HTC Sensation XE - Rock to the Beat

Rocking to the Beat

We reviewed the HTC Sensation back in July this year; the smartphone was pretty impressive, scoring a high 9 on the HWZ scale for its overall performance. The smartphone was released while the industry was thrust into the thick of outfitting their phones with dual-core processors, with the HTC Sensation being the Taiwanese company's flagship 1.2GHz dual-core smartphone. What else does its similarly endowed sibling, the newly-released HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio, have to bring to the plate? Read on to find out.

Key highlights of the HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Android 2.3 Gingerbread Bundled HTC urBeats in-ear headphones by Dr Dre + Beats Audio Sound Profile 1.5 GHz dual-coreprocessor 768 MB RAM 4.3-inch S-LCD capacitive touchscreen / 540 x 960 pixels 8-megapixel camera / autofocus, dual-LED flash 1730 mAh battery 151g

Painting the Town Red

To differentiate it from its predecessor, the Sensation XE gets a splash of red to go along with its predominantly black body. And it works - the phone certainly comes across as funky and fashionable. Outwardly, that's the only cosmetic change that the Sensation XE gets but we aren't complaining either - the original Sensation is a sturdily-built smartphone with a good mixture of plastic and metal forming its chassis. Plus, it rests comfortably in our grip and features well-constructed buttons. This great all-round experience is also replicated with the newer Sensation XE. The only issue (and it isn't a big one either) we had with the phone was with removing the phone's back casing; let's just say we didn't exactly have an easy time with it. Either way, unless changing your SIM or microSD card is a personal daily ritual, you only have to go through this annoying experience once usually.

 

Benchmarking the HTC Sensation XE

So what makes the HTC Sensation XE different? Hardware-wise, it comes with a faster and more powerful 1.5GHz dual-core processor. To give readers a gauge of what to expect in terms of performance, we have adopted a few benchmark tests specific to the Android platform.

Within this page, we'll be looking at two specific benchmarks, both of which are downloadable via the Android Market.

Quadrant: It measures the device's performance based on its CPU, I/O and GPU. Simply put, Quadrant is a benchmark that gives you a general idea of how your device performs against other Android devices.



NeoCore: It is targeted towards the device's GPU performance. This is especially important given how smartphones of today have evolved into an alternative, high-powered device that dabbles in heavy graphical interfaces and gaming.

Do note that the above two benchmarks are not absolute in measuring performance, but they give you a good rough estimate of where the device stands against the competition. Our tests were conducted on devices from a fresh reboot on their respective stock firmwares. To show how the HTC Sensation XE performed against similar smartphones, we compared its results against the following high-end Android devices - HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Atrix.  

With a score of over 2000 on all four dual-core devices, the Quadrant benchmark results for the Sensation XE did not deviate much from our expectations. As mentioned in our HTC Sensation review, this comparison clearly shows that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8260 chipset faltered against the likes of NVIDIA's Tegra 2 and Samsung's own Exynos chipset. If you look at the charts above, you will see that there isn't much of an improvement in terms of performance in the Sensation XE as compared to the Sensation; scores in both tests are almost similar. 



That is not to say that the Sensation XE is not capable of crunching those intensive apps and its, ahem, graphics-intensive Sense 3.0 UI. With a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 768MB of RAM, the powerful smartphone ran apps, widgets and its UI smoothly without any visible lags. Apps loaded almost instantaneously; the Sensation XE survived lag-free even while playing intensive game apps with other apps running in the background. In essence, you will get a responsive phone with smooth transitions and enough horsepower for fluid multi-tasking.

Multimedia Performance

The Sensation XE, like its top-end peers, comes armed with an 8-megapixel sensor and a pair of LED flash. This setup is similarly found on the Sensation, and unsurprisingly, the results are pretty much the same here. Images turned out average at best; wonky white balancing issues, flat color reproduction and loss of details are revisiting issues on the device. Images tend to veer towards having a high level of noise when it comes to night photography.

Apart from its almost below average imaging performance, the phone's 4.3-inch qHD S-LCD screen is optimal for watching videos and indulging in games as colors were brilliantly reproduced with crisp details. Of course, the Sensation XE comes with a unique audio edge as mentioned,  and this is shown not only in the bundled HTC urBeats in-ear headphones but also in the pre-installed music player. The Beats Audio sound profile can be easily found under the Sound Enhancing mode. How did these additions fare? Let's find out:-

Generally speaking, the  HTC urBeats in-ear headphones by Dr Dre are capable of a strong and punchy response on their own. Unfortunately, the monitors can be a little overwhelming from the mid to lower frequencies with slight clouding tendencies to the treble range. The highs are sterile enough on tracks with minimal bass, but lacks a definitive crispness especially with percussive instruments. The HTC Sensation XE also comes with a Beats Audio optimizer feature which we believe was tuned for bass-heads mostly - unsurprisingly of course, since the Dr Dre line is well-known for its bass.



The Sensation XE comes preloaded with Sense 3.0 UI (yes, and not the latest Sense 3.5 UI that is found on the newly-released HTC Rhyme and HTC Explorer) that is found on both HTC Flyer and HTC Sensation.

Battery Performance

The final test we performed on the Sensation XE was to check on its battery stamina with a selected group of devices chosen based on their similarities across battery capacities, display sizes, resolution and processing power. Our testing methodology involves test video with a 480 x 800 pixels resolution looping under the following conditions:

• Screen brightness and volume at 100%
  
   
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection active
  
   
• Constant data stream via email and Twitter

To ascertain how well its dual-core processor will handle its power management and battery mileage, we compared it to other similar dual-core Android devices such as the HTC Sensation, Samsung Galaxy S II, and Motorola Atrix.

As listed in the specifications, the HTC Sensation XE comes with a higher 1730mAh battery capacity, slightly higher than the original Sensation's 1520mAh. This results in a 26-minute advantage as shown in our battery test, which isn't exactly spectacular. The smartphone's battery life is still roughly half of the Samsung Galaxy S II, which is unsurprising, given that the smartphone remains greatly unchanged from its predecessor. The Sensation XE's higher battery capacity offsets its higher level of power consumption due to its more powerful (hence, more battery-consuming) 1.5GHz dual-core processor which explains why its power consumption is slightly higher at 1.56W compared to the Sensation. Due to its higher battery life and almost identical volume and weight (the Sensation XE is only 3g heavier than the Sensation), the smartphone gains an upper hand over its predecessor in the portability index. However, comparing it to the other dual-core smartphones in the line-up, the Sensation XE falls short like the Sensation due to its heavier body and bigger girth.

While rationing the phone for normal day-to-day operations, the phone could last for at least a full working day.

 

Conclusion - Sensory Beats

The Sensation performed admirably in our review as we mentioned in the opening lines of this review - it's a capable, value for money high-end smartphone that comes with a perfect balance between features and performance. With the exception of its underwhelming battery performance, we would readily recommend it to anyone needing a large touchscreen dual-core smartphone that has all the features you'll ever need. The same can definitely be said of the Sensation XE, which comes with an even more powerful processor, higher battery life and audio perks like free urBeats in-ears and Beats Audio software. However, like the recently reviewed Sony Ericsson Arc S, the Sensation XE isn't what we would call a great upgrade from the original Sensation. More accurately, it's just a HTC Sensation with added frills to help sustain its value proposition since the benchmark results and its battery performance deviate only slightly from its original form. However, if you are looking to get the Sensation, skip it and go straight for the newer Sensation XE. Priced at just S$30 more (with an SRP of S$868), you definitely get more bang for buck (plus, it saves you the effort and cash spent on sourcing out for a capable pair of in-ear headphones). While its bass-crazy sound profile might not be for everyone, it can be easily disabled as shown above. 

The Sensation XE still remains a capable smartphone at heart especially if you consider the powerful hardware and software that's available (the attractive and smart HTC Sense 3.0 UI) on it. However, if you are looking for a lighter phone with a better battery life, your best bet will be the Samsung Galaxy S II, followed by the Motorola Atrix or the upcoming iPhone 4S.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.