Messaging, App Store, Browser


Messaging

Typing messages and emails on the HTC Sensation'southward on-screen QWERTY keyboard was mostly very quick and easy, thanks to the large display. However, I still had plenty of instances where I hitting the wrong letter, and plenty of other instances where the text prediction system turned a correct word into an incorrect ane. Overall, text entry wasn't a hassle on the Awareness and didn't cause me much grief. If a larger keyboard is required the handset tin can be turned to landscape mode for an even larger QWERTY keyboard, or users can opt to use the T9 trace organization, which is switched off by default.

SMS and MMS are taken care of in a single application and are shown in a conversation view, inside little speech boxes. Where the whole SMS thread used to evidence both yours and the recipient's contact images, instead only the recipient's epitome is now shown, and only once at the acme of the screen. Twitter and Google Talk come pre-loaded and work well, though at that place is no built-in video chat client, despite the forwards facing camera. Weirdly, HTC'due south "Peep" app seemed to be absent-minded from the main apps list, though was somewhat available from the FriendStream app instead. This is probably to eliminate duplication, as the official Twitter app came pre-loaded.

The email client on the HTC Sensation works well and caters for IMAP, POP, Microsoft Exchange, and Gmail accounts, including synchronization of contacts and calendar entries. The Mail application can too draw multiple email accounts together, and so you can view all your mail service in one time place, or y'all tin view all post from a given person by looking in their contact entry. Unfortunately, at that place's no email widget for the Gmail app similar in that location is for other e-mail accounts, which is a shame equally information technology's darn handy.


Apps / App Store

With any Android handset you're in good hands when it comes to the range and availability of applications, thanks to the ever increasing size of the Android Market. Whilst there'south notwithstanding non quite equally much content as the Apple app store, there is at least more costless content, which is proficient news. There are enough of productivity apps, games, and utilities, as well as various other fun apps such as cartoon readers and alternative web browsers.

The Android Market has also had an overhaul recently, and at present looks a fleck more glamorous than before, with a scrolling carousel of app icons and a distinct green Android theme. Users can either browse the featured apps, sort the apps by category, search for something specific within the app store, or run across what HTC likes with the "HTC Recommends" section of the shop.

The Sensation also comes with a fairly standard suite of pre-loaded apps, including a calendar, estimator, vocalism recorder, and alarm. The usual Teeter game is withal present and new additions include the SoundHound music recognition app, a flashlight, a book reader, a copy of Polaris Office file viewer, a mirror that uses the forward facing camera to produce a reflection of the user on-screen, plus HTC's Automobile Console mode and their new Dock Mode. Dock mode puts the Sensation into a bedside clock type fashion, which shows a full screen weather animation, a clock, the nearly recent FriendStream update, and shortcuts to the calendar, connected media app, and photo frame mode. There's even a button to dim the brandish for night time use.

Of course, you as well become various mapping software for finding your way, with both HTC's "Locations" offline mapping app and the Google Maps Navigation app, with the latter offering free turn-by-turn navigation (you have to pay for this with HTC'due south offer). To round out HTC's offerings there are things like HTCSense.com support, which is HTC'southward complimentary remote telephone access/backup/tracking service, and HTC Spotter - a service for purchasing/renting movies and Boob tube shows directly on the handset. HTC Watch is still in its infancy at the moment, and can simply be used on HTC devices (limiting the employ of whatsoever purchased media), just it does offer the ability to stream movie trailers over 3G, although full downloads require a Wi-Fi connection. Content in the United kingdom starts at just £ane.49 for TV Show purchases, and goes up to £vii.99 - £9.99 for top movie purchases, with prices for renting movies around the £2.49 - £iii.49 marker.


Browser

The HTC Sensation's WebKit browser is standard Android fare, but with the dual core 1.2GHz processor it runs fifty-fifty more smoothly than usual and makes page load times uber-speedy. Flash content can take a little while longer to load, but yet appears fine. The only problem nosotros had was with an embedded video on our site, which as well threw upwardly an error with the HTC Flyer that we recently reviewed.

It'southward possible to have up to four windows open at one time, and both pinch and double tap zooming are featured. When zooming into a folio, text is re-flowed automatically and chop-chop. Pages can be viewed in either portrait or landscape orientation, and the display automatically rotates when the phone is turned one way or the other. In the fully zoomed out view, text is just well-nigh readable, thank you to the new college resolution qHD display. However, near folks will nonetheless prefer to zoom in a little, as the text is pretty small, even on a 4.3-inch screen.