HTC Sensation XL Review

HTC Sensation XL is the latest entrant in the Sensation line of smartphones from HTC and one of the main USP of this phone is that it is accompanied by a iBeats headset. Sensation XL shares its design and display with HTC Titan and most of the hardware of the phone are same as that of Titan. As compared to other handsets by HTC, XL’s huge screen is a great for web browsing, watching Youtube videos and reading eBooks. Let us tour HTC Sensation XL and find out what this gigantic handset has to offer.

HTC Sensation XL Looks And Design

With Sensation XL’s dimensions standing at 132.5×70.7×9.9mm, XL is bigger than iPhone 4S. Weight is on the heavy side (162.5) grams and we had no problems in slipping the phone into our pocket. The design of the phone is quite clean and we were quite impressed by the big aluminum plate at the back of the phone. The plate also wraps around the sides which give the device a premium feel.  It however, makes the device a bit slippery and we missed the soft touch plastic which is the one of the characteristic of the Sensational line of phones. The phone fits well in hands and there is even distribution of weight. It does not tip over, like most big phones do.

HTC Sensation XL Display

Sensation XL is equipped with a massive 4.7 inches display just like Titan and the S-LCD capacitive unit of XL has WVGA resolution. We would have liked the screen to be qHD. Pixel density of XL (199ppi) is behind that of Sensation XE (256ppi). The screen has good viewing angles and the colors are quite vivid. The brightness and contrast of Sensation XL is very much close to that of Titan and the display is quite bright. The contrast of Sensation XL is better than Sensation XE. The screen is quite reflective and this degrades its performance in direct sunlight. On the top of the screen, you get a 3.5mm audio jack while the volume rocker button is on the right side. We felt that the edges of the phone are a bit hard to press.

HTC Sensation XL User Interface

Sensation XL is equipped with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and a new version of HTC Sense 3.5. The lock-screen of XL is one of the most customizable ones that we have ever seen. The phone allows you to drag any of the shortcuts into the ring to unlock the phone and then launch a particular application. Sensational XL has six different lockscreens pre-installed. But we were disappointed to find that one cannot download any new lockscreens from HTC Hub. HTC Sense has another customizable option called skins and the main menu has the traditional grid layout.

HTC Sensation XL Apps

Applications are an important aspect for smartphones. Sensation XL is equipped with several apps such as

• Evernote
• Tango
• HTC Reader
• Google Search
• Maps
• Gmail
• Google Talk
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Document Viewer/Editor

HTC Sensation XL Keyboard

Sensation XL is equipped with a virtual QWERTY keyboard. Thanks to the large size of the screen, the keys are well spaced out and they are quite easy to hit. However, if you are not satisfied with the keyboard, then you can download keyboard from Android market.

HTC Sensation XL Phonebook And Emails

XL has an updated telephony with deep social network integration which helps to keep things in nice order. The phonebook makes good use of the screen. The phone has a couple of email apps. One is the traditional Gmail application while the other is the generic HTC mail application. The HTC mail app merges all the mail accounts in a single inbox. In terms of email capabilities, the phone hardly lacks anything.

HTC Sensation XL Gallery

HTC gallery stacks the photographs like the Android gallery and the album application automatically locates images and videos. Sharing of photos is quite easy. You just need to tap the share button and you can share the photos through Bluetooth or emails or post them on Facebook, Twitter etc. Users can also upload videos to Youtube.

HTC Sensation XL Camera Quality

Sensation XL is packed with a 8MP camera which clicks photos of resolution measuring 3264×2448 pixels. The interface of the camera is quite efficient and the camera is accompanied by a dual-LED flash and video light. The camera has advanced features like auto-focus and dual LED flash along with geo-tagging. We found the quality of the images to be quite good and better than that of HTC Titan. The color balance is quite good and the camera was able to capture the fine details.

HTC Sensation XL Video Quality

The phone is also capable of recording 720p HD video at a frame rate of 30fps. We were not that impressed by the quality of the videos as the details were quite scarce. The stereo microphone picks up a lot of noise. The videos are shot in .MP4 format and the colors seemed to be oversaturated.

HTC Sensation XL Connectivity

Connectivity is pretty robust with Sensation XL. You get a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dual band 3G. Local wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi b/g/n along with full DLNA support and Bluetooth 3.0. With the connected media application all sort of DLNA connections are handled with ease and with HTC portable hotspot, you can connect up to 8 devices and we were quite happy to note that there are no death grip issues with Sensation XL. The thing which disappointed us is the fact that the phone lacks MHL connectivity which would have helped to connect it to HD TV. The phone runs on the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread web browser. The browser has full support of flash and Youtube videos up to 480p played very smoothly.

HTC Sensation XL Multimedia

The music app of the phone has more of a streamlined interface and the beats audio enhancement boosts the listening experience. The best part is however to have high-quality headphones which are one of the best that we have seen. The loudspeaker offers nice sounds and we have a more functional video player which allows you to trim clips directly from the interface. The phone is also equipped with an FM radio whose interface is very simple. The radio supports RDS and allows loudspeaker playback. The sound quality of Sensation XL is quite good thanks to the headsets and the beats audio technology.

HTC Sensation XL Accessories

The phone is equipped with the following accessories:

• HTC Sensation XL
• iBeats headsets
• Charger
• MicroUSB cable
• User Manual

Download HTC Sensation XL user manual

HTC Sensation XL Price

HTC Sensation XL price in the USA is approximately $ 550 while price of the phone in India is approximately Rs 37,000.

HTC Sensation XL is a solid smartphone which boasts of some solid specifications. It is a compact, slim Android handset and if you are looking for an Android handset with a big and large screen, then you can surly bet upon Sensation XL.