HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio Sim Free Smartphone

In the last week I have tried both an HTC Titan (Windows 7) and the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus (running Ice Cream Sandwich). The Sensation XL is much nicer to use, largely due to the fantastic Sense 3.5 interface. Don't be influenced by technical reviews. Yes, some of the specs are less high than the Galaxy Nexus (not the camera, though, which is much better on the Sensation XL), but in practice it runs beautifully, without a hitch. The screen resolution is lower than on the Nexus or the other Sensation models but to the naked eye it doesn't make that much difference.

What really makes a difference, at least to me, is this:

1. Solid feel, beautiful design, as opposed to the 'plasticky' Samsung phones.

2. Fantastic Sense interface, very intuitive, again beautifully designed and very simple to use yet providing much more fine tuned settings than either Windows 7 (which has been simplified to the point of being moronic) or the bare Android interface.

3. In particular, it is the ONLY of these phones which allows to you to set a limit to the size of the messages you download (from 'Headers only' to to 2KB and upwards). The Galaxy Nexus can set a limit to how much data you download in general but the lowest figure is 5MB. If you're roaming outside Europe that's already about £40 of data! So if you want to check email using a data connection (sometimes wifi is not available) then it is ESSENTIAL that you should be able to cap the size of emails, not to mention attachments. The HTC email client is the only one I found which allows for that (Gmail doesn't). That per se in invaluable to enjoy the benefits of the phone everywhere in the world but avoid huge roaming charges. More generally speaking you can fine-tune most settings much more than on the other two phones to maximise battery use or again (sorry, a bugbear of mine I guess) minimise roaming charges. I was in the US last week and checked email several times a day (about 40 messages per day): over the course of 4 days I spent less than 1MB in charges.

4. There is a Dropbox deal which increases your storage capacity by 3GB (from 2GB).

5. You can set several languages for the keyboard and toggle between them from the keyboard (you can set different languages on the other two but not toggle easily) and -- wait for that -- the text prediction can be set to be bilingual (you get suggestions in both your selected languages). If like me you have to type messages in different languages this tool is invaluable, and it is unique to this phone.

6. The camera is great.

In short, in terms of comfort and precision of use this is by far the best phone I've found so far. I am totally delighted with it. It is fast, very finely tunable up (so to speak), precise, and aesthetically pleasing.

PS: I am that positive without even having tried the Beats audio system, one of its main selling points!

This is a really nice phone that does what it needs to and does it well. Web browsing, watching films and playing games is a joy with the large screen, and the mp3 player is excellent. Maybe could do with a bit more internal storage, what with no SD card, but to be honest I have yet to find this a problem, and don't anticipate it becoming one. Have a look at the specs, if it's enough for you, you'll be very pleased with the performance of the HTC Sensation XL.

This is probably a 4 star phone for me, but since the current bizarre trend is give a score to 'counterbalance' other people's scores, I'll give it a 5 star rating to counteract the person who felt it neccesary to to give 1 star because a few people have really been enjoying their new phone and wanted to let others know about it.

I didn't buy the phone here but on the worlds biggest market place.

I upgraded from my first HTC phone (the briliant HTC Desire) to this one because the moment I saw it released I knew that it would be my next phone. And what can I say, I made the absolutey right choice. I couldn't ask for more in a phone.

It feels solid build as every HTC phone. The design is finally an eye catcher (compared to the other grey models available or the brown Desire I had before). HTC Sense has evolved nicely and I like it even more now. Granted I still have to get used to the screen/phone size but that will come with time. No Micro SD-Csrd slot? Not a problem for me. My small music collection of around 4GB still leaves me with enough available storage for apps and the odd photo. No dual core? Don't care, because how much does the android system really use them? The angry birds are still flying smoothly without any delay. :-) The phone is fast and responsive and using it is sheer bliss.

The music really does sound better with Beats and as soon as you make the test and switch off the sound profile you hear the difference.

Having been 'burnt' by HTC with the update of the Desire to andorid gingerbread my only hope is that future updates for this phone won't be a problem.

No need to say that I highly recommend this phone to every HTC fan or to those people thinking about becoming one. ;-)