THE RACE to produce the best smartphone has intensified as brands try to come out with devices that not only feature full PC functionality, but also enable the devices to harness the power of cloud computing services alongside highly intuitive graphics-filled UI.
Taiwan smartphone maker HTC recently introduced its top-of-the-line Android smartphone called the Sensation, which is powered by a dual core Snapdragon mobile CPU (Qualcomm 1.2 GHz Dual-Core) with 1 GB memory onboard.
The Sensation, which is pitted against Samsung’s dual core Android phone the Galaxy SII, features a 4.3-inch gorilla glass touchscreen and an aluminum unibody chassis.
At the back of the device is an 8-megapixel camera with auto focus and dual LED flash. It also has a front-facing VGA camera. The powerful camera is capable of recording 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
Described by HTC officials as the “do-it-all” smartphone, the Sensation features a touchscreen with 540 x 960 qHD resolution. A qHD display delivers 35 percent more pixels than typical touchscreens and ensures a 16:9 aspect ratio wide angle viewing, which translates to better movie viewing.
HTC Philippines country manager Mark Sergio said the Sensation is a responsive phone capable of true multitasking as it allows the user to do resource-hungry downloads alongside listening to music, browsing visually rich websites, or watching a movie.
“The user would hardly feel any lag in using the applications. Everything runs smooth and fluid,” Sergio said.
In fact the phone is capable of up to 14.4 Mbps download speed and up to 5.76 Mbps upload speed in 3G.
At the heart of Sensation’s super powers is HTC’s improved user interface called the HTC Sense 3.0, which allows improved graphics and animation rendition. Going from one window or widget to another is snappier.
Also, the lockscreen has been improved as the user can now view prompt-like messages or e-mails or social networking updates right from the lockscreen.
Another feature of the Sensation is its access to HTC Watch, a service that allows the phone user to access a library of TV shows and videos from an HTC website. With this service, the user may be able to watch and enjoy videos even without downloading the file.
Suggested retail price for the Sensation is P31,990.