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HTC Sensation XE vs HTC Sensation XL

With the XL hitting the shelves in a week or two I am stuggling on which one to choose. They both have their pros and cons. Most noticeably these:
HTC Sensation XL:
Pros:
4.7" Screen
Larger Battery Life
Limited Edition Beats Solo Headphones
Cons:
Only Single-Core 1.5 GHz Processor
Only 720p recording
HTC Sensation XE:
Pros:
1.5GHz Dual-Core Processor
1080p reocding
Cons:
4.3" Screen
No Beats Solo Headphones
I really can't seem to make my mind up between the two. What would you guys do? Will that single-core processor make a difference against the dual-core of the XE? I really can't decide, any help anyone? Thanks.

Just so you know, the only difference between the Sensation and the Sensation XE, is software and accents of red coating. The processor is actually the same, so if you can pick up a standard Sensation somewhat cheaper, go for that.
It's up toyou really. Bigger screen, or faster proc? Personally, the 4,3" screen is already slightly too big for me. The singlecore proc will do just fine for now, but keep in mind that Ice Cream Sandwich is built with dualcore in mind. It will most likely suck on that singlecore in the XL.
And don't be impressed by that Beats stuff. It's just a software equalizer. Just so you know, the company behind Beats by Dre, is the same one that pulled off that giant 'Golden Monster HDMI cable' scam a few months ago.

As Martijn said, the XE is pretty much a slightly overclocked sensation with a different ROM. If you're fine with rooting your phone (which I assume you are, as a member of xda), then you could pick up a regular Sensation as well.
As far as the XL goes, it is far closer to a Desire HD in terms of hardware than the Sensation. I guess you could think of it as a DHD with a larger screen (which is of lower resolution and display quality than that of the Sensation or XE).

you get an awsome pair of in ear headphones with the XE that you dont get with the standard sensation that more than makes up for the price difference.
ill take the offers i get here in denmark as an example.
regular sensation roughly 4000 danish kroner
sensation XE roughly 4600 danish kroner
the in ear headphones that come along with the XE roughly 1800 danish kroner by themselves.
so for me its not a hardchoice as i personally prefer in ear headphones to the cups.
on top of that i would personally take the dualcore with better resolution over the single core with larger screen any say. the XE has a 1730 Mah battery, that with a bit of mocking about could easily get an awsome amount of life.
my 2 cents =D
(im getting the XE myself) using a DHD atm

I'd definitely go for the Sensation/XE unless you need the bigger screen... and the Sensation is already a good size in my opinion. Spec wise the Sensation/XE is probably the best way to go

MartijnGP said:
And don't be impressed by that Beats stuff. It's just a software equalizer. Just so you know, the company behind Beats by Dre, is the same one that pulled off that giant 'Golden Monster HDMI cable' scam a few months ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What scam is this ?
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using xda premium

jjc1992 said:
What scam is this ?
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they advertised monster cables are better then other cables.
when truth was they were no better as HDMI cables are all the same, the signal is digital so dont need expensive cables.
they did it during 90s too with Monster Scart cables.

Yeah, I kinda knew Beats wasn't really amazing, but it's the fact you get them over standard headphones more than anything. Price isn't really an issue, as I'm on an upgrade now so I'll probably get it filthy cheap, and if not my friend works for O2 and he said he'll hook me up with a deal if Voda can't do it cheap for me, so price is not really an issue.
It seems the general consensus is go for the Sensation/XE, I might as well go for the XE as price isn't an issue. I'm kinda disappointed the XL doesn't have a Dual-Core else I'd jumping on that **** in an instant. Would I be wise in going for the Sensation XE? I can't find any phones atm from HTC that are better than this (I'm HTC through and through, they've pleased me for too long with their phones for me to go with another make) so I think I might go for it.

I just upgraded the XE from the HTC Desire recently. I tested the sound from the original HTC headphones RC E160 and the Beats headphones and the Beats are miles better. The orginal also have a poor build quality, I had to replace them 3 times in the last year.

The XL seems way better IMO

if i were you id wait for the other new phones to come out

Htc sensation xe wiiiiiin
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using XDA App

hello00 if i were you id wait for the other new phones to come out
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Click to collapse
What phones though? I've looked so much for upcoming phones and the only half decent one is the HTC Rezound and that's got pretty much the same specs as the XE. I don't wanna wait too long as my HD2's touchscreen is practically dead, something about the digitizer not touching something else, but yeah, I kinda need a new phone soon. The XE seems the way to go.
To the people in the UK that has the XE, why is it not showing on Vodafone's or O2's website? The only places I can see it are Phones4U and Dial-A-Phone, but it is available on Voda and O2, anyone know what's up with that?

its not been released by the carriers yet.
I want to know if Orange will be stocking it.
Orange dont seem to even have the XL.
Rezound is not same specs as XE. It has 1GB RAM and 720P display.
Also 2MP Camera at the front instead of VGA.

That's because the XL is not released by anyone until Nov 10th I think.
Well the Rezound looks good too but I think it will be a while before it gets released in the UK
I'll wait for the call from Vodafone about my contract upgrade and see if they have the XE, it's kinda weird that carriers don't have it yet but Phones4U do.

new phones come out every 3 or 6 months..go figure

Personally I would get the XE so when ICS comes out it'll (I'm speculating here) run smoother due to the dual core processors.
Sent from my HTC Sensation

Get the XE..when ICS come, it will be way cool speed than XL!!
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

XE!!
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e with Beats Audio using xda premium

Im tempted by the XL's onboard storage of 16gb vs 1gb on the XE. Should help things run smoother on the whole. Also, battery life is a biggy for me. Im not sure whether the screen res differences are that noticable in general useage.

Beats Audio - marketing only?

Dear all
Today I had some spare time to test the overhyped Beats Audio in Sensation XE. I took out my Sennheiser HD650’s and compared the sound from the phone vs. CD player Marantz SA7001.
Outcomes: The sound from phone with Beats Audio is comparable with that of the CD, obviously a bit worse especially at higher frequencies. But generally the tonal balance is well preserved. Now let’s switch off BA in the phone: total disaster!
I think that switching BA off distorts the equalization to make the “on” option sound better.
Now, let’s talk about the included headphones:
I never used in-ear phones – I’m against them for many reasons.
The sound: First of all insistent high frequencies. Dry lows. Overall very poor.
So if you want to buy this phone for good sound quality you also need to buy good quality headphones and throw the BA ones away. For example Sennheiser’s MX980 – that’s what I intend to do.
To recap: I’m not totally disappointed because I bought the phone for the 1.5GHz CPU, bigger battery and qHD. Deep down I knew it would turn out like that.

Beats audio works only with beats headphone. Others sond like normal.
you need root to activate to all headphones.
Sennheiser’s MX980, realy? in-ear or over-ear is alot beter sound izoleiting. And thats small ones like mx980 not thats comfort like in-ear or over-ear.
But that is just my opinion.

No. At my phone, BA software working with all headphones (Stock ROM, w/o root).

I've tested Beats thoroughly with several different qualities of head phones and my conclusion is that it's marketing hype.
In reality, you can't radically improve sound quality on the software end - atleast on a smartphone using headphones to hear the music. I have also suspected that HTC lowers the quality of standard audio to make Beats seem better.

Exactly! I've the same opinion.

ibanezq said:
Exactly! I've the same opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I tried OEM htc headphones and the sound was lower and seemed different from normal, but when I plug in my beats tours the sound was much higher and the quality was awesome.
Sent from my T-Mobile Sensation 4G using XDA App

I thought I'd give it a shot to the much hyped beats audio and - Power Amp app is much much more powerful delivering wide variety of sound presets; quality - beats audio is left in the dust. And I'm comparing apples to apples - same phone and headset.

Beats Audio is Awsome .... I love it ...
I wish i could buy a beats Headset in India ...

Beats Audio from HTC? Good joke.

I use my Sensation in my 1k I.C.E Setup. Tbh beats sounds utter crap inside it whereas Dolby Mobile boosts the right parts of the EQ to make my car sound system sound like teh sheeat.
Conclusion...
Beats - cheap stuff overpriced and utter rubbish

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/13/htc-sensation-xe-with-beats-audio-review/
Read this. When you use beats headphone, you get other eq. With no beats headphone is other eq. And beats dont be used un bluethoot. Phone only show beats audio on, but sound output not the same.
beats audio is only eq setings.
Start question: " marketing only? " Yes, marketing style with preinstaled eq settings, some red colors, and beats headset in stock.
But in the end, that is somting diferent and way to get some costumers.

ibanezq said:
Dear all
Today I had some spare time to test the overhyped Beats Audio in Sensation XE. I took out my Sennheiser HD650’s and compared the sound from the phone vs. CD player Marantz SA7001.
Outcomes: The sound from phone with Beats Audio is comparable with that of the CD, obviously a bit worse especially at higher frequencies. But generally the tonal balance is well preserved. Now let’s switch off BA in the phone: total disaster!
I think that switching BA off distorts the equalization to make the “on” option sound better.
Now, let’s talk about the included headphones:
I never used in-ear phones – I’m against them for many reasons.
The sound: First of all insistent high frequencies. Dry lows. Overall very poor.
So if you want to buy this phone for good sound quality you also need to buy good quality headphones and throw the BA ones away. For example Sennheiser’s MX980 – that’s what I intend to do.
To recap: I’m not totally disappointed because I bought the phone for the 1.5GHz CPU, bigger battery and qHD. Deep down I knew it would turn out like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me buy the Beats headphones from you then if you dont use them.
PM if you want to do that

I have beats on my touchpad and even with good speakers it makes no difference
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

You really should try this with beats headphones, as in over head, studios, solo hd or pros...they have a killer combination
And yes its fact HTC rushed and cheaped out on the sensation xe...its all software!! However its still good audio
Bit of a piss take the sensation xl and rezound have built in beats with altered hardware and we just get a software eq...however sounds better then any mobile device I've used so I'm not complaining
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e

Don't HD650's need an amp to be really driven properly?
Beats software is usually somewhat gimicky. On HP envy 14 laptops, the beats equalizer software is actually a skin for the default windows settings for frequency boosts.
On the phone any equalizer at all is better than nothing though.
I do like the beats start up splash more than the HTC one.

BALANCING ARGUMENT!
Guys if you bought this phone to get HQ sound, then you need your bumps feeling. Its a bit like buying a Mini cooper and complaining that its slower than a Porsche!?
If you want hifi go spend money getting a high quality Q deck or something.
I got the Sensation XE hoping it sounded better than the Sensation and guess what? It does!!!!!
I have to use inner ear headphones and have a pair of very tired Sennheiser cx 400 II's which I love. The ibeats are way better and to have them bundled is great.
If you get the XE to use with your existing spangly million pound headphones, then you need to learn to research more before you splurge your cash on a shiny new phone as the Sensation does all this for a tiny amount less a month.
In short, try to get better sounding audio with awesome headphones, mated to a very capable smartphone (1.5gig, don't care if its over, under, or sideways clocked) for less than £28/month. If you do then I'll consider your argument.
This is the 8th HTC I've had (yeah I started with the e100!) and they always release a better phone the minute you buy one, get over it. Learn to love the one your with!!

want good headphones?
get some Grado or high end Sennheisers.
don't believe in the hype.

Hmm.. sad to know that it is not that great as "marketed" . As a general user (not in-depth knowledge about sound, high tech headsets), I did found difference in sound. Probably someone with Sensation XE can talk about difference??? I am still enjoying Beats audio

Mainspring said:
want good headphones?
get some Grado or high end Sennheisers.
don't believe in the hype.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My cx300-2s have gone wrong twice!
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA App

ibanezq said:
So if you want to buy this phone for good sound quality you also need to buy good quality headphones and throw the BA ones away. For example Sennheiser’s MX980 – that’s what I intend to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have these headphones. They fall out from the ears constantly. Don't use them...

HTC Should improve their speaker systems on phones

Why the hell are HTC so bad at producing phones without decent speaker systems. Everything is soo tinny and cheap sounding (NO BASS)
I Currently own a HTC Sensation and its the same £500 (cost).
Its really bad

+1 really, i too hate it, bought sensation after looking at a great presentation of sensation's ad on HTC website where there was a word "multimedia + music" shown as animation, still can't believe HTC mentions this kind of performance as music oriented! I use my great old N70 m.e for music, what a sound it produces, makes me feel ashame for HTC!

I really don't get it. They're very good for some things, so when it comes to things like speakers, why on earth do they manage to stuff it up so much?

I also have an HTC HD7 phone and the rear speaker on that IS INCREDIBLY loud!! Sensation speaker is a joke.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

The speaker and sense refreshing way too often are the reasons I'm going to look at a galaxy when the s3 comes out

Might not be the speaker.......
I noticed the same thing when I got my Sense 6 months ago. Since.... I have installed Volume+ from the Market. It helps, but it's not the cure all. Not sure if the limitations are the speaker, or the main board. I looked at the Galaxy S II, and the new Razr...... The sound is a little better, but to me.... the quality of the materials used on the HTC are sturdier. That's what sold me. The others felt really cheaply made. One thing I can say is none of them could touch the sound on my BlackBerry Bold. RIM makes a good product.

retraction......
I would like to retract my statement. It's definitely the speaker, and not the main board. HTC should really put some decent speakers in these phones. Especially with Beats audio installed. I'd be embarrassed to put my name in it. Sorry Dr. Dre.

I just bought a used Sensation, and I'm frankly considering sending it to HTC for repair. The volume is very low--there's no way I'd hear it in a crowded room. Would sending it for repair likely help? Or do all Sensations have garbage speakers?

inconceeeivable said:
I just bought a used Sensation, and I'm frankly considering sending it to HTC for repair. The volume is very low--there's no way I'd hear it in a crowded room. Would sending it for repair likely help? Or do all Sensations have garbage speakers?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the same with all of them. It's still possible that yours is in need of repair and worse than normal, but even the new ones suck.

Agreed speaker sucks big time, at times like these I really start to miss my Nokia N900 and N95

g2's speaker is great. mytouch 4g's isnt that bad either. but my tmobile comet cheap go phones speaker is way better than sensation and mytouch 4g
sensations is just ridiculous i thought my phone was broken when i bought it

I have a cheap Samsung £20 something mobile, that i use when im at work & the in call speaker on this cheap mobile is better than the one on my HTC Sensation.
Having had the Galaxy S2 to, I can tell in call quality on that phones is miles better than the HTC Sensation, shame rest of it gave me problems hence moving over to HTC.
One thing that really annoying apart from the quality is the rattle ya get when speaker volume on full sometimes.
Basically HTC need to find a new supplier for speakers as the ones they using now are basically shocking to say the least.

i m also upset with my sensation external speaker....my frnd s2 speaker is awesome.

TBH i couldnt care much for a better speaker. What I want is a better mic. HTC's audio in video capture all have this sharp crunching effect..whatever you call that.
Searched everywhere if its possible with software/app fix or just hardware (mic) issue. Apparently since I couldnt find any software fix AND videos from n1, dhd and sensation all suffer from the bad audio, I can only say its cheap mic.
I so bad want a proper mic for video capturing but I love the fact that HTC doesnt cheap out on their phone's shell though. Feels like holding a premium device compared to say a...cheap plasticky samsung

They must have an old contract with a crappy factory because they didn't change since the N1!
Compared to sgs2 and Arc it's very crappy and tiny

It's annoying enough that I'm probably selling the phone. An amazing build doesn't mean anything if we can't hear the phone.
I have performance/lag issues as well...just pretty disappointing overall. Not sure how this phone got such good reviews from CNET, etc...maybe I really do have a bad one...?
Sent from my T9295 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

I find the Sensations speaker is plenty loud enough to hear it ringing, and as for playing music on it there's a name for people who like playing music loudly on their mobile speakers in public and it rhymes with grunt.
Also, the stereo recording gain has been fixed in ICS4.0.3 / Sense 3.6 stock RUU.

My Moto Cliq makes Sensation's speaker look bad lol. Though HTC kinda fixed it on firmware upgrade. My Sensation almost had no sound when I first got it.
Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio using Tapatalk

Jedi2011 said:
I find the Sensations speaker is plenty loud enough to hear it ringing, and as for playing music on it there's a name for people who like playing music loudly on their mobile speakers in public and it rhymes with grunt.
Also, the stereo recording gain has been fixed in ICS4.0.3 / Sense 3.6 stock RUU.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? Thanks for the info!
But I am still on ARHD 3.6.13 which is a Sense 3.0 rom.
I still havent gotten the idea to move to Sense 3.6 because IMO its isnt much of an upgrade over 3.0
I'll wait for a stable version of ICS once the proper, official release of ICS from HTC is release!
Still appreciate that bit of info though. Thanks!

My phone external speaker is loud enough for my ringtone, and as for music.. I use headphones

[Q] Sensation XE earbuds

hi all,
I have my HTC Sensation XE.
After a while of using them(about a month),yesterday the sound on the left ear bud(iBeats) started to be vary low compared to the right one, not problem with me or my phone, because I checked on my friends phone and on my computer, about me, I swept the ear-buds between my ears and I heard a significant deterrence between the right(vary loud-as it should, and left-vary low).
Some one had this kind of problem? thanks in advance.
didnt find the sensation XE forum, so posted here.

Haven't had this problem myself. If you've only had your phone (and headphones) a month and they sound a bit odd I'd recommend you just return them.

can't return them...but problem fixed. lol
they dropped from my had on the desk just after I wrote this post. they work as loud as my old iPod touch speaker.
its vary sad too me, that the only really quality brand is apple, I have they earphones, vary loud, and surviving 1.5 year...
can lock this thread.

Is beats automatically enabled for everything?

Such as pandora? I couldn't find an option in phone settings to turn beats on or off.

Beats only work if you have earphones or headphones on. Also it works with blurtooth. Once pandora plays or whatever beats os activated and turned off and on at the notification bar pull down.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

What I did is disabled it in the notification, then when into the app manager and disabled from there so the notification never comes back.
I hate it. Along with the beats headphones.

Maroon Mushroom said:
What I did is disabled it in the notification, then when into the app manager and disabled from there so the notification never comes back.
I hate it. Along with the beats headphones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Makes two of us. Gimmick central.

It's cheesy, I'll give you that ... But it's not a gimmick. The audio chip and codec is of a certain type in order to be Beats branded. Dr. Dre bought the right to slap "Beats" on something specific.
I really don't know about the phones...But the computers...The HP Envy line (of which one I own) is the SAME chip/codec in a very few Sony and Dell models. The name escapes me now, but I did spend a good deal of time looking this up in the past. The only difference is Dell's and Sony's is from the original manufacturer and HP's has the Beats logo all up down it...Well the outside anyway. Open up the machine and it's the same chip.
Anyway, it's a actual piece of hardware in there. Does it need to say "Beats" all over the software and case? No, but that still doesn't mean it's not actually a piece of hardware that is actually giving you improved audio quality and most other phones don't possess this premium hardware. You know, people thought "hey, let's make a phone" and not "hey, let's make an ipod that you can make calls with"
edit -- also, the beats headphones are also good and not a gimmick. you could say they are overpriced though. i opted for Shure headphones over the Beats headphones a while back because the sound was as good but the Shure headphones were cheaper...And they also had models that were more pricey than the Beats. It's not like they also didn't have overpriced headphones too.

It's all software based and as mentioned before only throught external sources. My us sgs2 has the "beats audio mod " on it.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

The beats EQ on our phone is a gimmick.. There's no other way for me to put it. It's a preset EQ that ruins the natural sound of music. It's bloatware that will run on any device
If you need a real EQ, then get DSP manager. Tweak it to your needs.
Beats headphones are bad for the price. Muddy sound, poor instrument separation, and unrealistic lows, and average soundstage. Also I have issues with the weight and build quality.
I haven't looked into what DAC this phone has, but I heard it's pretty good and my music sounds great from it with my ATH-AD700s and my HD-25 IIs.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

All I know is the sound on my one X with my powerbeats headphones destroys the sound on my gnex with the same headphones.
Wow.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

So if I disable "HtcBeatsNotify", it should be turned off?

I know it's a gimmick but having tried listening w/ it on and off, I prefer having it turned on.