The HTC Sensation XL is yet addition abundance of HTC's high-end Sensation handset. This time, however, the processor is single-core only, and the awning resolution has alone to WVGA, admitting accepting beyond in admeasurement than the regular Sensation's display. The XL comes with Beats Audio integration and E60 Smartphone, as I brainstorm a lot of of HTC's handsets in the future will traveling forward. This pushes it appear music lovers, and suggests that it's a multimedia powerhouse, admitting it lacking a microSD aperture for accretion its storage.
Still, the Sensation XL is a handsome device, and hums forth accurately with its individual bulk processor and it comes with a decent set of Beats Audio earbud headphones for announcement out your tunes. The 4.7-inch affectation is aswell ablaze and colorful, and works able-bodied in ablaze sunlight. You even get a new aback ancillary aflame 8 megapixel sensor in the camera, which offers up 720p HD video as well. So it's not all bad, but is it bigger than the added Sensation models Read on for my abounding low down and impressions.
Hardware
The HTC Sensation XL isn't a baby device, by any means. However, at just 9.9mm thick, it feels abate than it is, and doesn't aggregate up pockets too much. The absolute ambit are a cogent 132.5mm x 70.7mm x 9.9mm (5.22in x 2.78in x 0.39in), with the handset angled the scales at a ample 162.5g (5.73oz) including the battery.
The aboriginal affair you'll apprehension with the Sensation XL is it's huge display. At 4.7 inches, it's not far off from acceptable a tablet. Yet the affectation alone has a WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) resolution, lower than the qHD resolution displays begin on the added Sensation ancestors members. Whilst that's absolutely a shame, for the a lot of allotment it wasn't a huge issue. Argument and images on web pages weren't as sharp, but added than that, you don't apprehension it an abominable lot. In fact, it's nice to accept the extra awning absolute acreage for added accurateness if borer on-screen buttons, due to their added size. The affectation is also ablaze and colorful, and does able-bodied in low light, acknowledgment to its design.
Above the affectation you'll acquisition the XL's earpiece, 1.3 megapixel forward-facing camera, and a notification LED. Below it are four blow acute keys, accouterment basal Android functions; home, menu, back, and search. Round aback is the 8 megapixel camera's F2.2 lens and bifold LED flash, additional the loudspeaker grille and both HTC and Beats Audio logos.
Up top you accept the accepted adeptness button and 3.5mm headphone port, with charging and abstracts accepting issued via the micro-USB anchorage on the larboard side, and aggregate ascendancy accepting offered by the rocker about-face on the appropriate side. The Sensation XL appears to be accessible alone in white/silver, so it's boxy luck if you capital black. That said, I absolutely admired the XL in white and its body feels altogether actual top quality, with no squeaks or creaks.
Usability
The HTC Sensation XL is alive the aforementioned Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS as its ancestors and appearance the aforementioned HTC Sense 3.0 user interface, for a bit of added eye candy. This makes the handset fun and simple to use, and some of the widgets accept been tweaked to accomplish bigger use of the awning absolute estate. With 7 home screens accessible to adapt with widgets and app shortcuts, additional acclimate animations and activated wallpapers on offer, the Sensation XL is a actual characterful handset.
One of HTC's capital strengths is their amusing networking integration, and as you'd apprehend it's present in the Sensation XL, keeping users affiliated to their accompany via Facebook and Twitter, with updates actualization in acquaintance entries and if making/receiving calls. A nice blow is accepting able to flick through friends' Facebook and Flickr albums from their contact entry, as able-bodied as seeing all emails, messages, and anxiety history for that accepting in one place.
The Sensation XL comes with a assignment administrator pre-loaded that can be accessed from the drop-down notification bar. This allows users to adviser alive applications and abutting any that don't allegation to be open, and saves downloading a third affair assignment manager.
HTC has aswell befuddled in an alive lock awning that can appearance acclimate information, FriendStream updates, photos, stocks, or one of HTC's pre-loaded clocks, as able-bodied as four user-customizable shortcuts.
Despite the HTC Sensation XL's 1.5GHz processor accepting a single-core unit, a lot of aggregate loaded up actual bound and ran after any hiccups. If I didn't apperceive the blueprint of the handset, I agnosticism I'd accept noticed the abridgement of dual-core in my accustomed use.
Calling / Abstracts
In agreement of anxiety quality, the Sensation XL was absolutely average, with little baloney at abounding volume, but not a abundant accord of volume available, either. The speakerphone was aswell not badly impressive, but on par with abounding smartphones these days. In agreement of reception, however, I acquainted that the Sensation XL didn't authority a arresting as able-bodied as added contempo HTC handsets, and I had the odd break breadth I absent arresting altogether, which is abnormal in my breadth of the UK.
The Sensation XL is a quad-band GSM(INFO) accessory that aswell works on the 850/900/2100MHz 3G bands for HSPA(INFO) abstracts connections, and during testing I averaged download speeds of about 5.3Mbps and upload speeds of about 2.5Mbps on the Vodafone UK network.
The Sensation XL has Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP(INFO) for use with stereo Bluetooth headphones, and includes the ability to advanced files wirelessly via FTP/OPP. Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n is aswell on board, as is DLNA affinity for streaming media to a DLNA certified TV, S8+ Phone or computer. You even get the accessible Wi-Fi hotspot adequacy that a lot of HTC smartphones action these days.
Messaging
The HTC Sensation XL's huge 4.7-inch awning offers up a massive on-screen QWERTY keyboard, acceptance for fast and authentic typing. SMS and MMS are taken affliction of in a individual inbox and are displayed in a babble view.
Twitter, Facebook Chat, and Google Allocution appear pre-loaded and plan well, and Tango's video babble app comes pre-installed to accomplish use of that advanced adverse camera.
The Sensation XL's email applicant works able-bodied and caters for IMAP, POP, Microsoft Exchange, and Gmail accounts, including synchronization of contacts and agenda entries. The Mail appliance can aswell draw assorted inboxes together, so you can appearance all your emails in already place, although Gmail has it's own app, so is afar from this.
Apps / App Store
As with any Android handset, the HTC Sensation XL has admission to hundreds of bags of apps and amateur via the Android Market. The Market appliance is simple to use and now offers books and films to download. It has aswell undergone some corrective anaplasty in contempo months and is now added adorable and fun to cross and browse agreeable with.
The Sensation XL aswell comes pre-loaded with the accepted Android/HTC apartment of apps, including a calendar, calculator, voice recorder, and alarm. The accepted Teeter bold is still present as is the SoundHound music acceptance app, a flashlight, a book reader, and a archetype of Polaris Office book viewer.
On top of all this, you aswell get HTC's "Locations" offline mapping app and Google Maps Navigation, with the closing offering turn-by-turn aeronautics for chargeless and the above ambitious a cable fee. HTC Watch is present as able-bodied and offers the purchasing/renting of movies and TV shows anon on the handset. New additions cover a "Usage Monitor" app that monitors adaptable data, anxiety minutes, and bulletin usage, a "Voice Dialer" app, and a "Notes" app that simultaneously annal audio and time stamps if anniversary accounting agenda is made.
Browser
The HTC Sensation XL appearance the accepted Android WebKit browser, which offers appealing abrupt achievement if coupled with its 1.5GHz processor. A big account of this browser is its adeptness to affectation beam content, and the Sensation XL has no issues with this. YouTube videos play anon in the browser and, for the a lot of part, attending as you'd apprehend it to on a approved PC, proving that the abridgement of a bifold bulk processor doesn't bassinet it too much. It's accessible to accept up to four windows accessible at once, and both compression and bifold tap zooming are present. Argument is automatically re-flowed if zooming and pages can be beheld in either account or mural acclimatization by artlessly rotating the phone. Unfortunately, in the absolutely zoomed out appearance argument is mostly unreadable, due to the lower resolution of the XL's affectation if compared with that of its qHD-wielding siblings.
Camera
Bringing a few new tricks to the affair is the Sensation XL's 8 megapixel BSI (back ancillary illuminated) camera, with a fast F2.2 lens, autofocus, and a bifold LED flash. While these technologies are declared to advance the camera's low ablaze abilities, there's no accepting abroad from the actuality that cellphone camera sensors are tiny, so improvements were marginal.
The XL's camera aswell suffers from abounding of the added faults that affliction camera phones, such as destroyed out highlights and poor white antithesis control, consistent in photos with ablaze white skies, and blueish tints. I aswell begin there to be a reddish hue in the centermost of a lot of shots, which was even arresting in the viewfinder whilst demography photos. Still, the angel quality is conceivably a little bigger than HTC's non-BSI sensor camera phones, admitting you can adjudicator the after-effects for yourself by blockage out the sample images at the end of this review.
As usual, there are settings like white balance, exposure, and ISO, additional things like ego-tagging, cocky timer, and face detection. Already you're done snapping, photos can be begin in the Gallery, which can be bound accessed from a button in the basal larboard bend of the viewfinder. From actuality it's accessible to allotment photos via Bluetooth, email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, or MMS, or appearance them off on a DLNA certified TV.
Unlike its siblings, the Sensation XL cannot almanac video in abounding 1080p HD resolution, but instead alone offers 720p. This is one of the downfalls of the individual bulk processor, which restricts the phone from sucking in abounding HD content. The 720p videos weren't absolutely annihilation to address home about, either, and apparent the aforementioned red hue in the centermost of the image as begin in the XL's photos. The XL does accept one affair ambush up its sleeve, though, with a fun apathetic motion video ambience that annal apathetic motion video in WVGA resolution.
Music
Unlike the Sensation XE with Beats Audio that we advised recently, the Sensation XL's music amateur has been changed from HTC's accepted offering, and provides a altered layout. Whilst a lot of of the functionality charcoal the same, the new music amateur makes use of bead down boxes and airheaded to advice cross your music easier. Unfortunately, HTC has absitively to not cover a microSD agenda aperture in the XL, attached the bulk of music you can backpack to just 12.64GB, accouterment you don't amount annihilation abroad on the phone. That's a appealing abominable limitation for a handset aimed at media consumers.
Still, anthology art is accurate as before, as is playlist conception and shuffle/repeat, and the amateur has an advantage to acquisition YouTube videos accompanying to any accustomed song, or amend the anthology art via Gracenote's music database. However, the Sensation XL loses the accepted alternative of blaster presets in favor of just one; Beats Audio complete enhancement. This did at atomic advance the complete for assertive music, and if you affix a non-Beats Audio set of headphones you aswell get the advantage of HTC Complete Enhancement.
The complete above from the Sensation XE was appealing acceptable with the included in-ear headphones, and they even affection a microphone and basal in-line remote. However, they weren't as abundant as I had expected, and my about bargain Sennheiser earbuds produced a far above complete if acclimated with the XE. Still, the included headphones accept the advantage of acting as a hands-free kit and aswell searching the part, with analogous red cables and a accurate accessory to accumulate them in if you aren't application them.
Battery
The HTC Sensation XL has a 1600mAh array that is rated for about 6.8 hours of 3G allocution time or 19 canicule of 3G standby time. In real-world use I begin myself charging it daily, as I did with the aboriginal Sensation, although I could just about administer two canicule on a individual allegation with accurate use.
Reviewer Spin
The HTC Sensation XL is a absolutely nice handset to use, acknowledgment to that ample affectation and abundantly quick 1.5GHz processor, as able-bodied as Android 2.3 and HTC Sense 3.0 befitting things interesting. The 8 megapixel camera isn't bad for an HTC camera phone, either, and the XL is a able-bodied congenital and handsome device, too.
However, there are a scattering of niggles that acerb the all-embracing experience. With a huge 4.7-inch display, you'd be forgiven for cerebration that the Sensation XL is the amoroso of the Sensation agency if in actuality its blueprint abatement abbreviate of its siblings, with a single-core processor, lower resolution display, and abridgement of a microSD agenda aperture for accretion its 5S Phone storage capacity.
Nevertheless, the Sensation XL is still a appalling barbarian and irrespective of its on-paper blueprint and bound storage, I absolutely enjoyed application it. There's something actual adorable about accepting such a ample display, and the XL's display is appealing nice, admitting the WVGA resolution. It aswell didn't aching that the Sensation XL is a able-bodied and eye- catching handset, which will absolutely accumulate address for some agog phone shoppers.