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Slashgear Review . . .

I think this is the first proper review.
http://www.slashgear.com/htc-sensation-review-23153699/
Do the people with the phone already, agree with the conclusions drawn?

freedirk said:
I think this is the first proper review.
http://www.slashgear.com/htc-sensation-review-23153699/
Do the people with the phone already, agree with the conclusions drawn?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seemed pretty fair and balanced. Glad to see that pics are better with this handset over some other HTC ones. Little bummed about the tearing int he video - but I imagine that might be something that a software update might address. Browser seems fine if a little different than the samsung when zooming flash. Battery life looked ok - but what surprised me was that they have great battery life on their SGS II. That seems to be one of the most dominant complaint threads on their boards.
All in all I feel better about looking to purchase one when it comes out in the states.

Damn.
I'm thinking more and more of getting the SG2 now instead due to lack of dev support and this review is swaying it more too. The SG2 is a much better hardware package but i prefer the design of htc and i prefer sense to touchwiz.

I can comment on TouchWiz vs. Sense. I got an SGS2 because I couldn't wait for the Sensation to come to the States to evaluate it. I had Sense on my former HTC phones and was expecting TouchWiz to be kind of the same thing. Sense is an environment with apps tightly integrated whereas TouchWiz is really just a Samsung launcher. I used launchers on my last two phones which were vanilla Android so TouchWiz's more Android feel felt comfortable. People looking for HTC's approach toward common apps being front-ended by Sense and tightly integrated would be disappointed with TouchWiz. Not that TouchWiz is bad and a lot of Samsung's proprietary apps and hubs are really good, it's just a very different approach.

"Sensation as the consumer’s phone and the Galaxy S II as the Android fan’s phone"

this review is that whas i need.
i dont intresting sg2. i only intresting or sensation is beter that desire in all aspekts ( screen, power, call quality, camera, sound in 3.5mm and laudnes in speeker, battery u.t.t)
Sensation is beter? i think it is.
hope for root, bet some time i cen live without that
p.s in latvian phone cen wait 2-3 weaks after unbranded realise in eorope. need wait some time

MartijnMM said:
"Sensation as the consumer’s phone and the Galaxy S II as the Android fan’s phone"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i disagree. sg2 is just too ugly and iphone'esque (even if Apple copied their original design from samsung)
HTC are a better all rounder i think

Well Barff1984, I do agree with you that in the all-rounder category the Sensation is the winner, however in terms of "Android Fans Phone" I think it's a bit inconclusive:
On one hand you've got the fact that the SGS2 was released earlier, with its bootloader opened wide with the sound of devs cheers, incredible specs and whatnot. Is it the easy fan choice? Well;
On the other hand: Some people (myself included, hate me if I sound a bit biased) prefer HTC's approach - albeit slightly weaker, when it comes down to the experience of actually using it - the UI, the sense of quality in your hand is a key factor.
And you know what? I think that's another way of being an Android fan - sticking with the things you like, and not fitting into an iFruity pattern. That's the beauty of Android - you've always got choice, whether its hardware or software. If you don't like it - change it. Because you can.
Plus I can smell the dev gods are cooking delicious stuff for us Hardcore HTC guys, and just because Samsung got a head start doesn't mean the Sensation is DOA.

i agree with you trek -
I don't think you can say either phone is better, they both had good points, both had bad points...
but the reason i love android - WE are left with a choice of which one WE prefer !
i happen to prefer better build and feel of htc and sense over touchwiz.

Barff1984 said:
i disagree. sg2 is just too ugly and iphone'esque (even if Apple copied their original design from samsung)
HTC are a better all rounder i think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you've mis-read the quote slightly.
I think it's to do with the sensation having a more polished interface which will make it sit better with casual users. Whereas people that have researched the phones a great deal will possibly prefer the Galaxy2 for its unlocked bootloader and arguably better hardware.
Of course as slashgear also stated,this generalisation does nothing for either phone as both are power houses.
P.s. I also realise that the vast majority of users here have researched both phones and have alot of knowledge, hence the reason we're here. ;-)
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

It's a never-ending debate.
As long as someone is happy with any of the phone, I would say job well done from the part of the manufacturer/OEM. And I believe the review did it's best not to raise the fanboy-ish sentiments that we have.
I am absolutely sure that Engadget review will be provocative/controversial (it's always their goal to generate maximum comments). Gsmarena/Anandtech seems to be much more detailed and objective.

Phil750123 said:
i agree with you trek -
I don't think you can say either phone is better, they both had good points, both had bad points...
but the reason i love android - WE are left with a choice of which one WE prefer !
i happen to prefer better build and feel of htc and sense over touchwiz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What i just hate is that HTC failed on a few VERY simple issues,
if they did better on those points, they would easy have a winner.
1) More RAM and internal storage
2) Non signed bootloader
3) Hardware accl browser

Barff1984 said:
i disagree. sg2 is just too ugly and iphone'esque (even if Apple copied their original design from samsung)
HTC are a better all rounder i think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, put together, SGS2 is ugly look.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

I think the review was good. I saw some complaints about it being too superficial but I think it serves its purpose and was unbiased pointing out the benefits and cons giving each phone its due (I don't care that it was more of a comparative review as that's basically how people on here treat it). I also hope the GSMArena one comes out soon. They tend to have very detailed review going into all aspects of the phones. I'm still quite sure I'm getting it but I like to be aware of all the "bad" stuff before I get something (this is also nice because often the bad doesn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be making me pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed )

MartijnMM said:
What i just hate is that HTC failed on a few VERY simple issues,
if they did better on those points, they would easy have a winner.
1) More RAM and internal storage
2) Non signed bootloader
3) Hardware accl browser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, minor steps for big improvements.
1) Think the ram is the big issue, specially when sense is going to take up
more ram then touchwiz (im guessing here but im pretty certain it be the
case)
2) Im sure "hoping" that this will be by passable, I've read a detail
article about this stating, it not as bad as people believe. I dont understand
it fully but as most people on here, i just want custom roms!
3) Would be nice, but not on my top list as personally im not a big
web broswer on my mobile. (Although might change when i get a bigger screen
and faster web browsing )
Im leaving work early to fly down to the vodafone shop and see if
they have one in stock - bar that to phones 4 u shop opposite so
hopefully I'll be able to talk from first hand experience!

Hmm, I wonder when we'll start seeing reviews with proper GPS testing. Not comments like "the gps is fine, it locked really fast!" but showing some tracks and proof of decent accuracy and consistency. That would help avoiding fiascos like the one with the Galaxy S.
I'm curious about the Sensation but will definitely not buy another toy without clearing this out first... can't get lost.

did anyone notice sample camera picture taken by sensation at slashgear review have soft image on left and sharp on the right?
ignore the already out of focus background flower pic, other street and tree pictures it doesn't seem like depth of field, anyone got the device on hand can confirm or share your picture please.

Beowulf_pt said:
Hmm, I wonder when we'll start seeing reviews with proper GPS testing. Not comments like "the gps is fine, it locked really fast!" but showing some tracks and proof of decent accuracy and consistency. That would help avoiding fiascos like the one with the Galaxy S.
I'm curious about the Sensation but will definitely not buy another toy without clearing this out first... can't get lost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, I'd like to know this. But no tech site, or youtube review has brought up the GPS issue, which I'm sure they would when they did their review.
I did hear (made a poll), on androidforums, that a few had these problems but all of them, now, have basically ironed themselves out. Really odd, but a few days later virtually everyone reported back that it fixed itself. I know your looking for hard evidence but I just thought I'd share what I know.

ratchetnclank said:
Damn.
I'm thinking more and more of getting the SG2 now instead due to lack of dev support and this review is swaying it more too. The SG2 is a much better hardware package but i prefer the design of htc and i prefer sense to touchwiz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, Its kinda just got out on contract... wait for it to be off-contract and published in the USA and more :O

http://www.slashgear.com/sensation-vs-galaxy-s-ii-does-qhd-make-a-difference-24154010/
Addition stuff about the screens. Looks like for games its the SGII for movies/webbrowsing/text based stuff - Sensation.

Lack of development interest?

I know its new but even phones like the GS2 and Sensation had things going on in the thread before they were out, could this phone be skipped by the devs and ignored which makes it a pointless phone to own what's your views.

Have you tried developing a 3D app etc? It's probably a lot harder for starters... It's not just a case of porting an app over like from the HTC HD to say a mini pro.
Give it a few weeks and I'm sure something will pop up

Jabbypants said:
a pointless phone to own what's your views.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I want a phone that can be rooted and does 3D, this phone sounds perfect to me

projectsome said:
Have you tried developing a 3D app etc? It's probably a lot harder for starters... It's not just a case of porting an app over like from the HTC HD to say a mini pro.
Give it a few weeks and I'm sure something will pop up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don't mean 3D apps I mean roms with owning a Sensation and now a GS2 as well as this phone, the Android Development threads were beaming with things even before the phones had been released but there is little on this so far.

Jabbypants said:
i don't mean 3D apps I mean roms with owning a Sensation and now a GS2 as well as this phone, the Android Development threads were beaming with things even before the phones had been released but there is little on this so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long have you had the LGO3D? Give the phone a chance....

projectsome said:
How long have you had the LGO3D? Give the phone a chance....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give it chance but weeks before the Sensation was released there was loads of interest in the Development section, test roms etc same with the GS2 but this one so far is pretty dead.

AFAIK, LG is not as popular "yet" as the 2 two pioneer brands...but it has great potentials...

I think the reason is the complexity behind the 3D part of this phone. After all, the main reason for getting this phone is for its 3D capability. Also, this is one of the first 3D phone around... so give it some time
Don't forget Samsung also had smae prb back when the "Galaxy" range come up.. the dev rom not really picked up before i9000 arrive.
Sure this phone will pick up once u see more on street, it is very early now ^^

There are also a lot of developers that are interested but can't get the phone yet.
We are getting Verizon LTE here this week, but we don't even have a date for any dual core Cortex-A9 phone yet.

wait till you see CM7 pops out at you.
Am sure almost all the good teams will be with it soon enough. LG could help too by releasing some stuff too.

I dont think this phone will lack interest of developers. Once it has been released in US, many things will change imo. The phone has great potential not only because of its 3D capabilities, but also because of the Tri-Dual tech and Omap4.
I am actually satisfied enough with root and chainfire nvidia drivers for tegra games. Omap4 is quite capable of playing high end games which are specifically designed for ANOTHER gpu. This gives me the thought of its potential that if there will be games specifically designed for omap4, it could be really really rocking.

As stated above wait for the US release, also when it comes to ROMs, this phone is hard, there where a few early leaks but nothing much and the hardware is completely new compared to others and that takes time as well to get to know, on the plus side TI shares code and are often very helpful to homebrew projects etc, on the downside 3D is also completely new to the ROM builders and that will take some time to learn etc.
Many of the phone that get builds before they are even out share most of the same hardware as other phones and so on, the LG Optimus 2X is just getting CM7 but still no stable build, not for lack of interest but for the fact that it's a new chipset and dual-core etc, if you are hoping for a ROM within the next few weeks you are going to be disappointed but if you are willing to give it 3-6 months you'll probably get some really neat stuff to put in your phone.

This phone has great potential. But currently it is still too "costy" for development purpose and too many "first" for the industry. So everything is from scratch. So far the only thing that I am able to stuff in this phone is the HTC IME (chinese) which I still couldn't find anything better.

Disgruntled Sensation owner

I have an htc sensation and am extremely unhappy with the software support it has gotten. Not putting any blame on the devs, they have been great to us but the fact of the matter is that we are still on cm7 alphas, not even nightlies, and ics support is looking pretty bad. Kmobs has made some progress, so I'm going to wait a while to see what he has to offer along with whatever else the cm team gives us. And that's ignoring the hardware issues like poor reception and a shoddy screen (Ghosting and scan lines on an lcd made in 2011? seriously? That's ignoring the fact that my a** produces deeper blacks than this thing. I know it's an lcd, but come on! I swear to god I'm never buying an htc phone ever again).
Assuming that doesn't end well, would you guys recommend I "downgrade" to a nexus s? I wouldn't be able to afford a galaxy nexus (whenever the hell that launches on t-mobile, no way I import one) I could sell my sensation and get a used one for a pretty good price. Or should I just tough it out with my sensation and get a galaxy nexus when its second hand price drops?
Basically, what I'm asking is do you gs owners feel compelled to upgrade to the galaxy nexus or are you still content with your devices?

I'm happy with my phone as it is. Yeah, I could get a Galaxy Nexus if I wanted to pay for it outright, but there'll be another one next year, and there's nothing wrong with my NS. I wouldn't mind a Galaxy Nexus, but for me, my phone's doing what I need it to

tehgeekguy said:
I'm happy with my phone as it is. Yeah, I could get a Galaxy Nexus if I wanted to pay for it outright, but there'll be another one next year, and there's nothing wrong with my NS. I wouldn't mind a Galaxy Nexus, but for me, my phone's doing what I need it to
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what really bothers me about the sensation, it doesn't do what I need it to do. HTC Sense is a complete mess imo, and cm7 (which is what I'm currently running) is incredibly buggy due to it still being an alpha. (the browser will crash about every tenth page you load) Thanks for the input.

gonintendo said:
I have an htc sensation and am extremely unhappy with the software support it has gotten. Not putting any blame on the devs, they have been great to us but the fact of the matter is that we are still on cm7 alphas, not even nightlies, and ics support is looking pretty bad. Kmobs has made some progress, so I'm going to wait a while to see what he has to offer along with whatever else the cm team gives us. And that's ignoring the hardware issues like poor reception and a shoddy screen (Ghosting and scan lines on an lcd made in 2011? seriously? That's ignoring the fact that my a** produces deeper blacks than this thing. I know it's an lcd, but come on! I swear to god I'm never buying an htc phone ever again).
Assuming that doesn't end well, would you guys recommend I "downgrade" to a nexus s? I wouldn't be able to afford a galaxy nexus (whenever the hell that launches on t-mobile, no way I import one) I could sell my sensation and get a used one for a pretty good price. Or should I just tough it out with my sensation and get a galaxy nexus when its second hand price drops?
Basically, what I'm asking is do you gs owners feel compelled to upgrade to the galaxy nexus or are you still content with your devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your first mistake.. the nexus s is not a downgrade. not even close. just because it doesnt have a dual core cpu, doesnt mean anything. as a matter of fact, my nexus s doesnt know that it doesnt have a dual core, and im not telling it
i have a friend thats very disgruntled with his sensation also. and for pretty much the same reasons that you gave. the only thing that i can say to ease your pain is that morfic, the creator of the Trinity line of kernels(for the ns/ns4g), has just received a sensation to develop on. im hopeful that the sensation will be seeing some great kernels in not to long of a time span. so, heads up

simms22 said:
your first mistake.. the nexus s is not a downgrade. not even close. just because it doesnt have a dual core cpu, doesnt mean anything. as a matter of fact, my nexus s doesnt know that it doesnt have a dual core, and im not telling it
i have a friend thats very disgruntled with his sensation also. and for pretty much the same reasons that you gave. the only thing that i can say to ease your pain is that morfic, the creator of the Trinity line of kernels(for the ns/ns4g), has just received a sensation to develop on. im hopeful that the sensation will be seeing some great kernels in not to long of a time span. so, heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, that's why I put downgrade in quotes, everything about the phone in terms of specs is worse than the sensation, but I think it's a better over all phone. Thanks for the heads up though, I'll definitely keep track of this this morfic guy.

simms22 said:
your first mistake.. the nexus s is not a downgrade. not even close. just because it doesnt have a dual core cpu, doesnt mean anything. as a matter of fact, my nexus s doesnt know that it doesnt have a dual core, and im not telling it
i have a friend thats very disgruntled with his sensation also. and for pretty much the same reasons that you gave. the only thing that i can say to ease your pain is that morfic, the creator of the Trinity line of kernels(for the ns/ns4g), has just received a sensation to develop on. im hopeful that the sensation will be seeing some great kernels in not to long of a time span. so, heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fully agree with this. My friend had a Sensation, and even though the specs look better on paper, my phone could out-perform his easily, especially with Morfic's or Ezekeel's kernel.

tehgeekguy said:
I fully agree with this. My friend had a Sensation, and even though the specs look better on paper, my phone could out-perform his easily, especially with Morfic's or Ezekeel's kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a slippery slope.
the 1.35x higher resolution skews 2D and 3D benchmarks.
benchmarking sense roms with the unoptimized libsqlite implementation drops IO scores
so it stacks up quite nicely now where i can actually benchmark a sensation hands on
flashing cm7 alpha10 on sensation right now to do some further test on a more familiar platform.
user experience is great on sensation so far btw

I'd wait till the ics OTA drops for the nexus s. Right now ics roms are pretty stable but they are no where near as smooth as gingerbread roms. No one knows how well ics will transfer to single cores, so your sensation may be better for the long run because of the duel core.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

morfic said:
It is a slippery slope.
the 1.35x higher resolution skews 2D and 3D benchmarks.
benchmarking sense roms with the unoptimized libsqlite implementation drops IO scores
so it stacks up quite nicely now where i can actually benchmark a sensation hands on
flashing cm7 alpha10 on sensation right now to do some further test on a more familiar platform.
user experience is great on sensation so far btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For sure. It's a gorgeous phone, and I've always liked the Sense UI. I think it's the best OEM UI out there. I think once the phone gets some more attention it'll definitely be a nice piece of hardware. Honestly, if I were in the OP's position, I would probably hang on to the phone if I could... but it seems it doesn't meet his needs.

morfic said:
It is a slippery slope.
the 1.35x higher resolution skews 2D and 3D benchmarks.
benchmarking sense roms with the unoptimized libsqlite implementation drops IO scores
so it stacks up quite nicely now where i can actually benchmark a sensation hands on
flashing cm7 alpha10 on sensation right now to do some further test on a more familiar platform.
user experience is great on sensation so far btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually disagree about the ux on sense. There are a lot of little things that really bother me. The way that the notification drawers sometimes takes a second to slide down for no apparent reason, the unlock animation, the lack of a bookmarks button in the browser (you have to hit menu), and the choppiness of the app drawer to name a few. imo, cm7 is a much more pleasant to use os, but that has been really buggy for me on my sensation. Sense is definitely a love/hate affair, and I really hate it lol. (Which is strange because I actually liked sense 2.x quite a bit, 3.0 was a step backwards imo.)

tehgeekguy said:
For sure. It's a gorgeous phone, and I've always liked the Sense UI. I think it's the best OEM UI out there. I think once the phone gets some more attention it'll definitely be a nice piece of hardware. Honestly, if I were in the OP's position, I would probably hang on to the phone if I could... but it seems it doesn't meet his needs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am definitely going to hang on to it for at least a month or two, I just wanted to see how you nexus owners like your phones as I don't have any friends with them.

gonintendo said:
I actually disagree about the ux on sense. There are a lot of little things that really bother me. The way that the notification drawers sometimes takes a second to slide down for no apparent reason, the unlock animation, the lack of a bookmarks button in the browser (you have to hit menu), and the choppiness of the app drawer to name a few. imo, cm7 is a much more pleasant to use os, but that has been really buggy for me on my sensation. Sense is definitely a love/hate affair, and I really hate it lol. (Which is strange because I actually liked sense 2.x quite a bit, 3.0 was a step backwards imo.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious, which ROM are you running? Not sure if you're on stock or a customer Rom, but when I had my Inspire I ran Android Revolution most of the time (when I wasn't on CM) and the performance improvement over the stock ROM was amazing. I talked my friend into throwing Android Revolution HD (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098849) on his Sensation 4G and he keeps mentioning how much faster it is now.

tehgeekguy said:
Just curious, which ROM are you running? Not sure if you're on stock or a customer Rom, but when I had my Inspire I ran Android Revolution most of the time (when I wasn't on CM) and the performance improvement over the stock ROM was amazing. I talked my friend into throwing Android Revolution HD (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1098849) on his Sensation 4G and he keeps mentioning how much faster it is now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on cm7 right now. I have tried arhd, but that gave me really bad battery life, no matter which kernel I used. I tried a few others, I think insert coin was one of them, but none really felt as snappy as cm7. Some were smoother, but multitasking and opening apps is much quicker in cm7. I'll take the buggyness of cm's current state on the sensation over sense any day.

My ns4g with aosp's ics ROM is incredible. Probably going to take a break from my EVO 3d and use it as my daily driver for a while once the OTA drops
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

First why in the he'll would you get an HTC phone if you didn't like sense, dumb move, should have got the g2x. It will get better for aosp, quit crying..
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G

gonintendo said:
I have an htc sensation and am extremely unhappy with the software support it has gotten. Not putting any blame on the devs, they have been great to us but the fact of the matter is that we are still on cm7 alphas, not even nightlies, and ics support is looking pretty bad. Kmobs has made some progress, so I'm going to wait a while to see what he has to offer along with whatever else the cm team gives us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're asking a bit much there. CM for Sensation is being done by one guy. One guy with a real life and a real job and real commitments that don't involve coding an OS for a bunch of - quite frankly - ungrateful users. KMobs is an utter perfectionist, but he has good reasons as to why we don't have nightly releases for the Sensation yet (a9 is just about perfect but a10 introduced a bunch of bugs... and to be honest, I'd prefer he focused on getting CM9 alphas out the door).
The real fact of the matter is that the Android market is much broader than it has ever been. Two years ago, we were looking forward to the Droid and Nexus One as our saviours from the 528MHz MSM720x-infected designs that were around. All we really had to choose from was the HTC Dream/G1, Magic/MT3G and Hero, which all shared basically identical internal designs. Nowadays you can point at just about any brand of phones and they'll have a truly lustworthy Android handset competing for your dollars and marketshare, so therefore the developer base has splintered accordingly. It's therefore only natural that handsets will have less 3rd-party developer support as time goes on.
And that's ignoring the hardware issues like poor reception and a shoddy screen (Ghosting and scan lines on an lcd made in 2011? seriously? That's ignoring the fact that my a** produces deeper blacks than this thing. I know it's an lcd, but come on! I swear to god I'm never buying an htc phone ever again).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, this interests me. I haven't had these issues. In fact, my Sensation has far better reception than my two previous phones (LG Opitmus 2X and Samsung Galaxy S). I've definitely not noticed any ghosting or scanlines on my screen. Dust under the screen, yes. Power button funkiness, yes. At the risk of sounding like a Sensation/HTC apologist, I'd suggest that your phone has some kind of fault and you should get it looked at.
Basically, what I'm asking is do you gs owners feel compelled to upgrade to the galaxy nexus or are you still content with your devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GS Owners? Well, I assume you're addressing Sensation owners here
I'm very tempted to upgrade to a GN. I won't though, mostly for the following reasons;
Removable SD Card - GN only has internal memory, muddied by...
USB Mass Storage - GN uses MTD which is a suboptimal ux, IMO. In a nutshell it means that all the writeable media on the phone presents as a single unified area with the user accessible /sdcard/ just being a directory rather than a separate partition & device as it is otherwise. It's probably The Future, but right now I hate it.
Offscreen buttons - I hate capacitive buttons as they are, but at least they're not taking up screen real estate
Build quality - The Sensation feels glorious. Samsung devices tend to feel cheap.

unfnknblvbl said:
I think you're asking a bit much there. CM for Sensation is being done by one guy. One guy with a real life and a real job and real commitments that don't involve coding an OS for a bunch of - quite frankly - ungrateful users. KMobs is an utter perfectionist, but he has good reasons as to why we don't have nightly releases for the Sensation yet (a9 is just about perfect but a10 introduced a bunch of bugs... and to be honest, I'd prefer he focused on getting CM9 alphas out the door).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just FYI, there are 2 other guys that are working on Sensation from the CM team. Not gonna post links since I don't care if you believe me or not, but you can find them on kmobs g+ feed. They just don't post on XDA, and don't release things until the next build has enough to warrant a release. They've been saying we'd go into nightly status soon, but either there are a couple of problems that they haven't found solutions to, someone is busy with their lives, or someone got pregnant (joke).

nrvnqsrxk said:
Just FYI, there are 2 other guys that are working on Sensation from the CM team. Not gonna post links since I don't care if you believe me or not, but you can find them on kmobs g+ feed. They just don't post on XDA, and don't release things until the next build has enough to warrant a release. They've been saying we'd go into nightly status soon, but either there are a couple of problems that they haven't found solutions to, someone is busy with their lives, or someone got pregnant (joke).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't mind knowing who those guys are actually; so I can follow them myself on G+.

unfnknblvbl said:
I think you're asking a bit much there. CM for Sensation is being done by one guy. One guy with a real life and a real job and real commitments that don't involve coding an OS for a bunch of - quite frankly - ungrateful users. KMobs is an utter perfectionist, but he has good reasons as to why we don't have nightly releases for the Sensation yet (a9 is just about perfect but a10 introduced a bunch of bugs... and to be honest, I'd prefer he focused on getting CM9 alphas out the door).
The real fact of the matter is that the Android market is much broader than it has ever been. Two years ago, we were looking forward to the Droid and Nexus One as our saviours from the 528MHz MSM720x-infected designs that were around. All we really had to choose from was the HTC Dream/G1, Magic/MT3G and Hero, which all shared basically identical internal designs. Nowadays you can point at just about any brand of phones and they'll have a truly lustworthy Android handset competing for your dollars and marketshare, so therefore the developer base has splintered accordingly. It's therefore only natural that handsets will have less 3rd-party developer support as time goes on.
OK, this interests me. I haven't had these issues. In fact, my Sensation has far better reception than my two previous phones (LG Opitmus 2X and Samsung Galaxy S). I've definitely not noticed any ghosting or scanlines on my screen. Dust under the screen, yes. Power button funkiness, yes. At the risk of sounding like a Sensation/HTC apologist, I'd suggest that your phone has some kind of fault and you should get it looked at.
GS Owners? Well, I assume you're addressing Sensation owners here
I'm very tempted to upgrade to a GN. I won't though, mostly for the following reasons;
Removable SD Card - GN only has internal memory, muddied by...
USB Mass Storage - GN uses MTD which is a suboptimal ux, IMO. In a nutshell it means that all the writeable media on the phone presents as a single unified area with the user accessible /sdcard/ just being a directory rather than a separate partition & device as it is otherwise. It's probably The Future, but right now I hate it.
Offscreen buttons - I hate capacitive buttons as they are, but at least they're not taking up screen real estate
Build quality - The Sensation feels glorious. Samsung devices tend to feel cheap.
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It looks like some dumba** mod didn't read my post and moved it from the nexus s forums to the sensation forums. The point of the thread was not to complain about cm development on the sensation, I realize that it's a labor of love and that the team working on it is small, the point of the thread was to ask galaxy s owners whether they feel proper CM support and stock OTA updates are worth the downgrade in hardware.
And no, my phone is not defective, it has one of the auo screens which have been confirmed to have scanlines and poor pixel response times.
@the guy asking me why I bought an htc phone: htc phones have always been famous for having great cm support and their hardware is really nice.

I feel that my Sensation is a bit slow sometimes, but I'm trying to tell myself that it'll all be great when ICS comes out (either via HTC or CM9).

[Q] When philosophy matters

(this post is a bit long, if you want to read it fast go directly to my questions.)
Hi everyone,
I'm about to buy a phone in order to kind of "fix" myself on a device since I have owned seven phones in the last six months.
I'm considering many devices by many constructors but I would like to have other people opinion about the one to choose.
I'll try to make it short:
To give an idea of my questions right now I will go fast over the experience I had with the main devices I onwed recently.
THE FOLLOWING IS AN UNINTERESTING PART FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS NO TIME TO LOOSE SO SKIP IT IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT A NOOB'S EXPERIENCE
Galaxy Nexus: fastboot is awesome, love the fact it is closer to Google but I was very disapointed when I learned that Samsung modifies even the Nexus's software, cm9 on it is as nice as fastboot. Screen drains to much battery and is not as beautiful as should be with such a high pixel density. Also suprisingly a bit laggy. Had to be sent to samsung it had a problem with the cpu...
Optimus 3D: the 3d is not a joke since it works but... Haven't had this device for long but I was unsatisfied with the stock rom (LG's main problem).
Motorolla Atrix: favorite device! Screen is as beautiful as GN on my opinion, with cm7 or 9 it becomes really nice on sftware too. Battery life is the best point of this device and the best I've had.
Optimus 2x: tried it for a few days, like the nvflash facility and the hardware capacity but only MIUI based on GB was a correct software for me, cm7's not too bad but cm9 is still very buggy.
Nexus S: for the hardware specs it is by far the best on software side, feels more solid than the gn. Battery is just average and speed is not really sufficient for my usage, expecially for switching apps on the stock ROM, cm9 or latest MIUI.
END OF THE UNINTERESTING PART (I hope)
So, here i am with experience from Samsung, Motorola and LG. Hardwarewise I have no problem with LG or Motorola but with Samsung it is less convincing.
Software, I would like to begin to develop for the next device I will get, I am an intermediate developper in Java and a decent Linux user. So it would be nice that the device has open drivers.
Here is my problem, I want to buy a device that I will keep for at least two years, I will try ArchlinuxARM and that kind of project with it.
My hesitation goes between the HTC Amaze 4G at 40$, the Galaxy Nexus at 50$ and the optimus 2x for free. I considered the sIII too but it will be 200$ and it is not worth it for me.
As I am not really confident with the durability of the GN, my mind is more with the Amaze for now but I only tried it in a store with, of course, the stock ROM. The 2x is like the less interesting option, I think.
>>> HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS! <<<
Am I right to think that the HTC Amaze 4G has tougher hardware?
Are the drivers open source or are they going to be soon? I read somewhere on the forum that people were asking HTC to release the sources, is it likely to happen?
What is the state of the ics based ROMs for the Amaze? Stable? Fluid? Comparated with cm9 nightlies on the GN?
Why the * is the Galaxy Nexus laggy?????????????? This device is supposed to be Google's flagship actually but, you know, it is just not as fluid as I think it should be.
The title of this topic is talking about philosophy, it is because I care about the constructor's philosophy. I mean, do you think that one of Samsung or LG or HTC is producing better hardware and/or is easier to fix at home? Do you think one of them is a bit less likely to produce with programmed obsolescence in mind?
Thank you for reading this loong post!
Thank you even more for giving me your opinion!

HTC will only be releasing the source for the kernel. All the other drivers for non Nexus phones are and always will be closed source. If you want to really develop with open source then your best bet is a Nexus.
sent from my cell in Arkham

This is actually quite sad that big companies like that don't participate more into open source software. I understand easily why M$ doesn't but it is harder to understand why the hardware manufacturers don't help the community...
Oh wait I just understood! Other companies that have even worse ROMs than HTC would be able to use their ideas.
I still think that it will change someday in the future. It cant continue like this indefinitely while more and more people learn about thé existence of open source and how better it can be than closed source.
But now I thought I had made a decision and that messes my mind once again I know now that thé Nexus series is the only way to be fully open source but there still is the point of hardware durability and that is somehow mlre important since it stays easier to use and develop for a phone that works!
What about the amount of hardware defects on one and the other?
My GN was overheating a lot, does the Amaze has this problem too?
Sent from my android

Why are we left behind????

I asked this last year and haven't gotten anywhere since.
I started out with the G2 and quickly had CM7 on it. I had a insurance replacement and got the MT4GS as a replacement. Camera is an important app for me. I was spoiled with all the great stuff on CM7 but the Google camera in the G2 was not very good. After trying several camera apps, I found none.
Back to the MT4GS. The camera app was great and it is the biggest reason I have not stuck with the various roms available here.
I did upgrade to the Galaxy S3 but I returned it after a couple of days because I just couldn't justify $350 ( after rebate, total cost). It got me ticked off when I heard a co worker tell me he got his at Sprint for $100 plus the taxes. It is a great phone and it already has much rom development.
SO - Why is our phone so far behind the rest of the good phones out there? Why is the camera with 1080 video so hard to get going? We have a great phone but no developers can approach the complete package I got with CM7.
I am not a developer. I have donated to people whose roms I have used. I have the paid version of ROM Manager, but since I got the MT4GS, it is worthless except to use as an installer.
I used to download nightlies every night.
Signed,
Frustrated

It's a shame, but think of it as a niche market...
Think of the low number of T-Mobile USA subscribers vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of smart people that buy hard keyboard phones vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of people that actually know what 1080p and focal length mean vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people looking for a new phone vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people not getting sucked in by marketing from Samsung, Apple vs everyone else.
Relatively speaking; no one bought this phone.
It's a shame. Because smart people did.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201

we have cm7, cm9 and 3.0 kernel which everyone dreams of. Lol what else are you looking for?

xmc wildchild22 said:
we have cm7, cm9 and 3.0 kernel which everyone dreams of. Lol what else are you looking for?
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sandiegoan said:
camera with 1080 video
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NOW who's not reading threads before asking questions, XMC?
It is true that there's a lot less dev on this phone than many others with inferior hardware. It would be nice to have an RC for CM9, for instance(though our build is plenty stable).
I will say, though, that the few we do have are big winners. For big names, We've got MIUI, Virtuous, CM, and AOKP. We've got also got several tweaked stock builds. There ARE roms that keep the stock camera too while being pretty far from stock, so I'm not sure about that complaint.
As far as other devices that have 800 different ROMs available, I spent a lot of time tweaking my OG Droid, and a friend of Mine's HTC EVO 4G. 80% of the builds that are out there on those devices are just clones of each other with buggy themes or different UI versions thrown on, some features enabled or disabled, or debloated rips of the stock rom. If you go into the development sections for these other devices, you will find that the majority of people who make a lot of posts and provide the most help tend to be on one of three to five major ROMS, just the same as you see in the dev section here.

xmc wildchild22 said:
we have cm7, cm9 and 3.0 kernel which everyone dreams of. Lol what else are you looking for?
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For me the phone is perfect. Can't really find anything else that I need and miss? 4 weeks battery life maybe

Paitor said:
For me the phone is perfect. Can't really find anything else that I need and miss? 4 weeks battery life maybe
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Click to collapse
^ second that.

I was actually this close to ditching the Slide for the Galaxy Nexus when Jelly Bean was released. I miiiiiiight still do it, but I'm really leaning toward keeping the Slide just because of the camera. The still pictures on this phone are so superior to anything else I've ever used, that I've stopped using a regular camera entirely.
And from what everyone says, the GNex camera is pretty bad. So yeah, better software is nice, but hardware is hugely important, too. The camera and keyboard are what's keeping me with the Slide. Plus, CM9 is pretty sweet.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using xda app-developers app

Great answer!
:good:
rorytmeadows said:
It's a shame, but think of it as a niche market...
Think of the low number of T-Mobile USA subscribers vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of smart people that buy hard keyboard phones vs. everyone else.
Think of the low number of people that actually know what 1080p and focal length mean vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people looking for a new phone vs everyone else.
Think of the low number of people not getting sucked in by marketing from Samsung, Apple vs everyone else.
Relatively speaking; no one bought this phone.
It's a shame. Because smart people did.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never thought of it that way. Thanks.

When I think about it, the deal breaker is the camera. The hardware, the app itself and the full video resolution.
When I had the G2, it had a stock android camera app. I didn't miss what I never had. When I got to the slide, I miss the stock camera app. Sense? I could care less about it. I use ADW_EX so my phones and tablet work the same.
I'm just looking for my next great phone.
Thanks for the answers.

I still run a tweaked/optimized stock-based ROM simply because this MT4GS is my ONLY phone. I don't have a landline or other cell, I depend on this phone to always work. I depend on every function of the phone to work reliably (Bluetooth, wifi, wifi calling, camera, GPS, etc.) and not have to deal with "oh, you have to do this this this to get that to work", or "you have to reboot, then hold it upside down, then sacrifice a virgin chicken, then that will work OK until you breath 4 times, then you have to do all that again". It might be fun and exciting to deal with that sort of thing when you're not dependent upon the phone, but I can't risk that.
I'm sad that there isn't an official ICS for this phone. And while the current CM9 alphas are amazing for what they accomplish, and the hard work put into them by the devs is evident and appreciated, I still can't risk using it (or MIUI or others) for the simple reason that they just don't yet provide stock-ROM reliability. That is no slight to the devs, just a fact of life.