SPG - Android Reviews

REVIEW: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:40:28 +0000

Introduction

We have been seeing a continuous stream of Android smartphones being released by Sony Ericsson recently. 2011 saw the release of the Xperia Arc, the Xperia Play, the Xperia Neo, the Xperia Mini, the Xperia Mini Pro, the Xperia Ray, the Xperia Neo V & then the Xperia Arc S & Xperia Active… Phew, that's quite a few in a single product line…

Here at SmartphoneGurus, we've been fortunate to get our hands on the Xperia X10 Mini Pro and the Xperia Play and now thanks to Citizen Brando, Sony Ericsson's UK PR company, we also have the Xperia Arc S. So, what are our thoughts on this next generation Arc device, read on to find out…

What's in the box?

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S
Greenheart Charger
Dual Charging & USB Cable
Wired Stereo Headset

The Specifications

Specifications taken from GSM Arena

The Aesthetics

The Xperia Arc S is a pleasure to behold. Svelte & thin, at 125mm x 63mm x 8.7mm & 117 grams in weight, it looks like the supermodel of the Android device world. I don't usually favour white devices, but the svelteness of the Arc S minimises the expanse of white on show from the front. The device is neatly refined with an aluminium like strip that runs all the away around the edge, giving a look of exceptional quality. Sony Ericsson have also done an excellent job in keeping the bezel minimal, and the device is literally all screen from the front.

As you can see, the Arc S is indeed one of the thinnest Android smartphones that we have been fortunate enough to review at SmartPhoneGurus. Only the Galaxy S II beats it by .2mm.

Top

From left to right along the top of the device we find the power button. The button itself is quite recessed and I sometimes found it difficult to press. By difficult to press, I mean I don't always hit the button itself first time. This is no bad thing as it means that the device is not inadvertently activated in my pocket, which hopefully reduces power usage from the screen being activated too often. Moving on we come across the micro HDMI socket. This is one thing I can confirm as working, but more about that later in the review.

Bottom

Continuing the left to right theme, we first come to a dual-slot microphone, and boy, the slots are quite large in comparison to other phones. In the middle we find a fingernail shaped cut-out, and indeed, this is where you insert a fingernail to remove the back cover from the device, which is exceptionally easy!! Over on the right there is another smaller circular hole in the casing, which I'm assuming is the Noise Shield system to reduce background noise, but for the life of me I couldn't confirm this point anywhere!!

Left

The left hand side of the device only sports the 3.5mm headset socket at the top. Move along…

Right

Flipping to the right hand side and moving from top to bottom, firstly we come to the micro USB socket. As with most devices this is used to both charge the device and provide cable connectivity to a PC of your choice. In conjunction with a Sony Ericsson live dock, the device will also support USB host. Just below the USB socket is the volume rocker switch. One thing that is immediately apparent is that the volume rocker switch is incredibly small compared to other machines, but to be honest, I've not had a problem with that so far. Right at the bottom of the device, there is a camera button. I like the inclusion of a physical button as it gives one the feel of using a proper camera, and the Arc S certainly lives up to that, but more later.

Back

Moving from top to bottom we start with the camera lens, with an LED flash slightly below to the left. Continuing the journey there is another small pin hole in the case; why, at first I did not know, but removing the back cover revealed a second microphone underneath, so maybe this delivers the Noise Shield feature. Next up in the centre of the back is the now familiar Xperia logo, followed by the Sony Ericsson badge. Finally we come to the speaker slot at the bottom. No grille over the slot, but there is one over the speaker internally, seems an odd way round to me!

Front

The most impressive thing about the Arc S is how the screen dominates the front of the device itself, the bezel at the left & right edges is the most minimal of any device that I have had in my hands to date. The top & bottom bezel are merely large enough to contain the call speaker, sensors & front-facing camera and the physical buttons. It truly is amazing.

I am still a fan of the physical buttons at the bottom of any device. I find them so much more easier to use! Is that an age thing, maybe, but I will go on harping on about how the physical buttons are better than the capacitive ones!

Construction

The Arc S feels solid in the hand, despite the 4.2" screen it is easy to hold, well, it is for me and yes my hands are fairly large. There is a little creaking from the back, if the device is pressed, I put this down to the incredibly thin plastic panel that spans the entirety of the back. Overall, though, the Arc S is well constructed, furthering the feel of quality.

The Screen

The screen is glorious, a TFT panel at 4.2" sporting 16K colours driven by Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine. At 854x480, the resolution doesn't match that of the display on the iPhone 4, but it is very crisp, sharp & bright. It is superb. The panel has been given the title of Reality Display. Maybe that is to match the iPhone's marketing of the Retina Display; who can tell. I usually consign it to marketing speak and leave it at that. Rest assured, Sony Ericsson certainly do know how to make a screen, that's for sure.

The Keyboard

As with the Xperia Play, the on-screen keyboard is very iPhone like in appearance. I guess this is no surprise as both devices are from the Sony Ericsson Xperia stable. As per normal with most devices, I persevered with the Arc S standard supplied keyboard until I could take no more. It's not that it is bad, it's just that I find the Swiftkey X keyboard much easier to use and I seem to achieve greater accuracy with it. So, sorry Sony Ericcson, I moved to another keyboard again.

The Camera

Standard Mode

The Arc S it kitted out with an 8.1 megapixel camera complete with LED flash. As we are told, and I'm no expert, it's not just resolution that counts, but the quality of the lens and software as well. The camera on the Arc S features Ericsson's Exmoor R CMOS sensor and also offers image stabilisation, Auto Focus, an f/2.4 Aperture, Smile detection, Face Recognition, 16x Digital Zoom & not to mention 720p HD video recognition. In the cold light of day, the pictures the Arc S delivers are pretty good, take a look at the pictures below:

3D Mode

The camera functionality doesn't stop there! The Arc S also offers a 3D panoramic mode, although to really take advantage of this you need a 3D TV and the relevant spectacles to go with it. Unfortunately, I have neither, but, I did get the chance to see the Arc S and its 3D panoramic splendidness in the flesh at a Sony Ericsson event in London, and I must say, I was pretty impressed.

Taking a 3D panoramic picture seems to be some what of an art-form. Maybe that's just me as it took me multiple tries to actually get a shot, at first I was too fast, then I was too slow and the Arc S regularly accused me of panning in the wrong direction! Eventually I did get the hang of it!

The Connectivity

The Arc S provides all the usual connectivity standards, GPRS, EDGE & HSDPA. I don't actually get a 3G signal at home, which is where I spend most of my time. But in those places where a 3G or HSDPA signal was available, the Arc S performed well, not forgetting that data speeds are usually at the mercy of the network, and the load on that network from a particular location.

DLNA, the ability to share media on your device across your WiFi network is also supported. Unfortunately, once again, my TV does not have this feature, so I have been unable to put it to the test directly, but that didn't stop me from using Windows Media Player on my Media PC, which is connected to my TV via HDMI, to stream pictures, video & audio files directly from the device. That was one function that did work very well!

Other connectivity options included HDMI out, it was absolutely staggering to be able to utilise the Netflix Android application and watch the output of my TV.

The Battery

As with all my reviews, I try to look at the battery from a real-world perspective and as luck would have it, I had a meeting in London during the review period. The Arc S was taken off charge at around 06:00, yes, 06:00! Early starts are the only problem with living out in the sticks like I do.

06:00 Arc S off charge.
06:55 Audio playback (podcasts) 2 hours outbound, Google latitude active, Calls - 2 to home, Text - 7 text messages out and 7 text messages in. Data - Twitter using tweetdeck with 3 columns set to 1 hour refresh. Wi-Fi switched on all day and connected to Three Mi-Fi.
09:15 - Arrived at work
18:35 - Left work (well, OK, I left the pub eventually after work!)
18:44 - Audio playback (podcasts) Calls 2 hours homeward bound.
20:00 - battery down to 36%
20:44 - Battery down to 26%
21:55 - Battery down to 17%

So as you can see, the Arc S lasted out a full day for me, doing what I do with a device for the most part. As with all phones, the battery life has varied over my time with the Arc S, usually depending on network conditions. The battery does indeed run down faster in areas of limited network availability.

The User Interface

As with all Xperia devices I have had the chance to use, the Arc S sports the UXP user interface. Once again, it is very minimalist in terms of presentation, giving a new user a very good starting point in their journey of Android customisations. For the purpose of reviewing, I tend to leave the standard home screens in place. My usage on all devices is fairly standard, I usually only use 2 home screens, one displaying the Time, Date & Weather, and another with frequently used application shortcuts. I'm an app guy, so I always tend to use apps rather than widgets on Android to get the data I want.

Being honest, once I'm fully into the review and have used the device as standard, I do then tend to remove the original widgets that were on the home-screen, in this case Timescape & Google Search. I do replace them, but usually just with a Weather Clock from Beautiful Widgets, one of my earliest Android Market purchases.

As with the Xperia Play that I reviewed, the Arc S also sports the nifty feature that allows easy selection of a target home screen based on the widgets… Simply place two fingers on the screen & pinch them together. On the pinch, all your widgets miraculously appear on the screen at once, bubbling around, well, like bubbles. Simply tap the widget you want and you are taken directly to that screen. This is one feature of the Sony Ericsson interface that I really do like.

The Apps

The Sony Ericsson value-add applications are as follows:

Timescape
Video Unlimited
Support
TrackID
Sync - Now discontinued from the 29th December
3D Camera
Xperia Hot Shots
Connected Devices
FM Radio
WisePilot
3D Album
Music Unlimited
McAfee Security
NeoReader
Music & Videos
Get Apps
Get Games
Office Suite
UEFA.com
PlayNow Store
Update Center
Games & Apps
Flash Player
WhatsApp - Comes pre-installed by default

I won't go through all of the apps, but I'll pick out a salient few worthy of a mention…

Connected Devices

This application turns your Xperia Arc S into a media-hub. Based on the DLNA standard, it allows other devices that support the DLNA protocol stream media stored on the device. Initially, you have to authorise any connecting devices, which can sometimes be hard to identify from just their MAC addresses, but once done, you can stream to your hearts content. I successfully used Windows Media Player on my Media PC to connect to the Arc S and stream pictures, video & audio content direct to my HDMI connected TV in the lounge. It is pretty awesome!!

FM Radio

I know there have been many devices that sport an FM radio, our very own Cyclist swears by (I think she still does!) . One thing I noticed about the implementation on the Arc S was the ability to use a link to the TrackID service to identify the currently playing tune. It worked very well, and I found it quite useful. It's the first time I've seen the ability to identify music integrated at this level.

Oh yes, the Radio worked pretty well too. It used the wired headphones as an aerial, nothing unusual there. The sounds output was good and the RDS feature worked well at identifying KLFM, the local radio station in these parts.

McAfree Mobile Security

Security is at the forefront of nearly everything we do these days. The Arc S is the first device I have seen that has a security solution installed by default. In this case, the vendor is that well known Anti-Virus company, McAfee. It should be noted that it is only a 7-day trial version, but it is enough to give you a taster of how it works.

Registration is quite straightforward, you provide your email address and create a pin, followed by verification of your mobile number. An SMS is sent to your phone and the application automatically uses that to verify the information provided is correct. McAfee Mobile Security offers the following features:

Security Scan. It was funny to watch a virus scanner at work on the device!
Data Backup. Does what it says, offers the ability to backup SMS, Call Logs, Contacts & Media
Data Restore. Fairly self-explanatory
Lock Device. Manual Lock using the McAfee application
Wipe Data. Erases everything, including any SD card
SiteAdvisor. Stops you visiting dodgy websites in the mobile browser!

The application definitely works, I set-up a buddy in the buddy list and then inserted a new SIM into the Arc S. True to it's word, it locked the device up tightly & sent an SMS to the number in the buddy list informing them that the Arc S may have been stolen. Short of a hard reset, I couldn't find anyway around the device lock that McAfee Mobile Security put in place. Well, I could find a way around it, but that's because I had the unlock PIN!

I did a bit of digging, and I believe the full version of the application costs $29.99 for a year. Would I buy it? At that price, even though I know it is relatively cheap over a year, I must say no I would not!

WhatsApp

Interestingly, the WhatsApp application is pre-installed on the Arc S. For those that haven't heard of it, What's App is a messaging application that is available cross platform; currently supporting Android, iOS, Blackberry & Windows Phone. The app allows you to send and receive messages to other users or 'contacts' outside of any SMS messaging plan, using your data bundle instead. It works fairly much like a text, as the receiver doesn't need to action the message straight away, it will persist just like an SMS message. I haven't used it fully myself, as checking into the detail for this review I discovered that you can also group chat as well as the ability to send video, images & audio via the application, making it even more useful than I first thought!

Messaging

I don't usually mention the standard apps in a review, as they tend to be the same across all Android phones. But I thought I would mention the Messaging app in this review as with previous Android smartphones I have always had difficulty positioning the cursor inside any body of text, especially when using SMS and wanting to correct my erroneous typing. On the Xperia Arc S I have had no such problem, the device pops up a nice big cursor, which I found very easy to use. Maybe it's an eyesight thing? I am getting old now! I'm not sure if this is particular to the Arc S, or just the later versions of Android Gingerbread.

The Phone

As with the other SE devices, the call quality on the Xperia Arc S proved to be excellent for me, both using the device itself and with it connected to my Sony Ericsson MW600 Bluetooth Headset & the Bluetooth Car Kit built into my car. In fact, the Xperia Arc S has shown the best signal acquisition of any device that has been brought into my house so far. The Arc S managed to hold a signal in the lounge, a notable deadspot, an area that tests all devices to the max.

In Use

The Arc S has been quite a workhorse for me, becoming my constant companion, day in day out in my recovery time after an operation. But all was not rosy; I noticed some slowdown in operation over my time with the device exhibiting lag on occasion!! A bit of digging revealed what I believe to be the answer. To my surprise I had installed multiple applications; I actually got carried away and filled up the internal memory. I created more space by using the built-in Gingerbread ability to move applications to the SD card, releasing valuable internal storage.

The size of the screen made the device a joy to use for messaging, which for me is an integral part of my smartphone usage. This covers Email, SMS, Facebook Chat & Instant Messaging via apps such as WhatsApp. That being said, I did install another keyboard to improve my accuracy, it's something I can't get away from on most phones these days.

The Audio quality was excellent, but that is by my standards and I am definitely not an audiophile. The Arc S served me well for listening to podcasts and the odd music track. Video playback from Youtube, usually from links in Twitter were handled with ease and displayed in excellent quality. Skype video calls worked extremely well, but that was over Wi-Fi to my kids on my home network.

Pro's & Con's

Pro's

Excellent Screen
Extremely Thin & Pocketable
FM Radio
HDMI out (Micro-HDMI)

Con's

It's White!! Although I shouldn't really hold that against it as it is available in other colours.
I can't think of any others

Conclusion

I must say I do like this phone a lot, which you can tell by my inability to generate many cons for it, although it is white, I know I know, I keep going on about that! At 4.2 inches, the screen is a lot larger than the current crop of smartphones that I own and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I always shied away from the big screen devices because they were usually like house bricks, but the Arc S is just so svelte it just doesn't feel overly large in my hands. Not to mention the extra screen real-estate making the device so much more usable from a text-entry perspective.

It may not have a dual or quad-core processor, but the Arc S has coped with everything I have thrown at it & dealt with it in style. From SMS to WhatsApp, from phone calls to Skype, from Podcasts to YouTube, from Facebook to Twitter & not forgetting Foursquare, the Arc S has delivered them all for me. That in itself, is worth its weight in gold to me! If I had the monies spare, I would buy myself one tomorrow!!

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Rhyme (O2)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:31:30 +0000

One of the more popular Android smartphones launched earlier this year was the HTC Desire S, which maintained the number one spot in a fair number of tech-web site ranking systems. HTC have now released a newer updated model, which seems aimed squarely at the fairer sex (due to its purple colour), which has some pretty cool enhancements - the new model has been given the name of the HTC Rhyme.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
HTC Code name: HTC Bliss
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Rhyme
Price: Varies depending on contract

The Rhyme continues to have all the great functionality that the Desire S had on board but has a nicely updated specification; a newer version of Sense, larger battery, increased internal storage, new widgets, as well as some really cool hardware accessories that ship with it in the box. The differences in specification are shown below:

EXTERNALS

The body has been re-engineered compared to the Desire S, and the controversial 'lip' has been removed to give a much flatter front face, but it is still composed of a single machined aluminium housing which gives a great deal of strength to the body of the machine. It should be plenty rugged enough to withstand wear and tear and also the occasional slip from the hand. The 'uni-body' construction serves to give good protection to the internals but also aesthetically enhances the design as there are no join lines separating the two halves of the device. The matte coating on the aluminium gives the impression of smoothness, yet manages to produce a surface finish that is not unduly slippery.

In the hand the Rhyme feels tiny and svelte with the smooth lines and purple colouration serving to making it appeal to the ladies out there. This is the first smartphone that I've reviewed that my other half has been interested in and would consider using - she loves the form factor and the stylish colour!

The right hand side of the body holds the volume rocker controls, with the left hand side containing only the micro-USB port. The port is actually covered (which makes a welcome change on HTC phones) with a small hinged protective cover. This has possibly been implemented with the thought that the Rhyme may spend time in a ladies purse or handbag and therefore the port needs protection from intrusive makeup powder leaks?

The base is featureless apart from the 'pin prick' hole in the bottom of the device which serves to give sound entry into the microphone. The top again is of a clean design with the housing incorporating the 3.5mm jack plug for the headset, while further towards the right hand side is the power button. This is nicely placed so that it can be activated by the index finger (when held in the left hand). It is raised slightly from the body and does require a decent amount of pressure to activate the control, however it may have been better if it was recessed to prevent accidental operation while in the pocket, gadget bag or handbag.

As has already been intimated the Rhyme is smooth and sleek, this is carried over design wise onto the front of the machine where HTCs designers have striven and succeeded to carry on the minimalist look. The upper part of the device sports the speaker used for telephone calls with the front facing VGA camera located to the lower right of the speaker grill.

The mainstay of the front face is of course the 3.7" 480 x 800 WVGA screen which is flush mounted to eliminate any bezel around the screen, this gives a smooth surface to operate and interact with - just what is needed for a touch orientated device. The screen itself is bright and lively with no banding visible at all, readability in sunlight is good despite this being a regular TFT screen and not AMOLED.

Below the screen are the four touch operated activation buttons, which are back lit with bright white LEDs (when needed), and as standard on Google Android phones the usual functions are present; Home, Menu, Back and Search. Pressing and holding the Home button brings up a short list of icons showing recently used applications.

Internally the Rhyme runs Android 2.3.5 and on top of that HTC have further enhanced system with their latest 'Sense 3.5' interface bringing additional finger friendly widgets and customisation into play. As well as the software the hardware has been upgraded with storage memory being taken up to a massive 4Gb. Battery life has been improved with the larger 1600 mAh capacity battery.

On the back of the Rhyme the uni-body is pierced in two places, at the upper end of the device there is the HD video capable camera, the loudspeaker and the LED flash. This also has a very small hole (almost a pin prick) to the right of the speaker, I believe that this is the noise cancellation sensor used to reduce background audio noise during a phone call. More interestingly below the camera lens are three copper contacts which are used to connect the Rhyme to the docking station (see later).

The lower end of the Rhyme contains the back cover which can be slid downwards away from the housing (moderate pressure being applied), once this has been removed the SIM and micro-SD cards can be inserted. The battery is non-removable and cannot be changed out or replaced. Within the back cover there is a copper contact which mates with matching contacts within the body of the machine, these are actually part of the antenna system and if the battery cover is left removed you'll not get any signal. Once the cards have been inserted the back cover can then be slid into place where a frictive lock holds it firmly in position.

My own usage of the machine which includes social networking, e-mail (3 x push accounts), eBook reading as well as occasional phone calls tend to leave me with around 60% of charge left at the end of the working day. This is excellent indeed and gives the Rhyme a much longer useful working life on a single charge than most recent phones I've used.

The back face camera offers HD (720p) recording capability and a front VGA camera is present to support video calling.

You may want to share any videos on YouTube so the 3G connection speed is a goodly 14.4Mbps / 5.76Mbps to give the best performance on a 3G connection. If you wish to share those videos (or photos) with the family and if your TV supports the DLNA protocol then you can wirelessly stream the content straight to the TV!

INTERNALS

Sense improvements include:

The Quick Settings control within the Notifications Panel has been enhanced to allow the Wi-Fi controls to be accessed more easily. The > symbol on the screen allows these additional functions to be accessed.

Additional 'Accounts' can now be added including one for Evernote for HTC Sense', which allows you to synchronise your Evernote notes to the Rhyme, which can be displayed in the HTC Notes widget.

A new HTC Tasks widget ties back into the Exchange (or Google Tasks) system to allow you to quickly interact with any defined tasks.

The Personalise options have now been split into three sections; Add to Home (Widget, App, Shortcut, Folder), Display (Scene, Skin, Wallpaper, Lock Screen Style, Lock Screen Shortcuts) and Sound (Sound Set, Ringtone, Notification Sound, Alarm) which makes the configuration much smoother to adjust.

The camera application has been updated to include a focus indicator to show you where the focus point is, and includes a new shake detection indicator to warm of shaky grip. Facial recognition and focus adjust are also included. One big enhancement is the Panorama photographic mode whereby directional arrows and screen guides take you through taking a 'continuous' photo of a panorama where the final result is produced from stitching together all the recorded shots taken while in that mode. There is also a 'Backlight HDR' Scene available which disables flash and allows you to take HDR photographs. Finally the Action Burst mode allow you to take five successive shots of your subject.

The Gallery application has been enhanced to allow you to give basic editing and the adding of post-production effects. Video can also be cropped from the start and end of video recordings.

Lockscreen: HTC have again used the lockscreen first seen on the Sensation it being a customisable interface designed for ease of use. The default lock screen that is in place on the Rhyme consists of a blank screen which shows the current wallpaper and below this sit four rounded 'Quick Launch' icons for: Phone, Mail, Camera and Messages. Where applicable these icons also have number indicators for item counts such as unread new e-mail. Finally at the bottom of the screen is a half-buried silver ring that rises from the bottom of the screen, that sits on top of a converse silvered bar. To unlock the screen one can tap and hold on the half ring shape and drag it upwards onto the screen, it then follows the finger and becomes a full loop centered on the fingers touch. When the ring is released the device is unlocked. Cool enough as it is the system becomes even more impressive when one taps and holds one of the 'Quick Launch' icons as if any one of these are dragged and dropped over the buried ring it rises up to accept the dragged and dropped icon. Once the icon has been swallowed by the ring the Rhyme unlocks and switches immediately to the application that was quick launched. This works impressively both with respect to functionality as well as eye candy.

Finally HTC take the lockscreen system one step further as they offer various alternatives to the vanilla Wallpaper lockscreen. Alternatives provided are:

Wallpaper - See your wallpaper and open your favourite shortcuts
Weather - Displays a beautifully animated screen showing the current locational weather conditions
Friend Stream - Displays a screen of flying updates from the Sense social system and allow you to scroll through the latest entries
Stocks - Displays a screen of floating stock update information
Clock - Shows a large animated timepiece
Photo Album - Shows flying enlarging and shrinking images from a selected gallery album

The system has one more customisation that makes it even more useful. You can change the shortcuts which appear on the lockscreen - you can replace these with any application shortcut you choose to configure.

The Sense Launcher consists of seven launch screens with the central screen considered to be the home screen, all screens are pre-loaded with HTC widgets. These are:

Shortcuts & Clock
Google Search & People
Locations
Blank
Show Me Tips
Watch
Friendstream

Mail
Messages
Music
Camera
Market

The right hand side of each icon can be tapped upon, and once activated a side bar from the icon pops out offering either added functionality or help on how to use the system. For example the music icon extends to give you quick music playback controls, and the camera to show thumbnails of recently taken photographs.

The 'Shortcuts & Clock' widget can be edited and you can choose which icons / functionality you wish to have in place. The widget also contains the time, date, location and weather in the bottom right hand corner. A very useful widget - the only drawback is that it does take up the entire screen leaving no room for other widgets.

The Sense program launcher; this is activated by tapping the left hand bottom screen button on the main screen. Once in the launcher you have the primary screen itself which can be vertically swiped through. Each swipe moves a single screen of icons, instead of the continuous movement seen on the older Sense incarnations. At the bottom of the launcher are three mode indicators; the left showing you all icons, the centre star shaped icon takes you to a subset list of those icons you most commonly use, and the third icon serves to show you the applications that you have downloaded.

Needless to say the star icon becomes a great time saver as it allows you to locate those favourite or commonly used icons without scrolling through what can be a large number of screens - very handy as your use of the Rhyme continues.

The right hand bottom button on the main screen now takes you into one of the newly enhanced functions of Sense, and this facility allows you to really customise the look and feel of the machine, the same functionality can also be accessed by tapping and holding on a spare location on screen.

If a pinch is performed on the launcher screen this brings up an overview of the individual screens for fast access, but it can also be used to reorder the screens themselves as they can tapped, held and then dragged into new locations. Screens can also be deleted if they are no longer needed.

HTC continue to use their Sense enhanced dialler on the Rhyme. When the Phone application is first entered you are presented on the lower part of the screen with a finger friendly numeric dial pad which shows the numbers in black with the alpha equivalent shortcuts underneath. At the top of the screen the system creates shortcuts to contacts that you have recently been in communication with; the lower part of the list shows your regular contacts in alphabetic order. The list can be expanded and the dialler hidden by pressing the icon at the bottom left of the screen. If tapped again this serves to reinstate the dialler. Quick search is in effect so that typing the name of a contact on the dialler keys will filter the contacts list to the contacts whose name(s) match the alpha pattern of the keys tapped.

Tabs at the bottom of the screen give you access to:

Phone
People
Groups
Call History

If the menu key is pressed whilst at the dialler access is given to:

Speed Dial
Settings
Blocked Callers
Tips
Edit Tabs

As with previous HTC phones the Rhyme supports silent mode whereby flipping the machine upside down when a call comes in serves to mute the call. This can also be achieved by pressing the volume up (or down rocker) or the power button. Also supported is the Quiet Ring feature that automatically lowers the ring volume when you pick up the machine and Pocket Mode whereby it automatically detects if the phone is in your pocket and increases the volume of the ringer accordingly. The Speakerphone can also be engaged by placing the Rhyme face down during a call.

HTC Sense has also been used to replace the standard Android notification system and HTC have split the notification system into two parts; notifications present on by the left hand portion of the screen and a right hand section which contains commonly used quick settings such as toggling on and off regularly used functions like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS etc.

As the Rhyme starts to be used the upper portion of the notification system also shows the recent applications used in icon form which adds an additional way of quickly launching your often used applications.

HTC have added a number of other new widgets on the Rhyme:

Facebook Chat
Notes
HTC Shortcuts & Clock
Show Me
HTC Tasks
HTC Watch
Endomondo

with others being available to download directly from HTC within the 'add widget' application.

USAGE MONITOR

One useful application added to the Rhyme is a Usage Monitor application which operates in the background as you use your phone. Within the application are three tabs which allow you to flick between monitoring of:

Mobile Data
Minutes
Messages

Alas though you can only reset the counters or set an auto-zero date you can't set your particular individual limits as per data, minutes, messages etc. It does give you the opportunity to keep an eye on your usage though and it is certainly better than nothing at all!

CAMERA

With the Rhyme there are two applications shortcuts; the Camera for taking photographs and a Cam which is specifically used for recording videos. Both however link to the same core application, just operating in different modes:

Camera Controls available on screen are:

Zoom bar (digital zoom control)
Shake Detection indicator (only when shake is detected)
Photo / Video - Front / Main mode switch
Flash Button - on / off / Auto
Shutter Release
Effects Button - None / Distortion / Vignette / Depth of field / Dots / Vintage / Vintage warm / Vintage cold / Grayscale / Sepia / Negative / Solarize / Posterize / Aqua
Gallery Button
Scenes - Auto / portrait / Landscape / Action Burst / Panorama / Backlight HDR / Whiteboard / Close Up / Low Light

Tapping the Menu button brings up the following settings:

Self Timer - Off / 2 Seconds / 10 Seconds
Image Adjustments (all between -2 / +2): Exposure / Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness
White Balance - Auto / Incandescent / Florescent / Daylight / Cloudy
ISO - Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800
Resolution : 5M (2592x1552) / 3M (2048x1216) / 1M (1280x768) / Small (640x384)
Review duration - no review / 3 seconds / 5 second / No limit
Widescreen - resolution - 5:3 / 4:3 - on / off
Geo-tag photos - on / off
Auto-enhance - on / off
Auto-focus - on / off
Face Detection - on / off
Shutter sound - on / off
Grid - on / off
Auto-upload
Reset to default

Once a photograph has been taken the Review Screen offers:

Share
Set As
Delete

READER

Of course everyone needs a little downtime and the Rhyme provides that via video watching using the HTC Watch application (where you can rent or buy movies) or read for a while with the Reader eBook reading application. This utilises the popular ePub book format and any book located on your micro-SD card are added automatically to your library.

The Book Reader can be accessed handily by adding the 'My Shelf' widget to a free home screen page, whereby you will be presented with a list of imported eBooks. Once a book has been accessed and reading commencing that book will rise to the top of the list.

It should be noted that the widget appears to have a limit of around 20 eBooks if any more than that are found they are not shown within the widget. The good news is that if the Reader is loaded via the application icon then all books that are present on the SD card are shown within the library list.

The Reader itself works very well in that sideways finger glides allow swift navigation backwards and forwards between pages, and as expected the search key allows one to locate text within the book. The font size can be varied to suit the reader and if required bookmarks can be set. Needless to say the last read position is remembered when an eBook is re-entered.

The program also supports the purchase of eBooks via the Kobo book purchasing web site.

The only real critique of the application is that one cannot vary the margin sizes, the current margins set are acceptable but in an ideal world I'd be looking to reduce them to give more room to the main text of the book.

HTC Sync:

HTC supply the free to download HTC Sync application as PC companion software for all their Android phones including the Rhyme. Once installed this serves to allow the machine to connect to the PC via USB cable and synchronise content.

You can use HTC Sync to:

Sync your contacts between your Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and your phone.
Sync your calendar events between the Outlook or Windows Calendar and your phone.
Sync your photos, videos, documents, songs, and play lists (Media Player or iTunes) to your phone.
Easily import your captured photos and videos from your phone to your computer.
Store the same bookmarks on both your computer and phone's web browser.
Install third-party mobile phone apps (not downloaded from Android Market) from your computer.

ACCESSORIES

The review Rhyme was provided with:

'Charm' accessory
Slip case
micro-USB / PC / Sync cable
HTC Power adaptor
Docking station

The charm is intended for the ladies out there and is designed to plug into the headphone jack on the Rhyme. Once in place it can be configured via the 'Settings / Charm' control where it may be set to trigger on receipt of messages or incoming or missed calls. The Charm will glow with a rosy light to indicate the designated notification. The Charm is designed to allow you to store the Rhyme deep inside a handbag with the charm peeking out through the fastening whereby the cube can be allowed to glow and signal if needed.

Docking Station - this has to be one of the coolest accessories that HTC have ever developed for a phone. The Dock should be plugged into a micro-USB power source (PC or mains power via the adaptor), and then the Rhyme can be placed into it. Once in position those three copper contacts on the back of the Rhyme align with matching contacts within the dock. Once the connection is made the Rhyme automatically turns on the Bluetooth Radio and switches into Dock Mode.

Once Dock Mode is activated you can:

Use the Playback buttons to control music playback, tap the album cover to open your music library, or adjust the media volume
Tap the Clock widget to open the Clock application where you can set alarms or view the time in other cities
Tap the Weather information to open the Weather application and check the forecast
Tap the Photo Frame to view photos on your storage card as a slide show
Tap the icons at the bottom to open your defined applications

When playing back music the Dock acts as an enhanced speaker.

This is such a cool accessory - HTC should bring out similar systems for their other phones. As well as being functional it also serves to charge the Rhyme without it just being plugged in and say on the desk. Plus with there being no cables to unplug to un-dock the Rhyme you can just grab and go!

General Use:

The Rhyme has been used as my main phone and in constant use for around 2 weeks. During this time it has served and acted as my all-purpose device performing all manner of tasks: morning alarm clock, social networking tool, e-mail response device, eBook reader, star gazer, etc. During that time it has performed well and the only real critique is that the 1GHz processor may be a little slow compared to other phones on the market. However the large battery in conjunction with the WVGA screen and that slightly slower processor do give the Rhyme exceptional battery life!

Signal Strength and Voice Quality - The new 900mHz frequency in Manchester was used to obtain a HSPDA connection which was stable and solid, achieving 5 bars of connectivity at home and work. Phone call quality is excellent with no callers reporting any distortion in voice phone quality at all.

GPS - The phones has an embedded A-GPS system within to assist the navigation system in locating the satellites and gaining a fast GPS lock. The Rhyme obtained a 10/10 or 8/8 (variable) lock in 21 seconds, and maintained a 6/8 lock indoors.

Volume - HTC have ensured that the Rhyme has a loud well amplified speaker system so that alarm sounds are loud enough to wake one from slumber.

Internet - The Rhyme performed well on web browsing tasks. As an example the Engadget page loaded in 13 seconds, the BBC main UK site in 7 seconds. Flash animations that were used as check points played back without any issue. The WVGA display meant that all text was very small text but with 'tap to zoom' was clear to read. Added functionality is available in the browser whereby if you press on the screen to highlight text and then hold you gain a pop up offering you the options of 'Copy, Quick Lookup and Share' the Lookup option gives you the choice to research the phrase or word on Google Search, Wikipedia, YouTube Google Translate, or the Google Dictionary.

Applications:

The following Applications listed below are included on the Rhyme::

Adobe Reader
Calculator
Calendar
Call History
Camcorder
Camera
Clock
Connected Media
Dock Mode
Downloads
Dropbox
Endomondo
Facebook
FB Chat
Flash Player Settings
Flashlight
FM Radio
Friend Stream
Gallery
Gmail
Google Search
HTC Hub
HTC Likes
Internet
Latitude
Locations
Mail
Maps
Market
Messages
Mirror
Music
Navigation
News
News & Weather
Notes
O2
People
Phone
Places
Polaris Office
Quick Lookup
Reader
Settings
Setup
Show Me
Stocks
Talk
Task Manager
Tasks - links into Exchange and Google Tasks
Teeter
Transfer
Twitter
Usage Monitor
Voice Recorder
Voice Search
Watch
Weather
Wi-Fi Hotspot
YouTube

Conclusion:

I have to say that the Rhyme is a sweet device, giving good battery life, with a reasonably responsive interface and of course made easy to use by HTC's Sense enhancements. The styling and colour does appeal to the ladies that I've shown the device to although for myself I'd prefer it to be available in either a charcoal colouration or if I had to be adventurous in dark green. The revised version of the Sense home screen with the 'Shortcuts & Clock' widget works well for me. Battery life is incredibly good and one can easily get through the longest of working days with the power provided. The colouration itself does stop me using it as a regular device, but I do get tempted back to using it due to the docking system which is completely awesome. The 'charm' I have no need for myself but my good lady advises me that it is very useful for use with the Rhyme in the handbag and charm left outside - it does ensure that no calls are missed! So it may not quite be my perfect machine but it will certainly draw the eye and tastes of the ladies!

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

Good battery life
Massive amount of internal storage
Fast and smooth in operation
HTC Sense enhanced
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
Strong uni-body construction
720P video playback and recording
High speed Internet connectivity
Stylish modern design
viable noise cancellation system during phone calls
Sense enhanced notifications and reminders
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation
Bluetooth 3
HDR photographic mode
Action Burst photographic mode
Panorama photographic mode
Gorilla Glass screen
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Android 2.3.5
Sense 3.5
Included awesome docking station
Included 'charm' for notifications

Cons:

Non-removable battery
Pink colour may not appeal to male users
No 1080P video recording / playback

Example Photography:

The following two shots taken from the Rhymes camera on a wintry afternoon in December. The first is taken using default standard camera settings, and the second taking using the panorama mode (three shot combination).

Each of the photos are thumbnails onto original full sized pictures from the Rhyme with confidential EXIF data stripped out.

[All images in this review have been processed using Snagit by Techsmith]

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Sensation XL (O2)

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:04:11 +0000

Firstly our thanks to our friends at O2 who have given us the opportunity to review the HTC Sensation XL. The XL builds on the prior Sensation incarnations, the original machine and the Beats audio enhanced XE. With this new variant HTC have changed both the internals and externals of the machines design and in effect it is a new machine in its own right and not a part of the original Sensation family.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
HTC Code name: HTC Runnymede
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Sensation XL
Price: Varies depending on contract

HARDWARE

The construction uses the same architecture as that of the HTC Titan which uses the WindowsPhone operating system, and indeed one could state that this is the Android incarnation of the same machine.

One of the XL's biggest external changes from the other Sensation models is the screen, the 4.3" qHD (540 x 960) screen seen on the other machines has been replaced with a massive 4.7" WVGA (480 x 800) screen that is incredibly bright and clear. Even though it is not an AMOLED screen the colours are sharp and clear and the display noticeably brighter than that on the Sensation XE. The screen displays well in all variations of lighting, both artificial and natural light and readability is even retained in direct sunlight. Colour balance is good with whites appearing clean and crisp with blacks looking deep and truly black with no grey tints seen on displays of lesser quality.

The housing itself is of a different design to the rest of the Sensation range with the livery being predominantly white instead of black (and red on the XE), with silver being used to colour the back lit front facing buttons, the majority of the back cover and the physical control buttons. The curved screen is also gone with the front face of the XL being completely flat and smooth. The flat face is likely a design change made to help the operator slide the thumb across the touch sensitive screen as that screen is a large amount of real-estate to operate single handedly and any raised edges would only impair operation. Even though the XL appears large (it is 132.5mm tall by 70.7mm wide) this is mitigated by the rounded edges of the body and the somewhat minimal thickness of 9.9 mm. This allows the XL to feel relatively secure in the hand even though it can only be gripped comfortably by the back edge of the palm and the finger tips. One design improvement HTC could have made here is to make the back cover from a less slippery material - that swathe of silver may look good on the battery cover but even though it is a matte covering it is not conducive to maintaining a good grip. You will need to make sure you keep the XL gripped tightly at all times.

With front face of the XL being dominated by the screen it tends to somewhat submerge the other features found on the front of the machine, these being the front speaker, which again is covered by a fine metal mesh, and below it are the notification LED (masked by the housing plastic and invisible unless active), the HTC logo, the light sensor and finally the 1.3Mp front facing camera. Underneath the screen are the standard touch sensitive Android controls: Home, Menu, Back, and Find.

The notification LED shows:

Solid green light when HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio is connected to the power adapter or a computer and the battery is fully charged.
Flashing green light when you have a pending notification.
Solid orange light when the battery is being charged.
Flashing orange light when the battery level reaches very low.

The base of the XL contains only the unlock control for removing the back cover as well as the pinhole which gives sound access to the phones microphone. The left hand side holds only a micro-USB connector for either charging the machine or linking it to the PC. The right hand side contains the volume rocker control. Finally the top holds the wake / sleep (on / off) button, the 3.5mm jack socket for a headphone and another pin hole sized sensor used for ambient sound detection and noise cancellation.

If the power button is pressed and held the Power Options screen pops up giving you the choice of:

Power Off
Airplane Mode
Restart

The back of the XL holds the 8MPixel camera which has a F2.2 lens, dual LED flash and a BSI sensor, all designed to take photographs in all conditions including low light photography. The back cover surrounds the camera with a raised bezel which assists in protecting the camera lens as that is slightly inset within, and also allows an air gap between the desk and the rear speaker which is to the right of the camera. The lower white portion of the back cover sports the red Beats Audio logo which confirms that the device has been constructed in line with the partnership undertaken by HTC and Dr Dre.

Removal of the cover is accomplished by:

Securely hold the XL face downwards.
Press and hold the release latch at the base of the phone, and then slightly lift the back panel.
Gently pull the back cover away from the XL

Once the cover has been removed a fingernail can be inserted at the side of the battery which can then be withdrawn to allow the SIM card to be fitted into its silo.

Within the battery cover there are four copper contacts which mate with matching contacts in the housing, these are actually part of the antenna system and if the battery cover is removed you may get a signal but it will be a lot weaker than anticipated.

Internally the XL again differs from the other Sensation models with the processor now being a single core 1.5Ghz model instead of the dual core chip, internal storage memory has been bumped to to 16Gb, and RAM is 768Mb. Alas though there is no facility to use a mSD card so you are unable to expand the storage in any way. Wi-Fi now covers wireless N as well as the older B and G 802.11 protocols ensuring that the XL can connect to most networks. DLNA is of course present allow streaming on media to a TV or computer (the separate MLN adaptor is required). Bluetooth 3 is also included to allow inter-connection and linkage to most modern Bluetooth enabled accessories.

The 1600 mAh rechargeable Lithium-ion battery is user replaceable. HTC quote 410 / 710 minutes talk time dependant on WCDWA or GSM connectivity. My own usage of the machine which includes social networking, e-mail (3 x push accounts), eBook reading as well as occasional phone calls tend to leave me with around 34% of charge left at the end of the working day.

SOFTWARE

The XL has also been updated software wise and now sports Android 2.3.5 and Sense 3.5. The main changes are with the Sense engine which has been revamped and streamlined in a number of areas. These include:

Pressing the Home button still brings up the multi-screen leap view, but you can now use that to add (or delete) screens that are used within the navigation system.

The Quick Settings control within the Notifications Panel has been enhanced to allow the Wi-Fi controls to be accessed more easily. The > symbol on the screen allows these additional functions to be accessed.

Additional 'Accounts' can now be added including one for Evernote for HTC Sense', which allows you to synchronise your Evernote notes to the XL, which can be displayed in the HTC Notes widget. Similarly a Tango account can be configured for video calling via the pre-loaded Tango client.

A new HTC Tasks widget ties back into the Exchange (or Google Tasks) system to allow you to quickly interact with any defined tasks. This is the first time that task synchronisation has been supported on HTC Android phones.

The Weather widget has been updated to a new Accuweather driven version that includes forecasts for Now, Hourly, and 4-day weather views. The live displays include video and aural indications of the weather. Such indications are also seen on the main home screen when the device is unlocked.

The Messaging client has been enriched to support priority flags for indicating important messages.

Unwanted bottom screen Tabs, seen in some applications like Contacts, can now be tapped and held and then hidden.

The Personalise options have now been split into three sections; Add to Home (Widget, App, Shortcut, Folder), Display (Scene, Skin, Wallpaper, Lock Screen Style, Lock Screen Shortcuts) and Sound (Sound Set, Ringtone, Notification Sound, Alarm) which makes the configuration much smoother to adjust.

The camera application has been updated to include a focus indicator to show you where the focus point is, and includes a new shake detection indicator to warm of shaky grip. Facial recognition and focus adjust are also included. One big enhancement is the Panorama photographic mode whereby directional arrows and screen guides take you through taking a 'continuous' photo of a panorama where the final result is produced from stitching together all the recorded shots taken while in that mode. There is also a 'Backlight HDR' Scene available which disables flash and allows you to take HDR photographs. Finally the Action Burst mode allow you to take five successive shots of your subject.

The Gallery application has been enhanced to allow you to tag your Facebook and Flickr friends as well as allowing basic editing and the adding of post production effects. Video can also be cropped from the start and end of video recordings.

Lockscreen: HTC have again used the lockscreen first seen on the original Sensation it being a customisable interface designed for ease of use. The default lock screen that is in place on the Sensation XL consists of a blank screen which shows the current wallpaper and below this sit four rounded 'Quick Launch' icons for: Phone, Mail, Camera and Messages. Where applicable these icons also have number indicators for item counts such as unread new e-mail. Finally at the bottom of the screen is a half-buried silver ring that rises from the bottom of the screen, that sits on top of a converse silvered bar. To unlock the screen one can tap and hold on the half ring shape and drag it upwards onto the screen, it then follows the finger and becomes a full loop centered on the fingers touch. When the ring is released the device is unlocked. Cool enough as it is the system becomes even more impressive when one taps and holds one of the 'Quick Launch' icons as if any one of these are dragged and dropped over the buried ring it rises up to accept the dragged and dropped icon. Once the icon has been swallowed by the ring the Sensation XL unlocks and switches immediately to the application that was quick launched. This works impressively both with respect to functionality as well as eye candy. This launch method vies with Windows Phone 7 for quick camera launching and all applications launch very quickly indeed.

Finally HTC take the lockscreen system one step further as they offer various alternatives to the vanilla Wallpaper lockscreen. Alternatives provided are:

Wallpaper - See your wallpaper and open your favourite shortcuts
Weather - Displays a beautifully animated screen showing the current locational weather conditions
Friend Stream - Displays a screen of flying updates from the Sense social system and allow you to scroll through the latest entries
Stocks - Displays a screen of floating stock update information
Clock - Shows a large animated timepiece
Photo Album - Shows flying enlarging and shrinking images from a selected gallery album

Sense:

The personalise system allows you to change the screen with respect to the scene in use, the wallpaper displayed and the skin applied to the interface. It also allows you to add widgets, application icons, shortcuts and folders.

There are a goodly number of Scenes and Skins already pre-loaded along with the most popular HTC Widgets, however more of each type are made available by HTC and these can be downloaded via the HTC Hub application. To gain access to the additional skins, widgets etc you will be guided through a wizard which takes you through the steps of gaining an HTC Sense account (www.htcsense.com). As well as being a source for additional applications and widgets this gives you control of your Sensation XL remotely with respect to:

Setting call forwarding
Setting message forwarding (SMS and E-mail)
Playing a sound at full volume (to help you locate a misplaced phone)
Lock your device (remotely lock your device and present a custom message which you can personalize)

HTC have enhanced the Android widget configuration system. On most Android devices removal of a widget is achieved by tapping and holding it until it selects and then dropping it onto the rubbish bin which appears at the bottom of the screen. Sense has two bottom screen options; at the right hand side you still have the 'Remove' option, but on the right an 'Edit' option appears. If the widget is dragged over the edit icon the button glows green (if the icon supports editing), and if over the remove button that will glow red. The Edit function is used to change the function of a widget, for example the People widget can be edited to change the order of the contacts displayed, or the E-mail icon modified to use a different account as a data source.

The Sense enhancements are everywhere within the ROM on the Sensation XL and are even extended to the connection dialog screen presented when the machine is connected to the PC. This has now been revamped with the new Sense incarnation and is now primarily icon based. It offers you the choices of:

Charge Only - Charge the phone over USB
Disk Drive - Mount as a Disk Drive
HTC Sync - Sync contacts and Calendar
USB Tethering - Share phones mobile network with PC
Internet Pass through - Connect to the Internet via PC

HTC Sense - eBooks and HTC Watch

The Book Reader can be accessed handily by adding the 'My Shelf' widget to a free home screen page, whereby you will be presented with a list of imported eBooks. Once a book has been accessed and reading commencing that book will rise to the top of the list.

It should be noted that the widget appears to have a limit of around 20 eBooks; if any more than that are found they are not shown within the widget. The good news is that if the Reader is loaded via the application icon then all books that are present on the SD card are shown within the library list.

The Reader itself works very well in that sideways finger glides allow swift navigation backwards and forwards between pages, and as expected the search key allows one to locate text within the book. The font size can be varied to suit the reader and if required bookmarks can be set. Needless to say the last read position is remembered when an eBook is re-entered.

The program also supports the purchase of eBooks via Kobo (not surprisingly as it is based around the Kobo eBook reading engine) and Adobe.

The only real criticism of the application is that one cannot vary the margin sizes, the current margins set are acceptable but in an ideal world I'd be looking to reduce them to give more room to the main text of the book.

HTC Watch is one of HTCs new flagship applications designed and offered on newer HTC devices. It is comprised of a widget and main application, the former allows you to view films in your library and preview new releases. The application itself offers the same functionality as well as the option of signing up for a HTC Watch account (not the same as your HTC Sense account) associate a credit card with it and then purchase, or rent, and download premium content offered for sale by HTC.

A number of recent film and TV shows are available and these can be downloaded to your phone progressively using a Wi-Fi connection. The progressive download feature means that as soon as you have bought your video and the download has started you can watch right away while the download completes in the background.

Film and shows are available from prices varying from £1.49 for a TV show to £9.99 for a high status new movie. Some films can be rented for a lesser one-off price. HTC Watch purchases should be shareable across 5 HTC devices at one time.

Playback using the Watch player works well indeed; the widescreen qHD screen works wonderfully with the 16:9 format used for most common movie releases that is no black bars at the edges of the film. Playback is excellent and the definition pin sharp, as clear as a film played back on the iPhone 4. On screen controls allow you to pause a film and restart it, and there is a jog bar to allow you to navigate positionally within the film. If you exit a film part way through and then reload the application later the film does restart from the last watched position.

Sound quality when playing back a film through the speakers is good but improves significantly via the headphones especially if the SRS virtual sound system (not available via Bluetooth headset) or HTC 5.1 surround system is turned on.

The only annoyance with the system is that the library has no facility to import your own films into the system; it is for handling purchased content only. Movies stored in the internal memory can of course we watched using the media player within the Gallery application.

Launcher:

The Sense Launcher consists of seven launch screens with the central screen considered to be the home screen, all screens are pre-loaded with HTC widgets. These are:

HTC Weather
Mail (SMS)
Friend Stream (Twitter and Facebook interaction)
Weather Clock
Google Search / People
News
Tips

Audio:

The Sensation sported SRS virtual sound for use with the wired headphone. On the Sensation XL this has been replaced with 'Beats Audio' which works in conjunction with the provided headset. That is one of the major bonus aspects of the XL; it comes as standard with a pair of custom designed Beats headphones. These appear to be a slightly down-styled variant of the 'ibeats' headset which retails at around £79.99. The headset includes a multitude of differing ear buds so that they accommodate most ear sizes and shapes and the red cabling is thicker than usually found on headsets and designed to be self-untangling (which does work in most cases). The headset comes complete with a very nice snap-shut carrying case which is roomy enough to accommodate the headset itself as well as the ear buds.

Dialler:

HTC have based their dialler on the existing Sense engine used on previous phones and have enhanced and tailored it for the Sensation XL. When the Phone application is first entered you are presented on the lower part of the screen with a finger friendly numeric dial pad which shows the numbers in black with the alpha equivalent shortcuts underneath. At the top of the screen the system creates shortcuts to contacts that you have recently been in communication with; the lower part of the list shows your regular contacts in alphabetic order. The list can be expanded and the dialler hidden by pressing the icon at the bottom left of the screen. If tapped again this serves to reinstate the dialler. Quick search is in effect so that typing the name of a contact on the dialler keys will filter the contacts list to the contacts whose name(s) match the alpha pattern of the keys tapped.

If the menu key is pressed whilst at the dialler access is given to:

People
Call History
Speed Dial
Settings
Blocked Callers
Tips

The bottom right hand button serves to bring up the call history screen - on this there are icons which allow you to view; any contact groups which are present within your contacts as well as viewing a summary list of all contacts. The left hand icon immediately below the contacts list serves to activate the voice dial facility.

If the menu key is chosen whilst in the call history screen one is offered the choices of:

Add contact
View
Delete
Import/Export
Send Contacts
More - which leads to Blocked Callers and Linked Contacts

Email:

HTC have enriched their e-mail client with Sense 3 and offer a clear message inbox interface which can be used for viewing individual e-mail accounts or a combined inbox view showing what is new in all accounts. Each message in the list is shown in date order with the title of the message, the date received as well as a preview of the e-mails content. To the left of each message is a tick box area where a message can be ticked and selected for operation on a group basis, whether it is marking it as read or for deletion.

Underneath the message view are a number of tabs which allow one to switch through the various view modes which are:

All messages
Conversations
Favourites
Unread
Marked
Meeting invitations
Attachments

Camera:

With the XL there are two applications shortcuts; the Camera for taking photographs and a Cam which is specifically used for recording videos. Both however link to the same core application, just operating in different modes:

Camera Controls available on screen are:

Zoom bar (digital zoom control)
Shake Detection indicator (only when shake is detected)
Photo / Video - Front / Main mode switch
Flash Button - on / off / Auto
Shutter Release
Effects Button - None / Distortion / Vignette / Depth of field / Dots / Vintage / Vintage warm / Vintage cold / Grayscale / Sepia / Negative / Solarize / Posterize / Aqua
Gallery Button
Scenes - Auto / portrait / Landscape / Action Burst / Panorama / Backlight HDR / Whiteboard / Close Up / Low Light

Tapping the Menu button brings up the following settings:

Self Timer - Off / 2 Seconds / 10 Seconds
Image Adjustments (all between -2 / +2): Exposure / Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness
White Balance - Auto / Incandescent / Florescent / Daylight / Cloudy
ISO - Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800
Resolution : 8M (3264x1840) / 5M (2592x1456) / 3M (2048x1152) / 1M (1280x720) / Small (640x368)
Review duration - no review / 3 seconds / 5 second / No limit
Widescreen - resolution - 5:3 / 4:3 - on / off
Geo-tag photos - on / off
Auto-enhance - on / off
Auto-focus - on / off
Face Detection - on / off
Shutter sound - on / off
Grid - on / off
Auto-upload
Reset to default

Once a photograph has been taken the Review Screen offers:

Share
Enhance
Delete
Go to Gallery
Add Effects
Trim video

Weather:

HTC go for gold with respect to weather functionality on the Sensation XL, you have: the Weather Clock, live wallpaper, lockscreen, launcher animation and finally the weather application itself, this is launched either via its icon or by tapping on the weather portion of the Weather Clock.

When first opened the application runs through a background animation of the weather, the Live Wallpaper in fact, so you get a rich animated representation of the weather along with a few seconds of sound sample. While this is playing the top right portion of the screen shows the current weather conditions: temperature (current & min / max), general forecast, real feel temperature, along with humidity, winds, visibility and finally sunrise / sunset times. One can flick up and down the screen to change the weather location viewed. A number of global cities are loaded as a default (London, Taipei, Barcelona, Tokyo, Seattle, Paris) but you can easily replace these with your own up to a maximum of 16 locations.

The Menu button brings up the options of:

Refresh - refreshes the weather for all locations
Edit - Allows you to remove locations or re-order them
Add - Add a new locations
Demo - Demonstrates each different animation available
Settings - Update when opened toggle, Scheduled sync toggle, Update schedule (1, 3, 6, 12 hours or once a day), Temperature (Celsius / Fahrenheit), Sound Effects on / off toggle

Keyboard:

The XL uses a traditional QWERTY keyboard as the default input method with alternative Phone and Compact layouts available. Alternate number and special character keys are available via secondary alpha-numeric views of the keyboard as well as via tapping and holding on the regular keyboard. Full predictive text is available which works very well at interpreting and suggesting both corrections in spelling and the target word. For a native keyboard it is very good, fast and highly intelligent in its prediction.

Locations Navigation:

One big bonus built into the Sensation XL is that of the Locations system, accessible both via widget or directly via application shortcut. Locations allows you to search for places of interest, get directions to places you want to go to, and drive using turn-by-turn GPS navigation. This is based on free of charge map data, which covers many global regions, and has to be downloaded to your phone via Wi-Fi before the system can be used. The data is provided by TomTom and the navigation engine designed by Route 66.

The system uses your current location to look for places of interest (POIs), which are listed in order of distance, or allows a search for any establishment, street or city you may wish to locate. Once a destination has been located, if you so wish, you can invoke the 30 day trial of the Premium Navigation system and test out the turn-by-turn GPS navigation system. This has been tested briefly and on the journeys it was used on worked well.

The application has within it 'Footprints' system whereby you can take a geo-tagged photo of a location you wish to remember and store in in the Footprints list. The Footprint can be enhanced with description, notes and other personal information. The system uses .KMZ files and these are fully compatible with those used on the HTC Hero, HD2 (and other older HTC phones), this means that any old footprints you may have stored away can be imported into the current system and still used!

One useful feature is that the phone system has been merged into the application and Answer / End Call buttons appear while navigating to allow you to take the call without interrupting your journey.

Internet explorer

The XL performed well on web browsing tasks. As an example the Engadget page loaded in 10 seconds, the BBC main UK site in 5 seconds. Flash animations that were used as check points played back without any issue. The large display on the also meant that very small text was clear to read although somewhat pixelated.

Scrolling of pages is lightning fast and all the expected operations such as pinch-to-zoom worked well as did tap-to-zoom. The speed in browsing the web is smooth and speedy.

Added functionality is available in the browser whereby if you press on the screen to highlight text and then hold you gain a pop up offering you the options of 'Copy, Quick Lookup and Share' the Lookup option gives you the choice to research the phrase or word on Google Search, Wikipedia, YouTube Google Translate, or the Google Dictionary.

Extra Applications:

The Extra Applications listed below are included on the XL as extras loaded by HTC:

Adobe Reader
Dropbox
Facebook
FB Chat
Flashlight
FM Radio
Friend Stream
Gallery
HTC Hub
HTC Likes
Locations
Navigation
News
News & Weather
Notes
O2
Polaris Office
Reader
SoundHound
Stocks
Tango
Task Manager
Tasks
Teeter
Transfer
Usage Monitor
Voice Dialler
Voice Recorder
Watch
Weather
Wi-Fi Hotspot
YouTube

HTC Sync:

HTC supply the free to download HTC Sync application as PC companion software for all their Android phones including the Sensation XL. Once installed this serves to allow the Sensation XL to connect to the PC via USB cable and synchronise content.

You can use HTC Sync to:

Sync your contacts between your Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and your phone.
Sync your calendar events between the Outlook or Windows Calendar and your phone.
Sync your photos, videos, documents, songs, and play lists (Media Player or iTunes) to your phone.
Easily import your captured photos and videos from your phone to your computer.
Store the same bookmarks on both your computer and phone's web browser.
Install third-party mobile phone apps (not downloaded from Android Market) from your computer.

General Use:

The XL has been used as my main phone and in constant use for over 4 weeks. During this time it has served and acted as my all-purpose device performing all manner of tasks: morning alarm clock, social networking tool, e-mail response device, eBook reader, star gazer, etc. It has performed well with only a few niggles which I'm hoping will be addressed in the next ROM updates.

Signal Strength and Voice Quality - The new 900mHz frequency in Manchester was used to obtain a HSPDA connection which was stable and solid, achieving 5 bars of connectivity at home and work. Phone call quality is excellent with no callers reporting any distortion in voice phone quality at all.

GPS - The phones has an embedded A-GPS system within to assist the navigation system in locating the satellites and gaining a fast GPS lock. The Sensation XL obtained a 10/10 or 8/8 (variable) lock in 16 seconds, and maintained a 8/8 lock indoors.

Volume - HTC have ensured that the XL has a loud well amplified speaker system so that alarm sounds are loud enough to wake one from slumber. The raised / contoured back of the phone serve to hold the speaker clear of the desk and therefore avoid any problems of muffling.

Dropbox - One very nice added extra with the XL is that if you decide to use Dropbox and sign in with the pre-loaded Dropbox application you are awarded an additional 3Gb of additional bonus storage fort the next 12 months

Issues:

There is only one major issue that I've come across whilst using the machine and this concerns the synchronisation of appointments. I use the Office 365 variant of Exchange and that works without issues on all machines other than the XL. On the ROM in the XL HTC have a bug built in whereby all appointments, irrespective of their setting, sync onto the device with reminders set. Therefore be aware that you'll never miss any appointments on the XL!

The problem has been reported to HTC and no doubt in due time a fixed ROM will be available for the machine.

Conclusions:

The XL is a difficult machine to summarise as it has mixed advantages and disadvantages. The large screen is fantastic for data readability for such items like calendar viewing or eBook reading, but at times it does make the machine feel slightly too large and cumbersome. The WVGA screen although fast at movie playback and launcher transitions can look pixelated when examined closely. One would expect that the single core processor would be significantly slower than that of the XE but the machine actually seems to run about 15% faster than the XE, possibly due to that lower res screen requiring less CPU processing to drive it.

The battery is of adequate size to give reasonable life and you will survive throughout the working day. As always though with any modern powerful smartphone ensure you have plenty of chargers around if you plan on a lot of extended use.

However if media activities like movies watching, eBook reading or listening to music, with a high bass content, is what flips your lid then the XL is the machine for you!

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Large 4.7" WVGA (480 x 800) screen
Sense 3 enhanced for ease of use and glitz
768Mb internal RAM
Fast and smooth in operation
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Sense enhances notifications and reminders
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced USB functions
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA (wireless streaming to TV, etc) and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
720P video recording
720P video playback
8 megapixel camera with F2.2 lens, dual LED flash, and BSI sensor
Gorilla Glass screen
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Reasonable quality 8 megapixel camera with good colour balance
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation
Bonus Dropbox storage
Android 2.3.5
Sense 3.5
16Gb NAND internal storage (12.64 max free)
Bluetooth 3
Beats Audio enhances sound
HDR photographic mode
Action Burst photographic mode
Panorama photographic mode

Cons:

Large 4.7" WVGA (480 x 800) screen
Average battery life
Bug with appointment / reminder synchronisation
No additional storage via mSD card
No 1080P video recording / playback
WVGA screen

Example Photography:

The following two shots taken from the XL's camera on a wintry afternoon in December. The first is taken using default standard camera settings, and the second taking using the panorama mode (three shot combination).

Each of the photos are thumbnails onto original full sized pictures from the XL with confidential EXIF data stripped out..

[All images in this review have been processed using Snagit by Techsmith]

Attached Thumbnails

User Review: AKG 450 portable headphones

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:44:20 +0000

I have been looking for some high quality, lightweight, on-ear travel headphones to use on the train and on planes with my HTC Sensation.

The main requirements were a compact size for storage, comfort for long periods of wear and a closed back design to shut out background noise. I also looked for reasonably low impedance drivers which could easily be powered by the modest audio output from a Smartphone such as the Sensation.

I do have a pair of high quality in-ear monitors, the Sure E4c’s, but these can be hot and tiring to wear plugged into your ears for long periods. I also have a pair of Sennheiser PX-200’s on-ear phones which have done good service for a few years now.

The AKG 450’s interested me as they get good reviews, being What Hi-Fi magazines headphones of the year for 2011 and have recently had a major price reduction from a retail of over £100 down to around half that. I purchased mine from Richer Sounds for £49.50.

The AKG 450’s have a clever design that fold flat and in on themselves to create a smaller package for travelling and come with a small rigid carrying case for protection. They come supplied with both a short (60cm) and a long cable (110cm) and adapters for both 2.5mm jack plugs and the larger 6.3mm hi-fi plugs.

They are very comfortable on-ear for long periods and isolate you from the noise of the outside world quite well.

Like all headphones, the sound does mature once they have been used for 10 hours or more and i did deliberately leave them to “burn-in” connected to my home hi-fi for a full day before using them.

When it comes to evaluating the sound, i will try to keep it short and to the point, as hi-fi is such a subjective area.

Some people like headphone with large amounts of Bass, for dance music – this often comes at a price of masking finer details. Other people like very clear and detailed treble, which often comes at a price of having little or no bass which gives a thin, weedy sound.

I particularly like these AKG’s as the sound is somewhere between the two extremes, with a fairly full bass, but also a clear, detailed midrange and sweet treble. Music does sound “musical” with them. In the short time I have had them i find them good for a variety of music and, perhaps more importantly, they are physically and sonically comfortable for long periods. The Sensation is able to drive them easily to loud, undistorted volumes using no more than 75% volume.

I like these and think they would compliment any portable device well.

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC CR S490 Desktop Cradle for HTC Sensation / Sensation XE

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:59:17 +0000

Well for various reasons I've been wanting a desk cradle for the Sensation for a while, and noted that MobileFun has stock of the HTC CR S490 Desktop Cradle for HTC Sensation / Sensation XE so I decided to order one.

Very impressed so far, sits nicely on the desk and allows drop in charging with USB connection to the PC.

When in dock mode it displays:

Time
Next alarm due time
Weather (Location, max / min temps, current temp, current conditions) as well as the background showing the weather animation
Latest social media information.

and has shortcuts to:

Exit
Photoframe
Connected media
Calendar
Dimmer

Dock mode can be disabled of course which leaves you with sense. Annoyingly though Sense does not rotate to show any landscape version.

The button on the back allows the dock mode to be toggled on and off without touching the screen controls.

Attached Thumbnails

Review: HTC Sensation XE (O2)

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:17:48 +0000

Back in mid 2011 HTC released the Sensation, a new high specification Android device running a dual core processor and an awesome qHD screen. HTC have now built on the success of that model and brought to the market an enhanced model, the Sensation XE. This is aimed squarely at those users who enjoy using their device for audio or movie playback as the XE is the first fruit from the partnership that HTC have formed with Dr Dre of Beats Audio.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Sensation SE
Price: Varies depending on contract

The Sensation XE has been styled somewhat differently to the original model with the housing colouration enhanced with deep red highlights on the speaker grill and camera bezel with the final touch being that the control buttons are now red instead of white.

Physically the only other change is that the weight has increased from 148 grams to 151 grams, this is likely to be due to the change in the battery specification. The charge capacity has been increased from 1520 to 1730 mAh, giving (according to HTC) an increase in battery life from 500 minutes talk time to 550 minutes (GSM), 420 to 445 on WCDMA. Standby time is also reportedly increased from 285 hours to 310 hours GSM (525 hours to 540 hours WCDMA).

In our review of the original Sensation it was found that the battery reached critical charge levels after around 8 hours usage; with the Sensation XE (under the same usage conditions) the charge lasted a good 10-11 hours. It should be noted however that the battery life limits originally recorded were impacted greatly by Tweetdeck being allowed to refresh on the default interval of 15 minutes for each column. If this interval is eliminated by using manual refreshing then the battery life on both machines was greatly extended. On the XE the battery now lasts a good 18-20 hours before reaching critical charge levels.

This is good news as on the Sensation XE the Dual Core Processor (Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon processor) is no longer down-clocked to 1.2GHz as it was on the original machine, but is allowed to run at its full 1.5GHz capacity. However those users expecting a noticeable speed increase on the XE are likely to be disappointed, as running the Quadrant benchmark program over 16 cycles resulted in an average benchmark figure of 1699 compared to 1978 on the original model. After resetting the machine a number of times and repeating the benchmark the figure did increase to around the level of 2100-2028 but this is still no great speed increase. Alas in operation it is clear that while HTC Sense still offers a very usable interface to the user the graphical overhead does still greatly impact on the performance of the machine.

The other final internal change to the machine is again down to the partnership with Dr Dre. The Sensation sported SRS virtual sound for use with the wired headphone. On the Sensation XE this has been replaced with 'Beats Audio' which works in conjunction with the provided headset. That is one of the major bonus aspects of the XE; it comes as standard with a pair of custom designed Beats headsets. These appear to be a slightly down-styled variant of the 'ibeats' headset which retails at around £79.99. The headset includes a multitude of differing ear buds so that they accommodate most ear sizes and shapes and the red cabling is thicker than usually found on headsets and designed to be self untangling (which does work in most cases). The headset comes complete with a very nice snap-shut carrying case which is roomy enough to accommodate the headset itself as well as the ear buds.

When the headset is plugged into the XE its presence is automatically detected and the 'beats' logo pops up in the notification tray. If the tray is swiped downwards then you have the option of disabling the Beats Audio system if you so wish. There is a massive amount of difference listening to audio with the supplied headset and the Beats Audio drivers engaged - audio gains a tremendous boost with respect to both bass, depth and expansion of the sound. The sound difference is also very noticeable if watching a movie on the XE, the action becomes greatly enhanced as special effects gain depth and spacial clarity.

The Sensation XE continues the success of the original Sensation being well designed and constructed with a smooth Sense enhanced interface which should meet the needs of most users, from e-mail handling, connectivity, media, social network sharing, as well as less hectic activities such as reading a book or watching a movie.

The Sensation XE serves to build and enhance the Sensation design and if audio quality is something that matters to you then the XE model is the machine to go for!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Sense 3 enhanced for ease of use and glitz
Good amount of internal RAM
Smooth in operation
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Sense enhances notifications and reminders
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced USB functions
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
1080P video recording
1080P video playback
Dual Core processor
qHD screen
Gorilla Glass screen
DLNA for wireless streaming to TV, etc
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Reasonable quality 8 megapixel camera with good colour balance
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation
Beats Audio system for enhanced sound

Cons:

The boot loader is security locked preventing custom ROM installs
The Sense system does somewhat slow the performance of the system

Attached Thumbnails

REVIEW: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:27:20 +0000

Introduction

Sony Ericsson have produced a number of handsets over time, the most recent models focusing on Android as a software platform. We all know the Playstation, Sony's gaming console, which is now on its third iteration. Why am I mentioning the Playstation, well; Sony Ericsson have now released the Xperia Play, dubbed the Playstation phone.

How does the Xperia Play shape up? Read on to find out!!

Many thanks to Brando, Sony Ericsson's UK PR company for supplying the review unit on a long-term loan.

What's in the box?

Xperia Play
Charge Adapter
Sync/Charge Cable
In-Ear Headset

The Specifications

General

2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network: HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 / 800

Size

Dimensions: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
Weight: 175 g

Display

Type: LED-backlit LCD, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size: 480 x 854 pixels, 4.0 inches (~245 ppi pixel density)
- Touch sensitive gaming controls
- PSP like gaming buttons
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Multi-touch input method
- Timescape UI

Sound

Alert types: Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
3.5mm jack: Yes

Memory

Phonebook: Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records: Practically unlimited
Internal: 400 MB, 512 MB RAM
Card slot: microSD, up to 32GB, 8GB included

Data

GPRS: Yes
EDGE: Yes
3G: HSDPA, HSUPA
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port: No
USB: Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera

Primary: 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality
Features: Geo-tagging, image stabilization
Video: Yes, WVGA
Secondary: Yes

Features

OS: Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
CPU: 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon
Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser: WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio: No
Games: Yes + downloadable, motion & gesture gaming
Colors: Black, White, Stealth Blue (for Play 4G)
GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support
Java: Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
- Dedicated game store
- SNS integration
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- Digital compass
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk
- Track ID
- Organizer
- Document viewer/editor
- Flash Lite support
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input
Battery

Type: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
Stand-by: Up to 425 h (2G) / Up to 413 h (3G)
Talk time: Up to 8 h 25 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 25 min (3G)
Music play: Up to 31 h

The Aesthetics

In my opinion, the play is a very nice looking device. The design is very much of the black slab variety, clad in shiny black with metallic silver sides, it is pleasing to the eye. From a front view the device does look incredibly business-like in appearance, but as you may guess, there is more to this little beast than meets the eye.

Top

Looking at the top of the device, we are presented with only the power button to the right hand side.

Bottom

The bottom is completely spartan, there's nothing but a slot that you slip a fingernail into to remove the back of the device to insert your SIM & SD cards.

Left

Along the left hand edge of the play is the 3.5mm audio jack, used to connect a wired headset or other audio cable. This is followed up by the Micro-USB port, which as with most smartphones is used to both synchronise & charge the device.

Right

Moving to the right hand-side yields more interesting results on the Xperia Play. Here we find to large controller buttons marked L & R, left & right respectively. Those of you that have used either a playstation or an XBOX will recognise these as game control buttons. Neatly tucked in between the controller buttons is the volume up/down rocker switch.

Back

Moving from top to bottom on the back of the device, we find a small hole, the function of which I'm not sure at the moment. This is closely followed by an LED flash for the camera and then the camera lens itself. The only other features on the back are the product name range 'Xperia' and the Sony-Ericsson logo.

Front

Again, moving from top to bottom on the front of the device, we find a front facing camera. This is a great bonus as the Xperia Play is one of the handsets supported by Skype for Android at the current time. Moving down we have the Sony Ericsson company name followed by the rather gorgeous 4 inch screen. Below the screen we have something that I have praised before in other reviews, and that is physical buttons!! I do like a good physical button to press. As the device is Android, all the usual suspects are present; Back, Home, Menu & Search.

The Construction

The Xperia Play is heavier in the hand than say the Desire S, but you get used to this after handling it for a while. The device feels sturdy and well built. No squeaking or creaking in my handling tests.

As this is dubbed the Playstation Phone, the device should be capable of taking a great deal of repetitive handling. The slide mechanism was good and solid with a very reassuring action during the course of my review. There was no play at all whilst sliding out the control pad. I have had my grubby paws on the Play for around a month now, and it seems that Sony Ericsson have done an excellent job on the construction as it has easily survived living in my pocket for all that time. The slide is still as solid as when I received the device.

The Screen

As mentioned earlier, the screen is lovely, the picture doesn't really do it justice. The screen is one of the hardest things to convey in any device review. Larger than the Desire S and filling out the device with a very minimalist bezel to interfere with it, at 4 inches, it is both clear and bright. Response to the touch is good, as you would expect with a capacitive display. The screen is one of the best features of the Play.

The Keyboard

The on-screen keyboard itself is visually reminiscent of the iPhone keyboard, but alas, not the usability. The main issue I had was that I couldn't seem to get used to it, with the result being that I made plenty of mistakes. I also couldn't get the haptic feedback to work, which I'm fairly sure didn't help my accuracy. With that being said, it did grow on me a little, but not that much. Whilst my accuracy did improve with use, I couldn't really get to grips with it. I persevered with the keyboard, but in the end moved over to Swiftkey X, my Android keyboard of choice!!

The Camera

(click on images to enlarge)
The camera application perplexed me. I could find no way to to zoom on any pictures I took. I couldn't find any reference to zoom functions on the internet at all, so settled for zoom not being available. There is no physical camera button, I was surprised by how much I missed a physical button to press. Taking a picture on the play requires a tap of the on-screen button, at which point the Play will focus and take the snap.

Connectivity

The Xperia Play comes equipped with all the usual suspects in terms of radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & HSDPA on the data front. As mentioned in previous reviews, I don't get much of a 3G signal at home on my personal carrier of choice, O2, but that can equally said for Orange, Vodafone & T-Mobile as well. The Play excelled while I was on holiday in Spain & France, I got a good HSDPA signal and the mobile coverage in the areas I stayed was fantastic, which isn't bad considering the first week was spent half-way up a mountain on Olerdola, near Barcelona and the second in a remote traditional farmhouse converted into holiday apartments between Toulouse & Carcassone. GSM signal acquisition is excellent, the Play is the first phone that I have actually been able to use downstairs in my house and hold on to a call.

In fact, this portion of the review is being written in Evernote on my iPad using the Xperia Play's mobile hotspot functionality to provide access to my notes whilst travelling along a Spanish motorway en-route to France. Now that's cool & not to mention a good use of time; at this point I guess I should mention that I wasn't driving.

The Bluetooth seems pretty weak. I had issues with it connecting to my Bluetooth Stereo Speaker. This manifested itself as interrupted audio on playback, and the phone was with 2 feet of the speaker. I deleted the pairing, soft-reset the Play & tried again, definitely inconsistent results with Bluetooth that I haven't experienced on other phones.

The Battery

Day 1.

The Xperia Play was taken off charge at 07:40. My day followed the following pattern:

5 text messages send and 5 text messages received.
1 hour of podcast playback on the train into London.
Updating this note in Evernote, which was downloaded & installed over mobile data.
Multiple Facebook updates.
Foursquare check-ins.
Tweetdeck use.
Unusually, no calls at all!

The rest of the day came and went; at 22:15 the battery was showing 39% as I made my way back on the train to my resting place for the night.

More podcast playing

At 23:00 I checked the battery level again, which registered 36% after about 15mins of listening to podcasts. 45 minutes later the battery level was down to 30%. At 00:20, I was down to 26% and finally it was bedtime.

Day 2.

I realised at the start of day 2 that the phone had been delivered set to GSM only. So, in the interest of equality, I turned on 3G.

The Xperia Play was taken of charge at 09:45. My day followed the following pattern:

6 texts sent & received.
3 telephone calls, averaging around 10 mins each.
Multiple Facebook updates.
Multiple Foursquare check-ins.
Tweetdeck use.
Google+ Updates
2.5 hours of podcast playing in the car, without the phone being connected to power.
1 hours use of Wi-Fi in the morning and

When I arrived home at 21:00, the battery level was down to 18%

A few more texts

At 23:12, the battery was down to 16%.

All in all, I found the battery life to be very reasonable on the Xperia Play. It always lasted at least the day, which is good news when relying on a phone.

The UI

Sony Ericsson have once again layered their own UI on top of Android. Known as UXP, the UI differs from that on the X10 Mini Pro in that it does not have the four corners functionality for apps, in fact, UXP is quite minimal in its approach. It gives you the standard type home screen to load up your widgets, and with a launcher bar set at the bottom of the screen for your frequently used apps. There don't appear to be any configuration options for the launcher dock, so you are limited to 4 icons.

UXP has a nifty feature to allow the selection of your target home screen. Simply place two fingers on the screen & pinch them together, and this pops up a single screen of widgets from all your home screens bubbling around. Simply tap the widget you want and you are transported to the screen that hosts it. I found that this feature worked well allowing me to jump between screens rather than swiping based on widgets alone.

The Apps

As with most Android devices, the Play comes with a set of applications pre-installed. Many of the apps are common across Android devices, so in this part I'm going to focus on those not usually found elsewhere...

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a messaging application that I have seen in the past. Unusually, it ties itself to your phone number rather than an email address. I haven't used it extensively and for some reason I couldn't get past the screen for entering my name to enable the app to interact with those using the iPhone version....

Sync

Is a service provided by Sony Ericcson. I'll admit to not setting up an account. So I can't really comment on the application or its operation with the Sony Ericsson service.

YouTube

Even though Android supports Flash, I always find the YouTube application yields better results on videos, so I tend to stick to it when viewing any kind of Youtube media.

Playstation Pocket

I had to do a little digging on Playstation Pocket; the app itself didn't really tell me what it is about. Playstation Pocket is a front-end for acquiring Playstation 1 games for your device. Clicking the search icon brought up a list of games, clicking on one of those games took me directly to the Android Market in the Arcade & Action category. Most of the games seem to be priced at £3.99. As I was only reviewing the device, I decided not to purchase!!

News & Weather

News & Weather is an application that does exactly what it says on the tin by providing you with News & Weather. The app is laid out into a weather tab and for news tabs, Top Stories, UK, Sport & Entertainment. It was good to see the application pre-configured for the UK market. In settings there are further headins of World, Business, Sci/Tech & Health. Quite a good range. Tapping on any of the news item links jumped you out to the news website that provided the story. The news data seems to be harvested from a number of places, I couldn't tell what was being used as a stream source.

The weather location was picked automatically for me, I must have been nearer to Marham at the time, as the location now shows King's Lynn when I check the app. In the settings; you have the choice of both automatic location discovery and choosing your location manually.

Postcard

Postcard is an application that allows you to take any of your photos that are locally on the device and send it as a physical postcard to any address in the world. I decided to give it a try.. I picked a photo and went through the process to get a view of what the cost would be. At £1.49 I t decided it was cheap enough to try out. I must admit it was quick and painless to do. The proof will be in the postcard turning up at my house! We shall see, I ordered the postcard on the 29th August!! It duly turned up a couple of days later, and the quality was extremely good!!

OfficeSuite

The Xperia Play comes with limited productivity tools pre-installed. Office suite enables one to open Microsoft Work, Excel & Powerpoint and not to mention PDF files on the device, but open and view them is all it can do. You do not have the ability to edit any documents. Office suite rendered the documents I loaded on to the SD card very well, so definitely no issues with viewing office documents on the go. You can always opt to install another office compatible application set from the Android Market, my particular favourite is Documents to Go from DataViz.

Xperia Play

Xperia Play is the application loaded when you slide out the Play's game controller. It gives you access to both currently installed and further games to buy, essentially a central hub for your gameplay. You can of course load games individually from the app launcher screens. Tapping the More Games tab takes you to titles that are available & tapping any of the games can take you to the Android Market or other stores for games purchases. One of the games I tapped took me to Gameloft's store. I didn't actually purchase so cannot comment on the purchase process itself. Some games are direct purchase, whereas some games such as Dead Space allow you to download a free trial, which in my mind is a good thing.

Voice Search

Well, it's voice search. It works as well for me as any other Voice Search on any other device does. By that I mean not very well!

Media Server

Media Server does exactly what it says on the tin, it turns your Xperia Play into a mini Media Server. I duly turned on Media Server and went to the network area in Windows Explorer, sure enough, after a few seconds, R800i (Must be Sony Ericsson's internal name for the Play) appeared in the network connected Media Devices section... Double clicking on the icon loaded Windows Media Player and the R800i name appeared in the library list. Clicking on the device name then allowed me to view media files stored on the device. I found that I couldn't play them at first. But I soon discovered that there was a notification in the Android Notification pane asking me to approve my Laptop's access to the Media stored on the Play through the Media Server. Once that was done, I could play Music and view my pictures to my heart's content. One of the great things about Media Server is that I could also use the Media Extender capabilities of my XBOX to view the content on the device. I must admit, I was more than well impressed with this functionality, especially as the Play was connected to my network over Wi-Fi.

The quality of audio & video playback was very good. No stuttering or stopping at all.

Playstation Pocket

Similar to the Xperia Play application. Playstation Pocket offers up a selection of Playstation classics for your phone. Crash Bandicoot comes pre-installed and the application offers you a selection of other Playstation original games to purchase. Clicking on the links took me to the Android market. Once again, the fact that I wasn't keeping the device was a deciding factor in my not purchasing any titles, sorry readers!!

BBC iPlayer

I guess everyone knows about the BBC iPlayer. The Play comes with the Android version of the application installed. The app itself on Android seems a little less fluid than the iOS version, but the quality of playback on the Xperia Play's excellent screen is good. As you can see, I watched an episode of My Family.

Liveware Manager

Liveware Manager gives the ability to launch applications when certain types of accessory connect to the device. You can set an application to launch on the connection of a headset, headphones or the device charger. You can also set an application to launch connection of accessories via Bluetooth. I duly selected my favourite podcast application, Doggcatcher, to load on the connection of the Xperia Plays headset. Once done, I plugged the headset in and boom, Doggcatcher loaded without a hitch.

Timescape

The last time I used Timescape was on the Xperia X10 Mini Pro, at that point in time I suggested that the interface may be a little cluttered if you enabled all services. This appears to have been addressed on the Xperia Play. The Timescape app now allows you to cycle through your feeds individually, allowing you to take in a feed at a time. If you still want everything in one list, you can select that option as well. A timescape widget is included on the default home screen, although I could only see that it used the complete view, I couldn't find any way to select an individual feed. Tell a lie, I just discovered that the Widget uses the setting in the Timescape app, so if you select an individual feed there, the Widget will only show that feed on the homescreen.

I couldn't find any way to delete text messages via Timescape. To me, this is a bit of an omission, as it would have been very handy to be able to do that.

Software Update

Just I got near to the end of completing the text for my review, the Xperia Play notified me that there was an update available and ready for download. The update was available Over The Air, so I duly set it going and sat back to watch the TV. The update took about 20mins end to end. The download completed and the Play asked me if I wanted to install, I clicked on OK and the phone then rebooted. A status screen displayed the progress of the update, and when it completed the phone reboot again. The great thing about the update was that the current configuration and my installed applications all remained intact.

The update actually caused me more work, I noticed some UI changes and additional applications that appeared, I'll run through them now:

First thing to note was that a few application icons changed, along with the application names. The postcard application name changes to 'Touchnote', underneath, the application is exactly the same as it was previously.

Timescape Widget

The Timescape Widget that has graced my Homescreen on the Play has gotten a facelift. The rather clunky 'update network status' bar across the top has gone, being replaced by a collection of 3 interesting icons. The heart-monitoresque 1st icon takes you to the services menu, allowing you to configure Facebook, Twitter or search for Timescape extensions. On delving into the extensions, you are taken to the Android Market, where I discovered the extensions are provided by third-party developers as well as Sony Ericsson themselves. Notable extensions were Foursquare & LinkedIn, which I duly tried to install. Unfortunately I kept getting a shared-library error, something I couldn't resolve.

Bluetooth

As mentioned earlier in the review, I had issues with the Bluetooth audio connection to my external Bluetooth speaker. Since installing the update I'm pleased to report that those issues have completely disappeared. Now when I use the speaker, therre are no gaps or breaks in playback, which definitely reduces the annoyance factor when listening to a podcast whilst in the shower!! (What, you mean that not everybody does that?).

New Apps

The Xperia Play update installed some new apps! Read on for details;

Data Monitor

There isn't really much to say on this one. It is an application that monitors your data usage on the device. Good news that one is included by default, but there are plenty in the Android Market.

Friends & Music

This application interfaces with Facebook and lists out those Music & Videos shared by your Friends. Clicking on any of the entries shows you comments & likes, as well as letting you play the media itself. You can also post your comments directly from the app itself, without having to go to the Facebook application.

Neoreader

Neoreader is a barcode scanning application. Simply point the Play's camera at the barcode of your choice and the application allows you to search the internet based on the information decoded. I tried it out and it does work pretty well. Unfortunately I couldn't get a screenshot of the camera scan in action, as each time I tried to take one, the camera part just remained blank.

Music Unlimited

Initially a web-link, which opens a web page giving you information about the service itself and the option to download the Android application. You do need a subscription and the web page mentions both a basic & premium version via Qriocity. Both Qriocity & Playstation Network come under the Sony Online banner. A basic 30 day subscription costs £3.99. You can sign up for a free trial of the Premium service for 30 days. If you don't upgrade to a basic or premium subscription, you only get to listen to 30 seconds of any track that you may select.

Music can be playback through your account at http://music.qriocity.com or on the Android application on your device. The Android app supports streaming over both Wi-Fi & 3G. Unfortunately, unless you subscribe to a plan, you can't actually use the Android application!!

Xperia Hot Shots

Another link to an application in the Android Market. Installing the application was a straight forward as ever. The application itself follows selected tennis stars, strangely all women. You can view twitter posts, videos and game statistics for each player, as well as news, fans & videos. Fans mainly shows how many likes each player has on Facebook. I must admit, this application was not for me!

Get Games

Another type of gamestore application. Pretty similar to the Playstation Pocket & Xperia play applications. Selecting any of the games takes you to a website allowing the purchase and download of them. One good thing is that it does warn you about download costs should you decide to download games over the mobile data connection.

Update Center

The update center application just does exactly as its name suggests. It checks for phone software updates and I will assume that it offers you the options to install said update if there are any. I can't comment any further as the application appeared as part of the update, therefore I've not had a chance to test it as the phone software is now up to date.

The Gaming

As you may have guessed, the Xperia Play is sold as a gaming machine. How does it live up to that expectation..? For me, it did pretty well. But it should be noted that I could be classed as fair-weather as opposed to a hardcore gamer. My game of choice on the Xperia Play was Star Battalion, I do like the space shoot-em up type games, and Star Battalion offered a goodly playtime.

Gameplay on the Xperia Play is very good. The graphics are excellent & clear, easily equaling that of other platforms, although I must admit that I have never played a game on the iPhone 4's retina display, so cannot really make comment on a comparison there. In fact I was totally taken by how smoothly the games played. In the device I had I saw no lag at all whilst playing any of the games that were pre-installed on it.

On my review device, the following games were pre-installed:

Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior

FIFA 10

Star Battalion

The Sims 3

Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot is one of the games that was originally for the Playstation itself, and plays in the Playstation Emulator that is present on the Xperia Play, as can be seen below.

I also downloaded the trial for Deadspace, which I must say, was a thoroughly enjoyable platform based game.

All the games played out with the same fluidity, the keypad reacted well during gameplay, although I must confess to be absolutely hopeless on FIFA 10. I never could play those football games!! Well, in fact I was pretty hopeless at Bruce Lee Dragon Warrier and the Sims 3. I had a reasonable level of success on Crash Bandicoot and Star Battalion!

As a games machine, I was very impressed with the Play, as I mentioned, I'm not a hardcore gamer, but day to day when I had some time to kill, the Play proved most useful in filling those slots. The 'shoulder' buttons were slightly difficult to access, mainly because when open, the screen is still flush against the joypad, had there been a little elevation a la original Touch Pro II design, I think the access to the buttons would have been a lot easier.

Pro's & Con's

Pro's

Excellent screen
Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread
Battery life

Con's

Bulky (But you would know what you are buying with this phone!!)
Default On-Screen keyboard

Conclusion

Even though I'm not a fervent or hard-core gamer, I was very very impressed by the Xperia Play. Not just for the games but also in using it as my day-to-day device. Thanks to Brando, I had the Xperia Play on what I would call a long-term test. I have used the Play as my main personal phone for about a month now. It has been keeping me company day in day out, and in that role the Play has performed well and I have been happy to carry it with me.

The big selling point for me is the big screen, which on the Play is excellent. It's very clear, providing a great media playback & web-browsing experience. The UI is not intrusive and I didn't feel the need to load a replace launcher. In fact, I quite like UXP on the Play, it worked well for me.

I won't make any bones about it, the device is quite thick due to the inclusion of the Playstation controller keypad, the good thing was that I soon got used to the size and it was quite comfortable to just slip the Play in a pocket. I wouldn't say I played games on it all the time, but it was definitely handy in rare spare moments.

The Play performed flawlessly as a phone, the phone audio was nice and clear though the ear-piece, headphones & my in Car Bluetooth kit. The one thing I couldn't really get on with was the default on-screen keyboard, I tried to like it and I did persevere, but in the end I had to change it for a better keyboard. Once I had done that my keyboard experience improved remarkably.

Would I buy an Xperia Play, probably not, but only for the reason that I've already mentioned, I'm not an avid gamer, but it does make the Xperia Arc S appear as a very probable Android candidate for me!!

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User Review: TuneBelt Sport Armband for Larger Smartphones model AB83

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:55:28 +0000

As the title says, this item is a neoprene sports armband which holds Smartphones up to 5" long and 2.75" wide.

I ordered this off Amazon to be able to use my HTC Sensation at the Gym as my old Zen mp3 player has bitten the dust and it seems a bit mad to buy a new one just for this when i have PowerAMP installed on the Sensation.

The Sensation is a snug but easy fit in the armband and appears to be held very securely.

There is a thin flap at the top and access holes at the bottom for headphone leads and access to the power button . The armband itself is a comfortable fit and seems to be well made. I can confirm that the touch screen works well throught the clear plastic screen. Only slight snag is that the volume control buttons are hidden and require some groping about and a firm push therough the case - this isnt a problem for me as i have a volume control on my headphone lead.

Not a lot else i can say about it really !!

http://www.tunebelt.com/ab83#

Mike

EDIT: Here is a pic of it in action displaying some essential reading

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Mega Review: HTC Sensation V Samsung Galaxy SII

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:35:11 +0000

Recently two new 'super phones' have been unleashed into the marketplace on the Android platform and thanks to our good friends at O2 UK we've been given the chance to produce a head-to-head review of both machines. We are of course talking dual core here and that means the Sensation from HTC and the Galaxy SII from Samsung.

Both machines are dual core with embedded graphics processors on board but they are designed in different ways with respect to the hardware and seemingly the end user market. The Sensation uses a half-shell body design and appears at first glance to be a big brother to the Desire S. The Galaxy SII is constructed from plastic and follows on from the hardware first encountered in the original Galaxy S model.

As we move through the review we'll look in turn at the differences in hardware and the custom user interfaces employed by the manufacturers, looking at the positive and negatives of each machine. The aim being not to show which is the 'best in class' machine, but to enable you to make up your own mind as to which machine would suit you as a prospective owner.

Manufacturer: High Tech Computer (HTC)
HTC Code name: HTC Pyramid
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: HTC Sensation
Price: Varies depending on contract

Manufacturer: Samsung Electronics UK Ltd
HTC Code name: N/A
Supplier: Telefonica UK (O2 UK)
Product Name: Galaxy SII
Price: Varies depending on contract

Hardware

Screens

One of the most important interfaces on a modern Smartphone is that of the screen, and looking at these two machines there are significant differences. HTC have chosen to go with a traditional TFT screen. They have enhanced the display by using contoured glass so that the screen has a slight upward lip at the edges where it meets the surrounding housing; this gives a very good operational feel as the fingers are stroked across the screen. Samsung have used their new Super AMOLED Plus screen which offers vibrant and bright colours with good angles of view and supposedly significantly power savings. The SII's screen is of a more traditional type being a flat screen inset into the body housing. HTC have also upped the ante on resolution aiming to compete somewhat against the iPhone 4 with the Sensation having a 4.3" screen of 540 x 960 (qHD) resolution, whereas the SII uses a more traditional 4.3" 800 x 480 (WVGA) display. Both screens are protected by Gorilla Glass to give resistance to scratches and impact from third party objects.

The AMOLED screen of the SII is extremely vivid becuase of its good colour saturation and brightness; when the automatic brightness control is turned off is very usable at around the mid-way setting. The screen is perfectly readable in all conditions suffering only slightly in bright sunlight where the level may need to be increased. The only monor flaw of the screen is that white colours can look very slightly tinged towards cream in colour, but this is not usually noticeable unless comparing side to side with another display. Blacks as expected with an AMOLED display are completely black (as the LEDs are physically turned off) and this serves to merge the screen very well into the black of the housing and at times it's almost impossible to say where the edge of the screen lies. The AMOLED construction also gives a very wide viewing angle with the screen clear and visible with no colour distortion with angles as little as 10 degrees from the horizontal.

The TFT screen used on the Sensation is bright and clear with no over-spill from the backlight anywhere around the screen and is usable in all lighting conditions but it's not as vivid or highly coloured as the AMOLED screen used on the SII. It does however have a more natural colour balance and does not suffer from the false colouration that is usually the one fault with an AMOLED screen. It is not quite as readable in bright sunlight and on the SII it is recommended that one leaves the auto-brightness control turned on to allow the machine to manage the back lighting to suit the ambient conditions that the phone senses. In contrast to the SII's screen the colours are much more accurate with white looking very pure and natural compared to the cream colour noted on the SII although this is offset by black colours appearing as a very dark gray - a limitation of the TFT technology used.

Both screens are perfectly usable and the only noticeable operational flaw is when comparing them as eBook readers (FBReader application). The SII has a much more grained look to the background due in part to the lower resolution and also due to the more obvious 'sharpness' of the pixels in the screen. Photo viewing is also somewhat affected on the SII with colours looking over-vivid in some cases (bright blue sky for example) and the photograph looking like it is being viewed through a polarised lens or that is has been enhanced for dramatic effect. The greater resolution of the screen on the Sensation also gives an impression of clarity and sharpness previously only seen on the iPhone 4 display.

Front Face

Sensation:

The Sensation is smooth and sleek. This is carried over design-wise onto the front of the machine where HTC's designers have striven and succeeded to carry on the minimalist theme. The upper part of the device sports the speaker used for telephone calls with the front facing VGA camera located to the right hand side of the speaker. To the left of this is the green notification LED. The proximity sensor lies immediately to the left of the speaker grill.

The notification LED indicates:

Solid green light when the Sensation is connected to the power adapter (or a computer) and the battery is fully charged.
Flashing green light when you have a pending notification.
Solid orange light when the battery is being charged.
Flashing red light when the battery level reaches a very low level.

Below the screen are the usual 'standard' four white back lit touch sensitive controls. These are marked in the case in white lettering and are clearly visible in all lighting conditions:

Home
Menu
Back
Search

The Home button is dual-function it can either return you to the Home screen of the launcher or it tapped and held will bring up a list of recently used applications.

SII:

The front of the SII is completely flat with the surrounding bezel into which the screen fits being slightly raised on all edges and serves to clearly define the edges of the machine. Also raised above the surface is the slim rectangular lozenge of the speaker which is pierced with a goodly number of holes to allow sound to exit the machine. To the left of the speaker are the light sensor, proximity sensor and, on the far left, the front-facing camera. There is no notification LED on the SII unfortunately.

Below the screen is a central hardware button, again with a raised surround, which is the main 'Home' button which can also serve to turn the machine on. If the Home button is pressed and held it will open a list of recently used applications.

One useful feature (not used in this review to ensure commonality of reviewing styles) is that pressing and holding the Power key and Home key at the same time will take a screen shot which is saved in the MyFiles/ScreenCapture folder.

To the left and right of the 'Home' button are the ancillary control icons (Menu and Back) which are back lit when touched, but when not active are not marked in any way. They light when the screen is activated for around 2 seconds, after that they blank out into invisibility. This may be great in aiding to the sleek lines of the machine, but it can be somewhat inconvenient in locating the touch sensitive areas. Samsung have moved away from recommended Android design practices here and there is no control at all to activate the search function. This can be somewhat annoying as some applications do not have an easily accessible search option within the menu structure. If one taps and holds the Menu button the SII activates the Google web search engine, in my opinion it would have been much better if this had been used to bring forward the functionality of the missing search key.

General Construction

Sensation:

Minimalist is the styling concept that applies to the Sensation. The construction of the housing serves to give good protection to the internals but also aesthetically enhances the design; it also removes join lines usually found separating the two halves of the device. This, along with the matte coating on the aluminium, gives the impression of smoothness, with the only caveat being that one can almost feel the Sensation aching to slip out of the hand. The gently styled curves of the body housing make for a comfortable feel when it is in the hand and serve to reduce the size when held as there are no harsh or strong edges that the palm of the hand may sense.

SII:

'Slim' and 'lightweight' are the first impressions that come to mind when the SII is first held in the hand. Even with the battery in place the SII weighs in at a meagre 116 grams which is an incredibly light weight for such a modern phone. Alas the flip side of this is that the weight reduction is gained by reducing the quality of the materials used in the construction of the machine. Where on the Sensation you have aluminium on the SII you have plastic and some of that is not of very great thickness. The overall shape is also somewhat more blocky with the machine being a round cornered rectangle somewhat relieved by curves towards the back of the housing. The front face has a relatively hard curve around the edges and this makes it feel larger that it is when held in the hand and therefore somewhat uncomfortable to hold.

Left Hand Side

Sensation:

The left hand side of the Sensation holds only the volume rocker control and the micro-USB port.

SII:

The SII again has volume rocker control in addition to a piercing that allows a lanyard to be affixed to the phone.

Right Hand Side

Sensation:

The body is completely plain on the right hand side of the body with no control or purpose apart from giving you a surface to grip onto.

SII:

The right hand side of the SII contains only the lozenge shaped power button which protrudes slightly for ease of operation. If the power button is pressed and held the Phone Options button pops up offering:

Silent Mode
Data Network mode
Flight Mode
Power Off

Both: Alas neither of the machines carries a dedicated Camera hardware button which would be most welcome.

Rear, Battery Cover and Internals

Sensation:

The rear of the Sensation is sculpted from two colour plastic, similar to that used on the HTC Mozart; it proudly sports the HTC logo within the central black stripe. The upper and lower portions of the back are rubberised which ensures that the Sensation is both comfortable in the grip and is not slippery to hold, a worthy feature for such an expensive phone. In the upper portion of the body can be found the 8 megapixel HD capable camera with the twin LED flash located next to it. There are two very small holes (almost pin pricks) beneath the flash, and above the camera, I believe that these are noise cancellation sensors used to reduce background audio noise during a phone call.

To the right of the camera is the speaker which is protected my a thin foil mesh. The moulded camera bezel protrudes slightly upwards from the rest of the body housing. This ensures that the loudspeaker has clearance for the sound to emerge and that the camera lens does not sit flat on the desk so that the lens is not scratched.

At the very bottom of the cover is the pinhole which allows sound to enter the microphone.

Removal of the cover is accomplished by:

Securely hold Sensation face upwards.
Press and hold the release latch at the base of the phone, and then slightly lift the front panel.
Gently pull HTC Sensation out of the back cover.

This sounds a somewhat complex operation but once put into practice is quite simple to achieve as when the catch is released the inner core tends to naturally lift from the outer housing.

The cover itself is not a plain back piece or battery flap, as it encapsulates the sides of the machine so you almost feel as if you are withdrawing the internals and screen in a surgical operation.

Once the cover has been removed a fingernail can be inserted at the side of the battery which can then be withdrawn to allow the SIM card to be fitted into its silo. The mSD card used for storage can be put in place in its caddy without the battery being removed.

Within the battery cover there are three copper contacts which mate with matching contacts in the housing, these are actually part of the antenna system and if the battery cover is removed you may get a signal but it will be a lot weaker than anticipated.

The cover is replaced by sliding the upper edge of the body into the housing and then pressing it downwards in a hinge-like movement until the locking catch engages.

SII:

The rear housing of the SII is split into two main areas, the upper portion which comprises the battery cover (cross hatched in an attractive scallop pattern) and holds within it the camera moulding which in turn holds both the camera itself and to its immediate right the single LED flash. Once again the camera is HD capable. The lower portion of the battery cover sports the Samsung logo highlighted in silver.

Below the battery cover the body thickness increases somewhat and this thicker portion of the housing serves to hold twin slots for the speaker outlet as well as giving the room needed for the mUSB connection to mount internally. The internal antenna used for connecting to the outside world is also held within this portion of the machine.

The battery cover is removed by sliding a fingernail into a cut out in the cover (to the right hand side of the camera mount), and pulling gently. The multiple plastic friction clasps which hold the cover in place then break their locks and the cover peels away from the body.

The cover itself is constructed of very thin flimsy plastic, and care should be taken when removing it to ensure that none of the miniscule plastic clasps are damaged or broken. The thin nature of the cover means there is no room within the design to incorporate any rubberised features like on the Sensation and alas that means it is somewhat slippery in the grip. This taken together with the hard lines of the design means that it is not as comfortable in the hand and care should be taken to ensure you don't let the machine slip from your grasp whilst handling it.

Once the cover is removed the battery can be removed to install a mSD card which can be used to extend the massive internal memory. The SIM card can be slid into it's silo without the battery being removed.

The cover is replaced by placing it vertically down onto the back of the SII and then pressing it into position gently with multiple presses around the edges. This will engage all the locks in turn. Once in place the cover feels surprisingly sturdy.

Top Face

Sensation:

The top is of a clean design with the housing blooming outwards slightly to incorporate the 3.5mm jack plug for the headset, while further towards the right hand side is the power button. This is nicely placed so that it can be activated by the index finger (when held in the left hand). It is raised slightly from the body and does require a decent amount of pressure to activate the control - it may have been better if it was recessed to prevent accidental operation while in the pocket or gadget bag. However it's not an issue I've encountered so HTC may have the balance about right.

If the power button is pressed and held the Power Options screen pops up giving you the choice of:

Power Off
Airplane Mode
Restart

SII:

The top is strongly designed and only broken by the 3.5mm jack plug for the headset and the background noise sensor which sits to the immediate right of it.

Bottom Face

Sensation:

The base of the Sensation contains the unlock button and also holds the 'pin prick' hole which serves to give sound entry into the microphone.

SII:

The base of the SII keeps with traditional housing design and holds the micro-USB port which is mounted centrally, and to the right of this can be found the pin hole which acts as a microphone.

Size

Both the Sensation and the SII are machines with 4.3" screens and therefore require a larger body form factor to contain such massive pieces of glass. Both HTC and Samsung have worked hard to minimise what could be a cumbersome experience when working with the machines. HTC have continued to use their round edge styling most recently seen on the Desire S and this works well to improve confort while in the hand. Samsung have chosen to use light weight components and therefore produce a very slim form factor. Both methods work well and both machines are easy to use with the top portions of the screen easy to reach with the finger.

If one looks at the Sensation side-by-side with the Desire S it is indeed clear that the inspiration for the styling originated with that machine or the same designer at least.

When placed side by side with the Sensation the SII looks the larger device due to the more harsh lines used in its styling and this is even the case when compared to the HD7 (right image) so it shows how impressive the efforts of HTC's styling team are in reducing the apparent form factor of a machine.

Lockscreens

Both HTC and Samsung have moved away from the vanilla Android lock screen, with Samsung taking a very plain route in providing you with a basic plain full screen 'tile', which can be tapped and held and then slid away sideways to unlock the machine. This can also serve to show notifications (see section below).

HTC have once again re-engineered the lockscreen completely in Sense 3 creating a viable customisable interface designed for ease of use. The default lock screen that is in place on the Sensation consists of a blank screen which shows the current wallpaper and below this sit four rounded 'Quick Launch' icons for: Phone, Mail, Camera and Messages. Where applicable these icons also have number indicators for item counts such as unread new e-mail.

Finally at the bottom of the screen is a half-buried silver ring that rises from the bottom of the screen, that sits on top of a converse silvered bar.

To unlock the screen one can tap and hold on the half ring shape and drag it upwards onto the screen, it then follows the finger and becomes a full loop centered on the fingers touch. When the ring is released the device is unlocked. Cool enough as it is the system becomes even more impressive when one taps and holds one of the 'Quick Launch' icons as if any one of these are dragged and dropped over the buried ring it rises up to accept the dragged and dropped icon. Once the icon has been swallowed by the ring the Sensation unlocks and switches immediately to the application that was quick launched. This works impressively both with respect to functionality as well as eye candy. This launch method vies with Windows Phone 7 for quick camera launching and all applications launch very quickly indeed.

Finally HTC take the lockscreen system one step further as they offer various alternatives to the vanilla Wallpaper lockscreen. Alternatives provided are:

Wallpaper - See your wallpaper and open your favourite shortcuts
Weather - Displays a beautifully animated screen showing the current locational weather conditions
Friend Stream - Displays a screen of flying updates from the Sense social system and allow you to scroll through the latest entries
Stocks - Displays a screen of floating stock update information
Clock - Shows a large animated timepiece
Photo Album - Shows flying enlarging and shrinking images from a selected gallery album

The system has one more customisation that makes it even more useful. You can change the shortcuts which appear on the lockscreen - you can replace these with any application shortcut you choose to configure. For me this means that the shortcut to SMS is replaced with one to FBReader for easy access to my eBook reading!

The lockscreen system is nothing short of completely mind blowing, plus good looking and useful too.

Sense 3 V TouchWiz 4

Sensation and Sense:

The personalise system allows you to change the screen with respect to the scene in use, the wallpaper displayed and the skin applied to the interface. It also allows you to add widgets, application icons, shortcuts and folders.

There are a goodly number of Scenes and Skins already pre-loaded along with the most popular HTC Widgets, however more of each type are made available by HTC and these can be downloaded via the HTC Hub application. To gain access to the additional skins, widgets etc you will be guided through a wizard which takes you through the steps of gaining an HTC Sense account (www.htcsense.com). As well as being a source for additional applications and widgets this gives you control of your Sensation remotely with respect to:

Setting call forwarding
Setting message forwarding (SMS and E-mail)
Playing a sound at full volume (to help you locate a misplaced phone)
Lock your device (remotely lock your device and present a custom message which you can personalize)

Each skin and scene on offer can be scrolled through using the preview system which gives you a wonderfully clear idea of what the screen will look like when the previewed setting is applied. Once you have decided on your choice the entire Sense system in effect reloads with the new configuration in place, this takes around 3-4 seconds.

HTC have enhanced the Android widget configuration system. On most Android devices removal of a widget is achieved by tapping and holding it until it selects and then dropping it onto the rubbish bin which appears at the bottom of the screen. Sense has two bottom screen options; at the right hand side you still have the 'Remove' option, but on the right an 'Edit' option appears. If the widget is dragged over the edit icon the button glows green (if the icon supports editing), and if over the remove button that will glow red. The Edit function is used to change the function of a widget, for example the People widget can be edited to change the order of the contacts displayed, or the E-mail icon modified to use a different account as a data source.

The Sense enhancements are everywhere within the ROM on the Sensation and are even extended to the connection dialog screen presented when the machine is connected to the PC. This has now been revamped with the new Sense incarnation and is now primarily icon based. It offers you the choices of:

Charge Only - Charge the phone over USB
Disk Drive - Mount as a Disk Drive
HTC Sync - Sync contacts and Calendar
USB Tethering - Share phones mobile network with PC
Internet Pass through - Connect to the Internet via PC

One does gain the impression that a lot of the power of the machine is needed to generate the animations used throughout Sense and that these have been implemented at the expense of some speed, but you do gain a high class modern polished interface. The SII has much less animation and is closer in nature to native Android which means that here are less frills and glitz but a quicker response when transitioning screens etc. Stepping into myth one could say that the Sensation is has more of an Elven nature, full of light and grace whereas the SII is of Dwarven history, with a more raw powerful mein.

Samsung Hubs

As part of the premium experience on the Galaxy SII Samsung have created a number of Hubs.

Readers Hub

This comprises of a rather nicely designed opening page which details a book shelf split into News, Books and Newspapers. In effect this is a portal to three applications that Samsung have licensed for inclusion on the machine. The applications are in fact the Kobo book reader, PressReader Newspaper reader and Zinio magazine system. To access any of the media through each of the applications you will need to set up an account or a paid subscription.

Music Hub

This combines both Samsung's own music store portal as well as a music player. The good news is that the player supports playback of DRM music purchased through the store as well as any of your own media that you may have copied on to the phone.

Game Hub

Samsung are looking to keep the gamers out there happy with this inclusion. The Game Hub allows you to access a Premium HD game store where high quality games may be purchased that make use of the dual core processor and GPU within the SII and take advantage of the Super AMOLED Plus screen and the enhanced 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. Samsung also include within the ROM of the SII a number of fully viable social games; We Farm, Safari, We Rule, We City, etc.

Social Hub

According to Samsung this acts as a portal and common starting place for interacting with your contacts, calendar and e-mail along with social interaction such as Facebook and Twitter. In effect this is a basic launcher for the e-mail clients as well as acting as a system that pulls in feeds from the various services you have subscribed to. The experience of using it was somewhat glitchy with data refusing to load, server time outs, etc. It is hoped that Samsung improve it as time goes on!

HTC Sense eBooks and HTC Watch

The Book Reader can be accessed handily by adding the 'My Shelf' widget to a free home screen page, whereby you will be presented with a list of imported eBooks. Once a book has been accessed and reading commencing that book will rise to the top of the list.

It should be noted that the widget appears to have a limit of around 20 eBooks; if any more than that are found they are not shown within the widget. The good news is that if the Reader is loaded via the application icon then all books that are present on the SD card are shown within the library list.

The Reader itself works very well in that sideways finger glides allow swift navigation backwards and forwards between pages, and as expected the search key allows one to locate text within the book. The font size can be varied to suit the reader and if required bookmarks can be set. Needless to say the last read position is remembered when an eBook is re-entered.

The program also supports the purchase of eBooks via Kobo (not surprisingly as it is based around the Kobo eBook reading engine) and Adobe.

The only real critique of the application is that one cannot vary the margin sizes, the current margins set are acceptable but in an ideal world I'd be looking to reduce them to give more room to the main text of the book.

HTC Watch is one of HTCs new flagship applications designed and offered, at this time at least, only on the HTC Flyer and the HTC Sensation. It is comprised of a widget and main application, the former allows you to view films in your library and preview new releases. The application itself offers the same functionality as well as the option of signing up for a HTC Watch account (not the same as your HTC Sense account) associate a credit card with it and then purchase, or rent, and download premium content offered for sale by HTC.

A number of recent film and TV shows are available and these can be downloaded to your phone progressively using a Wi-Fi connection. The progressive download feature means that as soon as you have bought your video and the download has started you can watch right away while the download completes in the background.

Film and shows are available from prices varying from £1.49 for a TV show to £9.99 for a high status new movie. Some films can be rented for a lesser one-off price. HTC Watch purchases should be shareable across 5 HTC devices at one time.

Playback using the Watch player works well indeed; the widescreen qHD screen works wonderfully with the 16:9 format used for most common movie releases that is no black bars at the edges of the film. Playback is excellent and the definition pin sharp, as clear as a film played back on the iPhone 4. On screen controls allow you to pause a film and restart it, and there is a jog bar to allow you to navigate positionally within the film. If you exit a film part way through and then reload the application later the film does restart from the last watched position.

Sound quality when playing back a film through the speakers is good but improves significantly via the headphones especially if the SRS virtual sound system (not available via Bluetooth headset) or HTC 5.1 surround system is turned on.

The only annoyance with the system is that the library has no facility to import your own films into the system; it is for handling purchased content only. Movies storesd on MicroSD can of course we watched using the media player within the Gallery appliaction.

Launchers

Sensation:

The Sense Launcher consists of seven launch screens with the central screen considered to be the home screen, all screens are pre-loaded with HTC widgets. These are:

HTC Weather
Mail (SMS)
Friend Stream (Twitter and Facebook interaction)
Weather Clock
Google Search / People
News
Tips

The screens can be flicked between with a sideways movement of the finger and work in a round robin, that is when you get to the last screen it continues round back to the first screen in a continuous loop. In fact if one 'spins' the screens faster and faster they transition into a fast smoothly rotating carousel! Mind blowingly impressive fast smooth graphics that are both eye candy and useful as the rotation can be slowed with the touch of a finger to allow you to chose the page you wish to access.

As is probably expected from HTC the central screen that you meet when first accessing the Launcher contains the well known 'Weather Clock'. This has been used by HTC since they first started producing widgets. This shows the current location's time and below it the current weather. If the 'Weather Clock' is enabled and the Sensation turned on after the unlock process completes a weather background animation triggers which plays an overlay of the weather the entire screen. This is complete with sound effects and lasts for a few seconds and then fades away. For those who wish a more lasting weather experience HTC have designed a Live Wallpaper which can be used to have the weather on permanent display; as a screen background. This can however be somewhat annoying as it is complete with sound effects.

One enhancement that has been made is to the Sense program launcher; this is now activated by tapping the left hand bottom screen button on the main screen. Once in the launcher you have the primary screen itself which can be vertically swiped through. Each swipe moves a single screen of icons, instead of the continuous movement seen on the older Sense incarnations. At the bottom of the launcher are three mode indicators; the left showing you all icons, the centre star shaped icon takes you to a subset list of those icons you most commonly use, and the third icon serves to show you the applications that you have downloaded.

Needless to say the star icon becomes a great time saver as it allows you to locate those favourite or commonly used icons without scrolling through what can be a large number of screens - very handy as your use of the Sensation continues.

The right hand bottom button on the main screen now takes you into one of the newly enhanced functions of Sense, and this facility allows you to really customise the look and feel of the machine, the same functionality can also be accessed by tapping and holding on a spare location on screen.

If a pinch is performed on the launcher screen this brings up an overview of the individual screens for fast access, but it can also be used to reorder the screens themselves as they can tapped, held and then dragged into new locations.

SII:

The Samsung launcher again consists of seven screens which can be flipped through from left to right or right to left; unlike the Sensation there is no round robin on the screens and once screen seven is reached one must navigate to other screens either using the pinch gesture to bring up the Android screen selector, or tap on the numbered screen indicator to go directly to a specific screen.

At the bottom of the launcher are four common icons which remain in position irrespective of which screen is used. These are: Phone, Contacts, Messaging and Applications. The latter button serves to launch the TouchWiz application launcher. When launched the application launcher appears in place the widget area of the screen and you are now presented with pages and pages of all installed icons, again the screens and labelled with numbered position indicators, but this time a round robin is in place, swiping to the left (next page) on the last page does now flick you to the first page. A slight lack of consistency here. Once again the pinch gesture can be used to move directly to any of the specific icon screens.

When at the main gadget holding launch pages one can tap and hold on the screen to add widgets, move icons etc as standard on Android but the system on the SII is a custom variant designed by Samsung. This brings up a reduced size image of the launcher screen with icons for Widgets, Shortcuts, Folders, and Wallpapers below it. These can be selected to choose the appropriate icon to put in place, and with respect to folders opens up a sub-menu allowing various pre-configured folders to be used (contacts with phone numbers, received from Bluetooth, Starred Contacts, Recent Documents, All Contacts, or Polaris Office Recent) or the basic empty folder which you can then fill with your choice of applications.

One other oddity that is specifically supported on the SII is that when a widget or icon is tapped and held it brightens and the screen behind it goes dim, this shows that the SII is in 'move mode', when this is engaged movement made by tilting the SII serves to scroll the screens behind the selected item so that it therefore serves as a method for moving the icon to a new position or screen. It's a strange system to use but works very effectively.

Some Samsung supplied widgets are enhanced (Weather, Time, Mini-Paper, AP Mobile, Photo Album, Finance) in that when they are tapped and held a yellow grid appears behind them. Once this is on screen you can drag the widget until it lock into position on the grid, this means that those widgets can have their sizes varied within the limits of the grid. Some widgets like Accuweather vary the amount and nature of the content displayed dependant on the widget size chosen.

It is noted that where HTC have made great effort to style their icons into a similar house style those offered by Samsung appear to be enhanced variants from different developers, there is no harmonisation or house style at all.

Diallers and Calls

Both HTC and Samsung have chosen to replace the standard Android phone diallers with custom dial engines of their own.

Sensation:

HTC have based their dialler on the existing Sense engine used on previous phones and have enhanced and tailored it for the Sensation. When the Phone application is first entered you are presented on the lower part of the screen with a finger friendly numeric dial pad which shows the numbers in black with the alpha equivalent shortcuts underneath. At the top of the screen the system creates shortcuts to contacts that you have recently been in communication with; the lower part of the list shows your regular contacts in alphabetic order. The list can be expanded and the dialler hidden by pressing the icon at the bottom left of the screen. If tapped again this serves to reinstate the dialler. Quick search is in effect so that typing the name of a contact on the dialler keys will filter the contacts list to the contacts whose name(s) match the alpha pattern of the keys tapped.

If the menu key is pressed whilst at the dialler access is given to:

People
Call History
Speed Dial
Settings
Blocked Callers
Tips

Add contact
View
Delete
Import/Export
Send Contacts
More - which leads to Blocked Callers and Linked Contacts

The View Command allows you to filter which contacts are shown (Google, Twitter, Exchange, Facebook, and SIM) which gives you great flexibility over which contacts the dialler will work with.

All in all a very flexible and controllable communications interface. As with previous HTC phones the Sensation supports silent mode whereby flipping the Sensation upside down when a call comes in serves to mute the call. This can also be achieved by pressing the volume up (or down rocker) or the power button. Also supported is the Quiet Ring feature that automatically lowers the ring volume when you pick up the machine and Pocket Mode whereby it automatically detects if the phone is in your pocket and increases the volume of the ringer accordingly. The Speakerphone can also be engaged by placing the Sensation face down during a call.

SII:

On the SII Samsung have chosen to offer the user a bright and bold and somewhat simpler telecommunications interface. The screen consists of a very large dial keypad again as with the Sensation this sports large number keys with alpha key sub functions and the pad does support the use of the alpha keys to carry out a contacts search.

At the top of the screen you are presented with four tabs which control the operating mode, these are:

Keypad - the main dial screen
Logs - a list of recent calls
Contacts - searchable contacts list
Favourites - Contacts listed and specified as favourites

Menu options at the keypad tab are:

Speed dial settings
Send Message
Add 2 sec pause
Add wait

Menu options at the Logs tab are:

View By (Missed calls, Dialled calls, Received Calls, Rejected calls, Sent Messages, Received Messages)
Delete (one or more entries from the list)
Show call duration

Menu options at the Contacts tab are:

Delete
My Profile
Sync Contacts
Merge with Google
Import / Export
More (View Friend, Accounts, Speed Dial Settings, Send E-mail, Send Message, Display Options, Settings)

Menu options at the Contacts tab are:

Add to Favourites
Remove
Grid View
Frequent First / Favourites toggle

As you can probably guess this interface is also called up when hitting the Contacts icon on the main Launcher screen, so the dialler is not single function but a combined dialler / contacts application.

On both phones you are presented with a custom interface to interact with when an incoming call is received. The Sensation as well as showing the photo ID of the caller will also display their latest social activity, and if within seven days of the event a reminder that their birthday is imminent. On the Sensation the 'Ring' returns yet again whereby you drag an 'Accept' or 'Decline' icon into the ring to make your action choice concerning the incoming call.

On the SII you are offered a large blue or red square which is tapped and dragged in the direction of the indicated arrow to allow you to make your decision. Samsung also offer the possibility of declining a call via a slide up tab at the bottom of the screen. The Sensation has no icon for declining a call; instead you press the Power button twice to reject an incoming call.

Both interfaces handle missed calls the Sensation shows a large missed call notification icon containing the photo ID of the caller, the SII in comparison shows a red icon on the lock screen which when activated takes you to the dial history log.

E-mail

One of the prime functions of any modern smartphone is that of handling E-mail and both the Sensation and the SII excel with both of them supporting all flavours of E-mail; Exchange, POP3, G-Mail, Livemail and IMAP. As the operating system used on the phones is Android 2.3.x based the facility is there to handle multiple Exchange accounts - both home and work e-mail can be accessed with ease. Timed push e-mail support is included whereby push times can be varied per account, so for example e-mail for a work account can be on a push basis during working hours, and manual checking made the rest of the time.

Sensation:

HTC have enriched their e-mail client with Sense 3 and offer a clear message inbox interface which can be used for viewing individual e-mail accounts or a combined inbox view showing what is new in all accounts. Each message in the list is shown in date order with the title of the message, the date received as well as a preview of the e-mails content. To the left of each message is a tick box area where a message can be ticked and selected for operation on a group basis, whether it is marking it as read or for deletion.

Underneath the message view are a number of tabs which allow one to switch through the various view modes which are:

All messages
Conversations
Favourites
Unread
Marked
Meeting invitations
Attachments

The Conversation view is particularly useful for reducing clutter on large inboxes. The views can be resorted by Date, Priority, Subject, Sender or Size (in either order) and options within the menu structure allow the access of less used features such as Out of Office or Meeting requests.

SII:

Samsung have created their own unique e-mail client with some more unusual features. The interface is in a blue and grey livery and shows either individual or combined inbox views. Individual messages in the view show; the message subject, the author and the date stamp but no preview of message content. Each days messages are separated by an arrowed split bar which allows you to fold away individual days and focus on a particular day. The sort order can be changed to operate based on; date, sender, read/unread, priority, and flag. The split bar changes the grouping based on that sort - useful. The view mode itself can be changed to work on a pure list or on a conversation view.

There are no markers for multiple message selection, but at least if one chooses the menu option to delete messages then a multi-message selection option does become available. However if you wish to mark a group of messages as read or unread then this is not possible to be done on a group basis - the status has to be changed message by message on an individual basis - this needs to be addressed.

One quirky and somewhat useful feature of the Inbox is that if the SII is rotated into Landscape view then the screen rotates sideways into a split view with the message list on the left and a preview of the selected e-mail on the right hand side.

Camera Interface and Settings

Both phones sport an 8 megapixel camera with HD video recording capability. As usual with smartphones the viewfinder for monitoring prospective compositions takes advantage of the large screens offering a composure window surrounded by icons and controls for changing the settings. The control icons on both phones revolve as the phones are rotated through portrait and landscape orientations so that they are always upright ensuring their operational function is always clear and visible.

Sensation:

With the Sensation there are two applications shortcuts; the Camera for taking photographs and a Cam which is specifically used for recording videos. Both however link to the same core application, just operating in different modes:

Camera Controls available on screen are:

Zoom bar (digital zoom control)
Camera toggle - main / front facing
Shake Detection indicator (only when shake is detected)
Photo / Video mode switch
Flash Button - on / off / Auto
Shutter Release
Effects Button - None / Distortion / Vignette / Depth of field / Dots / Vintage / Vintage warm / Vintage cold / Grayscale / Sepia / #Negative / Solarize / Aqua
Gallery Button

Tapping the Menu button brings up the following settings:

Self Timer - Off / 2 Seconds / 10 Seconds
Scenes - Auto / Portrait / Landscape / Action / Close up / Backlight / Beach / Snow / Candlelight / Lowlight
Image Adjustments (all between -2 / +2): Exposure / Contrast / Saturation / Sharpness
White Balance - Auto / Incandescent / Florescent / Daylight / Cloudy
ISO - Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800
Resolution : 8M (3264x1840) / 5M (2592x1456) / 3M (2048x1152) / 1M (1280x720) / Small (640x368)
Review duration - no review / 3 seconds / 5 second / No limit
Widescreen - resolution - 16:9 - on / off
Geo-tag photos - on / off
Auto-enhance - on / off
Auto-focus - on / off
Face Detection - on / off
Shutter sound - on / off
Grid - on / off
Reset to default

SII:

The SII has one camera application which is dual purpose and serves for recording still photographs and capturing live video.

Camera Controls available on screen are:

Settings
Flash - off / on / auto
Camera toggle - main / front facing
Capture button
Mode slider - Camera / Camcorder
Indicator - displays number of photos you can take depending on free storage and the storage location used (internal or card)

Camcorder Controls available on screen are:

Recording Mode - Normal / Limit for MMS / Self Recording
Flash - off / on
Mode slider - Camera / Camcorder

Within the Camera settings you can vary:

Self Shot - on / off (toggles the cameras)
Flash mode (as above)
Shooting Mode - Single shot / Smile shot / Beauty / Panorama / Action / Cartoon
Scene - None / Portrait / Landscape / Night / Sports / Party_Indoor / Beach_Snow / Sunset / Dawn / Fall colour / Firework / Text / Candlelight / Backlight
Exposure Value - variable between -2.0 to +2.0
Focus Mode - Auto / Macro / Face Detection
Timer - Off / 2 sec / 5 sec / 10 sec
Effects - None / Negative / Greyscale / Sepia
Resolution - 3264x2448 / 3264x1968 / 2048x1536 / 2048x1232 / 800x480 / 640x480
White Balance - Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Incandescent / Florescent
ISO - Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800
Metering - Centre-weighted / Spot / Matrix
Outdoor Visibility - Off / On
Anti-Shake - Off / On
Auto-contrast - Off / On
Blink Detection - Off / On
Guidelines - Off / On
Review - Off / On
Image Quality - Superfine / Fine / Normal
GPS tag - Off / On
Reset

Within the Camcorder settings you can vary:

Flash mode (as above)
Recording Mode - Normal / Limit for MMS / Self Recording
Exposure Value - variable between -2.0 to +2.0
Timer - Off / 2 sec / 5 sec / 10 sec
Effects - None / Negative / Greyscale / Sepia
Resolution - 1920x1080 / 1280x720 / 720x480 / 640x480 / 320x240 / 176x144
White Balance - Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Incandescent / Florescent
Outdoor Visibility - Off / On
Video Quality - Superfine / Fine / Normal
Guidelines - Off / On
Review - Off / On
Reset

Both cameras tend to use a lot of battery power when in operation. If left on screen the SII's camera will exit after 30 seconds or so, similarly the Sensation's camera goes to sleep and asks that you tap the screen to awaken it.

Camera Photograph Examples

(Note: Each of the below is a large thumbnail which may be clicked on to load an original non-reduced size image).

The following example camera images were taken during a sunny day, early evening, on June 3rd 2011. All photos were taken using the default settings from the cameras with no manual corrections made at all. With the Margarites the phones were moved closer to the subject to investigate the macro and close focusing of the respective cameras.

The example shots on the left hand side of the screen are wide screen images taken using the Sensation, and those on the right were taken using the standard orientation camera on the Galaxy SII.

As can be seen in the photographs; the compositions taken with the Sensation show a more accurate colour balance and better represent the subject matter. The images taken with the SII are somewhat wayward in colour balance and tend to be over vivid. The SII also tended to overexpose (such as the blue sky) indicating the metering is not as accurate. It looks to be more centre-weighted rather than an average weighting (or matrix mode) and that area of the photograph tends to have no detail because of burn-out through overexposure. The Sensation's auto-macro mode also seemed much better than that of the SII as it was able to get closer to the subject without losing focus.

The SII does have the ability to change the metering from Spot, through Centre-weighted to Matrix mode and it also has an exposure compensation setting for +/- 2 stops. Lastly it has 14 scene modes (e.g., None, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Sports, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dawn, Fall Colour, Firework, Text, Candlelight and Back light) so, in theory, you should be able to get a decent picture out from the camera, you just need to be well acquainted with the settings in order to do so.

Amazing as it seems the pictures taken with the Sensation proved to be the clearer and more balanced with respect to colour so at long last it looks like HTC are starting to address their Achilles heel - that of camera performance. The photographs are still no match for a dedicated camera but they are now stating to approach an acceptable level.

It should be noted that as a default the Sensation geo-tagged each photograph whilst the SII did not incorporate GPS data within the photograph's Meta data.

When taking the photos both cameras were allowed to auto-focus and adjust their settings automatically. Both phones continually use auto-focus to ensure that the photo to be taken can be snapped as quickly as possible. The Sensation has a very slight edge in focus adjustment speed over the SII.

Camera Video Examples

The example videos were shot with the default HD recording mode for each machine. The only change to the default video recording was to increase the recording setting to 1920 x 1080.

Interestingly enough the Sensation recorded the video in 3gp format whereas the SII used mp4 as a default recording medium. As you can see from the example videos (which were shot in a local garden centre) the SII's video recording suffers the same flaws as encountered when taking still shots, that is; wayward and over vivid colour balance.

HTC Sensation HD Demo Video:

3GPP Audio/Video (.3gp)
1920 x 1088
Data Rate 10557kbps
29 frames/sec
Audio 127kbps @ 44kHz stereo

Samsung Galaxy SII Demo Video:

MP4 Video (.mp4)
1920 x 1088
Data Rate 17659kbps
30 frames/sec
Audio 60kbps @ 16kHz mono

Both phones have the capability to play back the HD videos recorded on each device natively. The SII plays back the video via the Videos application supplied on the machine and playback is flawless and smooth. The Sensation is not provided with any special application and playback is via the Gallery program and this unfortunately gives a slight flicker to the playback. If the same video is played back using the Act One video player the flickering is removed although there is a feeling that frames are being skipped. The choppiness shown in the video may be down to the panning style used to record the video. It is noted that whilst the two cameras use differing storage types (3gp and mp4) these are both M-PEG4 formats and widely supported.

One useful feature of the Sensations video recording is that auto-focus is disabled which means that the phone is not constantly trying to refocus while recording which can cause zoom in / zoom in out video blurs. To set the focus one simply uses the 'tap to focus' system whereby you tap the screen before commencing the recording and the Sensation then uses that as the focal point.

Where the SII does score over the Sensation is in video editing on the phone. Samsung have included their Video Maker application and this allows you to edit videos of 720p and lower (no 1080p editing). The application allows you to choose a theme for your project from six available (Conference, Home, Movie, Party, Stage and Travel) or you can start with a blank theme and move on from there and these allow you to vary the background sound as well as the framing of the film. The application is versatile and includes a time strip. Both still photos as well as videos can be placed into the final production with various fades and transitions available. As a final step background music can be added as a separate track to the audio recorded in the movie. Finally the finished product can be exported as an MP4 file and saved into the Video Maker folder.

In comparison the Sensations editor, which is integrated into the Gallery application, supports only trimming of the start and end of the video. This is clearly designed for removing unwanted parts of the film prior to sharing on social networks.

Visible Notifications - Drawer

Sensation:

HTC Sense has been used to replace the standard Android notification system and HTC have cunningly split the notification system into two parts; notifications on the left hand portion of the screen and a right hand section which contains commonly used quick settings. These include toggling on and off functions such as: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and viewing memory used etc.

As the Sensation starts to be used the upper portion of the notification system shows the recent applications used in icon form; which adds an additional way of quickly launching your often used applications.

SII:

In contrast to the enhanced Sense 3 notification system on the Sensation the system used on the SII is very much vanilla Android. The exception is that it is coloured in a rather attractive slate green colour and has toggle controls at the top of the screen that allow you to toggle on and off communication features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sound and Screen auto-rotation.

Visible Notifications - Alarms and Appointments

Sensation:

With Alarms and Appointments displays HTC have again brought Sense 3 to the fore and use the 'Ring' interface on the lock screen to great benefit giving a somewhat standardised interface for you to interact with. One simply selects the relevant 'Snooze' or 'Dismiss' icon and drags it into the ring to respond to the Alarm or Appointment warning. The alarm clock is also beautifully animated and shivers from side to side as it rings.

SII:

Samsung have also crafted a nicely designed screen for displaying alarms, with a similarly visible alarm clock. An alarm is dismissed by tapping and holding the large red icon and then dragging in to the right. There is no 'Snooze' option offered to you, the alarm can only be dismissed.

With Appointment reminders the SII fails in comparison to the Sensation as you only have the standard Android notification in the task bar. You have to unlock the screen to gain access to the notification.

Whilst discussing notification failures there is one very annoying audible notification on the SII and this is the battery charge bleep. When the SII is charging and it reaches the 100% charge mark a bleep sounds. This is extremely loud and is enough to disturb you from sleep (if you charge your machine on the bedside table and drift off to sleep while it is below the 100% charge mark). Depending on the charge level is can wake you up from a few minutes to a number of hours into your sleep period. Samsung seriously need to give you the option to turn this functionalty off!

Weather

Being British we're supposed to have a predilection towards an interest in the weather and in that respect I must be typical of the breed as I always have at least two weather widgets running on my machines. I'm therefore always interested to see what weather widgets are included on phones.

Sensation:

HTC go for gold with respect to weather functionality you have: the Weather Clock, live wallpaper, lockscreen, launcher animation and finally the weather application itself, this is launched either via its icon or by tapping on the weather portion of the Weather Clock.

When first opened the application runs through a background animation of the weather, the Live Wallpaper in fact, so you get a rich animated representation of the weather along with a few seconds of sound sample. While this is playing the top right portion of the screen shows the current weather conditions: temperature (current & min / max), general forecast, real feel temperature, along with humidity, winds, visibility and finally sunrise / sunset times. One can flick up and down the screen to change the weather location viewed. A number of global cities are loaded as a default (London, Taipei, Barcelona, Tokyo, Seattle, Paris) but you can easily replace these with your own up to a maximum of 16 locations.

The Menu button brings up the options of:

Refresh - refreshes the weather for all locations
Edit - Allows you to remove locations or re-order them
Add - Add a new locations
Demo - Demonstrates each different animation available
Settings - Update when opened toggle, Scheduled sync toggle, Update schedule (1, 3, 6, 12 hours or once a day), Temperature (Celsius / Fahrenheit), Sound Effects on / off toggle

Top left of the weather screen is the name of the location and top right the local time (useful). At the far top right position is an 'expand' icon which allows you to view more weather details on screen. You are immediately taken to the 'Now' view which changes the animation to a more immediate mode as well as restricting the information on the screen to temperatures and the current forecast. The lower portion of the screen now displays a graph showing the conditions and temperatures for: Today, Tonight and Tomorrow. Apart from the 'Now' tab at the bottom of the screen there are two further tabs; 'Hourly' and '5-day'. The first brings up a graph of the hourly temperatures likely to be seen (with mini-icons on the bottom) and the latter a rather more useful display of icons showing the weather for the next 5 days.

The system of how HTC handle weather works well apart from the same issues seen since they first incorporated weather into Sense many years ago. These are that the locations available only seem to be major global cities. The holiday locations I tend to visit are rarely available to use as locations for the forecast, and that the weather source (Accuweather) can be somewhat inaccurate as far as UK weather is concerned.

SII:

Samsung offer a more traditional and less glamorous method of weather forecast on the SII in that they use a modified Accuweather widget, enhanced for resizing. This gives minimum, large and medium modes of displaying the weather on screen the default being the large widget. This is nicely coloured and serves to offer the current temperature along with max / min temperatures at the top left of the widget along with the location and the current weather conditions. To the right of that is a large static icon showing the forecast for quick glance functionality. The lower portion of the widget shows the forecast icons and min / max temperatures for the next 5 days. The bottom right holds a miniature refresh icon which can be tapped to update the weather.

If the icon is tapped then the full weather application opens up, alas showing the same general information that was seem on the widget, the only changes being that a larger icon is used, that the day forecast now spans 6 days instead of 5, and there is an icon top left for adding locations. A maximum of 10 locations are supported within the application. You can swipe the screen to the left and right to cycle through the locations. Two buttons are also gained in the application (underneath the main weather display): 'More' - which takes you to the raw data for the locations as shown on the Accuweather web site, and 'Weather Map' - which opens Google Maps to your area of the world and displays the weather forecast icon and temperature for common major cities. This can be dragged around to show locations round the globe. Each location can be tapped upon which takes you back to the main weather application which then shows the forecast for that city - very cool and useful indeed.

The Menu button brings up the options of:

Add location
Delete location
My City list
Search
Settings - Unit (Celsius / Fahrenheit / Enable Current Location / Auto-scrolling on / off toggle / Auto-refresh (None, 3, 6, 12, 24 hours)

Benchmarks and Speed

Both the Sensation and the SII are high powered dual core smartphones. The Sensation sports a 1.2 Ghz Dual Core Processor (Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon processor) with Adreno 220 graphics processor, and the SII a 1.2 Ghz Dual Core ARM Cortex-A9 SoC processor Samsung Exynos with ARM Mali-400 MP Graphics Processor. This means that advanced graphics and game play are available as both have 'asynchronous cores that are able to run at different frequencies and voltages and give power that you have never seen before', or so the advertising spiel says.

In reality what you get are very fast machines that playback video smoothly with a decent frame rate, games that flow well and naturally with clean movement in animations, and web browsers that can handle embedded video, animated adverts and heavy graphical pages with ease.

If we look at the benchmarks run on the machines we find that the Sensation comes out with an average Quadrant score of around 1978 and the SII at a smoking 3656. If you compare these to the Desire S (which I thought speedy enough) that records a typical benchmark level of 1079.

Taking into account that we are not comparing like for like here, the SII has the advantage of running with NAND memory storage whereas the Sensation is using an SD card to store data. The SII is a release ROM from O2 whereas the Sensation is a pre-release ROM that has yet to be fine-tuned by HTC. I'm hopeful that the performance of the Sensation will increase once a final ROM is provided.

Task Manager

As Android is of course a multi-tasking operating system more than one application can be run at one time. This can result is occasional hanging applications, freezing or memory problems and as such one useful tool in freeing up resources is a task manager. Both the Sensation and the SII have such task managers built into their systems (there is no such provision within Android natively).

On the Sensation the Task Manager can be accessed directly via the Task Manager application or via tapping on the 'Total Memory' information within the Quick Settings (right hand tab) of the Notification drawer. On the SII it can again be launched via application of via bringing up the recently accessed programs list where there is a button to access it below the icons.

Both allow you to see what applications are in use, the memory taken by each one, and offer you the ability to kill individual or all running programs.

Keyboards

Sensation:

The Sensation uses a traditional QWERTY keyboard as the default input method with alternative Phone and Compact layouts available. Alternate number and special character keys are available via secondary alpha-numeric views of the keyboard as well as via tapping and holding on the regular keyboard. Full predictive text is available which works very well at interpreting and suggesting both corrections in spelling and the target word. For a native keyboard it is very good, fast and highly intelligent in its prediction.

Hidden away in the depths of the system is a 'Trace' keyboard system which is based on you sliding over the keys to input data. This is similar to the third party application Swype but alas does not work as well. This can be accessed via: Language and Keyboard / Touch Input / Trace Keyboard.

SII:

The SII offers two types of keyboard, a very plain native QWERTY layout with an alternative numeric and character keyboard (enabled as default), this features no correction or intelligence at all, it is simple and standard. Samsung have licensed the third party Swype keyboard and this is one of the faster and more accurate keyboards available. Detailed information on its operation can be found on the Swype web site: http://www.swypeinc.com/

Web Browsers

The Sensation and the SII performed well on web browsing tasks, both phones used their dual core processors to render web pages significantly faster than I've seen on a mobile device before. The SII had a very slight edge in page loading times. As an example the Engadget page loaded in 9 seconds on the SII and 12 seconds on the Sensation, the BBC main UK site 5 seconds on the SII and 6 seconds on the Sensation. Flash animations that were used as check points played back without any issue. The Sensation had the slight edge as to the actual display itself as text flow resized to match the screen better and therefore readability was slightly improved. The higher resolution display on the Sensation also meant that very small text was clearer to read and less pixelated.

The only issue was with the SII, when it zoomed out to gain a full screen view of a page there was a slight tendency to 'checkerboard' areas of the page until the operation had been completed.

Scrolling of pages is lightning fast on both machines and all the expected operations such as pinch-to-zoom worked well as did tap-to-zoom. The speed of both machines in browsing the web is so smooth and speedy it is clear that the dual core and graphics processors really are coming in to their own.

Added functionality is available in the browser on the Sensation whereby if you press on the screen to highlight text and then hold you gain a pop up offering you the options of 'Copy, Quick Lookup and Share' the Lookup option gives you the choice to research the phrase or word on Google Search, Wikipedia, YouTube Google Translate, or the Google Dictionary.

Locations Navigation (Sensation Only)

One big bonus built into the Sensation is that of the Locations system, accessible both via widget or directly via application shortcut. Locations allows you to search for places of interest, get directions to places you want to go to, and drive using turn-by-turn GPS navigation. This is based on free of charge map data, which covers many global regions, and has to be downloaded to your phone via Wi-Fi before the system can be used. The data is provided by TomTom and the navigation engine designed by Route 66.

The system uses your current location to look for places of interest (POIs), which are listed in order of distance, or allows a search for any establishment, street or city you may wish to locate. Once a destination has been located, if you so wish, you can invoke the 30 day trial of the Premium Navigation system and test out the turn-by-turn GPS navigation system. This has been tested briefly and on the journeys it was used on worked well.

The application has within it 'Footprints' systemm whereby you can take a geo-tagged photo of a location you wish to remember and store in in the Footprints list. The Footptint can be enhanced with description, notes and other personal information. The system uses .KMZ files and these are fully compatible with those used on the HTC Hero, HD2 (and other older HTC phones), this means that any old footprints you may have stored away can be imported into the current system and still used!

One useful feature is that the phone system has been merged into the application and Answer / End Call buttons appear while navigating to allow you to take the call without interrupting your journey.

Extra Applications

The Extra Applications listed below are included on each phone as extras loaded by HTC or Samsung. One cool application worthy of mention on the Sensation is that of the 'Dock Mode' application, this is designed for use when the machine is placed in the official HTC Dock (not yet available) and acts as a combination screen saver and information portal.

The Desk Clock displays the current date, time, and weather. It also shows an alarm clock indicator the battery level and information from your social feeds. It can be set to auto-launch if required when it is docked.

Settings include icons for putting it into Screensaver mode, when in this mode of operation the Desk Clock shows the time and date only and their position changes on the screen every few minutes the background of the saver comprises of photographs from your album.

Sensation Extra Applications:

Dice
Flashlight
HTC Hub
HTC Likes
Locations
Mirror
Peep
Polaris Office
Reader
SoundHound
Stocks
Talk
Task Manager
Teeter
Transfer
Watch
Wi-Fi Hotspot

SII Extra Applications:

Social Hub
Music Hub
Readers Hub
Game Hub
Music
My Files
Videos
AllShare
Kies Air
Voice Commands
Voice Talk
Voice Search
Photo Editor
Video Maker
Mini Diary
Samsung Apps
Task Manager
IM
Memo
Suggests
Polaris Office

Battery Life

Both machines were used on successive working days and these were managed carefully to ensure that the activities carried out on each day were as similar as possible and occurred at roughly the same times. During each day the tasks accomplished were: an hours eBook reading, 1-2 phone calls, half an hours online activity via Tapatalk, regular foursquare check ins made, plus general activities such as PIM management during the working day. In the background Tweetdeck was set to refresh Twitter and Facebook every 15 minutes, both systems allowed to refresh Weather and other native background data (Sense Widgets for Facebook, Twitter, etc) at the default intervals. In addition to that activity three e-mail accounts were run; two Exchange accounts on a Push basis and one Hotmail account which refreshed every 15 minutes. This was carried out with a full five bar HSDPA connection to O2 carrying the communications load. The GPS system was fully active so it could be used, when required, by applications on both systems.

As you can see from the chart both machines started making heavy inroads on the available battery charge. Worse case (on the SII) around 12% of the battery was used within a 10 minute eBook reading period. The greatest battery reduction seemed to occur whilst performing activities that utilised the GPS systems (expected) or when a lot of web browsing was performed.

The SII lost charge at a much greater rate than the Sensation despite it having the larger rated battery and the AMOLED screen which should make it more power efficient. The SII did not manage to make it through the working day without a charge. I had been prepared for charging issues with both machines so the relevant chargers were with me at the office, but I'd not actually expected that either would be needed. Alas with the SII reaching critical levels at around 14:00 hours (I left home at 7:36) there is a definite requirement for regular infusions of power when using the machine, five hours is not enough to survive the working day and that is what the SII gives you.

The Sensation was also very heavy on battery use compared to previous Smartphones I've used, but it did manage to survive the working day and it was early evening before it become critical on power levels.

The other cause for concern is that of recharging time. Both devices were recharged using the supplied mains-power USB chargers and both took around five hours time to recover a full 100% charge - this is excessive and could be somewhat problematical.

If you wish to become the proud owner of either of these machines be prepared to lay aside some funds for ancillary battery charging facilities.

Samsung Kies

Samsung supplies the free to download Kies application as PC companion software for the SII. Once installed this serves to allow the SII to connect to the PC via USB cable, or Wi-Fi, and synchronise content.

Kies also acts as an update conduit for the Galaxy SII and will notify you when new firmware is available and then act to update the firmware to the latest version.

It can be used as a mobile content data manager allowing you to edit PIM information as well as a synchronisation platform for contacts between the SII and Outlook, Google or Yahoo.

Media be it music, video, or photographic can be synchronised between the PC and the SII with Kies, and play lists can be created with ease.

Finally Kies can be used to backup the following from the SII: Contacts, Calendar, To-Do, Messages, Text memos, Call logs Music, Photos, Videos, Preferences, Ringtones, Network settings and bookmarks, and e-mail account information.

When the SII is connected to the PC it will go into 'Kies' mode waiting for you to run Kies on the PC to allow synchronisation processing to take place. The Home button should be pressed on the SII to exit the Kies application and return to normal operating mode if you just wish to charge via USB. It should be noted that once the SII has been disconnected from a USB connection the media scanner will briefly display as running in the task bar as the SII updates its internal indexes with respect to media content.

HTC Sync

HTC supply the free to download HTC Sync application as PC companion software for all their Android phones including the Sensation. Once installed this serves to allow the Sensation to connect to the PC via USB cable and synchronise content.

You can use HTC Sync to:

Sync your contacts between your Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and your phone.
Sync your calendar events between the Outlook or Windows Calendar and your phone.
Sync your photos, videos, documents, songs, and playlists (Media Player or iTunes) to your phone.
Easily import your captured photos and videos from your phone to your computer.
Store the same bookmarks on both your computer and phone's web browser.
Install third-party mobile phone apps (not downloaded from Android Market) from your computer.

Specifications

Other Launchers and qHD Advantages

One widget that I class as essential for me as a power user is that of 'Agenda Widget Plus', to get the best functionality out of this it needs a launcher which supports scrolling widgets. My launcher of choice to support that requirement is Launcher Pro which has the facility to increase the number of rows on screen from 4 to 5. The Sensation with its elongated qHD screen can make use of this to great effect. In portrait orientation you gain an extra row on each Launcher screen. This can be used for additional standard widgets, or you can use the resize widget functionality within L.Pro to increase the size of its own widgets (People).

An extra row may not seem a massive change but it can make the difference between not having enough icons on a screen and therefore having to scroll to another page, add a large widget instead of a single row widget, or alleviate the need to scroll down a screen to access an icon. The higher resolution screen is also a boon to those who use Google Maps as a much greater area of map is visible on the larger display.

General Use

Both machines have been used as my main phones and in constant use for over 2 weeks. During this time they have served and acted as my all-purpose device performing all manner of tasks: morning alarm clock, social networking tool, e-mail response device, eBook reader, star gazer, etc. Both have performed perfectly with only a few niggles which I'm hoping will be addressed in the next ROM updates.

DLNA - Both are DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) devices whereby media can be output to compatible systems such as TVs. Unfortunately I've no DLNA compatible devices to test out this function. A direct DLNA connection is however achieved using an MHL adaptor which gives you an HDMI output via the microUSB connection. It would have been preferred if the phones had built in mini-HDMI ports. Neither phone is supplied with an MHL adaptor, so if you want to try out DLNA then be prepared to buy one! Clove Technology lists the official Samsung SII adaptor for sale at £24.99 (inc VAT). The SII has on board the 'AllShare' application which allows you to share media files between DLNA enabled devices in the home via your Wi-Fi network. One nicety noted while connecting the SII to my wireless network at home was that it picked up both the Wireless G and N bands. I can see the extra speed and viability of Wireless N being of use if I ever do buy any DLNA equipped components for the general household to enjoy!

Memory - The other big bonus on both machines is the included memory. Even though the Sensation 'only' has 768Mb of RAM compared to the 1Gb on the SII both have plenty of resource free to run most applications. Concerning storage memory the Sensation was loaded up with an 8Gb Micro SD card and this proved more than adequate for my needs. On the SII no card was installed and I ran the machine using the massive internal 16Gb (11.50Gb available) of NAND storage. This gives the SII somewhat of an operational advantage as NAND memory is much faster than accessing data via SD. Both machines have the ability to use up to a 32Gb micro-SD card as storage.

Signal Strength and Voice Quality - Looking at basic functionality both phones used the new 900mHz frequency in Manchester to obtain HSPDA connections which were stable and solid with both achieving 5 bars of connectivity at home and work. Both dropped down to a basic 1 bar of 2G in the depths of the server room at work, which is to be expected. Both retained connectivity even though page loads were slow and took time to complete. Phone call quality is excellent with no callers reporting any distortion in voice phone quality at all. The only issues were in the server room at work where the voice quality was reported as somewhat quiet. Usually calls cannot be made at all from within the room so this is actually a compliment on phone quality.

Bluetooth - Both phones have been successfully linked with the Bluetooth hands free system in my Peugeot 207 and no problems were encountered, the signal registered on the cars display and all calls made went through perfectly with no problems. The Peugeot Connect system was used to play back media from both phones with no issues.

GPS - The phones have embedded A-GPS systems within them to assist the navigation system in locating the satellites and gaining a fast GPS lock. Both machines had their GPS caches wiped via the third party 'GPS Status' application and their first lock times measured. The SII obtained an outdoor 8/8 satellite lock in under 18 seconds, the lock was lost completely on moving indoors. The Sensation obtained a 10/10 or 8/8 (variable) lock in 16 seconds, and maintained a 8/8 lock indoors!

Volume - I'm happy to announce that both Samsung and HTC have ensured that both phones have a loud well amplified speaker system so that alarm sounds are loud enough to wake one from slumber. The raised / contoured backs of both phones serve to hold the speakers clear of the desk and therefore avoid any problems of muffling.

The SII scores highly with it's fast operation and glorious screen coupled with the light weight and thinness of the body housing whereas the Sensation scores on its robust more grippable construction and the Sense enhancements.

One issue noted with the SII is that some there seem to be more 'force close' operations taking place than have been noted on other Android machines. In particular the AP Mobile application tends to close 90% of the time it is run.

As can be seen from the above the biggest problem with both these machines is that of battery life. The dual core processors may give a lot of flexibility and power but this infringes heavily on the battery. Be prepared for the requirement to charge both machines frequently and invest in secondary charging systems.

Conclusion

Sensation:

The Sensation continues to build HTCs reputation for producing well designed and constructed Smartphones, not only is it a positive pleasure to use but its well-constructed body houses a smooth fast system which should meet the needs of most users; from e-mail handling, connectivity, media, social network sharing, as well as less hectic activities such as reading a book or watching a movie. The Sensation is definitely a bigger more powerful brother to the Desire S and serves as a successor to the Desire HD.

SII:

The Galaxy SII builds on the success that Samsung has had with the original Galaxy machine and continues to offer a powerhouse of speed, power and features offered by few other phones on the market today. It should serve to work well for all users as long as they are careful to ensure that it is well protected and the somewhat thin plastic housing is not damaged in any way. The SII will appeal to users with its AMOLED Plus screen, speed, miniscule thickness and light weight. Power users will be attracted by additions such as USB Host and the large internal NAND storage. Bear in mind that the power comes at a price - reduced battery life.

Both: The Sensation and the SII serve to bring the dawn of dual core power computing to the Smartphone platform and are both highly evolved and engineered machines. Which machine you choose is very dependent on what attracts you; the sleek rounded lines of the Sensation enhanced with Sense 3, or the SII powerhouse with massive storage and incredible screen.

Pros and Cons

Sensation:

Pros:

Sense 3 enhanced for ease of use and glitz
Goodly amount of internal RAM
Fast and smooth in operation
eBook reader included
Numerous HTC widgets included
Sense enhances notifications and reminders
Fast locking and reactive GPS system
Good voice clarity
Enhanced USB functions
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA and 3G / Wi-Fi hotspot
Custom skinning system (scenes and skins)
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
1080P video recording
1080P video playback
Dual Core processor
qHD screen
Gorilla Glass screen
DLNA for wireless streaming to TV, etc
HTC Sense account for download of additional widgets, feature restore, etc
Reasonable quality 8 megapixel camera with good colour balance
Good quality intelligent keyboard
HTC Watch progressive video system
HTC Locations with Premium Content Navigation

Cons:

Uses mSD for storage
Poor battery life
The boot loader is security locked preventing custom ROM installs

SII:

Pros:

Large amount of internal RAM
USB Host Supported
Massive internal NAND storage memory
Fast and smooth in operation
Samsung Hub functionality
Enhanced connectivity via DLNA
Handles multiple Exchange accounts
1080P video recording
1080P video playback
Dual Core processor
2 megapixel front facing camera
Super AMOLED Plus screen
Gorilla Glass screen
Enhanced with 'Enterprise' facilities
DLNA for wireless streaming to TV, etc
HSPA+ 21Mbps download speed
Reasonable quality 8 megapixel camera
Comprehensive video editing application included
Swype keyboard included
Wireless N supported

Cons:

Body construction could be improved upon
No search button
Dire battery life
Some applications force close
Flimsy back cover
Camera colour balance is too vivid and suffers from over exposure
No notification LED

[All images in this review have been processed by Snagit by Techsmith]

REVIEW: Brodit Motorola Milestone Cradle

Mon, 02 May 2011 21:38:42 +0000

Mounting smartphones and other devices in a car can be somewhat of a challenge. Any quick eBay search will reveal a plethora of options available. It can really be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. Whilst cheaper mounting solutions may sometimes suffice or be all that is needed, I always prefer to go for something a little more substantial to house my devices on the move.

I recently had the good fortune to receive the Brodit Active Holder for the Motorola Milestone for review from our good friends at DSL developments. Many thanks to David at DSLDevelopments for providing the review unit.

Supplier: DSL Developments
Product: Motorola Milestone Brodit Holder

Fast Facts

Tilt & Swivel Cradle
Cigarette Lighter Adapter for charging

What's in the Package?

Milestone Cradle (with Brodit mounting plate Attached)
Packet of small screws
Fitting instructions
Brodit Catalogue

Aesthetics

As with all, well, almost all Brodit cradles (apart from that iPhone one!! ), the Milestone mount is incredibly well constructed and looks svelte & neat. Apart from that, what more can you say, it's a cradle!

One difference to previous Brodit cradles that I have used is that the cigarette lighter adapter has been updated to include a LED indicator light in the form of a lightning flash, rather than just a single red LED. I know it's just eye-candy, but I do like it all the same.

Fitting

Being a smartphone afficianado for quite a while now, I already had Brodit Proclips installed in my car. The Proclip mounting system does indeed making fitting a new cradle incredibly easy, which for me is a major selling point. I feel like I have cheated you out of the process for fitting the Proclips themselves, so for further details on this part I recommend that you take a peek at The Guru's review of his experience here!

The first photo shows the removal of my old HTC Touch Pro 3-in-1 mount. This is a very simple operation, I simply unscrewed the mount from its base via the Centre screw. Yes, it really is that easy.

This photo shows the naked Proclip. Note that the Brodit Cradle mounting is still attached to it. This is the key to the ease of swapping cradles around. It was at this point that I realised that the new Milestone mount would not work in the lower centre console position. This is due to the nature of the Milestone itself, in that the device's Micro USB port sits on the left hand side rather than the bottom. The means that the Milestone slots into the mount sideways, rather than top down, which means it would be impossible to insert the device into the cradle in that location.

At this point I engaged Plan B!

I have another Proclip fitted to my car, this time further up mounted in front of one of the air-vents. It currently hosts my HTC Advantage Brodit mount, but since I sold the XDA Flint, it had been fairly much redundant.

Once again I set about removing the original mount. Again, the same simple operation applies. I simply unscrewed the mount from the clip via the centre screw using a Phillips head screwdriver.

Fitting the new Milestone is just as simple as removing the old mounts. Once again using the centre screw in the mount itself, I simply screwed the new mount back to the Brodit cradle mounting. As that Meerkat on the adverts would say, simples.

All that remained was to plug the cigarette lighter adapter into the relevant socket and the cradle is good to go.

The Finished Product

In under 10 minutes, the new mount was in place and ready for action. The styling and colour of the mount matching the interior of my car. Which in my book is a major bonus!!

Device in place

The last test was to slot the Milestone into place! And that was done with relative ease. The Micro USB prong in the mount was perfectly aligned with the socket on the Milestone and it slid in and out without any issue or force required. Aesthetically, I think the device looks rather good in the mount and blends in nicely with my cars interior, which to be honest isn't hard as the interior is black, the Brodit mount is black and the Motorola Milestone is black. A winner all-round!

Pro's & Con's

Excellent Design
Easy fitting - Especially if you already have an existing Pro-Clip in place for your vehicle
Excellent Device stability
Tilt & Swivel

None

Conclusion

The mount has performed flawlessly, as is my experience with all the Brodit mounts that I have owned before. The action to slot the device into place was very fluid and needed no force to achieve, indicating that the design is spot on and that the Micro USB connector aligns perfectly with the phone. I had no issues popping the device in and out of the cradle at all.

The Milestone, prior to its demise, was held securely in place. There was no discernable vibration or movement while the car was in motion. The mount proving itself to be definitely secure. Charging worked as it should, providing power to keep my device running whilst out and about during the day, well, if out and about in the car that is. All in all another exemplary mount from Brodit. Add the quality of the mount to the exceptional service provided by DSL Developments and I am one very happy bunny.