T-Mobile may not be the best U.S. carrier, but the scrappy underdog
continues to provide shelter for an assortment of Android handsets. That
includes the HTC Amaze 4G, which continues the trend toward larger
displays in an effort to stand out from the crowd.
T-Mo and HTC have thrown almost everything but the kitchen sink into this model, but is it enough to separate it from the pack? The
first thing you'll notice when holding the HTC Amaze 4G is its solid
build quality and how great it feels in the hand. Weighing in at 6.1
ounces and 0.46 inches thick, the handset is a direct descendent of the HTC Sensation, but takes advantage of T-Mobile's 42Mbps HSPA+ network speed to warrant the 4G branding. An
aluminum frame wraps around the edges and spills onto the lower half of
the back, available in either black or white (we reviewed the latter). The
Amaze 4G has a 4.3-inch qHD touch screen at 960x540, which makes it
physically smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and a bit easier to
hold and use with one hand. Pixel density junkies might be
disappointed with the screen, but unless you're coming from an
ultra-high density display (like that of the iPhone 4S or Galaxy Nexus),
you'll likely find the 256 pixels per inch to be perfectly sharp, and
the display as bright and color-rich as you could hope for. The
entire back of the Amaze is one piece that pops off by pressing a notch
on the bottom of the unit. A standard SIM card slot is perched
vertically above the removable battery, with space for a micro-SD/SDHC
card (up to 32GB) at left. The handset continues to work while
the back is removed, so there's no need to power down for a quick SD
card swap (the SIM card is blocked by the battery, so you'll need to
remove it first).
With the back plate on, the Gorilla Glass face
is raised above the chrome frame at the left and right edges, bucking
the current trend of smartphones where the display is recessed. Although
the glass is larger and far more rounded on the edges, the raised face
echoes the iPhone 4/4S. The
HTC Amaze 4G has a somewhat unique button setup, featuring two camera
buttons on the lower right side: One
dedicated to video record mode
(marked with a red line) and a second, larger button for still photos. A
volume rocker rests at top right, which is a somewhat awkward position
for right-handed individuals. It also doubles as a zoom control when in
camera mode.
The top of the device features a 3.5mm headphone
jack and power button, with micro EXT/USB on the left. A two-megapixel
front camera rests to the right of the earpiece above the T-Mobile logo,
with a blinking notification LED to the left.
The HTC Amaze 4G is
available for a wallet-friendly $179.99 with two-year contract after a
$320 instant discount and $100 mail-in rebate.
The HTC Sensation XE built well on the success of the original Sensation, but since the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich toting handsets at MWC 2012 it is in need of an update to keep up with the pack.
HTC
has done just that providing the Sensation XE with Android 4.0.3 Ice
Cream Sandwich, coupled with its own Sense 3.6 overlay update. A new
Sensation XE should now run Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box.
If
you own a HTC Sensation XE currently running Android Gingerbread, the
Ice Cream Sandwich update will be available in the near future. If
you do need to update over the air we suggest hooking yourself up to
Wi-Fi to ensure a speedy download. All you need to do is to go to
Settings > About Phone > Software Update and follow the on-screen
instructions. In total it took us less than 30 minutes to download and
install Ice Cream Sandwich on our Sensation XE. Now the Sensation XE sports Ice Cream Sandwich it jumps in between the quad-core One X and the mid-range One S in HTC's line up. The Sensation XE goes up against devices such as the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Motorola Razr and can now be picked up for free on a £25 per month contract or £400 sim-free. The
Sensation XE is a good looking device with its black case and red and
silver detailing. The premium feel is certainly present with the metal
and rubber unibody case allowing the Sensation XE to sit comfortably in
the hand and providing a sturdy build. Due
to the quality materials used by HTC on the Sensation XE's body, it
weighs in at 151g – heavier than rivals such as the Galaxy S2 (116g) and
iPhone 4S (139g), but it's not overbearing and reinforces the premium
feel of the phone. HTC
has gone down the minimalist route with the Sensation XE with just two
well placed and easy to hit physical buttons on the handset, a volume
rocker on the left and a power/lock key on top, accompanied by a 3.5mm
headphone jack. There
is a third button on the base of the HTC Sensation XE which allows you
to slide off the solid unibody case – providing you access to the SIM
and microSD slots as well as the 1730mAh battery. You'll
still find the punchy 1.5GHz dual-core processor under the hood, vivid
4.3-inch HD (540 x 960) display on the front and the Dr Dre-inspired
Beats Audio technology to blast tunes down your ear canals. Rather
disappointingly for a high end phone the Sensation XE only provides 1GB
of internal storage, but an 8GB microSD card is supplied in the box and
it can support a card up to 32GB in size.
The HTC Wildfire arrived in mid-2010, when the world was still reeling from the impact of the sensational HTC Desire.
And the Wildfire was almost as popular, coupling HTC's fantastic Sense user interface with a smaller, solid and capable little body – it was a lot of people's first, affordable smartphone.
If you are in the market for a new smartphone, check out our sneaky video peek at the phone before reading on:
But things are a little different in 2011. The dual-core "superphones" have arrived, which means something with a lowly 600MHz processor is going to have to win fans via features and price rather than power.
The HTC Wildfire S isn't exactly a cheap phone, either. Currently on sale for around £220 through the SIM-free retailers, there are now plenty of extremely capable Android-powered phones out there for less money – such as the Samsung Galaxy Ace or LG Optimus One.
It's going to be a bloody fight, this.
Design
HTC has refreshed the design substantially, giving the Wildfire S the same workmanlike black and chrome look as seen in the excellent HTC Desire S.
There are no physical buttons on the front of the phone, with HTC opting for four capacitive touch-buttons. These are your standard Android Home, Menu, Back and Search options. They're responsive, plus HTC has put in a little vibration feedback to reassure your brain that your finger did indeed just hit the right spot.
HTC has removed the optical trackpad, which has allowed it to make the Widlfire S a little shorter than last year's model. It's a very tiny phone and also manages to be lighter – 105g versus the original's 118g.
The 3.2-inch screen runs at 320x480 resolution, so obviously isn't going to be as sharp as displays found on more expensive phones. But it is pleasingly solid, nice and glassy and responsive to even the lightest of touches.
Given that the old HTC Wildfire had a screen outputting at a shameful 240x320, this is still a big step up. It's not particularly sharp, mind – there's a noticeable mesh over everything if you look closely.
Feel
Round the back is your classic HTC moulded rubber cover, which is grippy and feels pretty solid. There's also the 5MP camera lens and, thankfully, an LED flash.
There's a proximity sensor in the front case, allowing the Wildfire S to dim the screen when you press it to your ear. But there's no front-facing camera here.
It's a chunky, well-made little phone that feels very nice in the hand and impressively solid. But is it any good when you turn it on?
You get Android 2.3 on the Wildfire S, with HTC's latest version of its Sense UI over the top. We like a bit of HTC Sense – it's a very comprehensive re-skin, and one that adds huge amounts of extra functionality to Google's popular mobile OS.
The lock screen is in the standard HTC style – swipe down to access the Home screens. Once there you have a choice of seven workspaces to flip through, each holding a selection of app shortcuts, widgets and folders.
The standard pull-down Android Notifications window has been upgraded by HTC, now coming with a scrolling list of recently opened apps, plus a quick settings tab for toggling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and more on or off.
The Wildfire S does a pretty good job of keeping everything running smoothly. Some of the more complex apps, such as social network aggregator Friend Stream, can slow the scrolling down a little, but it's generally a solid experience.
Friend Stream lets you pull in status updates from Twitter, Flickr and Facebook, presenting everything in one unified timeline. You can scroll up and down within this app, so it's all there right in front of you on a Home screen.
It can get a little messy, though. Web links in status updates very kindly open up the website in question, only your view of the page is restricted by having the original tweet at the top and a retweet bar at the bottom – leaving only a minuscule gap for the actual web content between.
While HTC's widgets offer great functionality, their white-on-black style is beginning to look a little dated.
HTC has also provided Home screen widgets that create an icon-based list of Contacts you've added to your Favourites, a music player, its famous weather widget and one that streams in your latest text messages. It's all very user-friendly, and no doubt geared towards those who don't do a lot of tinkering.
If you do like playing about, HTC's Sense interface has a lot beneath the bonnet. Home screens can be shuffled about, with a two-fingered pinch of the screen bringing up an overview of your workspace and long-pressing on a screen icon enabling you to change the order in which it appears.
Enthusiasts will also enjoy HTC's many customisation options. The right-hand button on the curved dock brings up the Personalisation menu, from where users can change scene – a way to create and save Home screen setups – or select entire new skins for the phone's screens and menus.
It's not just visual enhancements, either. Collections of Sound sets can be downloaded via this menu and the HTC Hub it links to, if you need a new collection of tones and alarms.
Back in the apps menu, HTC has again given us more options than are usually found in Android devices. Apps can be sorted alphabetically or by date, plus there are separate tabs for frequently used tools and those you've downloaded yourself.
One of the many tiny changes made to this latest version of HTC Sense is the scrolling of the app listing. It now flips down one whole screen at a time, so it's easy to keep your place if you have a heap of things loaded onto the phone.
Android 2.3 is a great, polished operating system. HTC Sense makes it a little better.
