Samsung and HTC have hit the markets with their own offerings. Samsung Galaxy S2 and HTC Sensation are two dual core phones which make the so-called super-phone club very strong.
Year 2011 has also saw a sea change in the attitude of many manufacturers. India which is always a notable miss is now a part of the product strategy for all global manufacturers. No one expected India would have three dual core smartphones by the middle of 2011. It did, thanks to the growing appetite of Indian consumers and renewed interest of global majors.HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2 have all arrived to India within two months of their global launch.
1.Build quality:
There’s a marked difference between the HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2 when it comes to the design of the devices – which basically comes down to thickness and weight.
The HTC Sensation has a plastic and aluminium chassis combined with a relatively heavy glass front – this line-up means the 148g weight of the phone is lighter than the likes of the Desire HD, but markedly heavier than the Galaxy S2, which weighs in at a sublime 116g.
The Galaxy S2 is also by far the slimmer of the two phones, offering a thin chassis that’s just 8.5mm thin, meaning it fits perfectly in any pocket and will make you panic on occasion simply because you might not be able to feel it and you’ll reckon a pickpocket has come along.
Winner: Draw. This is purely down to opinion – some will find the S2 too flimsy, some the Sensation too bulky. Both are very well built though with Gorilla Glass, and we promise you won’t be upset by either
2.Processor, RAM, memory:
Samsung Galaxy S2 has a dual core 1.2 GHz Cortex A9 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB internal memory which can be expanded to 32GB using a micro SD card.
HTC Sensation dual core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM 8260, 768 MB RAM, 4 GB internal memory which can be expanded to 32GB using a micro SD card.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2 is a beast. No doubt about that. HTC Sensation follow Galaxy S2 when it comes to the hardware packed.
3.Screen size, screen type and resolution:
HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S2 both have a screen size of 4.3 inch . Both are capacitive touch screens, of course at that price it is only expected. Samsung Galaxy S2 sports Super AMOLED Plus and HTC Sensation sports a qHD wide screen. Samsung Galaxy S2 have a 480×800 resolution. HTC Sensation has 540×960 resolution.
The only thing you should be looking at is the screen size. Both Sensation and Galaxy S2 are touching the borders of a smartphone and human limitations in holding them.
From outdoor visibility in nearly every scenario (plus a special setting from Samsung to make it simpler to see in really bright conditions) we like to look at the show, despite ‘only’ running WVGA (800 x 480) resolution.
From watching video to simply spinning through the homescreens, we can’t help but like using the Galaxy S2 and cooing over its show.
Winner: The Samsung Galaxy S2. It’s the show in the world right now and will need something special to knock it from its pedestal.
4.Camera :
Both Samsung Galaxy s2 and HTC Sensation have a 8 megapixel camera. Of course it isn’t the mega pixel that count but the actual quality of the image which unfortunately is not directly proportional to the megapixels. On paper, both have the same goods.
Both have front-cameras loaded. HTC Sensation a has a 1.3 megapixel camera whereas Samsung Galaxy S2 has a 2 megapixel front-facing camera.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2 – with a quicker shutter speed and slightly more features to play with, combined with a smoother shutter action, it takes the title from its HTC rival.
5.Battery and others:
What we call the hygiene factors by now are present on both phones. 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM Radio and Video recording at 1080p. Both Phones can act as WiFi Hotspots and have DLNA functionality.
HTC Sensation provides a talk time of 8.3 hours on 2G and 7 hours on 3G. Samsung Galaxy S2 provides an incredible 18.3 hours of talk time on 2G and 8.6 hours on 3G.
Samsung Galaxy S2 provides a standby of 710h (2G)/610 h(3G). HTC Sensation provides a standby of 285h (2G)/525 h(3G).
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2 wins in the battery department too.
6.Connectivity and storage:
We felt this category should be added in as both of the brands have place a lot of effort into getting as much technology under the hood as possible, helping future proof the devices for the future.
Both phones have HDMI-output through the microUSB slot (although neither have a cable in the box) and both have Bluetooth 3.0 on board, DLNA streaming software and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n connectivity. While the Samsung is certainly less powerful when it comes to connecting to Wi-Fi networks (we found up to two bars difference in identical conditions between the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Sensation) it slightly leads in mobile signal according to our tests.
Where the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes into its own is for things like USB On The Go, where users can plug a USB stick into the phone using the (non-supplied) adaptor, plus an improved DLNA All Share server making it simpler to port content to a huge screen – although the Sensation is more than half decent at this too.
When it comes to storage, the Galaxy S2 is miles ahead – we’re talking at least 16GB of internal storage (32GB also available, although not widely in the UK) plus 2GB further storage on top of that.
Compare that to the 1.5GB of internal storage of the Sensation, and you can see that HTC is lagging behind – and the Sensation isn’t the first phone the company has done this with. While it’s mostly fine when it comes to media, as there’s an 8GB card onboard, if you’re downloading tonnes of applications then you might fill this up quite quickly if they can’t be stored on SD card.
Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2. There’s not a lot in it when it comes to connectivity, but the S2 can connect up everything the Sensation can and then flaunts its extra storage right in its face.
The Best buy is :
The Samsung Galaxy S II is certainly the better phone by features, and the Exynos CPU provides some extra native HD video processing features which might put it ahead as well. The extra RAM and Internal Storage will be appreciated by power-users or gamers. However, the HTC Sensation also offers an excellent package with higher screen resolution and build quality, plus stereo sound recording and dual flash. Best Buy is Samsung Galaxy S II
HTC Sensation vs Samsung Galaxy S II “Face Off”