HTC Sensation 4G for T-Mobile: Hands On

HTC's beautiful new smartphone for T-Mobile, the HTC Sensation 4G, has a great-looking case, a super-sharp screen, a dual-core processor, and the latest version of Android, dressed up with some terrific HTC enhancements. It's all enough that you can overlook the one big thing it doesn't have: 4G.

As we mentioned earlier, the Sensation is HTC's follow-up to the excellent MyTouch 4G, and it looks like a more professional model than the somewhat cute-and-cuddly MyTouch. It's a gray slab phone with a gray, cosmetic stripe up the middle of the back. The Sensation is comfortable to hold, and it's similar in size to Verizon's HTC Thunderbolt, although it's thinner.

All of the Sensation's specs have been boosted from the previous model, except one. The phone has a super-sharp, super 4.3-inch 960-by-540 LCD screen and a Qualcomm dual-core 1.2-Ghz Snapdragon processor. It runs Android Gingerbread 2.4, and has an 8-megapixel camera on the back capable of recording 1920-by-1080 video at 30 frames per second. There's a VGA front-facing camera for video chat, an HDMI output port, 1GB of built-in storage along with a MicroSD card slot, and a very strong 1520 mAh battery keeping it all running. It will be very interesting to compare this to the somewhat similar LG G2x, another high-end, dual-core Android phone arriving on T-Mobile soon.

The new Qualcomm processor brings a bunch of side benefits. Far better graphics processing means the Sensation's Sense 3.0 interface is festooned with little bits of 3D. No, it's not the headache-inducing real 3D I've seen on the HTC EVO 3D—and that's a good thing. Rather, it's just 3D-ish effects on the 2D screen, like having a home screen where images fly behind each other, and some striking 3D weather displays. The camera is also much faster. According to HTC, you couldn't do any of that smoothly on previous processors.

The missing spec is 4G. Like the MyTouch "4G," the Sensation only connects to the Web at HSPA+ 14.4—which is short of the HSPA+ 21 that T-Mobile's own chief network officer has said should be a minimum for 4G. I'm getting sick of this.

HTC has enhanced its HTC Sense Android UI in many small ways. Most immediately, there are a bunch of useful custom lock screens. The phone's locked screen can show social-networking updates, your favorite pictures, the weather or useful app shortcuts; if you drag a shortcut to the bottom of the screen, it starts the app. HTC will offer more lock screens in the future, reps said.

Other small, useful touches include a better-looking SMS app and an email app that previews each message in your message list. The virtual keyboard's prediction powers have been enhanced, but sadly, there's no Swype here.

As a T-Mobile phone, all the usual T-Mobile apps are here, including T-Mobile's Wi-Fi calling and T-Mobile TV. But HTC adds HTC Watch, a movie and TV store that HTC insists, yes, will come to the United States. Watch starts with a pretty thin library of about 600 movies and relatively few TV shows, but it will grow, HTC says. You'll be able to rent and buy programs, and progressive downloading means you'll be able to watch stuff as it's downloading. But the company didn't give any details about how much movies would cost.

We've come to expect refined Android experiences from HTC, and the Sensation delivers. Without resorting to gimmickry like those not-ready-for-prime-time 3D screens, the Sensation looks like it has what most people want in a high-end Android phone: good-looking apps, a sharp screen, fast performance and a lot of easy-to-use little touches. I came away from an hour with the phone impressed.

I doubt most people will miss the 4G, but T-Mobile shouldn't be claiming a status that the phone can't achieve.

The Sensation will come out this summer, HTC said. The company didn't announce a price.

This article, written by Sascha Segan, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.