Just got my T-Mobile HTC Sensation in the mail today.. haven't popped in my SIM card yet, just playing with it a bit to see how I like it. My initial thoughts:
Very well built, feels great in your hand, doesn't feel heavy or bulky at all. Big thumbs up
The viewing angles really are bad.. unless you look at it straight on, a black background becomes gray and the image becomes cloudy. I'm probably spoiled by the AMOLED on the N1, but that's my reaction.
The browser is silky smooth! You can pinch-zoom at will, everything is crisp and sharp. But again, it looks washed out to me.
The launcher IS LAGGY. There's just no other way to put it. Swiping homescreens is laggy, pinch zooming out to see all of them is laggy and choppy, and a factory reset didn't solve that problem.
Camera and camcorder are good! Video framerates are good even in low light.
I know LauncherPro would probably fix the lag, but then where is that Dual Core performance? What's the point of designing such a grand 3D interface if the homescreens aren't smooth?
That screen is really bothering me... I thought I would be okay, but despite the resolution I like the Nexus One display better, just because it always looks great even if it's sitting on your desk and you glance at it. With the Sensation, you just see a washed out glow... yuck.
Sorry if this sounds really harsh, but these are my gut initial reactions. I really want to like this phone.. let's see!
The 'dual-core' is more marketing. It adds nothing to the phone's performance. I previously had a G2X and it was slower than my Nexus S. I'm just hoping this phone that I have ordered won't reboot 3x's a day.
you must have had a bad g2x. i've had both and the g2x was way faster than both the nexus s and the sensation.
almostinsane said:
The 'dual-core' is more marketing. It adds nothing to the phone's performance. I previously had a G2X and it was slower than my Nexus S. I'm just hoping this phone that I have ordered won't reboot 3x's a day.
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Like the previous poster said. You must have had a bad G2X (like 99% of the people who own one) because the G2X I had was the quickest Android device I have ever used (including the Nexus S). Dual Core is not a marketing term. Android just hasn't utilized the two cores yet (except for Honey Comb). I can attest to games playing at a higher frame rate on both the Sensation and the G2X than they did on my Vibrant, Nexus S and Nexus One.
To the OP....Once I turned the animations off and that stupid animated weather when unlocking the phone, the lag went away. I now have no lag when deleting items from the home screen, transitioning home screens and opening the app drawer. When I kept the phone stock like HTC sent it, it did in fact lag a little but not much. In my opinion HTC put to much animation into Android without having hardware acceleration.
The lag comes from HTC sense...it's an awesome UI for customization and features, but uses a lot of resources.
brian85 said:
The lag comes from HTC sense...it's an awesome UI for customization and features, but uses a lot of resources.
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Yep once were rooted and we can remove sense well be flying even more
pakraider said:
Very well built, feels great in your hand, doesn't feel heavy or bulky at all. Big thumbs up
The viewing angles really are bad.. unless you look at it straight on, a black background becomes gray and the image becomes cloudy. I'm probably spoiled by the AMOLED on the N1, but that's my reaction.
The browser is silky smooth! You can pinch-zoom at will, everything is crisp and sharp. But again, it looks washed out to me.
The launcher IS LAGGY. There's just no other way to put it. Swiping homescreens is laggy, pinch zooming out to see all of them is laggy and choppy, and a factory reset didn't solve that problem.
Camera and camcorder are good! Video framerates are good even in low light.
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I'm also coming from an N1
-Agree on the build quality. Only thing I can say is that I feel a little bit shaky about the actual release button for the back cover but no biggy.
-I feel you on the bad viewing angles
-Agree on the browser
-You know what, I don't have that many apps on my phone but my phone is not laggy, pretty responsive actually, I would say more so than my N1.
-Haven't messed around with the camera too much yet.
One thing though I was sad to shelf the AMOLED on my N1 but am not as disappointed as I thought I would be. Yes the viewing angles are BAD I do admit that but I'm pretty happy with my straight on view of the display. It is very vibrant head on and not far off from the quality of the N1. I wonder if there are multiple screen manufacturers... When I got an MT4G, now that display SUCKED!!! totally washed out even head on. I heard they improved the screens in the later batches but it was nasty. Screen on the sensation is 10x better but no AMOLED.
I exchanged my sensation for a new one today.the 3 hours i was using my nexus one i missed the sensation so much lol. The big screen and higher res ftw
Try GoLauncher and there should be no lag.
jrwingate6 said:
To the OP....Once I turned the animations off and that stupid animated weather when unlocking the phone, the lag went away. I now have no lag when deleting items from the home screen, transitioning home screens and opening the app drawer. When I kept the phone stock like HTC sent it, it did in fact lag a little but not much. In my opinion HTC put to much animation into Android without having hardware acceleration.
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I tried turning off the animations, but it's still a tad choppy.. I'm pretty sure it's just Sense, because I did go ahead and install LauncherPro, and it's smooth as butter. But again, then you lose all those nice Sense widgets (which I like).
I think Sense without the 3D animations, and with a standard scrollable app drawer would be the perfect combination.
note: One huge disappointment.. just like my N1, the Sensation browser is very choppy when browsing XDA forums. Really weird.
Hope to add a few comparisons soon
This may sound petty but if you don't have a 4g sim card that will slow you down also I only say this because you are coming from a nexus one
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Robertcrow said:
This may sound petty but if you don't have a 4g sim card that will slow you down also I only say this because you are coming from a nexus one
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
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A SIM card has nothing to do with the phone's UI being choppy.
Robertcrow said:
This may sound petty but if you don't have a 4g sim card that will slow you down also I only say this because you are coming from a nexus one
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
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Not necessarily true. Im using the SIM card from my N1 in my G2X now and getting great 4G speeds. No.changes to my plan either.
Just a shot my wife had issues with her mt4g being slow then she was told she didn't have a 4g sim card then after she got one there has been no lag
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App
Coming from an N1 myself. I agree on the display. I used my N1 as an alarm clock in the dock and you could get it very dark. On the lowest brightness, the Sensation is like a beacon lighting up the whole room. Viewing angles are not great, but I dunno...I'm usually looking directly at my phone so I doubt it will be a huge issue. The N1 certainly spoiled me....
Some other thoughts:
The notification LED is almost worthless...I didn't even see it until day two of using the Sensation. A strange location and it isn't very bright.
Build quality is excellent, although the "sharp" edges on the front can make it sorta strange to hold...I'll probably get used to it.
After coming from stock Android on an unlocked N1 (not rooted), I can say I am looking forward to this thing being rooted so I can remove the dozens of silly apps I will never use. Very frustrating. Especially since I got one for my Dad and I know seeing a bunch of apps he doesn't want is going to confuse him.
I'm split on sense. I like a few of the widgets and I really like the unlock screen, but having duplicate applications is annoying (a "sense email" and "gmail", a "sense calendar" and "calender", etc). All in all, I would probably opt to remove it and return to stock Android if I could.
The Facebook integration is nice with one glaring problem: It auto syncs the facebook contacts. Not a big deal in the "contacts" app because you can hide them. However, go write a text message and it draws from the "people" app which has no ability to hide contacts and shows them all at once and multiple entries if they have more than one phone number. So I would go to write a text message and see a few hundred people from facebook that I barley know and would never want to text. The only way I could get rid of them was to disable the HTC facebook app, download the official one from the market and then opt not to share any contact info from Facebook. It works just like it did on my N1 (no FB integration, just go to the app) but it just seems silly that they thought of this issue on the contacts display but not for text messaging because the integration is actually sorta cool. For instance, it would download profile pictures for all of my contacts and even show recent status updates in the contacts view. Too bad they botched it on the text messaging.
lightforce said:
yep once were rooted and we can remove sense well be flying even more
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+1000000000
I too switched from a nexus one to the sensation. i love it soo much the only thing i dont like is it seems the data stops randomly when i have full 4g. maybe its my network in colorado but thats a little annoying. other than that with launcher pro and gosms it runs soooo smooth and no lag at all. multitasking is awesome!! when running music beta browser and other appz.
somethings up cause i have no chop. it's butter smooth. ans i have turned none of the animations off.
Related
I feel like Swype is waaayyy less accurate on the MT4G than the Vibrant.
Has anyone else noticed it?
I would guess it is due to a combination of screen size, and touch sensitivity/responsivenes...not that why really matter.. assuming there is no way to correct this.
I really am just curious if others have noticed this.. it get's annoying having to constantly correct.. I know you can change settings for word suggestion and what not.. but I'm not sure if that would bring it to the accuracy level of the vibrant..
What do you all think?
You can change the sensitivity in the settings. Go to Settings > language and keyboard.
Mine is pretty accurateconsidering I'm a horrible peck and hunt phone typist.
Vibrant was way more accurate but I think it had a big thing to do w the screen size...
*Sent from my Tmobile MT4G*
i feel the complete opposite..
Very interesting, different opinions...Ill play with settings more then..
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App
motorjonny said:
I feel like Swype is waaayyy less accurate on the MT4G than the Vibrant.
Has anyone else noticed it?
I would guess it is due to a combination of screen size, and touch sensitivity/responsivenes...not that why really matter.. assuming there is no way to correct this.
I really am just curious if others have noticed this.. it get's annoying having to constantly correct.. I know you can change settings for word suggestion and what not.. but I'm not sure if that would bring it to the accuracy level of the vibrant..
What do you all think?
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Click to collapse
i don't notice a difference at all in terms of accuracy on my vibrant or mt4g but i did feel that due to the bigger screen size of the vibrant, it felt more comfortable to type.
I'm quite sure the touchscreen on the Vibrant is superior... I've recently switched back to my vibrant from the mt4g and it's quite apparent. The response is quicker to your touch on the vibrant, as well as smoothness tracking your finger(s).
Also one thing (of little consequence but interesting nonetheless) is if you install "Multi-touch visible test" from the market, you can see that the MT4G can handle at most 4 fingers, while the vibrant can handle 5, and it seems the vibrant tracks the fingers quicker and smoother... the mt4g just seems jittery =(
+1 Im with you on this.
Aspeds2989 said:
i feel the complete opposite..
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My SWYPE seems much less accurate lately, too. I am using a Vibrant, but I recently flashed a new ROM. It's constantly defaulting to really obscure words when there is a MUCH more common word available. It really seems like SWYPE just got retarded all of the sudden.
As most of you know, I am a very happy G2X owner. I returned 3 only to get a fully working device with not one bug on my forth try. That being said, here is a list I have compiled of my opinions on each device.
1) UI performance: The G2X is more responsive within the UI and rarely ever lags if not at all. The Sensation has a little lag with the settings HTC ships it with. After turning off the animations within the settings, removing the 7 home screens worth of widgets and turning off the animated weather upon unlock, the Sensation becomes more responsive and lag is almost non-existent. That being said. I have to give the edge to the G2X because the UI just feels faster overall.
2) Browser Speed: The G2X has a slight advantage when zooming in and out using pinch to zoom but the Sensation is faster when scrolling up and down. I hated that I couldn't flick my finger and zoom to the bottom of the page on the G2X. I noticed no difference when it came to loading web pages but the Sensation has the edge when it comes to Flash playback which is noticeably smoother than on the G2X. Lastly, the Sensation can fit more of the webpage on the display due to it's resolution so I have to give a slight advantage to the Sensation.
3) Game Play: Games play smooth on both devices but I loved the Tegra games that aren't readily available on the Sensation. The non-Tegra games I play on a regular basis (Home Run Battle, Angry Birds and Dungeon Defenders) all run great on either device and I cannot notice a difference between the two when it comes to frame rate. I have to give the slight edge to the G2X due to it having the great looking Tegra games.
4) Display: Coming from the Vibrant, the G2X display did not WOW me. Don't get me wrong. It's a good display (as long as you have minimal bleeding) but it's nothing special. The Sensation's display appears more vivid and sharper while noticeably displaying text more clear due to it's higher resolution panel. Both displays are equal when viewing in direct sunlight but neither one is very good in my opinion. I have to give this category to the Sensation due to a higher rez, larger display and a sharper colors.
5) Build Quality: Both devices feel very solid in the hand and appear to weigh about the same when in my hand. I love the rubbery feel on the G2X back plate as hit helps with grip and just feels great on the hand. In my opinion the back plate on the Sensation isn't as good looking nor does it feel as good. However, the Sensation feels better in your hand due to it's round edges. Both devices have a nice curve to the glass as well so I am giving them a tie in this category.
6) Speaker Quality: Both devices lack in this category due to the volume being to low when playing media. Voice calls sound good on either device but they sound a little hallow/tinny on the Sensation if that makes any sense. People on the other end said I sounded fine on both devices. In the end, someone needs to create a fix for the external speaker volume on both devices. The G2X gets the slight edge for sounding better during voice calls.
7) UI looks: This mainly comes down to preference and I like using both the Sense overlay and vanilla Android but lets face it. Most of us always throw a launcher on top of our UI skins no matter what it is. Sense obviously adds more flash to the UI and the new version has some pretty cool features like the new lock screen. I know there is always widget locker but it doesn't look any where near as good and sometimes it doesn't always remove your stock lock screen. Obviously vanilla seems to be faster and is more responsive so this is a category I am not going to name a winner in since it really comes down to personal preference.
8) Camera: Both of them take good still shots but the Sensation's shots look more crisp and records 1080p video much better. Videos appear to be smoother on top of looking better. The dual flash on the Sensation puts out a litltle more light which can be good and bad by lighting up the night club shots better but also washing out the photos a little more. I never liked flashes on phones anyway. Both of them have good camera apps but the Sensation gets the pick here due to video and still shots looking better.
9) Battery: Unlike some people who have a G2X, I was one of the lucky few to have a good battery and could easily get about 10-14 hours on moderate use. That being said, I get 15-18 hours on moderate use with the Sensation so this category obviously goes to the Sensation.
10) Storage and RAM: HTC really needs to start putting more app storage on there devices. It's 2011 and there still only adding 1gb of app storage. The Sensation has more RAM and even though it's running Sense, it shows a little more available memory on a fresh boot which is 263mb and on the G2X it is 249mb. This category gets a tie.
I have one bug on my Sensation and that is the WiFi death grip with holding it in landscape. I am starting to think these company's just don't care when putting there devices on the market. How hard is it to hold the phone in landscape and check for signal degradation?
I hope this helps you make the decision of whether you want to check out the Sensation or stay with the G2X. Haven't made my mind up yet though. I like them both!!!
Nice write up!
Thanks for the honest review...
thanks u da man
Thank you sir. Can you rate the front facing cameras on these devices? The g2x's is nice and honestly wish w/e drivers are used on it be mirrored onto back facing cam because the lighting is awesome.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
Very very nice review.... Staying g2x.. I felt basically the same with the sensation....
Good lord man, thanks for taking the time to write that up!
The Nexus One was the first HTC device I ever had and every one of their phones after that had extremely tinny speakerphones. I guess it's simply not a priority for HTC. I think it's sad honestly because I love using the speaker.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
Great comparison..I'm own my second g2x and on the ultimate rom and has zero issues..will stay with g2x...
Great review! Thanks.
I went to the mall yesterday and held one in my hands. Looked awesome. One thing that stood out was that when I scrolled through the apps in the app drawer, not only did they seem jerky as they scrolled, but they didn't "fling" as well. Seemed to move perfectly in time with my swipe. Seemed to take several swipes to go through the short stack of icons. Not a deal breaker or even a real concern, but sure seemed noticable. Any comment on that?
Thank you for your review. I had similar perceptions after playing around with a Sensation. The browser didn't perform as well as you have indicated on the unit I used. It was an in store unit so who knows what may have been done with it though. I decided to stick with my ROMed G2X and wait out the update.
jrwingate6 said:
10) Storage and RAM: HTC really needs to start putting more app storage on there devices. It's 2011 and there still only adding 1gb of app storage. The Sensation has more RAM and even though it's running Sense, it shows a little more available memory on a fresh boot which is 263mb and on the G2X it is 249mb. This category gets a tie.
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I typically have 260-270 free on my G2x after a reboot though I'm not running stock. It really shouldn't matter on GB though as it should be dynamically controlled, giving and taking as needed.
The internal storage is a larger deal for those without a decent size and speed Micro SD card. If not for using it to transfer large work files to and from home I could probably do without an external card on the G2X. A couple gameloft games on the Sensation and you'll be out of space in short order. I could see this being quite annoying for some people.
It is going to be interesting to see what happens with both devices as development continues on each device. The G2X is waiting for the GB update and the Sensation is waiting for HTC to unlock the bootloader (I think?).
Both are great phones
ickster said:
Great review! Thanks.
I went to the mall yesterday and held one in my hands. Looked awesome. One thing that stood out was that when I scrolled through the apps in the app drawer, not only did they seem jerky as they scrolled, but they didn't "fling" as well. Seemed to move perfectly in time with my swipe. Seemed to take several swipes to go through the short stack of icons. Not a deal breaker or even a real concern, but sure seemed noticable. Any comment on that?
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I think this app drawer scrolling issue you are talking about is by design in the new Sense 3.0, it scrolls down through the app drawer in pages. Depending on how many apps you have you will have to swipe again to see the next set of apps. When I am using Launcher pro it will "fling" all the way to the bottom of the apps listed. This is not in reference to the tabs at the bottom.
OP: Thanks for the great write-up. I have both G2X and Pyramid, coming from an Nexus One I love the form factor of the HTC Sensation. Right now the G2X has a huge advantage (CM7 within two weeks of release), but (if/when) the Sensation is unlocked and custom roms are avail (Sense removed). I think "for me", the HTC Pyramid 4G will be the perfect phone.
Most suprising aspect of comparison is that the Sensation and G2x are almost identical in physical size
meh...
The sceen on the sensation unit I played with was crap. Washed out blacks and dull color compared to the G2x. I compared both screens using the app drawer (looking at black levels and icons) and viewing several web sites with brightness at 25, 50 and 100%. Even the rep was surprised. Combined with a very slow Internet and a weak cpu and gpu, you can keep it.
ickster said:
Great review! Thanks.
I went to the mall yesterday and held one in my hands. Looked awesome. One thing that stood out was that when I scrolled through the apps in the app drawer, not only did they seem jerky as they scrolled, but they didn't "fling" as well. Seemed to move perfectly in time with my swipe. Seemed to take several swipes to go through the short stack of icons. Not a deal breaker or even a real concern, but sure seemed noticable. Any comment on that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you might be referring to page scroll in the new Sense. When you fling through the app drawer it moves by pages and will not let you fling to the bottom with one flick. It gets annoying if you have a lot of apps but if you throw on a different launcher, it acts like every other app drawer on Android.
DECIM8 said:
Thank you for your review. I had similar perceptions after playing around with a Sensation. The browser didn't perform as well as you have indicated on the unit I used. It was an in store unit so who knows what may have been done with it though. I decided to stick with my ROMed G2X and wait out the update.
I typically have 260-270 free on my G2x after a reboot though I'm not running stock. It really shouldn't matter on GB though as it should be dynamically controlled, giving and taking as needed.
The internal storage is a larger deal for those without a decent size and speed Micro SD card. If not for using it to transfer large work files to and from home I could probably do without an external card on the G2X. A couple gameloft games on the Sensation and you'll be out of space in short order. I could see this being quite annoying for some people.
It is going to be interesting to see what happens with both devices as development continues on each device. The G2X is waiting for the GB update and the Sensation is waiting for HTC to unlock the bootloader (I think?).
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Click to collapse
Yea, it could have been that the store model wasn't connected to a fast WiFi/4G signal. I tested both the G2X and the Sensation on my cocktail table about 5 feet from my router. The store model also probably suffered from the hanging data bug as well. Here is the fix for that. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1118017
ickster said:
Great review! Thanks.
I went to the mall yesterday and held one in my hands. Looked awesome. One thing that stood out was that when I scrolled through the apps in the app drawer, not only did they seem jerky as they scrolled, but they didn't "fling" as well. Seemed to move perfectly in time with my swipe. Seemed to take several swipes to go through the short stack of icons. Not a deal breaker or even a real concern, but sure seemed noticable. Any comment on that?
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Click to collapse
That's because the sensation's app drawer goes page by page. Its not jerky. Its how they have tweaked it.
jcbofkc said:
meh...
The sceen on the sensation unit I played with was crap. Washed out blacks and dull color compared to the G2x. I compared both screens using the app drawer (looking at black levels and icons) and viewing several web sites with brightness at 25, 50 and 100%. Even the rep was surprised. Combined with a very slow Internet and a weak cpu and gpu, you can keep it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must have played with a faulty unit because mine are sitting on the table right in front of me, set to 100% brightness with the app drawer on both and it's actually quite obvious the icons on the Sensation are sharper/more colorful and the background is darker than on the G2X. I don't know if my DSLR will pick up the darker black on the Sensation since it's such a small difference but I can tell you right now. If I took a picture of them sitting next to each other, you would see the difference in color of the icons and clarity of the icon text. A picture would definitely show, that the Sensation's icons are in fact sharper, more colorful and more vibrant. They just appear to POP more.
I'll post a picture when I get home from work so we can put this argument to rest.
I have played with the Sensation. G2x beats the screen on it by a landslide in terms of color reproduction and black levels. I am still going to try and replace the phone for a Sensation though.
nice review dude
jrwingate6 said:
You must have played with a faulty unit because mine are sitting on the table right in front of me, set to 100% brightness with the app drawer on both and it's actually quite obvious the icons on the Sensation are sharper/more colorful and the background is darker than on the G2X. I don't know if my DSLR will pick up the darker black on the Sensation since it's such a small difference but I can tell you right now. If I took a picture of them sitting next to each other, you would see the difference in color of the icons and clarity of the icon text. A picture would definitely show, that the Sensation's icons are in fact sharper, more colorful and more vibrant. They just appear to POP more.
I'll post a picture when I get home from work so we can put this argument to rest.
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I've seen quite a few people post about their Sensation screen looking washed out. The one I saw at T-mobile looked a little washed out to me. I think this is similar to the G2x bleed problem. Some of the units have a problem and some don't. For instance my G2x has absolutely no screen bleed at all but my girlfriends has a slight amount at the top. You probably got a good Sensation where as some of these people that are complaining didn't.
jcbofkc said:
meh...
The sceen on the sensation unit I played with was crap. Washed out blacks and dull color compared to the G2x. I compared both screens using the app drawer (looking at black levels and icons) and viewing several web sites with brightness at 25, 50 and 100%. Even the rep was surprised. Combined with a very slow Internet and a weak cpu and gpu, you can keep it.
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Click to collapse
I noticed the same thing. I was kinda perplexed at the OP's review. The screen on the Sensation looks washed out. Colors were not crisp. Speedtest was almost twice as slow as the G2x. Maybe we tested a defective unit?
Was wondering if it was worth upgrading from a g2? What do you guys think about it? Let me have some pros and cons before I dish out my booze money I had saved lol.
[G2/HTC Vision]
no. just wait for the next one. the build quaility of sensation is really low.
henrik.dk said:
no. just wait for the next one. the build quaility of sensation is really low.
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agreed ,and henrik.dk was being nice because he could of said worse
henrik.dk said:
no. just wait for the next one. the build quaility of sensation is really low.
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dont get any worse than the build quality of the g2 ....get one
tigerz0202 said:
dont get any worse than the build quality of the g2 ....get one
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you also right thats why he should wait dont make sense to to dush out more money for another low build quality phone
Can you elaborate on poor build quality?
I bought yesterday and now you have me seriously worried.
phonegod said:
you also right thats why he should wait dont make sense to to dush out more money for another low build quality phone
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well i like mine ,ive got no probs with the build quality , i get a new phone every year so i only wait a year, my hd2 was the only phone i kept over a year, so its whatever your means are to keep up with the technology
mcpothead said:
Can you elaborate on poor build quality?
I bought yesterday and now you have me seriously worried.
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just read the forum post on sensation general,sensation Q&A theres alot of things that go on with the phone i for one like it not had some of the problems people have but this is my third sensation so ive had my bit of problems but on my third sensation everthing is good
phonegod said:
just read the forum post on sensation general,sensation Q&A theres alot of things that go on with the phone i for one like it not had some of the problems people have but this is my third sensation so ive had my bit of problems but on my third sensation everthing is good
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Thanks mate yea I saw the issues there they seem to be with certain handsets only.
I was just worried as the guy above made it sound like there was problem with all the handsets build quality
mcpothead said:
Thanks mate yea I saw the issues there they seem to be with certain handsets only.
I was just worried as the guy above made it sound like there was problem with all the handsets build quality
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sure no problem you will be ok just handle the phone with care the back piece is fragile very, try not to drop the back cover or you will loose your volume rocker or the power button and remember to slide it in and out the back cover head first thats what he meant about build quality i think
phonegod said:
sure no problem you will be ok just handle the phone with care the back piece is fragile very, try not to drop the back cover or you will loose your volume rocker or the power button and remember to slide it in and out the back cover head first thats what he meant about build quality i think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again will take extra care when putting the battery in. Then the case and screen protector are going straight on
THIS IS THE WORST, MOST SHODDILY CONSTRUCTED PHONE THAT COULD EVER EXIST (Not)
The "build quality" of the phone is fine. There are a few problems associated with being early adopters, that a small fraction of people on XDA have. As far as I know, everyone with major issues had them resolved by returning their phone, in store and getting it replaced on the spot.
There are different displays one bye AUO and one made by Sharp, if you're having trouble and prefer either display you can go in-store and exchange it, after telling them the issues you're having with your phone.
Furthermore many of the so called "issues" with build quality are BS manufactured by XDA-ers. Like:
"If I turn of my screen and hold it at a 45 degree angle while shining a flashlight at it I can see a spec of dust under the screen, I'm really really worried ='("
or my personal favorite:
"When I press down on the buttons on the bottom of my screen I hear a slight creaking sound WTF HTC!?!?"
My personal second favorite is THE LAGGY SENSE ISSUE, which essentially goes like this :
"I saw a video on youtube and the HTC EVO 3D runs the HTC Sense homescreen carousel milliseconds faster and smoother than the HTC Sensation, WTF HTC !!! IS THIS WHAT WE'RE PAYING FOR!?!?!?"
- I would like to note that this issue only came into existence after said video made its way to the forums and someone decided that it was an "issue" that a slightly newer phone, with slightly better hardware and a slightly more optimized ROM, ran sense 3.0 slightly better than our phones do at the moment.
- They aren't buttons... this is a touch screen phone and just because they look like buttons doesn't mean that they should be pressed like buttons.
- Wifi-Signal attenuation while holding the phone, in landscape, a particular way IS real, but only if you are far away from your router. ALL phones experience signal attenuation when all or parts of the radios are covered, our phones do not lost Cellular data signal when held in landscape as has been erroneously reported in some places.
Now I will tell you about my experiences with the phone. Both cameras perform poorly in low light conditions and other than that it's a beast of a phone. Absolutely phenomenal.Strangely enough, I don't hear many people talking about this, actual issue where the phone is not performing as one might realistically expect it to perform.
I got my device on launch day and haven't had one "issue" yet. I have seen and others have noted that some dust can get inside of the phone's case, near the headphone jack. I would consider this another NON-issue as it has not been shown to cause any issues. Furthermore dust frequently gets inside of electronics, that's why the good lord above invented compressed air. Some XDA-ers inhale it then try to find issues with their devices, I will use it to clean my phone in a few months, the same way that I do to my desktop PC or the way my little brother does to his gaming consoles.
It's a terrible phone if you only use it at 45 degree angles, in the dark, while shining a flashlight on it, with the display turned off as you press extra hard on the touchscreen (because YOU believe they are buttons to be pressed and not a screen to be touched), using your phone a mile away from your home router, in landscape while completely covering the top of the phone and watching videos of HTC EVO 3D's performing slightly better and getting jealous.
If you use your phone like a normal end-user or even a power user and NOT a beta tester in a laboratory setting then the phone is amazing.
I rest my case.
Thanks for the info guys. Much appreciated.
[G2/HTC Vision]
That was pretty good statement. +1
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
BonesRed speaks the truth
Thanks for the info don't feel so nervous now
Thanks
BonesRed said:
The "build quality" of the phone is fine. There are a few problems associated with being early adopters, that a small fraction of people on XDA have. As far as I know, everyone with major issues had them resolved by returning their phone, in store and getting it replaced on the spot.
There are different displays one bye AUO and one made by Sharp, if you're having trouble and prefer either display you can go in-store and exchange it, after telling them the issues you're having with your phone.
Furthermore many of the so called "issues" with build quality are BS manufactured by XDA-ers. Like:
"If I turn of my screen and hold it at a 45 degree angle while shining a flashlight at it I can see a spec of dust under the screen, I'm really really worried ='("
or my personal favorite:
"When I press down on the buttons on the bottom of my screen I hear a slight creaking sound WTF HTC!?!?"
My personal second favorite is THE LAGGY SENSE ISSUE, which essentially goes like this :
"I saw a video on youtube and the HTC EVO 3D runs the HTC Sense homescreen carousel milliseconds faster and smoother than the HTC Sensation, WTF HTC !!! IS THIS WHAT WE'RE PAYING FOR!?!?!?"
- I would like to note that this issue only came into existence after said video made its way to the forums and someone decided that it was an "issue" that a slightly newer phone, with slightly better hardware and a slightly more optimized ROM, ran sense 3.0 slightly better than our phones do at the moment.
- They aren't buttons... this is a touch screen phone and just because they look like buttons doesn't mean that they should be pressed like buttons.
- Wifi-Signal attenuation while holding the phone, in landscape, a particular way IS real, but only if you are far away from your router. ALL phones experience signal attenuation when all or parts of the radios are covered, our phones do not lost Cellular data signal when held in landscape as has been erroneously reported in some places.
Now I will tell you about my experiences with the phone. Both cameras perform poorly in low light conditions and other than that it's a beast of a phone. Absolutely phenomenal.Strangely enough, I don't hear many people talking about this, actual issue where the phone is not performing as one might realistically expect it to perform.
I got my device on launch day and haven't had one "issue" yet. I have seen and others have noted that some dust can get inside of the phone's case, near the headphone jack. I would consider this another NON-issue as it has not been shown to cause any issues. Furthermore dust frequently gets inside of electronics, that's why the good lord above invented compressed air. Some XDA-ers inhale it then try to find issues with their devices, I will use it to clean my phone in a few months, the same way that I do to my desktop PC or the way my little brother does to his gaming consoles.
It's a terrible phone if you only use it at 45 degree angles, in the dark, while shining a flashlight on it, with the display turned off as you press extra hard on the touchscreen (because YOU believe they are buttons to be pressed and not a screen to be touched), using your phone a mile away from your home router, in landscape while completely covering the top of the phone and watching videos of HTC EVO 3D's performing slightly better and getting jealous.
If you use your phone like a normal end-user or even a power user and NOT a beta tester in a laboratory setting then the phone is amazing.
I rest my case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks man
luis86dr said:
Was wondering if it was worth upgrading from a g2? What do you guys think about it? Let me have some pros and cons before I dish out my booze money I had saved lol.
[G2/HTC Vision]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should look into getting the mytouch 4g slide it comes out July 27th it has pretty much the same specs but you won't have to give up your physical keyboard and it can handle T-Mobile HSPA+
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
I am not sure what these guys are referring to as having questionable build quality. If anything that would apply to the G2 and that was my last phone...well, right before the G2x horror.
You should be quite happy with the Sensation, if you have nothing against HTC Sense, as it is a very good device. Very good. I am certain it will be bested in some way by another high end Android phone in a few months, or weeks (there's always something new) but I am flat out thrilled to be using one right now.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
Having had HTC HERO and A HTD HD7 I was more of inclined to go for the SENSATION,
But after hovering around both threads decided for the GAlaxy s2 due to better back camera and front camera(2mp) and also for the fact that it came with bootloader unlocked
ANd I guess that was the best decision I made cause of one more reason being....
You can flash the latest firmwares on samsung Devices with ODIN without the NEED TO ROOT which I think is really cool.
I am already on a leaked version of 2.3.4 running beautifully with gtalk video working really great and have not even rooted my phone yet
Just my thoughts.........
I don't know if its just me, but the app icons @ the sence homescreen looks blurry, not sharp, NOT GOOD. The lockscreen and the app drawer icons look good & sharp but not in the homescreen for some reason. Plus, theres no black bar behind the icon label text, so its very hard to read the text when having a bright wallpaper.. not that its anything necessary, but it simply looks like ****. Pretty much any other launcher has sharp looking app icons and runs smooth, but I kinda want the Sence widgets etc.
Overall I think the phone UI isn't smooth for ****, I mean, my brothers Desire HD is way more smooth and is powered by a single core cpu (stock rom, no clock or root). Feels like I both hate and love the phone at the same time, HTC really need to shape the phone software up or back it goes!
Have you checked to see what type of screen you have? AUO or Sharp? Check out this thread
schoolsux said:
I don't know if its just me, but the app icons @ the sence homescreen looks blurry, not sharp, NOT GOOD. The lockscreen and the app drawer icons look good & sharp but not in the homescreen for some reason. Plus, theres no black bar behind the icon label text, so its very hard to read the text when having a bright wallpaper.. not that its anything necessary, but it simply looks like ****. Pretty much any other launcher has sharp looking app icons and runs smooth, but I kinda want the Sence widgets etc.
Overall I think the phone UI isn't smooth for ****, I mean, my brothers Desire HD is way more smooth and is powered by a single core cpu (stock rom, no clock or root). Feels like I both hate and love the phone at the same time, HTC really need to shape the phone software up or back it goes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I posted this a while back, the home screen icons ARE INDEED blurry, (and the bottom bar has jagged edges, and the side of the screen has a 4 pixel black bar that problably noone has noticed(but I just found at it was because my sharp screen has a 544*960 resolution, maybe the auo has 540?)) you are not insane, I suppose sence 3,0 wasnt well finished to match the resolution.
Anyone in doubt, add an icon in the home screen, and look at that same icon in the drawer or inside a folder, MUCH SHARPER
The bottom bar being all jagged does bother me at times, but it's no big deal. No blurryness of icons for me. I have a Sharp panel.
aNYthing24 said:
The bottom bar being all jagged does bother me at times, but it's no big deal. No blurryness of icons for me. I have a Sharp panel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have shqrp oanel too, i had 4 sensations, all had blurry icons and so do you and every one else, the blurryness is very very imperceptible, it is something that most people wontnotice. But you do sligbtlykotice it when you compare a homescreen icon with the same onein theapp drawer. Try it with the "people" app,again its very faint, be happy you dontse it
PurpleSkyz said:
I have shqrp oanel too, i had 4 sensations, all had blurry icons and so do you and every one else, the blurryness is very very imperceptible, it is something that most people wontnotice. But you do sligbtlykotice it when you compare a homescreen icon with the same onein theapp drawer. Try it with the "people" app,again its very faint, be happy you dontse it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha I don't want to compare because it'll be another thing that's going to start bugging me and will deter me from enjoy the phone. Ignorance is bliss.
aNYthing24 said:
Haha I don't want to compare because it'll be another thing that's going to start bugging me and will deter me from enjoy the phone. Ignorance is bliss.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hehe, when i got my first sensation, it is the first thing that I noticed, and i was the first one that bothered me, that and the jaggies.
Then i had to send it back 4 times for various hardware reasons, not, the very faint blur doesnt bother me at all, compared to the rest.
I also think that being software, it isnt a problem and can be fixed.
I too wish I didnt see that stuff lol, all my RL friends, relations, the whole world around me, dont seem to care about this kind of stuff. Except people here on XDA, do we have a desease lol?
My GF desire HD has one of her 4 capactive buttons, the menu one, spelling out mEnu with a capital e instead and the rest normal letters, that is the kind of crap that drives me mad lol
My worst pet peeve used to be dead pixels and scratches. now phones are Gorilla glass, and pixels are so small you have a hard time seeing them if they are dead., So lord all mighty decided to put dust, fuzzy speaker, and various other problems in my phone to make up for it.
schoolsux said:
I don't know if its just me, but the app icons @ the sence homescreen looks blurry, not sharp, NOT GOOD. The lockscreen and the app drawer icons look good & sharp but not in the homescreen for some reason. Plus, theres no black bar behind the icon label text, so its very hard to read the text when having a bright wallpaper.. not that its anything necessary, but it simply looks like ****. Pretty much any other launcher has sharp looking app icons and runs smooth, but I kinda want the Sence widgets etc.
Overall I think the phone UI isn't smooth for ****, I mean, my brothers Desire HD is way more smooth and is powered by a single core cpu (stock rom, no clock or root). Feels like I both hate and love the phone at the same time, HTC really need to shape the phone software up or back it goes!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've done a lot of comparing with icons on my homescreen and the icons in my app drawer and I see zero difference personally. Maybe something is going on with a portion of the panels.... As for the black box behind the text, HTC removed it in Sense 3.0 for some reason.
I'm coming from the Inspire 4G (US version of Desire HD) and the reason its so much smoother is because in Sense 2.0/2.1 there is a WHOLE lot less going on in the system compared to Sense 3.0. I personally deal with some lag also. I promise once we get S-OFF and we are able to flash custom ROMs, things will get a million times better. All the chefs and devs will tweak the stock ROM to fly on the Sensation and it will be a night and day difference once its perfected. We will get a lot of awesome devs coming to this phone for that specific reason .
My icons were blurry on Sense but ADW fixed everything as usual. HTC really needs to go back to the drawing board with Sense. I don't understand why everyone praises Sense so much. It has to much eye candy, can't change the **** icons and ITS SLOW!
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
motoman234 said:
I've done a lot of comparing with icons on my homescreen and the icons in my app drawer and I see zero difference personally. Maybe something is going on with a portion of the panels.... As for the black box behind the text, HTC removed it in Sense 3.0 for some reason.
I'm coming from the Inspire 4G (US version of Desire HD) and the reason its so much smoother is because in Sense 2.0/2.1 there is a WHOLE lot less going on in the system compared to Sense 3.0. I personally deal with some lag also. I promise once we get S-OFF and we are able to flash custom ROMs, things will get a million times better. All the chefs and devs will tweak the stock ROM to fly on the Sensation and it will be a night and day difference once its perfected. We will get a lot of awesome devs coming to this phone for that specific reason .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally strongly believe that you just dont see it (no insulting or anything), but it is there, i mean it really is not like its all blurry, but maybe recroped by a pixel line.
It is not hardware, the screen isnt a problem, it is just on the homescreen, which is why i KNOW every one has it, or...there are multiple sense version out there.
HTC just hurried sense 3,0 out and its obvious (to me anyway) but I dont mind it all that much now
Maybe it's just me, but after upgrading to 2.3.4...the icons on the home screen don't look blurry anymore. Can someone else check?
PurpleSkyz said:
I personally strongly believe that you just dont see it (no insulting or anything), but it is there, i mean it really is not like its all blurry, but maybe recroped by a pixel line.
It is not hardware, the screen isnt a problem, it is just on the homescreen, which is why i KNOW every one has it, or...there are multiple sense version out there.
HTC just hurried sense 3,0 out and its obvious (to me anyway) but I dont mind it all that much now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly, it's a sense problem, everyone has it, with some icons/colours it's a little difficult to spot, but it's always there, but I thought it was fixed with the 1.45, someone here mentioned that it did.
EDIT : and the above post seems to confirm it.
Think more along the lines of "slight soft focus" rather than blurry, I wonder if it's where they've pulled things over from previous sense versions and not rejigged it for 540x960
I have blurry icons and text too in desktop. Also that bottom bar doesnt have smooth border. This is Sense issue, because other launchers shows perfect fonts.
This is annoying too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYH4Y4zo4cM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e53S8hR1eg
Dude.. Get your eye sight checked by ophthalmologist... Not kidding...
jjdoctor said:
Dude.. Get your eye sight checked by ophthalmologist... Not kidding...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Duuude, that bottom bar image in default theme is scaled wrong in Sensation, Sense 3.0, its fixed in 3.5. And dude, sensation has two differend screens, Acer and Sharp. Acer screen has these issues.
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 PM ----------
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1131592
Well, I saw a Rogers user posting his comments after a week of use so I figured I'd post some opinion as well, especially since I disagree with several of his opinions.
First, I've noticed the wi-fi issue as well. As with some other posters my router is not known to be super reliable, so that could have some impact. Also, it seems that some folks are having success switching to G instead of N and that may also help as I believe I am on G at work and I haven't had any issue with wi-fi at work. Hopefully this can be fixed with a software update.
I first reported some disappointment with the warm hue of the screen, and either it is growing on me or it is burning in a little bit and the tans, greens, and oranges are starting to look better. The screen as a whole looks fantastic. Several people have remarked how it looks like a sticker on the phone or like the image is sitting on top of the glass. The resolution is fantastic and everything looks crisp vibrant. Reds, blues, and yellows look fine too. White seems pretty white to me. When comparing a white screen on the HOX to an AMOLED screen the HOX looks white and the AMOLED looks blue.
Battery life is about what I was expecting and seems to be on-par with the international version. I've not had any trouble making it from 8AM to 11PM even with pretty heavy usage. It's not as good as my Captivate on AOKP which could make it ~30 hrs under my normal usage which is relatively light. Because the HOX is such a great phone and it's brand new I've been using it a lot more so the most I think I've gotten is 18 or 19 hours which most people would consider fantastic in consideration of the usage.
Camera is by no means average and it absolutely smokes the iPhone 4S. I took some test shots with my wife's iPhone and the HOX just blows it away. The flash is much better, but even in low light without the flash the HOX looks better, has less grain to the photos and generally focuses better and has better color reproduction. The speed of the camera is incredible and using the burst mode to capture a moment is a stroke of genius if you have a dog or a kid that you want to take a pic of them doing something cute.
I've not had any status bar icon issues or in call volume adjustment.
My biggest complaint is not being able to turn off LTE since I'm not in an LTE area. I tried using a different APN and I didn't notice any difference and it didn't improve my battery life at all. I only had the new APN for ~2 days but I felt I may have been getting worse battery life, but certainly wasn't getting better battery life so I just went back to the stock APN.
I guess the Rogers poster was coming from an iPhone and remarked on a slight lag moving between homescreens. This is exagerated to say the least. This phone with sense 4.0 is the fastest UI I've seen on an android phone and the only phone that is more fluid is the iphone and that is due to apple putting realtime priority on UI rendering computations while Android puts industry standard normal priority on rendering. No matter how good the code is, no matter how fast the processor is, it's just never going to look like the iphone because it's never going to have realtime priority. That said, this phone responds instantly to all touches in virtually all parts of the phone. The only times I've seen lag is either app related or network related. It's a great user experience.
Another concern I saw in some other threads that I completely agree with is that the white smudges easily. In addition, the polycarbonate shell may be very durable in that it protects the phone, but it's basically the same material as a LEGO and as such can be dented with a drop as I've unfortunately experienced already. As far as the smudging the phone wipes back to a bright white easily, but probably needs to be cleaned every few days to keep it bright white and not getting dull. The white looks fantastic, best looking white phone out there, but I'd have to reluctantly recommend the grey if you aren't going to use a case in order to hide some dirt and dings more easily.
Overall, this is a fantastic phone. HTC has lived up to the hype and produced THE top android the device out right now. If you want the best in basically every area, you want an HOX right now, and it doesn't look like Samsung is going to beat it and it's going to take quite some time for the S3 to come to the US. If you've got an ATT upgrade in the next 2 months, you'd be crazy not to drop it on the HOX.
Hey since your on the AT & T version and you don't have the setting to turn LTE off. Type *#*#4636#*#* go to phone information and you can switch it to GSM/HSPA only. Let me know if that works for you!
My two biggest concerns right now are the wi-fi performance (which seems to be real and potentially fixed with a software update) and the battery life. In a few days we should see professional reviews for the AT&T model that will be able to compare the international and LTE editions under equal usage.
I know the white is harder to keep clean but I really prefer the look of it over the grey. Maybe I'd just make the effort to keep it clean.
I also think the camera lens is an issue with respect to scratches. I don't plan on using a case 95% of the time, so I'd have to find a DIY way to cover said lens while not in use. (I was thinking a small piece of electrical tape or something along those lines.)
I'm also going to wait until the WWDC keynote next month to see what Apple has in store for iOS 6.
If the wi-fi issue can get settled, battery life is solid while using LTE, iOS 6 isn't leaps and bounds better than iOS 5, then I'll probably make the jump. Some things to line up first though.
therulebookman said:
Camera is by no means average and it absolutely smokes the iPhone 4S. I took some test shots with my wife's iPhone and the HOX just blows it away. The flash is much better, but even in low light without the flash the HOX looks better, has less grain to the photos and generally focuses better and has better color reproduction. The speed of the camera is incredible and using the burst mode to capture a moment is a stroke of genius if you have a dog or a kid that you want to take a pic of them doing something cute.
I've not had any status bar icon issues or in call volume adjustment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did some more testing with the camera and no doubt it is able to create some fairly high quality shots. I just find the camera experience a bit easier overall with the i4s. We have matte grey walls at home and for some reason they always show up weird and distorted, I'll take a pic after work tonight and post it to show you what I mean.. I'll also post a comparison pic off the iPhone camera.
mattymon said:
Hey since your on the AT & T version and you don't have the setting to turn LTE off. Type *#*#4636#*#* go to phone information and you can switch it to GSM/HSPA only. Let me know if that works for you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried this before and posted results in my first thread about it. Doesn't work.
Odd question, can you do time lapse videos? I know this is an ICS thing, just wondering if HTC left it in?
BoostedSR20 said:
Odd question, can you do time lapse videos? I know this is an ICS thing, just wondering if HTC left it in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have the phone yet but i remember from reading a review from neowin that they left the time lapse feature out.
blairh said:
My two biggest concerns right now are the wi-fi performance (which seems to be real and potentially fixed with a software update) and the battery life. In a few days we should see professional reviews for the AT&T model that will be able to compare the international and LTE editions under equal usage.
I know the white is harder to keep clean but I really prefer the look of it over the grey. Maybe I'd just make the effort to keep it clean.
I also think the camera lens is an issue with respect to scratches. I don't plan on using a case 95% of the time, so I'd have to find a DIY way to cover said lens while not in use. (I was thinking a small piece of electrical tape or something along those lines.)
I'm also going to wait until the WWDC keynote next month to see what Apple has in store for iOS 6.
If the wi-fi issue can get settled, battery life is solid while using LTE, iOS 6 isn't leaps and bounds better than iOS 5, then I'll probably make the jump. Some things to line up first though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know a lot of user's are concerned about getting the white version dirty, eBay has some clear gel cases for 2$, figured I'd share since a clear case won't hide the beauty of this device
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
rambo8987 said:
I know a lot of user's are concerned about getting the white version dirty, eBay has some clear gel cases for 2$, figured I'd share since a clear case won't hide the beauty of this device
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No clue if I'll end up getting the One X, but if I do, I'm only going to use a case when necessary (working around the house, etc). Love the way that polycarbonate feels in my hand. Camera lens needs to be covered with something though.
Has anyone messed with the APN settings and noticed a difference in battery life. You definitely can force HSPA/+.