I got a Sensation in my pants (The Official HTC Sensation Thread)

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charlie_82

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Thanks to the Vodashop at Rosebank who's staff were very friendly and helpful, I managed to pick up my HTC Sensation late yesterday afternoon.
I haven't had much time to play around with the device but here are some initial impressions.

Coming from my Touch Pro 2, this phone is an absolute dream. It's quick, responsive and super sexy. Even thought it's about 1cm taller than my TP2 and about 0.5cm wider, it's about half the width so if feel real good in your pocket.
Without a full hardware keyboard, the Sensation is also quite a bit lighter but is a good sturdy weight.

One of the first thing I noticed is the boot-up time. Naturally, the handset was opened in the store to make it all works and it booted up in about about 30 seconds. Upon leaving the store, I turned it off so it get a few hours of good charge. Turning it on later, the boot-up take under 5 seconds! This is my first Android handset so I'm not sure if that's something I can accredit to the OS or to the hardware. Regardless, my TP2 takes about 3 minutes to fully boot and become usable so I was quite excited with this.

With regards to the deathgrip issue, I can't say I've noticed any issues. I've covered the entire back of the phone with my hands and the wifi only dropped one bar. GSM reception seems unaffected thus far.
Holding the phone in landscape seems to do the same - wifi drops one bar but doesn't disconnect completely.

The camera works really well - I took a few photo's in a pitch black room before sunrise this morning and apart from the focus being a little fuzzy in distant objects, you wouldn't know the room was completely dark.

I'm not sure what else to report on just yet, but please feel free to ask any questions. I will continue to provide updates as I play with it more
 
charlie_82 said:
One of the first thing I noticed is the boot-up time. Naturally, the handset was opened in the store to make it all works and it booted up in about about 30 seconds. Upon leaving the store, I turned it off so it get a few hours of good charge. Turning it on later, the boot-up take under 5 seconds! This is my first Android handset so I'm not sure if that's something I can accredit to the OS or to the hardware. Regardless, my TP2 takes about 3 minutes to fully boot and become usable so I was quite excited with this.
Click to expand...

Default behaviour on 2.3 is to go into a suspended state when you switch the phone off, so it's not a completely cold boot. Pretty nifty. ;)
 
That's a fast boot. It's kinda like hibernation state for the phone. If you want a proper cold boot, take out the battery and put it back in. Then it will take quite a bit longer to boot up. With regards to death grip, it's not really about covering the whole back of the phone. There is a certain spot on the top of the phone that causes the death grip. I posted some videos in the other thread. There is a definite issue with that.
That said, congrats on your new phone. I'm sure you will love it. I should be getting my Galaxy SII either today or tomorrow.
 
mercurial said:
That's a fast boot. It's kinda like hibernation state for the phone. If you want a proper cold boot, take out the battery and put it back in. Then it will take quite a bit longer to boot up. With regards to death grip, it's not really about covering the whole back of the phone. There is a certain spot on the top of the phone that causes the death grip. I posted some videos in the other thread. There is a definite issue with that.
That said, congrats on your new phone. I'm sure you will love it. I should be getting my Galaxy SII either today or tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Yeah enigma was good enough to clear that up. It's a clever idea, especially coming from a WinMo device that took sooooo long to boot.
I'm sure you're gonna love your SGS2 - hope you get sooner rather than later :)
 
charlie_82 said:
Yeah enigma was good enough to clear that up. It's a clever idea, especially coming from a WinMo device that took sooooo long to boot.
I'm sure you're gonna love your SGS2 - hope you get sooner rather than later :)
Click to expand...

Ya, I had a lot of threads open. Kept your thread for last to reply, that's why I posted after. I didn't see his reply :p Thanks :)
 
Hi charlie_82, enjoy your new phone!! :)

Anandtech gave the Sensation an excellent review and I will be following this thread.
 
Yea... that is me hehe

I have an HTC HD2... Love the phone. Wanted to wait for the Evo 3D or LG Optimus 3D but decided I can get it next year (2 contract so upgrade every year...) but this Sensation is really not all that. It's fast.. I love that.. But dam. 2 hours old and keeps on restarting... I have restored to factory settings but still the same. I am phoning vodashop now to try and return this phone and then I'll rather wait another month for the LG phone...
 
Got my Sensation today. Thought it was supposed to come with 16 SD but only 8GB. Anyways, still an awesome phone. Best weather app. ever :) Only downside is I can't transfer my Angry Birds scores from my old phone. Took me forever to get 3 stars on the first 90 levels :(
 
Lol sorry guys, had a very busy weekend.

Phone is still running like a dream - got it nicely customized now. The weather is too cool, but the lockscreen is by far my favourite feature on Sense 3.0. I was playing some mp3's the other and locked the screen - when you turn on the screen again, a minimal music player comes up with some controls to go to previous & next tracks and well as play/pause. You can also adjust the volume without unlocking which might not altogether be a good thing but I like it.

I haven't played any resource intensive games yet - not sure which would be a good one to try out. Suggestions are welcome and will gladly post back my findings.

Movie playback is great, wanted to try out a full hd mkv but didn't have enough space on my card to copy over the movie. So far have tried a few avi's & mkvs at 720p and they run nice and smooth.

The camera is very cool - no more missing the moment with the instant capture. The video recording is pretty good too. You can tell it's a phone video, with that slight graininess that most phones have, but it is full hd and if you're not hugging your tv, it's good enough :)

One thing that really sucks is the battery life. Granted, there's the novelty factor and I'd fiddling around with it a lot, but by 3 or 4pm, it needs a charge. I'm sure it will make it through the day comfortably once I get stop playing with it such a lot, but for now it annoys me. I did order a 1900mah battery recommended by some guys at XDA so should help.

For those of you who are interested, this is the link to the battery: http://more.take2.co.za/moreuk-anke...htc-sensation-g14-z710e-white-b0053ezjmc.html

EDIT: oops, battery seems out of stock now - hope my order doesn't get ruined :-/


renvilo said:
Yea... that is me hehe

I have an HTC HD2... Love the phone. Wanted to wait for the Evo 3D or LG Optimus 3D but decided I can get it next year (2 contract so upgrade every year...) but this Sensation is really not all that. It's fast.. I love that.. But dam. 2 hours old and keeps on restarting... I have restored to factory settings but still the same. I am phoning vodashop now to try and return this phone and then I'll rather wait another month for the LG phone...
Click to expand...
The phone definitely buggy mate - you gotta take it back. If it;s faulty they obligated to give you a new one. Mine hasn't given me any trouble - not even with the deathgrip
 
Last edited:
So where can someone actually get this phone and on what contract for how much?
 
Last I heard, Vodaworld had stock:

HTC SENSATION @ R 4579 CASH ON TOP UP 75s
HTC SENSATION @ R 4579 CASH ON TOP UP 49s
HTC SENSATION @ R 3559 CASH ON TOP UP, 200s
HTC SENSATION @ R 3099 CASH ON TOP UP, 275s
HTC SENSATION @ R 4239 CASH ON TOP UP, 135s
HTC SENSATION @ R 3779 CASH ON TOP UP, 135 (per minute billing only)
HTC SENSATION @ R 3329 CASH ON EVERYDAY OFF-PEAK 120 (per second billing)
HTC SENSATION @ R 2989 CASH ON EVERYDAY OFF-PEAK 120 (per minute billing only)
HTC SENSATION + 110 MB DATA FOR 3 MONTHS @ R 2189 CASH ON BUSINESS (per minute billing)
HTC SENSATION @ R 2299 CASH ON BUSINESS (per second billing)
HTC SENSATION @ R 3439 CASH ON TALK 75s
HTC SENSATION @ R 1729 CASH ON TALK 200
HTC SENSATION @ R 1999 CASH ON TALK 130 ONLY
HTC SENSATION @ R 1729 CASH ON TALK 240
HTC SENSATION @ R 1389 CASH ON TALK 350s
HTC SENSATION @ R 2189 CASH ON TOP UP, 315 (per minute billing only)
HTC SENSATION @ R 2639 CASH ON TOP UP, 315s
HTC SENSATION @ R 1959 CASH ON TOP UP, 400s,
HTC SENSATION @ R 1729 CASH ON TOP UP, 500s
HTC SENSATION @ R 1629 CASH ON TOP UP 590
HTC SENSATION @ R 1159 CASH ON TALK 500
HTC SENSATION @ R 4239 CASH ON TOP UP 99 VODACOM4LESS
HTC SENSATION @ R 3559 CASH ON TOP UP 199 VODACOM4LESS
HTC SENSATION @ R 1389 CASH ON SMART 120s
HTC SENSATION @ R 929 CASH ON SMART 500s
HTC SENSATION @ R 1999 CASH ON TALK 120 ONLY
HTC SENSATION @ R 4239 CASH ON ALDAY 100
HTC SENSATION @ R 1389 CASH ON TOP UP 1000

HTC SENSATION @ R79 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 200
HTC SENSATION @ R170 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 75s
HTC SENSATION @ R69 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 350s
HTC SENSATION @ R79 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 240
HTC SENSATION @ R104 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 130 ONLY
HTC SENSATION @ R99 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 120 ONLY
HTC SENSATION @ R114 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TOP UP, 315 (per minute billing only)
HTC SENSATION @ R79 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TOP UP,500s
HTC SENSATION @ R100 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TOP UP 400s,
HTC SENSATION @ R134 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TOP UP, 315s
HTC SENSATION + 110 MB DATA FOR 3 MONTHS @ R114 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON BUSINESS (per minute billing)
HTC SENSATION @ R114 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON BUSINESS (per second billing)
HTC SENSATION @ R59 PER MONTH + SUBSCRIPTION ON TALK 500
 
bin3 said:
You wouldn't perhaps know which outlet @ Vodaworld? Not really in the mood to walk from door to door and all that :-)
Click to expand...

The big one in Midrand I think... I can't bee 100% sure. Try phoning around - when you find a store that has stock, tell them to hold it for you. That's how I got mine - started calling all the Vodastores in the areas I live and work in and one branch had a single handset in stock
 
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