Among other things, the HTC Sense adds a few tweaks to the Android interface that makes the phone better to use as a music player. It also supports Vodafone’s new 850MHz 3G network, along with the standard 900/2100 UMTS bands.
#Htc gracenote software upgrade#
The Sensation XL runs the latest version of Android (2.3.5) as well as the latest HTC Sense 3.5 graphics, and HTC has announced that it will be providing an upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) next year. The up-side is that if your eyes aren’t what they used to be, this is something you’ll actually appreciate, and it makes the on-screen keyboard easier to type on. This is the same display resolution that HTC uses on its mid-range 3.7” smartphones – a pixel density that looks normal on the smaller screens but results in extra-large text, buttons and other GUI elements on the Sensation XL. The XL is less powerful than the original HTC Sensation, opting for a single-core 1.5GHz processor (with the same 768MB of RAM) and a lower-res 800 x 480 screen.
#Htc gracenote software free#
While these come free in the box, HTC has had to cut some corners in other areas to compensate. Of course, it helps that they’re seriously stylish, with a white paintjob to match the Sensation XL, red-on-silver Beats logo on each ear, and a distinctive red cable. They’re smaller than a regular set of headphones, so even if you’re not usually the headphone-wearing type, you may not mind wearing these out in public. These are a special edition that have been tuned to specifically match the Beat Audio sound profile on the Sensation XL, but if you were to buy the regular Beats Solo headphones, you’d be looking at an RRP of $300. The earphones that come bundled with smartphones have gotten a lot better in the last few years, but the Sensation XL bumps it up several notches with the inclusion of Beats Solo over-the-ear headphones. Behind the rear casing, you’ll find the 1600mAh battery and SIM card slot, but sadly no microSD card slot. The microUSB port is on the left, and the rear houses the dual LED flash, eight-megapixel camera and speaker. The top houses a 3.5mm headphone jack and the sleep/power button, and the volume buttons (housed underneath a thin silver slab) are on the right.
On the front, there are four capacitive buttons below the screen, an indicator light above the screen that flashes green when you have a new notification, and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. The rest of the phone’s design is pretty standard. It’s also surprisingly light at 162g – the 4.3” HTC Evo 3D is heavier at 170g. The extra space afforded by the larger display has enabled HTC’s engineers to spread the internal components thinner, and the Sensation XL is actually the company’s thinnest smartphone yet at just a hair under 1cm. The pure white front is reminiscent of the iPhone 4/4S and iPad 2, with silver accents that wrap around to the back to take up the majority of the rear casing. The Sensation XL is the best-looking HTC phone we’ve seen, and we’d argue that it’s up there as one of the most attractive Android phones as well. Off-hand, we couldn’t tell the difference between the width of the Motorola RAZR and Sensation XL, although the former is slightly narrower at 68.9mm. Of course, it doesn’t have the perfectly-proportioned hand-to-screen-size ratio that the iPhone supposedly has, but it’s not that much wider than phones with a 4.3” display. It’s actually quite nice in the hand thanks to the smoothly rounded edges, giving it the illusion of being a lot narrower than 70.7mm. “A 4.7” screen? Surely that’s too big for a smartphone?” That was our first thought when we heard about the Sensation XL, but turns out it’s not as wide as we thought it would be. It’s a strong mix of features that results in one of the most appealing smartphones that HTC has released to date, but is it impressive enough to take on the iPhone 4S and other top-shelf smartphones? Read on to find out. The first one we’re reviewing is the HTC Sensation XL, a music-oriented smartphone with a jumbo-sized 4.7” display, 16GB of internal storage, and bundled Beats Solo headphones. The HTC Sensation XL and XE are the first fruits of that labour, and they’re both available today exclusive to Vodafone. What you may not have heard is that HTC recently invested several suitcases worth of cash into the company, to the tune of a reported $300 million, for the rights to use its audio technology in HTC smartphones. Review You’ve probably heard of Beats By Dr Dre by now.
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