HTC Sensation review

HTC's dual-core wonder finally arrives - let battle commence!

The definitive HTC Sensation review
The definitive HTC Sensation review

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The HTC Sensation is one of those phones that has a huge range of connectivity on board, from Wi-Fi b/g/n to Bluetooth 3.0.

The Wi-Fi is certainly a step up from the likes of the HTC Desire S, which had a very strange attenuation problem if you held the phone in a certain way. The Sensation is a lot better, and even a big improvement over the Samsung Galaxy S2, which is useless in mid-strength Wi-Fi signal zones.

HTC sensation review

Bluetooth connection strength and speed was very good throughout our review time, with wireless headphones showing no problems at all, no matter what we threw at them. The range was impressive too, with around 10 metres the maximum with walls in the way.

HTC sensation review

HSPDA is at an acceptable 14.4Mbps speed, with the upload speed bouncing in at 5.76 Mbps, both of which seem plausible in our tests - plus the lovely option of setting up your own Wi-Fi hotspot if you fancy chewing the battery in heartbeat.

HTC sensation review

HTC has chucked on quite a few options when it comes to connecting the phone up to the PC, with the main one being HTC Sync.

HTC sensation review

While this is more of an option to get your contacts and such backed up, it works well for keeping your calendar, document folder and even internet bookmarks safe should you lose your phone or transfer to a new one.

HTC sensation review

If you're after an easier way to get content across though, simply dragging and dropping media into the phone will work just as well - it zips across in no time at all, which is a blessing when you're getting movies ready for a long journey.

HTCSense.com

The HTC Sensation also offers connection to HTCSense.com, a portal that allows you to control your phone from afar.

If you leave your phone at home or misplace it, this website is designed to take the hassle out of that.

You can perform basic tasks like forwarding all your calls to another number and messages too - it works nicely and makes the hassle of people not being able to get hold of you a distant memory.

You can also ring the phone as loud as possible - it overrides the vibration setting as well, so even if you've turned the ringer off you can still hear where you've left your precious device.

HTC sensation review

But there's a lot more to this portal than just that - being able to send a message to your phone or lock it remotely means that if you think you're going to get it back you can protect it or entice someone to return it.

You can also see roughly where your phone is - handy if you think you might have left it at that restaurant across town but don't want to go over there on a wild goose chase.

And of course there's the remote wipe option, allowing you to protect any data that might fall into the wrong hands.

You can also see your messages and contacts on this offering as well, so make sure you sign up to the free service as soon as you get your shiny new Sensation out of the box to make sure it's easy to find it when you start panicking that last night's drunken fug resulted in a wasted £500.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.