The original HTC Sensation surfaced earlier this year, and has proven so popular that HTC has decided to keep and nurture it as the music-skewed HTC Sensation XE.
HTC sold 13.2 million mobile phones in the third quarter of this year. Considering that's a 93% increase on last year, it means the company must be doing something right.
Some technologies in smartphones change the way we live our lives and become a uniform part of the experience (we're thinking about GPS – first seen on the Nokia N95) while others are touted as the future and then disappear without a trace (anyone remember iMode? Nope. Thought not).
HTC is putting its cash on Beats Audio – the musical experience given to the world by Dr Dre – and is heavily marketing both the HTC Sensation XE and HTC Sensation XL as Beats Audio handsets.
As far as the HTC Sensation XE's looks go, you'd quite happily think you were looking at a bog standard HTC Sensation at first glance. The dimensions haven't changed. Not a single bit. It's still 126.1mm x 65.4mm x 11.3mm in the hand, but ever so slightly heavier at 151g compared to the original Sensation's 148g weight.
The camera (8MP), dual flash, front-facing snapper, buttons and sockets are all in the same place, and the only visible difference is the presence of splashes of red around the earpiece, buttons and camera lens. Plus, you get a Beats Audio logo round the back.
Like the original HTC Sensation, it's a unibody design so you actually pull the HTC Sensation XE into two pieces to open it, which is also how you access the slot to pop the memory card in.
The big differences are inside now. Apart from the superior audio quality (providing you're using a Beats Audio headset, that is), there's a 1.5GHz dual-core processor to replace the 1.2GHz job on the Sensation, the battery has been boosted from 1520mAh to 1730mAh and there's a couple of other small tweaks in the software.
The screen remains the same, as a 4.3-inch, HD (540 x 960) although it does seem a lot more vivid and brighter than the Sensation we previously used. Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread is installed out of the box along with Sense 3.0 – HTC's own skin on the Android design.
It's a solid design, and feels like it means business. And with a great foundation to build on in the original Sensation, one we can see being a big seller for HTC as the lucrative Christmas shopping period arrives.
In terms of competitors, we'd pitch it against the original HTC Sensation, with the only real benefit of the original being that it must now be cheaper. HTC will also be hoping to steal business away from Samsung and its flagship Galaxy S2, which is of a comparable size and provides similar specs - something it failed to do with the original Sensation.
And of course, there's Apple and its iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, which come with more internal storage (the HTC Sensation XE only really gives you 1GB out of the box, which you have to expand yourself), but are comparable to (and even beaten by) the XE in so many other ways.
At the time of writing, the HTC Sensation XE is priced at around £450 for a SIM-free model, which is cheaper than the £499 of the Sensation XL but more expensive than the £399 of the original Sensation. You can get it free on a contract, but it's a premium handset and thus, you'll have to sign away two years of your life on a £35+ per month deal to walk away with one of these in your pocket for free.
HTC sold 13.2 million mobile phones in the third quarter of this year. Considering that's a 93% increase on last year, it means the company must be doing something right.
Some technologies in smartphones change the way we live our lives and become a uniform part of the experience (we're thinking about GPS – first seen on the Nokia N95) while others are touted as the future and then disappear without a trace (anyone remember iMode? Nope. Thought not).
HTC is putting its cash on Beats Audio – the musical experience given to the world by Dr Dre – and is heavily marketing both the HTC Sensation XE and HTC Sensation XL as Beats Audio handsets.
As far as the HTC Sensation XE's looks go, you'd quite happily think you were looking at a bog standard HTC Sensation at first glance. The dimensions haven't changed. Not a single bit. It's still 126.1mm x 65.4mm x 11.3mm in the hand, but ever so slightly heavier at 151g compared to the original Sensation's 148g weight.
The camera (8MP), dual flash, front-facing snapper, buttons and sockets are all in the same place, and the only visible difference is the presence of splashes of red around the earpiece, buttons and camera lens. Plus, you get a Beats Audio logo round the back.
Like the original HTC Sensation, it's a unibody design so you actually pull the HTC Sensation XE into two pieces to open it, which is also how you access the slot to pop the memory card in.
The big differences are inside now. Apart from the superior audio quality (providing you're using a Beats Audio headset, that is), there's a 1.5GHz dual-core processor to replace the 1.2GHz job on the Sensation, the battery has been boosted from 1520mAh to 1730mAh and there's a couple of other small tweaks in the software.
The screen remains the same, as a 4.3-inch, HD (540 x 960) although it does seem a lot more vivid and brighter than the Sensation we previously used. Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread is installed out of the box along with Sense 3.0 – HTC's own skin on the Android design.
It's a solid design, and feels like it means business. And with a great foundation to build on in the original Sensation, one we can see being a big seller for HTC as the lucrative Christmas shopping period arrives.
In terms of competitors, we'd pitch it against the original HTC Sensation, with the only real benefit of the original being that it must now be cheaper. HTC will also be hoping to steal business away from Samsung and its flagship Galaxy S2, which is of a comparable size and provides similar specs - something it failed to do with the original Sensation.
And of course, there's Apple and its iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, which come with more internal storage (the HTC Sensation XE only really gives you 1GB out of the box, which you have to expand yourself), but are comparable to (and even beaten by) the XE in so many other ways.
At the time of writing, the HTC Sensation XE is priced at around £450 for a SIM-free model, which is cheaper than the £499 of the Sensation XL but more expensive than the £399 of the original Sensation. You can get it free on a contract, but it's a premium handset and thus, you'll have to sign away two years of your life on a £35+ per month deal to walk away with one of these in your pocket for free.
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