Why Sensation will Fail

[keithnmikkii]

I know blasphemy.

I would have to say that the hype around this phone is very under-whelming. All my friends and phone geeks i hang out with don't really know anything about this phone. Of course that hardware that it is packaged with is nice, but it is not the first for anything.
Dual-core has already been done so it is not turning heads there, it is not the first with QHD screen some even argue that the Super AMOLED screen is better, the cam is what 8mp, it has been done. Not to say it is not awesome.
With all this packaged into one phone the on-board storage is going to be it's Achilles.
Just not enough hype i guess my gripe is. I think it will still develop its own niche but the carriers are going to have to push it, i mean maybe after it gets undersold for a while the carriers will sell it for 100 with contracts.
Don't get me wrong i would love to test drive one, but i don't think it will sell very well that is all.

 

[EarlyMon]

Respectfully, I totally disagree.

Check out this vid! - HTC Gives Another Close Look at Sensation, Doesn’t Mention Locked Bootloader

If dual-core on this phone isn't turning your head, it should - like the Exynos, and unlike the Tegra-2, the 2 cpu cores in this phone are independently clocked.

And while the SGS2 might have the Exynos and SAMOLED+ it is a lower resolution screen.

All in all, that vid ought show that this isn't a bunch of features slapped together - this is a total design concept that was very well thought-out.

 

[LeanNSupreme]

Locked bootloader!??
HTC Sensation looks to have signed bootloader, custom ROMs look to be bummed -- Engadget

 

[EarlyMon]

Yes, locked but not encrypted.

Motorola encrypts in addition to locking. Encryption is evil. Locking is just a temporary pain in the butt.

Not new - all HTC phones have featured a signed, locked bootload for a long time.

My Evo came with one, last June.

I totally unlocked it - last June.

See this for full details on the whole locked bootloader issue:

http://androidforums.com/evo-3d-all-things-root/329819-no-need-panic-about-locked-bootloader.html

(Sorry to shout, but I didn't want to answer that for all the later posters in this thread. )

 

[Deleted User]

I kind of agree and kind of disagree. I know what you mean. When the Desire came out it was amazing and there was nothing else like it.. With this, as said its all been done :/

 

[EarlyMon]

It's not such a terrible thing to have so many choices in top-notch superphones, tho.

 

[Bnice]

I think the phone will do just fine. Just because a big buzz is not being made of a devise doesn't mean it's under whelming. HTC like to go about things quietly, just like their slogan states. If that video Earlymon posted hasn't erase any doughts or some, I don't know what to say then.

 

[MelissaM]

I would have to say that the hype around this phone is very under-whelming. All my friends and phone geeks i hang out with don't really know anything about this phone. Of course that hardware that it is packaged with is nice, but it is not the first for anything.

If you want a weak over-hyped phone, you should check out the Samsung S II. Based on reports of the actual phone (unlike Sensation), issues include: inaccurate GPS (standard for a Samsung), weak Mali 400 GPU (beaten by Adreno 220), low resolution, over saturation of colors (standard with amoled), cheap plastic back and best of all...TouchWiz!!!!

I think I'll stick with waiting for the Sensation. Good luck to you are your "friends" and your daily phone discussions (instead of talking about icky girls).

 

[keithnmikkii]

It's not such a terrible thing to have so many choices in top-notch superphones, tho.

I agree with this, the competition will have to take note, but if they were really to change the game and come with a rock bottom price, that would deffinetly change the market, Think PS3 (not the network) all the hardware and R&D it should have been priced at 1200 but they had nothing competing at the price so they have to have them at 350, don't hurt sony so much, but everyone else has now to compete with that hardware.

I do think that it is nice to change the backplate as they have, i am rough on my phones so i like that it is a task to take off the backplate. I think however it would be simple to make the sd removable w/o having to take it off.

 

[EarlyMon]

Part of the reason they do that is that Linux (Android's foundation) does tend to get a little unhappy when an SD card is removed without being unmounted first (software ejected in Windows).

There are ways around that - but I really think they that do that with sd cards to keep the service calls low.

What might be obvious to you and me - well, you know, there's a lot of people out there.

Pretty safe bet the card's ready for safe removal if you put it under the battery.

 

[EmperorKabir]

There are 2 camps on the Sensation.

Camp 1 is annoyed that nothing revolutionary has been launched on this phone or many other phones at the moment, nor is Android REALLY launching anything spectacular in Ice Cream Sandwich (so far).

Camp 2 realises that finally they have the phone that they thought they bought when they bought their Eclair/Froyo generation handsets has arrived with none of the problems that they currently have with their current handsets.

As a Desire owner, I'm in camp 2 and am glad that the phone my Desire should have been has finally been launched. Anything else from now is just a bonus unless something groundbreaking is due out... which for the next year at least, it doesn't look like there is.

 

[Ghibli]

I believe the Sensation might fail as a geek's darling, but make no mistake, it has runaway sales success written all over it.

The Sensation ticks all the boxes that consumers care about most: high megapixel count, razor-sharp screen, highly-reputed UI (Sense), expensive look and feel, plus the marketing gold of a dual-core processor.
The in-store experience will also be helped by the narrower 16:9 display which will make it easier to hold than the Galaxy S II.

Also, I'm surprised that some of you find HTC's promotion a bit lacklustre. From what I've seen lately, HTC has had one of the most aggressive and consistent marketing campaigns of any smartphone brand.

 

[Shocky]

It won't be a failure, much like Apple. HTC can depend on their loyal fans to keep buying their phones, I know loads of people who only buy HTC devices, they don't even look at the competition or even know about them.

 

[chocobosandwich]

Lol looks like the OP wants to start a flamewar. Doesn't fanboyism get tiring?


No this device is not going to do any type of flailing. It won't sell as well nor have the same sort of appeals as another phone, but it isn't gonna follow the trajectory of the Atrix, which seems to be flailing a bit. There's a loyal fanbase after all.

However, the buzz really isn't there. Check the post count of any Android site, xda, androidcentral, especially this forum. The numbers don't lie. The same old threads with days separating each post. The specs on the Sensation, and the look, have been done before. Even if the Sensation does a bang up job combining them all, it can't call itself "first!" on any of them and the bleeding edge is usually the headline grabber. There isn't much mystery involved, and thus not much speculation.

HTC is only exacerbating the situation by not feeding any crumbs or giving any revelations or proper promotion, especially during the SGS2's launch. Where are the prototypes? The previews? The leaked youtube footage? The forum members who "magically" happen to have the Sensation early? Tweets from Mt. Everest? Extreme unboxings? I found new articles and videos every day for the SGS2, well before it was released. I also do the same search for the Sensation, because I like having choices. There isn't much there and HTC isn't promoting it right.

 

[Slug]

The Sensation will sell by the bucketload because, like other HTC devices before it, the sum will be greater than the individual parts. It may not be the fastest/slimest/most spacious/whatever but it will offer the best user experience. That's what matters to the majority of buyers.

Me, I'm in two minds. The specs are good and I love HTC's current design/build philosphy, but 4.3" displays have been too wide for my taste. If it sits well in my hand, and that bootloader gets cracked, I'll probably pick one up on upgrade with Orange.

 

[Shocky]

but it will offer the best user experience. .

How exactly does it do that?

Other than the UI differences which come down to preference at the end of day, how will the experience be better?

Please don't just say Sense is better because that's a load of crap.

 

[EarlyMon]

How exactly does it do that?

Other than the UI differences which come down to preference at the end of day, how will the experience be better?

Please don't just say Sense is better because that's a load of crap.

HTC has really gone after the total package - finally. Many aspects of the media integration are really vastly improved, for example.

Note the stereo audio with video recording - not aware of anyone else offering such a thing yet (SGS2 is not in the US yet, so please correct me if wrong).

I think this illustrates a great deal:

YouTube - HTC Sensation - A Closer Look

And Sense 3 is whole 'nother animal than the Sense you might be familiar with, even picking up some of the better Wiz features, such as a more effective notification drop-down with tabs and embedded widgets & shortcuts (sorry this is for Evo 3D, but Sense 3 is Sense 3):

YouTube - HTC EVO 3D Sense User Interface Demonstration

In my opinion, this phone is very much a big step forward in the overall user experience in Android due to the feature integration shown in those vids.

 

[Shocky]

I can see how it's different, but better? I don't know about that.

I've never liked Sense, the times I've used it I've usually given the phone back as I'm confused than impressed.


Stereo audio looks interesting , I'd rather have an OLED screen and UI that makes sense, also the video/music player on the Galaxy S/II are fantastic, they play almost anything.

These are more importent to the user experience to me.

 

[daivik]

What are these 'amazing' intergration features??

Both have gmail/facebook contact integration. On the media front, sense 3.0 has Watch?? And video streaming to the tv??

What else??

(forget the look, and the widgets for the moment)

 

[Bnice]

Well we wont know if it's better until we try it. Now the folks who own an HTC evo and like sense can see the improvements.

 

[EarlyMon]

What are these 'amazing' intergration features??

Only one other person besides yourself has said the word amazing, in context of the Desire history, so I can't tell the point of the quoting. And I said feature integration, not integration features.

Both have gmail/facebook contact integration. On the media front, sense 3.0 has Watch?? And video streaming to the tv??

What else??

You left out that both have MHL, fwiw.

And I did say, Many aspects of the media integration are really vastly improved.

What coherent movie service comes with other phones, maker-supported? Netflix just came out, and not for everyone. Blockbuster, again for some.

If there are other phones coming out with maker-supported movie services and stereo-audio recording on vid, please educate me.

(forget the look, and the widgets for the moment)

OK - in that case, you're asking to let's put vanilla Android on both phones. That's never sold like hotcakes.

Deleting the wealth of custom widgets seems really counter-intuitive when comparing Android phones, as they do tend to give phones of any stripe their personality.

So I'm not seeing the point of stripping a product of its look and feel and then arguing under the premise that that's a valid starting point for any discussion beyond one about raw metal.

I was clear and never made metal claims - I stated an opinion about the whole experience, and that's made up of little things, one at a time, like the sunken screen as yet another example.

I've said and maintain that there's nothing failing indicated about this phone from the pre-release info.

 

[EarlyMon]

I can see how it's different, but better? I don't know about that.

I've never liked Sense, the times I've used it I've usually given the phone back as I'm confused than impressed.

Not a thing wrong with that at all. Android is all about choice. I have a buddy who owns a Galaxy S-class (US variant) phone while his wife owns the Evo - each really liking maker's UI on their phone, and totally hating the other.

As a Sense user, from the Sense vid, I can say it's a much better Sense that has been offered previously, by far. People that already respond to Sense will be very, very impressed.

But I wouldn't argue that somehow solves the whole UI issue - that would just be silly. That would be to deny everyone's varied natures and preferences - and it would be denying the Android strength of choice.

Stereo audio looks interesting , I'd rather have an OLED screen and UI that makes sense, also the video/music player on the Galaxy S/II are fantastic, they play almost anything.

These are more importent to the user experience to me.

To be fair, that last statement doesn't seem accurate to me - I'd have said that those are important parts of the user experience to you.

And that's your choice, and given that Samsung seems to make top-notch stuff, you're all set.

I wouldn't argue that either the SGS2 or Sensation would kill the other - that's just fanboyism, because no one makes the perfect phone. If they did, I'd think we'd all buy one.

As for the SAMOLED vs LCD, my full opinion on that is here -

That's an Android problem in general.

All of us carrying superphone-class Androids are ready to rock with media - and the makers push it.

They've yet to give us phones with even the most basic adjustments for color or contrast.

And because we all perceive good color the same way and bad color differently, some find the SAMOLED atrocious and some find the LCDs atrocious.

Truth is, if you've held these phones up to a properly adjusted or calibrated HDTV (I have done this often), playing same content at the same time, you'll find that none of the phones out there really get color right.

So - you pick the among the least of the imperfections on color per your eyes and develop your personal favorites.

So - while this comes across as a Nexus issue (or substitute name there - I've seen this kinda complaint all over these forums, regardless of phone model) - it really is an Android issue in general.

In fact - it's a smartphone issue in general.

Would you buy a color TV without adjustments? Of course not.

Screen hate is probably 99.9999% no-adjustments-available hate.

These are my opinions, but in this case, I'm kinda convinced I'm right.

Another user turned me on to a color adjustment tool, but it was strictly for the Galaxy S, and Korean-language. Clever dev over there in Korea, tweaking his favorite phone and getting it right.

I hunt diligently for something like that VERY often. If I find one for the Nexus S, I'll be sure to post it in this forum.

With tip of the topper to our own NeoteriX, I really like using Big Bunny to do screen compares, especially to my HDTV. Right setup, you can get this on TV and phone, sync playback, put phone between you and TV, try to keep apparent screen sizes same by choosing the right distances - leaving the color image as the primary difference.

Big Buck Bunny Download

I think it's really great that the new SAMOLED+ has finally stepped away from the earlier PenTile approach.

For me, the screen tech is just something I put up with, as no one has gotten this right at all, so they rely on marketing to stir up these false user arguments instead of rolling up their sleeves and giving us even the basic adjustments for decent color.

Unless the SGS2 does that? Again, not available here, so I don't know. Or the Sensation might do that? Again, not out yet here, so I don't know.

 

[daivik]

Only one other person besides yourself has said the word amazing, in context of the Desire history, so I can't tell the point of the quoting. And I said feature integration, not integration features.



You left out that both have MHL, fwiw.

And I did say, Many aspects of the media integration are really vastly improved.

What coherent movie service comes with other phones, maker-supported? Netflix just came out, and not for everyone. Blockbuster, again for some.

If there are other phones coming out with maker-supported movie services and stereo-audio recording on vid, please educate me.



OK - in that case, you're asking to let's put vanilla Android on both phones. That's never sold like hotcakes.

Deleting the wealth of custom widgets seems really counter-intuitive when comparing Android phones, as they do tend to give phones of any stripe their personality.

So I'm not seeing the point of stripping a product of its look and feel and then arguing under the premise that that's a valid starting point for any discussion beyond one about raw metal.

I was clear and never made metal claims - I stated an opinion about the whole experience, and that's made up of little things, one at a time, like the sunken screen as yet another example.

I've said and maintain that there's nothing failing indicated about this phone from the pre-release info.

True, I agree partially, but that's because I probably have a weird android experience seeing as I got bored of sense widgets even quicker, than I did of sense before moving to LauncherPro and using widgets from the android market. (SCROLLABLE WIDGETS FTW) Plus i've been using the 3D turning animations (okay, it's not a carousel) in LauncherPro for long now and I've been launching widgets (like todo lists for example) and apps for the homescreen with WidgetLocker fora week now. However saying that, I've never used a device with raw android, so I don't know how much sense actually did to 'improve' my user experience - apart from facebook intergration which I really liked.

Also I live in essex, in a village so my wifi is about 1.5mb to 2mb if i'm lucky and, my signal is even worse, so movies-on-demand are kind off the table me!

Of course these are just my personal opinions, and I am not HTC hardcore fany boy, so I'll simply choose the most powerful phone, at least on paper and hence I'm going for the GSII.

This will also by my second android handset and so I'd like a tried and tested rooting method for me the first time i do it (which i'm sure I will a few months down the line)

 

[EarlyMon]

Ah - understand. My other tech hobby besides Android is HDTV, I was an early adopter, so I'm often all about the media stuff.

I owned a vanilla Android device - no amount of tinkering could make it right for me. That's another issue that sometimes builds to bed-wetting of tidal proportions for no reason: vanilla vs. other aka purist vs. enhanced if you will.

Now, for a truly cool 3D carousel, check this out:

YouTube - SPB UI Engine

I once had my heart set on it, but the price - and the uncertainty that my existing Evo would have the horsepower to run it right - made me back off. But from your description of preferences, I thought I'd toss it out there.

They seem to not be making a big deal out of this, and I've not found the list (yet! ) - but there is no doubt, the SGS2's processor will vary by region. Some will get the Tegra-2 and some will get the Exynos. Probably the vast buying public won't care, but those such as yourself that does care about the specific chips as part of your informed consumer approach, I think it's unfair that they're not being clear which regions are getting what hardware. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get what you like.

FWIW, we had an interesting post by the Smartbench author (that's one of the powerful benchmarking tools that's often abused when discussing phones).

If you're interested, it's in this thread, I _think_ on the second page - http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-3d/331783-underlying-tech-evo-3d-qhd-3d-dual-core-smp.html

 

[daivik]

Ah - understand. My other tech hobby besides Android is HDTV, I was an early adopter, so I'm often all about the media stuff.

I owned a vanilla Android device - no amount of tinkering could make it right for me. That's another issue that sometimes builds to bed-wetting of tidal proportions for no reason: vanilla vs. other aka purist vs. enhanced if you will.

Now, for a truly cool 3D carousel, check this out:

YouTube - SPB UI Engine

I once had my heart set on it, but the price - and the uncertainty that my existing Evo would have the horsepower to run it right - made me back off. But from your description of preferences, I thought I'd toss it out there.[/URL]

holy s***! That SPB UI blew me away!

SPB>sense&touchwiz!! (ofcourse that's my opinion after just seein the homescreens.

SORRY WHAT!!!