Well, between rebooting, replacing, and realizing that a fix may be far off, like many of you I've become a bit dismayed with our favorite smartphone. This has left me looking for answers, and alternatives...and especially getting giddy over the specs. of one htc sensation 4g coming to t-mobile. Let's face it, from dual core processor to qhd display to immediately being listed as a supported device on htcsense.com, this seemed like the phone the thunderbolt was suppposed to be (i.e. one that actually works) or even a prelude to a thunderbolt 2. And so, with all the ongoing glitches of the thunderbolt, and the excitement of those great looking specs. of the sensation, I was contemplating jumping ship even to a fourth place carrier. Until now.
Last night I discovered a t-mobile store manager who has had the htc sensation to try out for several weeks after a staff training. About a half hour before closing, he invited me to stop in and readily handed over the phone for me to walk around and play with for as long as I wanted while he took care of other customers. Yes, I thought about snapping some pics. to post here...but then I realized there are plenty of t-mobile and htc reps. seemingly running around with sensations to try out and no shortage of unboxing videos out there to look over, so my hands-on preview did not seem as unheard of as trying out a pre-sale thunderbolt would have been!
So, long story short...the unibody build of the phone and curvy design certainly look sharp. And, yep, htc sense 3.0 with its new lock screen ui and new weather widget animations is very cool. Beyond that, believe it or not, I was shockingly underwhelmed. And this was especially true when I took my t-bolt out of my pocket for a side-by-side comparison. For starters, I can see why some have thought the screen size of the sensation was smaller than the thunderbolt's, even though they both list as 4.3" on the spec. sheets. I gather this is because of the true 16:9 scope of the sensation, which has the effect of making it's screen look more narrow and a bit tinier than the thunderbolt. More surprisingly, when comparing the qhd display of the sensation next to the resolution of the thunderbolt, I could not tell any difference at all. And kudos for the honesty of the t-mobile manager who confessed that the sensation display gets wiped out when looking at it outside in the broad daylight as well. I also put the front facing cameras of both phones to task and found that the vga of the sensation made me look very orange (as has been mentioned in reviews) and the 1.3 mp of the thunderbolt ffc looked much more natural. Finally, as far as speed, my web browsing on both phones felt very similar. The manager told me he gets up to about 1.7 mbps download speed in 4g mode in our area on the sensation. As I left the store, I speed tested my thunderbolt at 2.8 mbps in glorious battery saving 3g!
Hey, look, I know this is not quite an engadget review here...or some sort of thunderbolt-sensation smackdown...but fwiw I just thought I would do a little sharing for those users stressing out, or even switching out, over our well known difficulties. And I know others have provided their thoughts on some other options like the incredible 2 and droid charge. Bottom line I guess is this experience has actually helped me make friends again with my thunderbolt...and find some more patience while waiting for a firmware fix and gingerbread to roll out.
But it would be nice if htc would throw in a little sense 3.0 for our troubles, wouldn't it?!
Last night I discovered a t-mobile store manager who has had the htc sensation to try out for several weeks after a staff training. About a half hour before closing, he invited me to stop in and readily handed over the phone for me to walk around and play with for as long as I wanted while he took care of other customers. Yes, I thought about snapping some pics. to post here...but then I realized there are plenty of t-mobile and htc reps. seemingly running around with sensations to try out and no shortage of unboxing videos out there to look over, so my hands-on preview did not seem as unheard of as trying out a pre-sale thunderbolt would have been!
So, long story short...the unibody build of the phone and curvy design certainly look sharp. And, yep, htc sense 3.0 with its new lock screen ui and new weather widget animations is very cool. Beyond that, believe it or not, I was shockingly underwhelmed. And this was especially true when I took my t-bolt out of my pocket for a side-by-side comparison. For starters, I can see why some have thought the screen size of the sensation was smaller than the thunderbolt's, even though they both list as 4.3" on the spec. sheets. I gather this is because of the true 16:9 scope of the sensation, which has the effect of making it's screen look more narrow and a bit tinier than the thunderbolt. More surprisingly, when comparing the qhd display of the sensation next to the resolution of the thunderbolt, I could not tell any difference at all. And kudos for the honesty of the t-mobile manager who confessed that the sensation display gets wiped out when looking at it outside in the broad daylight as well. I also put the front facing cameras of both phones to task and found that the vga of the sensation made me look very orange (as has been mentioned in reviews) and the 1.3 mp of the thunderbolt ffc looked much more natural. Finally, as far as speed, my web browsing on both phones felt very similar. The manager told me he gets up to about 1.7 mbps download speed in 4g mode in our area on the sensation. As I left the store, I speed tested my thunderbolt at 2.8 mbps in glorious battery saving 3g!
Hey, look, I know this is not quite an engadget review here...or some sort of thunderbolt-sensation smackdown...but fwiw I just thought I would do a little sharing for those users stressing out, or even switching out, over our well known difficulties. And I know others have provided their thoughts on some other options like the incredible 2 and droid charge. Bottom line I guess is this experience has actually helped me make friends again with my thunderbolt...and find some more patience while waiting for a firmware fix and gingerbread to roll out.
But it would be nice if htc would throw in a little sense 3.0 for our troubles, wouldn't it?!
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