HTC Sensation XL vs Galaxy S2 (Galaxy S II) | Samsung Galaxy S II vs HTC Sensation XL Full Specs Compared
HTC Sensation XL
HTC Sensation XL is one of the latest Android smart phones announced by HTC. The device is officially announced on 6 October 2011, and expected to be released to the EMEA and Asia-Pacific market by early November 2011. This is a larger and slimmer version of HTC Sensation XE, and like HTC Sensation XE, this is also designed as an entertainment phone. HTC Sensation XL comes with custom made ultra light “Beats” headset. Therefore the device is also known as HTC Sensation XL with beats audio.
HTC Sensation XL is 5.22” tall, 2.78” wide and 0.39” thick. The device comes in white colour; strange colour code for an entertainment phone . With battery the device weighs 162.5 g. HTC Sensation XE has a 4.7” Super LCD, capacitive touch screen with 16 M colours. The screen resolution is WVGA 480×800 pixels. The device also has Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off and a Gyro sensor. The user interface on HTC Sensation is customised with HTC Sense.
HTC Sensation XL has a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm snapdragon processor, but it is not dual core, and the RAM size is 768 MB. The device comes with 16 GB internal storage (12.64 GB available for user storage). As HTC claims it as a multimedia super phone, everyone would have expected a card slot for storage expansion. But HTC Sensation XL does not support storage expansion. In terms connectivity the device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G connectivity as well as micro-USB.
On HTC Sensation series, HTC capitalized heavily on the cameras. The emphasis remains similar in HTC Sensation XL. HTC Sensation XL has an 8 mega pixel rear facing camera with dual LED flash and auto-focus. The camera also comes with useful features such as geo-tagging, touch focus, image stabilization and face detection. Instant capture is another unique feature in the rear facing camera. The camera is also capable of HD video recording at 720p. The front facing camera is a fixed focus VGA camera quite sufficient for video calling.
HTC Sensation XL is a unique multimedia phone. The device comes with Beats audio and custom made Beats headsets and specially customized music application to take the full advantage of the cool headset. The FM radio support is also available on the device. HTC Sensation XL supports audio playback for formats such as m4a, .mp3, .mid, .ogg, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9). The audio recording format available is .amr. In terms of video playback formats, .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .m4v, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9 and VC-1) are available while video recording is available on .3gp and .mp4. With the high end hardware configurations and the 4.7” screen HTC Sensation XL will be very user friendly for gaming as well.
HTC Sensation XL is powered by Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread); however the user interface will be customized using the HTC Sense platform. The active lock screen and visuals for weather are available on HTC Sensation XL. Since HTC Sensation XL is an Android phone applications can be downloaded from Android market and many other 3rd party stores. Facebook and Twitter applications highly customized for HTC sense is available for HTC Sensation XL. Photos and videos can be directly uploaded to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube from HTC Sensation XL. The browsing experience on HTC Sensation is also supreme with multi window browsing. Text and image are rendered with quality even after zoom and video playback on browser is also smooth. The browser comes with support for flash.
HTC Sensation XL comes with a 1600 mAh re-chargeable battery. As HTC Sensation XL is intended for heavy multimedia manipulation, battery life is vital. The device reportedly stands more than 6 hours 50 minutes of continuous talk time with 3G on.
Samsung Galaxy S II (Galaxy S2)
Samsung Galaxy, probably one of the most famous Android smart phones today was officially announced in February 2011. At 0.33 inches thick, Samsung Galaxy S II remains one of the thinnest Android smart phones in the market today. The Samsung Galaxy S II is ergonomically designed for a better grip with 2 curves top and bottom. The device is still made out of plastic, just like its much famed predecessor Samsung Galaxy S.
Samsung Galaxy S II has a 4.3 inch super AMOLED plus screen with 800 x 480 resolution. The super AMOLED screen is a lot better in terms of color saturation and vibrancy. To the delight of many Samsung Galaxy lovers it has been confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S II screen is designed with Gorilla Glass making it heavily durable for rough use. This is one big advantage Samsung Galaxy S II has over its competitors. Super AMOLED plus gives better quality in not only displaying content but also in terms of battery consumption.
Samsung Galaxy S II has a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, but this is not achieved during all phone operations unless critically needed. This probably accounts more for the great power management available in Samsung Galaxy S II. The device can have 16 GB or 32 GB internal storage with 1 GB RAM. Complete with HSPA+21Mbps support Samsung Galaxy S II has USB-on-the go as well as micro- USB ports. Galaxy S II’s variants have better processing power and larger display. They have 4.5″ display and/or 1.5 GHz dual core processor.
Samsung Galaxy S II comes with Android 2.3 installed. But TouchWiz 4.0 is what dominates in the user interface. The contacts application comes with history of the communication between the contacts and user. The home button allows switching between 6 different applications simultaneously. Task manager is also available to enable closing down applications that’s not in use; however closing applications using task manager is not recommended on Android platform as applications not in use will be automatically closed. Tilt- Zoom is another neat feature introduced with TouchWiz 4.0. To Zoom-in an image users can tilt the phone up and to zoom-out the image users can tilt the phone down.
An 8 mega pixel rear facing camera and a 2 mega pixel front facing camera is available with Samsung Galaxy S II. This allows users to capture quality images while there on the move while the front facing camera is ideal for video chat. The camera application available with Samsung Galaxy S II is the default gingerbread camera application. The rear camera comes with auto focus and LED flash.
The browser available with Samsung Galaxy S II is much raved for its performance. The browser speed is good, while page rendering may have issues. Pinch to zoom and page scrolling is also fast and accurate and worthy of complement.
Overall Samsung Galaxy S II is a well designed Android smart phone by Samsung with impressive design and hardware quality. While this may not be the choice for a budget smart phone, one will not regret an investment due to its durability, usability and quality.