HTC Sensation XL is a special edition of original HTC Sensation series that has been released by HTC on 6 October, 2011. The new handset is being viewed as the Android counterpart of HTC’s new Windows Phone 7.5 Mango powered handset HTC Titan. Sensation XL also features the markings of Beats Audio which means a pretty amazing audio experience is due from this handset. Let’s take a closer look at this new gadget.
What’s new
The immediate change that is instantly noticeable from the previous generation Sensation is inclusion of rather huge 4.7 inch WVGA display. WVGA means a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, just like the one on Samsung Galaxy S II but HTC Sensation XL has a PPI (Pixel per Inch) of 199 which is rather small considering the large screen. The screen is also a super LCD one covered with Gorilla glass for maximum protection. HTC also went on to include a single core Scorpion processor clocked at 1.5 GHz from Qualcomm, which is quite a change from their usual dual core processors in Sensation family. The CPU is accompanied by Qualcomm MSM 8255 Snapdragon chipset and an Adreno 205 GPU. The internal storage is bumped to a big 16GB, rather than a paltry 1GB on original Sensation and 4GB on Sensation XE. The included battery in Sensation XL has a capacity of 1600 mAh which is a small bump from the original Sensation but a significantly smaller than the 1800 mAh one used on Sensation XE. The inclusion of single core processor helped HTC to maintain a respectable battery life even with the lower capacity battery. Software wise, HTC Sensation XL runs a customized installation of Android Gingerbread 2.3.5 with HTC Sense 3.5. Sense 3.5 is the latest version of Sense UI customization offered by HTC, which is a graphical user interface running on top of actual Android operating system.
What’s been refreshed
Usage wise the most significant refresh comes in terms of its new Sense 3.5 UI. HTC worked pretty hard to bring the new UI on its latest range of smartphones and to be specific, it works pretty good. To use the large screen real estate effectively on the phone, HTC has shrunk the famous clock and the weather widget and instead of offering them in a vertical arrangement, they are presented just side by side now thus providing a lot of free spaces on the already huge screen. Also to give a really large feel of the device, HTC increased the spacing between individual icons on the home screen. Dropbox is pre-installed as a part of Sense UI which is a boon for syncing your files online from the phone itself.
Features walkthrough
The browser in Sensation XL works pretty well, hitting even the dual core CPU sporting Sensation and Sensation XE out of its way in browser benchmarks. On Browsermark, Sensation XL scores a whopping 78750, keeping the original Sensation and Sensation XE at bay with more than 80-90 percent performance improvement. On SunSpider too, Sensation XL completes the test in least amount of time, leaving both Sensation XE and Sensation biting the dust. This is pretty amazing considering the fact that Sensation only has a 1.5 GHz single core CPU for processing.
The camera on Sensation XL has an 8 megapixel sensor with a 28mm f/2.2 lens. The backlight illuminated sensor helps to get noise free images at low light conditions without crippling the colours and brightness. Unfortunately, HTC did not add full HD 1080p video capture in this monstrous handset of them which is quite unusual. One can only record videos up to a resolution of 720p.
HTC is touting the integration with Beats as the most impressive feature of Sensation XL. After Sensation XE, this is their second handset with Beats branding. The phone also comes with a standard iBeats headphone which is named upbeats by HTC and a dedicated software audio profile for optimized audio performance tailored for the headphones. A special edition Sensation XL with a pair of Beats Solo white headphone will also be launched but it is not mentioned which store will be having the stocks for them.
What’s good
Inclusion of HTC Sense 3.5. It looks pretty great on the device and HTC made some real improvements that gives huge performance gains even on a single core CPU. Sensation XL provides a rather large screen of 4.7 inch which is beautiful and perfectly acceptable for customers looking for a phone with big screen. Though having some large proportions, the phone keeps its thickness significantly lower at 9.9mm and the weight at 162.5 g. HSPA+ 4G technology is included which means a maximum download speed of 42 Mbps. The gadget comes with Beats integration and a pair of Beats headphone which is pretty good for audio buffs.
What’s not so good
The phone has no expandable memory. HTC Sense 3.5, even though looks pretty good, wastes a lot of area on the big screen which could have been used more efficiently.
Price and availability
Sensation XL is not available yet on the market and will tentatively become ready for sales on early November this year. The price will also be announced on the same time.
Wrap-up
On an ending note, we can safely say that HTC Sensation XL is a handset especially made for customers who are audio and movie buffs and like to experience them on the move. It will also help reading eBooks, thanks to its huge screen. Overall, the Sensation XL is a rather impressive phone with standard specifications that will surely appease its target audience.
