HTC Sensation XE Review: The Beats Audio-equipped HTC Sensation XE is billed as a music nut’s dream. Is it just what the Dr (Dre) ordered?
HTC Sensation XE review
Love
- Bass-blasting Beats Audio
- Speedy performance
- Good build quality
Hate
- Light on built-in storage
- Non-AMOLED screen
- Beats doesn’t suit all music
Not only is there Beats audio processing inside, but you’ll also find a pair of iBeats headphones, worth about £80 alone, stuffed inside the box. Is this enough to make it into our list of the best smartphones around?
HTC Sensation XE: Build
Bar the snazzy new red and black colour scheme, the HTC Sensation XE looks much the same as the original Sensation. Not that that’s a bad thing: this is a solidly-built, slim smartphone that feels nice, if perhaps a little heavy, in your hand; the rubberised texture on the backplate is a nice touch (and nice to touch).There are micro USB and 3.5mm headphone sockets on the outside, plus a volume rocker on the left hand side panel.
HTC Sensation XE: Features
The HTC Sensation XE comes with all the accoutrements you’d expect from a high end smartphone, including a superb camera that captures 8MP stills and 1080p HD video, Bluetooth 3.0 and DLNA. The OS is the always-capable Android 2.3 Gingerbread, over which HTC has spread its Sense 3.0 user interface – and very nice to use it is too.There’s a handful of HTC-exclusive apps like Watch (which lets you download HD movies), and of course you also have access to Android Market and the thousands of apps therein.
The Beats Audio technology is essentially a very effective bass booster, and when paired with the excellent quality iBeats headphones it means you get an impressively big sound out of this phone. Bass is HUGE without being distorted, and when listening to hip hop and the like, this pays off nicely.
If your ‘bag’ swings more towards the acoustic end of the musical spectrum, however, it can result in tunes sounding bigger and murkier than you might expect.
You can turn off Beats for such stuff, but this leaves everything slightly bloodless and anaemic. We’d also like to see Beats enabled for apps outside the main music player, like Spotify.
HTC Sensation XE: Screen
Videos and games look eminently watchable on the screen, and it’s large and detailed enough that web browsing proves to be a pleasure rather than a chore.
HTC Sensation XE: Performance
It’s a peach on the usability front. HTC Sense is one of the best non-standard Android UIs, and the multi-touch controls work as they should. You can flick between home screens with minimal lag, and customise them to your requirements with ease.
The battery life is pretty standard for a smartphone, and you'll more than likely need to charge the Sensation XE up once a day.
HTC Sensation XE: Verdict
Despite being a revamped Sensation, the Sensation XE’s extra power and the addition of Beats Audio (plus quite possibly the best headphones ever to be packaged with a phone) mean it’s no mere ‘special edition’.The effectiveness of Beats does depend to some extent on what sort of music you listen to, but it’s always better than the muddy dross served up by a lot of packaged smartphone headphones. Audio aside, this is a strong all-rounder, and another classy Android option.
HTC Sensation XE availability: Out now
HTC Sensation XE price: £Free on contract, £450 SIM-free