not going to find anything particularly new on the Amaze.

We also found very little to complain about, either. Apps were, for the most part, stable and fast. Our favourite third-party apps such as Twitter for Android, Google Reader, Rdio, Skype — they all operated with aplomb. The reason we included the last two, in addition to being a couple of our most-used programs, is because they are pre-loaded on the Amaze. Telus has entered into a partnership with Rdio and Skype, allowing for carrier billing and, for Rdio, a one-month free trial. Unfortunately they cannot be uninstalled; if you update them through the Marketplace, “uninstalling” them will just remove those updates, not the app itself.

It’s a practice that is becoming increasingly and brazenly common in the industry, and though perhaps we should count ourselves lucky not to have the same amount of bloatware as Verizon or AT&T, two companies notorious for their excess, it’s a sad, cold precedent. It should not take rooting an Android device to be able to remove non-system apps that can be downloaded from the Marketplace. We suppose the argument could be make that Gmail or Google Maps, both pre-loaded, are too available for download and also cannot be removed, but it’s a slippery slope.

Read our Raider review, our Sensation review or our Raider vs Amaze Showdown for more insight into Sense 3.0 and the Android 2.3.4 software.

Battery Life

Before the Amaze launched in Canada it debuted on T-Mobile in the US. Like a bogeyman come out to play, one of the biggest criticisms of the device was over its plainly poor battery life. Some reviewers were complaining of less than 8 hours on a single charge, which should be easily attainable from the 1730mAh battery.

Perhaps it’s because Telus consistently gives the Amaze a stronger signal, reducing 3G signal searching, but we had no such issues with the battery life. No, it’s not great, but we were able to get through an entire day on a single charge, and even a couple times well into the following morning. We liken this to a couple things: the Amaze is bright, even when set to Auto. Lowering it to 1/3 of the max brightness still gave us plenty of lumens to work with without killing the juice.

Second is to keep track of what’s happening in the background. We’re not talking Task Killers here — those are utterly useless since all they do is close open apps, not prevent them from starting again — but rather being vigilant about what is loaded onto your phone in the first place. With no third-party apps loaded, the Amaze easily lasted two days with some phone calls, photos and browsing.

Once we loaded Facebook and Twitter on there, battery life halved. This is a by-product of push notifications and background updates — the former is a scourge to iOS battery life, the latter not possible on it — and needs to be addressed head on. Android inherently necessitates more user interaction with its settings; in fact, it encourages it. Most apps will never perform any background function, but be aware of every app you download and check them for how frequently they access the network behind your back. While the ability to truly multitask can be a fantastic benefit to Android users, it can also be its biggest battery-related liability.

For monitoring of what is going on in the background of your Android device, we recommend downloading System Panel. The Lite version is a free download but we recommend the paid version for real-time monitoring.

Overall, while we weren’t happy with the Amaze’s battery life, with a bit of diligence we managed average-to-good results, and certainly a full day’s use per charge is not out of reach.

Network speeds, sound quality and other benefits

We knew the Amaze held in it some magic, and we were surprised to find a couple bonuses, too. The MDM8200T baseband chipset inside the device supports not only Telus’ 850/1900Mhz HSPA+ channels, but the AWS frequencies used by WIND Mobile and Mobilicity. This is advertised right on the box. While the device obviously comes locked to Telus, it’s not too far a stretch to see the Amaze arriving at one of these new entrants in the next few months. At the moment it is T-Mobile’s flagship device, and would be a huge benefit to either company.

While we’re on the subject of speed, we may want to mention the Amaze supports up to 42Mbps in the downlink. This is a theoretical maximum, though we averaged around 7-10Mbps down and 2-4Mbps up. Compared to the Raider, whose LTE speeds often topped 25Mbps, the Amaze is disappointing. Compared, however, to the iPhone 4S, which maxes out at 14.4Mbps down, and it consistently hit double the speed or higher.

For many users across Canada who don’t and will not have access to LTE for many more months the Amaze may be the fastest device available to them.

As for voice quality, we had consistently excellent sound, in part due to the multiple noise-cancelling microphones adorned on the device’s battery cover. Speaker quality, while thin and tinny, fared better than any HTC device we’ve used so far. We played M83′s Midnight Children through its speaker and got some room-filling volume; whether it will fill the room with joy is debatable.

Headset sound reached equally head-destroying heights, and though the Amaze does not come with HTC’s new Beats equalizer settings its clean DAC and ample amplifier had no trouble powering our 120-ohm Beyerdynamic headphones.

Another nice inclusion in the Amaze is NFC connectivity. While not as widely advertised as on the Galaxy S II X (we came across it by accident) it’s a useful feature to have as more vendors include NFC payment systems and more developers add quick transfer features to their apps.

This or the Galaxy S II X?

A lot of people have an opinion one way or the other. Both devices are virtually identical internally. They share the same processor, GPU, amount of RAM, internal storage and megapixels. The SGS2X has a 4.5″  800×480 Super AMOLED Plus display with perfect blacks and vivid colour; the Amaze has a 4.3″ 960×540 Super LCD display with more accurate colours, higher brightness and sharper text. It’s also more solidly constructed but much heavier than the Samsung.

Both have incredible cameras capable of replacing a point-and-shoot. Neither of them will replace your video camera just yet. We prefer the lightweight nature of TouchWIZ 4 over HTC’s languid Sense UI, but to many the latter skin will seem more polished. Both devices trade benchmark wins depending on the app, and neither can be considered a better experience, just different. If browsing is a priority we’d recommend the Samsung by virtue of its hardware-accelerated browser app; if photos are a priority we’d recommend the Amaze for its better camera UI and superior still shot results.

As for price, they’re both $99 on a 3-year term and $599.99 outright. Our only real recommendation — and this applies to all reviews — is to go to a retail store and actually use the devices.

Conclusions

Using the HTC Amaze has been like a breath of fresh air. It’s not often we have an emotional connection with a smartphone, but that is exactly what happened here. From its dual-toned aluminum design to its ample heft to its stunning screen we were left impressed time and time again. Like the Incredible S, we feel like the Amaze is a culmination of many months of R&D and lessons learned from some mediocre product offerings. This is the device the Sensation should have been, and though we’re pleased it’s finally here it is only because we haven’t played with the Galaxy Nexus that we’re able to bestow such honours.

When we look at the ultimately purpose of a smartphone — phone, messenger, social connector, camera, gaming device — the Amaze gratifies. We also have confirmation that it will be one of the first devices HTC updates to Android 4.0 in the new year, reassuring us of its potential longevity.

Whether it’s Telus’ best device is up for debate, but the Amaze is certainly HTC’s best device, and that’s good enough for us.

Rating: 9/10

Weighted Rating: 8.5/10

(based on 9/10 rating of SGS2X and adjusted for time)

Pros:

-      Sharp, vibrant screen with excellent viewing angles and brightness levels
-      Camera takes some of the best stills we’ve seen from a phone
-      Camera and camcorder buttons a huge benefit to the average photographer
-      Excellent speeds apps, browsing and benchmarks
-      Inclusion of AWS bands increases carrier flexibility
-      Commendable build quality and robustness
-      Good headphone sound quality

Cons:

-      Underwhelming battery life
-      Sense 3.0 is becoming more a burden than a benefit
-      Minor issues with video image stabilization
-      Disappointing network speeds compared to 42Mbps claim

Related posts:

1. HTC Amaze 4G now available at TELUS
2. TELUS HTC Amaze 4G officially “coming soon”
3. TELUS HTC Amaze officially launching November 4th

Android hackers are nothing if not resourceful. Only days after being shown a preview of Sense 3.5, the new version shipping soon on the female-centric HTC Bliss, modders have been able to take an early beta leak and turn it into a working ROM on the Desire HD. This ROM runs Android 2.3.4.

While there are a bunch of issues with the port at the moment, namely a complete lack of Bluetooth support, it is fairly functional and should make for an excellent preview.

Sense 3.5 is an updated version of the 3D-centric 3.0 skin that was released with the Sensation and EVO 3D, on Bell and Rogers respectively, itself a big upgrade from Sense 2.1 that the Desire HD currently uses. HTC came out against releasing Sense 3.0 on its old line of phones, namely the aforementioned DHD as well as the Incredible S and others, claiming its single-core chips couldn’t handle the higher-res graphics and hardware-accelerated UI. But judging from the Sense 3.5 leak, it seems that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

So, Desire HD owners, if you’re a whiz with rooting, flashing and modding, tell us what you see: is it a keeper, or will you stick to your regular old 2D Sense?

Source: XDA-Developers via Engadget

Related posts:

1. Desire HD, Desire Z and Desire update to OS 2.3 Gingerbread coming in Q2
2. HTC confirms Gingerbread update for Desire will be trimmed to avoid memory issues
3. HTC says Desire will not be getting upgrade to Gingerbread

Remember that odd 7″ tablet that HTC released earlier this year that was running a highly-modified version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread instead of tablet-specific Honeycomb? We reviewed the Flyer (and thoroughly enjoyed using it), but yearned for some tablet-specific Honeycomb apps. We never knew when the company, who did commit to upgrading the tab to Honeycomb at some point, would indeed follow through. Well, now that its big brother, the 10″ Jetstream, is a reality and coming soon to AT&T, an early build of Android 3.2 for the Flyer has leaked to the ‘net courtesy of British Android extraordinaire Paul O’Brien.

Be careful when loading the leak, as you will not only lose root (and may not be able to get it back) but you risk voiding the warranty in the process.

Anyone willing to take the plunge, let us know how it goes, but we advise you to wait until next week when Paul claims he will be posting a safer, pre-rooted version.

Source: MoDaCo via Android Central

Related posts:

1. HTC Flyer shows up on HTCSense.com Canadian section
2. DigiTimes: HTC set to release a tablet called the “Flyer”
3. HTC “Flyer” tablet to be released by TELUS

The HTC Titan, which has a 4.7″ Super LCD display at a somewhat lackluster 800×480 pixel resolution, is also equipped with a 1.5Ghz single-core processor, 512MB RAM, 16GB internal storage (and no microSD card) as well as an 8MP back camera and 1.3MP front camera. Fashioned out of a single piece of aluminum, it bears a resemblance to the HTC Desire, with a maximum width of 9.9mm, and to the Sensation, with its removable aluminum backplate. Easily the standout Windows Phone in HTC’s retinue, its thinness tries to offset the massive size of the screen, and seems to do so pretty effectively.

With a 1600mAh removable battery, and a camera sensor with a F2.2 lens (for more light) and dual-LED flash, the Titan will indeed roar when it is released sometime in October, though that release date is pegged for Europe only. No word on North American availability, though we’re hoping sooner rather than later.

The Radar is more along the lines of a typical Android device, and bears a close resemblance to the HTC Flyer in design aesthetic. With a slightly slower 1Ghz processor and a 3.8″ screen, also at 800×480 pixels (though a regular, not Super, LCD), the Radar is aimed at a more budget-friendly consumer. It’s got 512MB RAM, 8GB internal storage and a 5MP camera, while its front shooter is only VGA resolution. The device is made entirely of aluminum, and has a removable bottom plastic piece which exposes the SIM card slot; the 1520mAh battery is not removable. It’s also slightly thicker than the Titan at 10.9mm, but should be a very solid device. Again, availability is not known, though it should be out by the end of the year.

These new devices will ship with Mango, as stated, but certain functionality has not been baked in yet, like Skype integration and native Twitter support, which should come in a future update. A nice bonus is that both of these devices are “4G” certified, which means they are capable of maximum download speeds of 14.4Mbps.

Source: HTC (2)

Related posts:

1. Microsoft demos four new Windows Phone Mango devices, including Samsung Focus follow-up
2. DigiTimes: HTC, Samsung and LG to launch new Windows Phone 7 Mango devices in September
3. First Nokia Windows Phone device will run Mango

The HTC Flyer is a tablet, but it’s running a phone OS. Sound familiar? The Samsung Galaxy Tab, also a 7″ Android tablet, was released last year to mildly positive reviews, ran on a modified version of Android 2.2 Froyo, and ended up being a quiet hit. At the time it was the only real Android tablet, an alternative to the quickly growing iPad, but the 7″ tab never seemed to go mainstream. Sure, there is the PlayBook, and perhaps the Viewsonic GTab, but in the Android market, especially since the release of Honeycomb, Android 3.0, bigger has been better.

HTC decided to go another way with the Flyer, sticking with the smaller form factor and a phone OS. But there are enough changes afoot to consider the Flyer a unique beast, so let’s dive in headfirst and take a look.

Specs:

- Android 2.3.3 w/ Sense 2.1 for tablets
- 7″ 1024×600 pixel LCD display with digitizer for Scribe pen usage
- 1.5Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (single-core)
-1GB RAM / 16GB internal storage
- 5MP camera / 1.3MP front-facing camera
- WiFi / GPS / Bluetooth
- 195.4 x 122 x 13.2 mm
- 420g

The Tablet

Certainly more sturdy than the Galaxy Tab or the Playbook, the Flyer is made of brushed anodized aluminum in a unibody form factor that is thin, sleek and attractive. While some might be turned off by the white-on-silver design, we found it did not interfere with day-to-day usage. The 7″ screen is bright and vivid, with excellent viewing angles and good touch sensitivity. Only recently have N-Trig digitizers become good enough that touch sensitivity is equal to that of a stylus on a capacitive screen.

We enjoyed holding the device which, at 420g, can easily be grasped in one hand for reading or surfing. The back is slightly rounded, aligning almost perfectly with the contour of the palm. It can also easily be rested between the thumb and pinky finger to hold it upright without strain.

The 5MP camera is  not without its flaws, especially since there is no flash, but in good lighting the Flyer takes decent photos. There is more grain, and certainly less detail, than the average high-end Android phone camera, but we doubt HTC designed the Flyer for taking your best shots. Video shot at 720p is muddy and without life, so we’d stay away from filming anything important on the Flyer. The 1.3MP front-facing camera supports video calling in apps such as Skype, Fring, Qik, Tango and, hopefully soon, Google Talk.

Performance

We had no complaints about the day-to-day performance of the Flyer. About what you’d expect from a device like the Infuse 4G, HTC has optimized Sense to take advantage of the extra RAM, and the 3D effects littered throughout the UI rarely stumble. The browser loads pages quickly, though Flash performance does not match that of its Honeycomb tablet brethren, most of which run dual-core Tegra 2 processors.

The Flyer performs extremely well as an eReader, and there are plenty of apps to choose from. Pre-installed on the device is a store powered by Kobo, and many of the same features from the Kobo app exist natively: animated page turns, font size and selection, bookmarks, annotations. Apps like Kindle, Kobo, Aldiko Reader, and our favourite, Moon Reader+, all do their jobs admirably, scaling up to fit the 7″ screen.

HTC bundles the new Watch app on the Flyer, which allows you to buy or rent various shows or movies, ranging from $3.99 for a 48-hour rental to $19.99 to purchase a new release. Quality is good and videos can be stored on the device for offline viewing (though there is a limit based on the amount of space available on the internal storage). Unfortunately you cannot store these files on your microSD card for security reasons.

Along with Watch and Books, the Notes app sits on a permanent dock near the bottom of the screen, next to the App Drawer. Notes functions as an all-around information consolidator, where you can draw, type, record or photograph your surroundings. These notes can then be imported into Evernote, a modified form of which is bundled with the Flyer. We found this to be extremely useful for lectures and meetings, and students, especially when paired with a wireless Bluetooth keyboard, will find lots of good uses for the Notes app/pen combo.

The rest of the experience is typical Sense: a robust mail experience, though slightly optimized for tablet use. When shifting to landscape mode the app shifts into two panes, left for the emails and right for the content. Similarly the Weather app has been expanded into a kind of dock mode, where you can view the weather, set an alarm or timer, or just watch the clock.

The lock screen has four customizable icons which you drag into a circle to quickly launch that app. The function is identical to Sense 3.0 on phones, and works just as well here. There is also a News app, into which you can sync RSS feeds trawled from various web pages you visit inside the browser. The synchronization is seamless and wonderful for bookmarking pages you wouldn’t otherwise remember to revisit.

The Scribe

The N-Trig-powered Scribe pen is an interesting addition to the Flyer, and will be either used all the time or not at all. For students, lecturers or anyone who relies heavily on brainstorming or note-taking, the pen, in combination with the Notes app, will be indispensable. Because there is nowhere to stow it inside the Flyer, and since it is so large, we foresee many buyers eschewing the pen altogether and going without it. But it has more functionality than just jotting notes.

Tap the screen anywhere with the tip of the pen and a screenshot will be taken of that exact moment in time. Draw, trace or write on the screen and share your creation with any app that supports it, including Facebook, Twitter or email. We found ourselves using this feature a lot more than expected; evidently we think everything we find on the internet is fascinating to our friends. More so than that, HTC has released a Pen SDK for which developers can write and ultimately sell apps based on this stylus technology. Whereas now functionality is limited to apps pre-installed on the Flyer, and anywhere else in the OS it will function only as a screenshot-taker, a few months from now it may be a different story. Depending on the complexity of the SDK and the monetary potential of releasing apps for just one tablet, there may be some interesting offerings down the road.

Conclusions

The Good

A beautifully-constructed tablet that performs well on most of Android’s most laborious tasks. Easily held in one hand, the Flyer is the obvious choice for someone looking to combine basic web surfing, note-taking, eReading and the occasional movie into a very portable device. The screen is bright, with excellent colour saturation and viewing angles. Performance is consistently good, and there is plenty of storage space. And with the digital stylus, this may well be the perfect students’ tablet.

The Bad

Old before it was even released, HTC chose to launch the Flyer with a non-tablet OS. While most phone apps run perfectly on it, buyers will be missing out on the growing library of Honeycomb-optimized applications which take advantage of specially-built APIs. While the native apps do a great job at filling the gap, for $499 it runs a bit expensive, especially since the Scribe pen is extra. Similarly-priced Android tablets, such as the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, are faster, sleeker, and more future-resistant.

The HTC Flyer is available for $499.99 and the Scribe pen is available for $79.99, sold separately.

*In the video, we mention that the Scribe pen is included in the price of the Flyer tablet. Our apologies for the error!

Rating: 7/10

Check me out on Twitter @journeydan, and don’t forget to follow @MobileSyrup for all the latest news!

Related posts:

1. Video: Quick look at the HTC Flyer
2. HTC Flyer shows up on HTCSense.com Canadian section
3. DigiTimes: HTC set to release a tablet called the “Flyer”

Less than two weeks ago, the ITC claimed that HTC, the world-renowned handset manufacturer famous for its Android handsets, most recently the Sensation 4G, had infringed on two of Apple’s patents. This was several days after the company had won a victory against Apple in another dispute, claiming that they had violated two patents which HTC now owns through its purchase of S3 Graphics.

Confused yet?

Well, today the company said outright to Bloomberg that it is willing to negotiate with Apple in order to settle the patent dispute out of court. “We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable. On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out,” said Winston Yung, HTC’s Chief Operating Officer.

While many have banged the drum since the ruling on July 15th, claiming that Android is doomed to fail now that Apple can claim victory against a prominent Android manufacturer, the issue is a bit broader than that. According to This Is My Next, the two patents that HTC have found to infringe are from 1994 and 1996, long before the smartphone era, and certainly before Android even existed in Andy Rubin‘s eye.

Nevertheless, it would seem prudent that with Apple suing, and claiming victory against, many prominent Android manufacturers, HTC would want to settle the dispute as soon as possible. Heck, they’re already rumoured to be paying Microsoft $5 per handset.

Source: Bloomberg via Engadget

Related posts:

1. Samsung: “plans to respond actively” against Kodak patent dispute
2. RIM and Prism Technologies settle patent-infringement case
3. Nokia sues Apple over patent infringements… states “Apple is attempting to get a free ride”

HTC isn’t messing around these days. It wants every base covered, regardless of market size. It wants big screens, small screens, landscape QWERTY devices, and now, with the HTC Status, a keyboarded portrait device. The well-trodden BlackBerry territory may not be the first place you’d think Android would go (though it has gone there before in such devices as the Droid Pro), but the experience suffers very little from the permanent landscape orientated screen. The Status is by no means a power-user device, and with a dedicated contextual Facebook button, there is no question to whom the device is going to sell. The question is: will you want it despite, or perhaps because of, its uniqueness? Read on to find out.

Specs

- Android 2.3.3 with HTC Sense 2.1 for Messenger
- 2.6″ 480×320 pixel capacitive LCD screen
- 800Mhz MSM7227 Snapdragon processor
- 512MB RAM / 512MB ROM (150MB available for apps) / 2GB microSD card included
- 5MP camera with LED flash / VGA front-facing camera
- Full-sized QWERTY keyboard with contextual Facebook button
- WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS
- 1250mAh battery
- 114.4 x 64.6 x 10.7 mm
- 120g
- 850/900/1800/1900Mhz 2G | 850/1900Mhz 3G

The Phone

While it is a certain departure from recent HTC Android devices, when you first see it there is no question the Status maintains its parent company’s long pedigree. Avaiable in charcoal black or amethyst purple (we reviewed the black version) it is constructed of high-quality brushed matte plastic and feels fanatastic in the hand. Owing to a slight inward chin, the keyboard portion is comfortable to use, and despite only having only four rows there is sufficient separation between keys to touch-type with accuracy. Even our fat fingers found their way to the right keys most of the time.

There are a couple issues we had with certain key placement. The backspace key is illogically placed right below the P button on the right hand side, leading to many a time when, instead of deleting a word it would be affixed with several ‘ppppppp’s at the end. Simiarly the Shift/Caps button is located above the Function button on the left side of the device, causing similar confusion. Yes, it’s true both instances are standard on most mobile QWERTY keyboards, and once adjusted the placements should not pose much of an issue.

Happily, the number keys are bunched together on the left of the keyboard like on a real phone, and though they are accessible through the Fn key many applications automatically toggle them at appropriate times, such as when inputting phone numbers.

The keyboard has good clicky feedback, and the keys protrude just enough to feel distinguishable without adding thickness. There are some useful secondary features on the keyboard, too: Fn+period brings up the camera application from inside any app, and Fn+space brings up the Settings application the same way. There are dedicated arrow keys, too, for the occasional time you want to select text and the on-screen markers are too finicky for you. We’d have rather seen HTC forgoe the arrows for more dedicated punctuation keys; as it stands there are only period, question mark and comma keys available without toggling Fn first.

The screen, at 2.6″ and 480x320px, is not a show-stopper, but it does a good job. What you lose in display real estate the device makes up for in a deliberately “phone-like” aesthetic, negotiating both capacitive touch buttons and hardware “Call/End” keys. When first using the device, it is admittedly a bit awkward to navigate Android in a permanently landscape configuration, but HTC has done a great job tweaking the UI and overall aesthetic to make it seem more spacious. More on that later.

One of the more interesting aspects of the device, and certainly a divisive one, is the dedicated Facebook key. While not necessary to use, it performs some wonderful functions for sharing on the web in general, and utilizes Android’s penchant for sharing to its fullest extent.

Camera

There are two cameras on the Status, and they too are just OK. But in the context of a low-cost device this is a great achievement, as most sensors on sub-$500 phones are terrible.

The back shooter has a 5MP sensor and a very able flash that illuminates the immediate vicinity with aplomb. In good lighting, the camera takes excellent shots with little noise and accurate colour. The quality subsides dramatically in low-light conditions, but there is an “Auto Enhance” feature in the camera settings that, when toggled, increases brightness and softens the image somewhat by running it through an anti-aliasing filter. The results are often more pleasant to look at, but lack the finer detail of the original image. We found it to be useful in low-light pictures, but less so outdoors. The LED flash performed well, illuminating nearby objects without overexposing them, something other low-resolution phone cameras often have issues with.

The Status shoots video at an underwhelming maximum resolution of 720×480, though I think it’s a limitation of the processor more than the sensor. Like still shots, video is grainy but smooth, capturing at a healthy 30fps in good lighting conditions.

It also comes with a VGA front-facing camera for vanity shots and video chats, but the Status ships with Android 2.3.3, so it does not support native video chat in Google Talk like the Nexus S. Hopefully this feature will be added in a future software update.

Performance and Network Speed

The HTC Status has the same processor inside it as the LG Optimus One and upcoming LG Optimus Chat, but clocked 200Mhz higher to a still-anemic 800Mhz. Thankfully HTC understands that there is a lot more to a device than CPU speed: affixed with 512MB RAM, the device never feels like it’s struggling, even with several apps open at a time. Beyond basic multitasking and 2D gaming, however, there isn’t much room to breathe.

Where the device has some issues is with Flash videos. Anything rendered in the browser larger than 360p resolution usually results in lost frames and stuttering over 3G. Over WiFi 480p videos run without issue, but forget about trying to squeeze a quarter out of a penny with this processor: it just can’t keep up with many of the activities we take for granted on higher-end Android devices. The good news is that, because of the lower screen resolution there really is no benefit to being able to play HD video: at 480p the video is sharp, colours are full and motion is fluid.

Because the screen is permanently placed in landscape mode some apps perform awkwardly on the 2.6” screen. Portrait-only applications require holding the device on its side, but unlike Windows Phone 7 most modern apps have no issues in landscape.

Even apps that do scale properly often require a prolific amount of scrolling that most users will quickly tire of. Native apps, like the HTC Calendar and Contacts, and several Google applications like Maps and Talk, look great on the 480×320 pixel screen, and once you get used to the new form factor the screen is actually quite pleasant to look it.

Web pages in the included browser scale dynamically to fit the screen, and while most require a scrolling workout this can be deftly accomplished using the arrow keys. Text, while small, is perfectly readable and pleasantly sharp. You won’t be reading Anna Karenina on the Status, but for most tasks the screen works quite well.

The device runs on Telus’ HSPA+ network, and data speeds are in line with similar HTC devices: 3-4Mbps downstream and 0.5-2Mbps upstream, depending on congestion and signal quality. Voice calls sound great on the Status, and holding the device to your ear is comfortable due to the subtle inward chin on the bottom portion of the phone.

HTC Sense for Messenger

As stated, the HTC Status is very much a messenger phone, and we hope that Telus won’t require a data plan with purchase. The keyboard is one of the best we’ve seen on a non-BlackBerry device, and we found typing much faster than on most landscape QWERTY devices like the HTC Desire Z or Motorola Milestone.

HTC Sense has been re-tooled with the landscape screen is mind: instead of menus and context buttons being placed on the bottom they have been relocated to the right side in oversized blue pendants. Many of them adapt to touch depending on what app you’re in: for example the Photo Sharing app will allow you to switch between your photos and your friends’ Facebook photos by gliding your finger downwards from one pendant to another.

With a focus on Facebook, the Status has been dubbed the “Facebook Phone,” though there is a lot more that can be done in a social context. In the initial set up it asks you for your Facebook login information, but you also have the option of adding Twitter and Flickr accounts.

When added, the device allows you to auto-upload (a la Google+) photos in the background to either Flickr or Facebook (but not both). Similarly you can press the Facebook button when in the Gallery app to instantly share that photo to Facebook. The oddly-placed blue button sticks out like a sore thumb, and when placed in a contextual situation, such as the Gallery app or when browsing the web, it pulses an encouraging white. When pressed, it will share the photo or web URL to an album or your wall respectively. We found ourselves using the feature more than anticipated; for Facebook addicts this button is going to be your favourite part of the device.

Similarly, when listening to a song in the Music app the Facebook button allows you to post a link to song on your wall, though it links to Amazon.com and not Amazon.ca, which is an unfortunate oversight. And when in the camera app, the Facebook button doubles as a camera shutter, obviating the need to manually share it: after taking the shot it skips the review and sends it right to sharing mode.

The lock screen takes inspiration from Sense 3.0 by making it easy to get into the apps you use the most. Four customizable shortcuts (see the first image), by default Phone, Mail, Camera and Messages, are configurable through the Personalization menu, and while they can be set to any app installed on the device, the value is in getting to your core apps quickly. When playing a song, however, the shortcuts are replaced by a small music widget with quick play/pause/next capabilities.

Along with the requisite FriendStream application/widget combo that comes standard on all HTC Android phones, they have included a dedicated Facebook Chat application which too includes its own widget. Though somewhat redundant considering the included official Facebook app has chat built in, the dedicated app is more robust, offering chat history and a rather spacious interface.

Usage Patterns

When purchasing a device like the HTC Status, you’re buying function over form. You’re also declaring what type of phone user you are: a content creator, or more likely, a socialite. Most smartphones with touchscreens – yes, even the iPhone – are better at content consumption than creation. A good hardware keyboard is in our opinion always – ALWAYS – going to be superior for typing, regardless of how accurate your phone’s autocorrect, or how tenacious your thumbs.

For writing emails, you have two apps: the Gmail app which has not been adapted for the small landscape screen, meaning that between the permanent header bar at the top and permanent context bar at the bottom, there is a thumb-sized area for reading the actual email; and HTC’s email app, which thankfully has been updated for the landscape display, and works well. You have the option of pinch-to-zoom to re-orient text, and despite not having the granularity of Labels and Priority Inbox as you do in the official Gmail app, the experience is far superior. The Mail app thankfully supports threaded conversations, so keeping track of long chains is a breeze.

It also supports Exchange, and will work on most on companies’ networks; we’ve found HTC’s support for Exchange rivals Motorola’s, and is far superior to stock Android’s when it comes to compatibility with different security certificates.

The official Twitter app works quite well, too. So does Facebook. Basically any app that contains large swaths of text, ironically, works better than ones with garish design flourishes.

Battery Life

The Status is equipped with a 1250mAh battery that lasts longer than most Android devices with significantly more juice. Obviously the larger the screen the more power is needed, so the Status, with its relatively lightweight CPU and small display, gets off easy.

The device lasted almost two days of heavy use, and that includes all the things we’d normally do on an Android device: phone calls, two push email accounts, background Twitter updates, some photos and some web browsing. Perhaps an upside, if you can call it that, is that the Status won’t play all the latest games, and movie watching on such a small screen is anything but a pleasure. Your battery life is instead going to be dedicated to productive things, like spending hours trolling your friends’ Facebook pages.

Conclusions

In order to keep costs down, the Status only comes with about 150MB of app storage out of the box. And it comes with a 2GB microSD card. Other than the limited storage the HTC Status does not feel like a low-cost device, and that’s something to celebrate.

Its keyboard is one of the best in the business, certainly up there with the BlackBerry Bold 9780, and if you can get used to the small and at times awkward screen the Status is a fantastic and versatile messaging device. It is also a very good phone, with excellent headset sound and ample volume, and a form factor that makes holding it to your ear comfortable.

Of course it contains all the right connectivity options – WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS with turn-by-turn navigation – and the 5MP camera does a decent job at rounding out the featureset.

If Telus can release the Status at a low-enough price point (which will be reflected here when the device ships) and provides voice-only plan options, it could be one of those easily justifiable purchases, especially for the Facebook addicts out there.

For back to school season, Telus is seeing beyond the dual-core focus of Bell, and Rogers 3D devices, and is aiming the Status at the same market that makes Justin Bieber a billion dollar entertainer and Harry Potter a trillion dollar movie. It’s risky, but we’re betting it’s going to pay off handsomely.

The Telus HTC Status will be available soon. Check out the landing page for all the details.

Rating: 7.5/10

Pros

- Great aesthetics and build quality
- Premium feel, excellent keyboard
- Good still camera performance
- Runs Android 2.3.3
- Excellent messaging capabilities
- Facebook integration is very robust
- Superb battery life

Cons

- Awkward screen resolution makes certain apps ill-fitted
- Older processor means you’re not going to be playing the latest games
- Keyboard button placement could use some work
- Facebook button may limit appeal of device
- Browsing requires excessive scrolling
- Gmail app has not been well adapted for the small screen

Related posts:

1. Video: Telus HTC Status First Hands-On
2. HTC “Status” coming soon to TELUS
3. Video: TELUS Motorola Milestone Hardware Review

Bell’s HTC Sensation 4G has been out for two weeks today, and to commemorate the occasion (or perhaps by complete coincidence) the company has pushed out a small OTA update bringing smoother overall performance and faster GPS lock capabilities, along with a newer kernel. The build date is June 13th (the shipping version was June 2nd). One of the things we noticed about the Sensation in our review was its occasional sluggishness, which makes this such a welcome surprise so soon after launch. We’re still running Android 2.3.3, and no, the bootloader hasn’t been unlocked yet, but HTC already promised it for September.

So if you have received the OTA update already, what are your thoughts? Any noticeable improvements?

(Thanks Bob!)

Related posts:

1. Bell HTC Sensation 4G has an “Approx retail value $549.95″
2. Bell HTC Sensation 4G launching July 5th
3. Bell announces the HTC Sensation 4G will be available “in the coming weeks”

While this is undoubtedly a good thing, here in Canada we tend to be impatient, often receiving critical Android device updates well after our American peers. It is unlikely that when they refer to the worldwide edition of the Sensation they are talking about our newly-released Bell Sensation 4G; rather, they are talking about SIM-unlocked devices selling on various European websites such as Carphone Warehouse, for which you pay a significant premium over our Canadian version.

So, August for the worldwide Sensation and starting in September for all branded devices. For those Android hackers who can’t wait until the leaves start changing colour, there is always XDA-Developers, but those with more sense will just have to use the device as HTC intended for a little while longer. Full text after the break.

We wanted to provide an update on HTC’s progress with bringing bootloader unlocking to our newest phones. We know how excited some of you are for this capability, and we’ve put significant resources behind making this change as soon as possible. While we wish we could flip a simple switch and unlock all bootloaders across our device portfolio, this is actually a complex challenge that requires a new software build and extensive testing to deliver the best possible customer experience.

We’re thrilled to announce today that software updates to support bootloader unlocking will begin rolling out in August for the global HTC Sensation, followed by the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile USA and the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint. We’re in the testing phase for the unlocking capability now, and we expect it to be fully operational by early September for devices that have received the software updates. We’ll continue rolling out the unlocking capability over time to other devices as part of maintenance releases and new shipments.

HTC continues its commitment to unlocking bootloaders and supporting the developer community. Because of the importance of this community to us, please expect an update on this about every few weeks as we make progress toward launch. Thank you for your patience and continued support!

Source: Facebook

Related posts:

1. Microsoft outlines WP7 “NoDo” schedule… we’re in the “Scheduling” phase
2. HTC considering reversal of Android bootloader policy?
3. Motorola to change bootloader policy, release software update later this year

The HTC Sensation 4G is another leap in their quest to corner the market with their distinctive metallic tones and unibody architecture, and for the most part it succeeds. Combining a dual-core Snapdragon processor with a healthy display resolution and plenty of improvements to their Sense overlay, the Sensation could just be the best Android phone they’ve ever released. Can it compete, though, with similar offerings from Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson? Read on to find out.

Specs

- Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread w/ Sense 3.0
- 960×540 qHD LCD display
- 1.2Ghz dual-core Snapdragon MSM8260 processor w/ Adreno 220 GPU
- 768MB RAM / 1GB internal storage
- 8MP camera with dual LED flash / VGA front camera
- 1080p video capture / playback via MHL-HDMI out
- WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS
- DLNA support (with included app)
- HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
- FM Radio/ Flashlight support
- 1520mAh battery
- 148g
- 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3 mm
- 850/1900Mhz UMTS (3G), 850/900/1900/2100Mhz EDGE (4G)

The Phone: A Design Monster

HTC practically owns unibody. From the HTC Legend to the Desire HD, the fundamentals of forging an exoskeleton from a single piece of metal, usually aluminum, is not a new one. Over time they have identified the various strengths and liabilities of the design, and the Sensation feels like a happy medium. Whereas the Desire HD had a battery latch that inspired, when removed, more grunting than a female tennis match, the Sensation’s back cover is more traditional in many ways, while retaining the structural integrity of its unibody forebears.

Loosened by a small latch on the bottom, the battery cover extends to part of the front and side of the device, leaving it looking rather cyborg-like in its natural state. More than just tri-tone eye candy, it also contains, on the inside, like a gold tooth, the pinpoints for the various antennas. Removing the back means losing your signal.

The rest of the device is standard HTC fare: a left-sided volume rocker, nice and clicky, and below it a dual microUSB/HDMI port (called MHL) we first saw in the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc and lately in the Samsung Galaxy S II. Though an adapter is needed to connect it to an HD television (around $40CAD) it helps keep production costs down.

Due to the unibody construction, the device is thin (though at 11.3mm, some 2.6mm thicker than the Galaxy S II), and feels phenomenal to hold. Easily the most rigidly-built Android phone to date, the qHD resolution screen means that it is taller and narrower than traditional Android devices at 960×540 vs their 800×480. The aspect ratio is different, too, at 16:9 vs 5:3. While wider resolutions offer more horizontal space for reading, the LCD screen on the Sensation offers sharper text and increased viewing space. This comes with some compromises, however…

Display

The display on the Sensation is good, but not great. Perhaps I have been spoiled by its nearest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S II. Colours sit on the surface like wet paint, while images feel far away, lodged somewhere beneath the concave screen. Despite having some 400nits of backlight, the screen washes out at narrow angles. Greens and blues are darker than they should be, and blacks have a tinge of gray.

I often tell people the reason I so love the Incredible S is for its Super LCD screen, and how effortlessly it reacts to every touch of my finger. This cannot be said for the Sensation. As generally smooth as it is, there is something not quite right about Sense 3.0. Perhaps it is the faux 3D effects HTC attempted to build into the framework, or the artistic flourishes that come off as half-hearted, but call me sentimental: I just want my flat, colourful Sense 2.1 back.

There are a few, ahem, bright spots in the mix. White levels are indeed excellent, and as a result reading text on the Sensation’s slightly inwardly curved screen is a pleasure. So too is browsing, as the extra pixels lend themselves nicely to formatting on the generally-speedy browser.

And because the max brightness level is quite good, the Sensation is more viewable in direct sunlight than most Android phones, even though in such conditions blacks look like a mix of yellow and gray.

Most devices wouldn’t call attention to the display in any other way than it performs but the Sensation’s Gorilla Glass is slightly concave, about a millimetre, from edge to edge. Similar to the Nexus S, it is supposed to allow for smoother finger movement, and is said to improve readability of text. Neither of these aspects were particularly better than a completely flat display, but where it may help most is in protecting the device: laying it display-down means that the majority of the glass does not touch the surface on which it is placed.

Performance

Much can be said about the introduction of dual-core into the world of Android smartphones. Surely a logical progression, some would say it has introduced more problems than it’s solved (see battery life below).

Rest assured, however, that the Sensation has mostly benefited from the included Snapdragon MSM8260 processor, which, at 1.2Ghz, can only be described as randy. Animations are smooth throughout the OS, and despite calls to the contrary from other sites (granted, they were reviewing the T-Mobile version which has a slightly different software build) it is difficult to pin down what I’d consider as any slowdown. Yes, there are times when the interface doesn’t seem as spritely as it could, but by and large apps load significantly faster than they did on previous generation hardware.

Using two examples, the camera app, when launched from the customizable home screen, takes less than a second to start, and another fraction to snap a shot. This is obviously something HTC has been working hard to perfect, and they’ve done an admirable job.

So too is it a pleasure launching links from, say, a Twitter app. You’d hardly believe how quickly full desktop pages are rendered (perfectly, I might add), though much of that credit must be assigned to Bell’s speedy HSPA+ network.

Video playback is good, too. Nary a frame dropped of h.264-encoded videos (though the device cannot natively play DivX) up to 720p, but at 1080p output the device stuttered at higher bitrates. This is likely a software limitation, too, as the included player is sparse at best. Third-party options fared better, providing smooth 1080p playback (see RockPlayer, VPlayer).

As with all post-2.2 Android devices, the Sensation plays Flash videos inside the browser and throughout the OS. While this doesn’t necessarily mean they will play without issue, for the most part the Sensation has no trouble with most. It certainly has enough umph to stream 720p YouTube videos embedded in a web page (provided your connection can keep up).

Another thing of note, while I’m at it, is the haste at which the Sensation pivots from portrait to landscape mode. And it starts up quickly: you’ll go from zero to booted in less than 30 seconds.

My main concern is that while the Sensation moves through the OS quickly, the Incredible S made everything seem effortless. This is not a quantifiable thing, as the Sensation is indeed faster in almost every way, but rather a feeling.

Benchmarks

Note: these benchmarks, as should all synthetic benchmarks, should be taken with a grain of salt, as they do not reflect real-world usage.

Quadrant Benchmark Suite: 1960

Linkpack multi-core: 61MFLOPS

Sunspider Javascript Benchmark: 6256ms

CF-Bench: 5135

In terms of results, the Sensation’s Quadrant results are significantly lower than the 3000+ of the Samsung Galaxy S II and even most Tegra2 results, though it must be noted that the Sensation is rendering 3D scenes in its native 960x540px resolution. A more accurate comparison would be between the Sensation and the Motorola Atrix, which runs at the same resolution with a Tegra2 SoC. The Atrix consistently scored over 2500 in Quadrant.

The Sensation also suffered handily at the hands of the Sunspider benchmark. Most newer devices, even last-gen single core processors such as the Incredible S, are able to complete the benchmark in just over 4000ms. Something is definitely wrong with the browser’s Javascript performance.

Camera

The HTC camera software has always been considered better than the sensor itself, but since the Incredible S and its various cousins, they have been making strides at image quality improvement. The 8MP sensor in the Sensation seems to be improved over previous generations, though the better results may be from increased processor performance than anything else.

The usual battery of settings are applicable: exposure, ISO, along with pre-set scenes such as Action or Close Up, which unfortunately replaces a dedicated macro mode.  The device defaults to taking shots in widescreen, which is merely a cropped 4:3. A bit disingenuous, rather take the shot in full 8MP 4:3 resolution and crop it as you see fit.

Photo quality meets most phone standards, which is not to say it will win any awards, but given the right conditions nice results can occur. While very sensitive to movement, well-lit, stationary shots result in excellent colour saturation with minimal grain. The sensor re-focused quickly, and can be done by tapping anywhere on the screen. The dynamic focus actually works very capably.

Unfortunately there is no option to set exposure manually, so indoor scenes with artificial light often result in yellowish shots when White Balance is set to Auto. Changing to Fluorescent or Incandescent, depending on the type of light in the room, often got colours back on track, but resulting photos had too much grain to be useful.

HTC seems to be making an effort to improve their cameras, and indeed, make them a selling point, in their newly-announced myTouch 4G Slide for T-Mobile. Let’s hope its larger sensor and instant shooting technology make it into future devices.

The Sensation can take video at 1080p (1920×1088 to be exact), and it too has no trouble in good conditions. Capturing at 30fps, there is little ghosting and, when the phone is held steady, nary a hint of the shakiness so prevalent in mobile devices. This stability only extends so far, as the moment you attempt to re-adjust the focus while filming by tapping on the screen, it appears like a minor earthquake on film. There are several microphones on the Sensation, and the audio captured when shooting video is in stereo, though separation is difficult to quantify.

Be careful when first pressing Record that first time, though: the device defaults to taking video at its native qHD 960×540 resolution and must be manually changed to 1080p. As I’ll point out later, there isn’t much free space on the included microSD card, which probably led HTC to that decision.

As for the front-facing camera, well, it’s VGA, which means the quality is largely crummy. Strangely, it is a step down from the Incredible S, which has a 1.3MP front shooter. And because the Sensation is running Android 2.3.3 and not the newer 2.3.4, it isn’t possible to use video over GTalk like you can on the Nexus S. However, if video calling is your bag, there are a number of apps to fill in the gap, including Tango, ooVoo, Fring and Qik.

Battery Life

We’ve always tended to forgive HTC their shortcomings when it comes to battery life due to the intense work it takes to keep HTC Sense looking so good and running so smoothly. As Android as an operating system has come a long way since its inception, and various devices such as the Nexus S and Motorola Atrix have proven it is not impossible to attain good battery life.

The Sensation falls into the ‘it’ll do’ category: not great, but just good enough that I won’t deride HTC for failing its customers. With little to no activity on the device, it is possible to eek out two days from a single charge on the 1520mAh battery. But with any background tasks, including push email, background Twitter updates, moderate browsing and camera use, the device lasted until 8pm. It is understandable that the Sensation would be more power hungry than its single-core predecessors, but the moderate performance increase from the Incredible S does not warrant such a cut in battery life, especially since the Sensation is running updated software.

Keeping the display brightness low, and the actively killing errant background apps certainly helps, but the Sensation’s need for constant care is proof that Android needs tighter controls on what apps can run behind the scenes. Apps are allowed to run in the background even if they’ve never been opened.

Call Quality and Network Speeds

Calls come through loud and clear. At this time I’d like to give a brief explanation on why Bell’s version of the Sensation is superior to the T-Mobile version released down south. You see, Bell’s network uses both the 850Mhz and 1900Mhz frequencies depending on attenuation (signal quality) and placement (not all areas have 850Mhz service). Lower frequency signals are able to travel better through obstacles, while higher frequency signals can travel further through the air. Unlike T-Mobile, or any AWS network (Wind/Mobilicity) networks with both a high and low operating frequency tend to have superior indoor signal levels, especially in places with thicker walls and in basements.

I had no issues in either type of environment obtaining a four- to five-bar signal, whereas an AWS device may only have one bar, if it had service at all. Voice calls rarely distorted, and I experienced no dropped calls on the Sensation. Those complaining of a “grip of death” similar to the iPhone 4 will find it largely depends on the level of signal available to the device, and in most parts of Canada this shouldn’t be an issue.

Data speeds were also excellent. I recorded the fastest speeds on the Sensation that I’ve ever seen on a Canadian device: 5.3Mbps download, 2.4Mbps upload with a 59ms ping time. The Sensation has theoretical maximum download/upload speeds of 14.4Mbps/5.76Mbps.

Sense Sensation

Sense 3.0 is not significantly different than its previous iterations. In fact, but for the 3D additions and the improved lock screen, it is largely unchanged.

When it was first released in 2009 on the HTC Hero, it provided an interface overhaul so exhaustive, so appreciated, that most Android users didn’t recognize it as the same operating system. But in 2011, when the Nexus S looks and feels about as fast as anything else on the market with specs almost a year old, it pains me to say that Sense may be losing some of the magic it once had.

There is something admirable about what HTC is attempting: to use Android as a launching pad for its own content and services. The device will sell you ringtones and themes. It has skinned its own mail, music, messaging and calendar apps (for the better) and its own browser, navigation and contacts app (for the worse). It bundles its own social networking widget in Friendstream, and its own Twitter app in Peep. There is a Flashlight app and a FM Radio. There is even a Dice app, for some reason (yes, you literally throw 3D dice around the screen). While many of these are austere replacements to native Google apps, some prefer to replace them with third-party alternatives from the Android Marketplace. But they do form a cohesive whole, and are comprehensive enough to be called a suite.

If you are partial to Sense, however, there is much to like. Like 2.1, Sense 3.0 shows recently-used apps in the notification bar, as well as an appreciated quick settings tab. Pinching anywhere on the homescreen shows a preview of each, though now press and hold and you can alter their location relative to one another.

There is helpful Dock Mode that displays, at a glance, the weather, the time along with your next two appointments. Behind is a gorgeous 3D animation of the current weather conditions.

The app drawer now displays five lines of apps, though they are paged as opposed to free-flowing like they were in Froyo. While it took me a while to get used to this method, it works better at identifying key apps. So too does the Frequent tab, which sorts apps in order of use.

The lock screen has also been updated for Sense 3.0, and is likely going to be the largest cause for celebration amongst loyal HTC fans. Six possible themes, each with its own widget above the four customizable icons, are available, including weather, stocks, photo frame, etc. The four icons, which launch practically any app installed on the device, are dragged into a little magnetic circle below. Perhaps most useful for the camera, phone, messaging and mail app (which are there by default) it is an awesome showcase of both the intuitive and evolutionary nature of HTC’s designers, and the somewhat limited improvements made to the OS as a whole.

A few odds and ends: when you plug the Sensation into a computer, a nice graphical depiction of your connectivity options pops up. You can mount the microSD card, or tether your data connection to your computer, or, if your computer has internet connectivity and your phone does not, you can use go the other way and use the device as a pass-through.

HTC Watch

HTC Watch is the Taiwanese company’s new media store. Movies can be rented for between $3.99 and $4.99, and purchased for $19.99. Rentals are for 48 hours, though once purchased you have up to 30 days to activate the rental. Rentals and purchases can be downloaded to the device for offline consumption, though be wary of having too many on the device at once.

Quality is top-notch, especially on the high-res screen, and if you want to try before you buy there are trailers available for each movie. Selection includes great movies (The Town, Inception) to the pulp (No Strings Attached, Paranormal Activity 2) and HTC hopes to expand its distribution reach with more content soon. There are 200 movies available at launch, with 300 more coming by the end of the month. The goal is to reach 2000 titles by year and. They even talk about adding “seasonal content,” hopefully replete with special pricing.

This is the first real content competitor to Apple’s iTunes released in Canada. While it doesn’t incorporate music, Watch is an attractive and easy-to-use service that shows how much care HTC is giving to their brand not only as a hardware manufacturer, but as a software provider. While there is no obligation to use the service, Watch is freely available for those who want it, and is certainly easier than ripping DVDs, encoding them and transferring them to your phone.

Bell Additions

As with most Bell smartphones, there are a few non-removable inclusions to the device. Mobile TV & Radio has morphed into quite a nice collection of live- and on-demand content from various Canadian providers for $5/month, though subscribing to every package can add up quickly.

Bell also has partnered with Gameloft to provide a portal for “HD” games, and bundles demos of N.O.V.A., a gorgeous looking Halo-like game, along with a virtualized Uno card game experience. Both are quality titles, but every time I tried to load Uno it crashed, and when I first launched N.O.V.A. it forced me to download 70MB in additional content. In addition, the portal leads to Gameloft’s mobile website, who will gladly charge you 30-40% more for the same game as on the Marketplace.

While not quite as odious as what Verizon bundles on their Android devices, we would like to see less bloat and more value from carriers. Android’s inherent customization should not be a free ticket for carriers and OEMs to clog up valuable app storage with non-functioning software.

Wrap-Up

In many ways, the Sensation is HTC’s best phone. Not only their most solidly-constructed, it is one of the most attractive devices I can recall. Not only does the build quality surpass much of its competition, but it improves overall handling and portability. The phone is a joy to hold in the hand, with a few exceptions. Since the backing is made of metal, it gets quite hot, especially after taking photos or recording video. Since it’s the middle of summer the device felt dangerously hot after recording a couple minutes of footage outside on a warm day.

So too does the display come with compromises. Its increased pixel count is more than welcome, but the overall quality of the image seems to be inferior to the lower-density Super LCD screens used in the Incredible S/Desire S line.

And performance has also stepped up, though perhaps not as much as one would expect from such a spec jump. Benchmark results are quite a bit lower than comparable dual-core solutions, though synthetic results don’t usually translate into real-world performance. Running games optimized for high-res displays were smooth as butter, and, unlike previous HTC devices, I couldn’t get the keyboard to stutter, no matter how many apps were running in the background.

Sense is losing some of its lustre, despite how stable it has become. I couldn’t get an app to crash (except for the included game demos), but I’ve also grown used to making Android look the way I want it to. Sure, you can download an app launcher like Launcher Pro to replace HTC’s, but ultimately you’re playing their game. For fans of the overlay, though, it provides more of the same, which is a very good thing.

For Android newbies, this will be a huge benefit: tutorials and hand holding are the best way to introduce oneself to the often-intimidating world of Android, and HTC simplifies things to a forgiving level.

The Sensation is a powerful, attractive and stable Android device that provides access to a growing array of applications, widgets and customizations. No, the device isn’t hackable (yet), but should you decide to purchase it, do so knowing you’re mostly likely going to end up using the phone the way HTC wants you to. Sound familiar? There’s another company that’s attracting legions of customers by doing just that. And according to HTC’s latest earnings report, they’re profiting from such a tightening of focus.

The Bell HTC Sensation 4G is available for $149.95 on a 3-year term and $549.95 without a contract.

Rating: 8/10

Pros:

-  Gorgeous form factor
-  Best-in-class build quality
-  High resolution display allows for more stuff and sharper text
-  Excellent overall Android performance
-  Good still camera and video quality
-  Dual microUSB/HDMI port
-  Very stable running Gingerbread
-  Amazing data speeds and excellent call quality
-  Lock screen shortcuts very useful (and attractive)
-  Gorilla Glass display is bright and viewable in direct sunlight

Cons:

- Display has underwhelming viewing angles, colour reproduction
- Display is very reflective
- Battery life suffers from the dual-core chipset
- Sense overlay is getting long in the tooth, despite additions
- 3D effects are unnecessary and bog down the system
- Not (yet) hackable
- Only a VGA front facing camera
- 1GB internal storage for apps is not enough

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Update:

First of all, I didn’t mention a price, which is $149.95 on a 3-year term and $549.95 without a contract.

The compatible frequencies are 850/1900Mhz UMTS, which means it will have 3G connectivity on Bell, and when unlocked, Virgin Mobile, Rogers, Fido, Telus, Koodo, Sasktel and MTS (I think).

As for the Gingerbread CRT effect, it is not here, nor is it enabled in the Galaxy S II. This doesn’t mean it cannot support it, but rather HTC seems to have disabled it.

There is SIP (VoIP) support built in, so you can configure an internet phone. Obviously Google Voice does not work in Canada.

I took the comparison screenshot of the Sensation and Galaxy S II at a 45 degree angle to show the viewing angles. While the screen is much more vivid looking straight on, it still shows inaccurate colour reproduction compared to the Samsung. Doesn’t mean it’s not a great screen because it is.

In terms of hackability, someone has found an exploit that allows for temporary rooting of the device, but the root goes away once the system is reset. At this point no development can really happen on the device until a permanent rooting solution is found, which is still forthcoming. It took almost eight months for a permanent root solution to come to the Incredible S. Hopefully HTC will have unlocked the bootloader by then and prevent all this chaos.

Also, the guaranteed 18 months upgrade schedule proposed at Google IO has not been finalized yet, and therefore no carrier has given a commitment to upgrade any of their devices. I am assuming the Sensation will be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich when it is released in the Fall, but that’s not for me to speculate.

Overall, the more I’ve used the Sensation, the more I’ve enjoyed it.

Related posts:

1. Pre-order the Bell HTC Sensation for $549.95 at The Source
2. Bell announces the HTC Sensation 4G will be available “in the coming weeks”
3. Bell HTC Sensation 4G launching July 5th