HTC has announced a larger and slimmer version of HTC Sensation XE called Sensation XL with Beats Audio. The HTC Sensation XL with Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine to bring Beats Audio software and headphones to an HTC smartphone and that gives this package one hell of an extra shine, but is it quite shiny enough? iPhone 4S is currently the top end of Apple's mobile phone which is set to be out 14 October - just which one is the better phone.? It’s the HTC Sensation XL vs iPhone 4S.
The Design
1st: iPhone 4S : 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3mm, 140g
- 2nd: Sensation XL: 132.5 x 70.7 x 9.9 mm, 163g
iPhone 4S is similar design to iPhone 4. In terms of measurements, iPhone 4S is smaller and lighter to carry than XL.
Display
1st: iPhone 4S :3.5-inch, 960x640px, 326ppi, LCD with IPS
Both phones uses LCD but iPhone uses with IPS. iPhone 4S has a very good screen and also includes the usual fingerprint resistant oleophobic coating. The display marketed by Apple as ‘retina display’ has a contrast ratio of 800:1. The device comes with sensors such as an accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, three-axis gyro sensor, a proximity sensor for auto turn-off and an ambient light sensor. This concludes that iPhone has better display .
Engine Room
1st: Sensation XL: Snapdragon MSM8255 (1.5 GHz dual-core)
- 2nd: iPhone 4S : Apple A5 (1GHz dual-core)
The PowerVR SGX543MP2 working the magic in the Apple A5 (it is a 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor) seems to out-bench the Mali by quite some distance but with 1.5GHz dual-core ARMv7 Scorpion on the Sensation XL.
Camera
1st: iPhone 4S : 8MP rear, VGA (0.9MP) front, 1080p video capture
- 2nd: Sensation XL: 8MP rear, 1.3MP front, 720p video
HTC Sensation XL Camera only has 720p video capturetion XL. The slight dip on the resolution of the front-facing webcam doesn’t really help much either. Hence iPhone 4S wins as the device shoot better quality images
iPhone 4S camera is coupled with LED flash as well. The camera comes with useful features such as autofocus, tap to focus, face detection on still images and geo tagging. The camera is capable of HD video capture at 1080P at about 30 frames per second. In cameras it is important to have a larger aperture since it allows the lens to collect more light. The aperture in the lens of camera in iPhone 4S has been increased allowing more light to come in however, harmful IR rays is filtered away. The front facing camera is a VGA camera and it’s tightly coupled with FaceTime; the video conferencing application on iPhone
Connectivity
1st: Sensation XL: Wi-Fi, BT 3.0, DLNA, Wi-Fi tethering
- 2nd: iPhone 4S : 3G, GPS, BT, 4.0, 4G, Wi-Fi
Both phones have got the basics and the XL has WI-FI tendering, DLNA. Although iPhone 4S has 4G which might not be a big deal in the UK that there’s no 4G radio but in other countries where both infrastructures exist, that could be quite a let down. Sensation XL wins on this category.
Battery Life
1st: iPhone 4S : up to 8 hours 3G talk time
- 2nd: Sensation XL: 1600mAh, up to 11 hours talk time and 6.50 hours 3G talk time
Both phones has a good battery life although iPhone might have more battery life than XL. Mind you iPhone 4S stated 3G talk time on while on GSM only it will score a massive 14 hours while HTC's have refers to 2G talk time and 6.50 hours 3G talk time. Standby time on iPhone 4S is up to 200 hours
Phone 4S is powered by a Dual core A5 processor, the processing power is energy efficient processor will improve battery life. Therefore iPhone 4S wins in this category
Software
1st: iPhone 4S : iOS 5 + Siri
- 2nd: Sensation XL: Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread + HTC Sense 3.5
OS offers more apps (most of them you have to pay for) and greater ease of use. Android tempts with more flexibility and greater customisation potential.
iPhone 4S is loaded with iOS 5 and usual applications one can find on an iPhone, such as FaceTime. The newest addition to the uniquely designed applications on iPhone is ‘Siri’; a voice assistant which can understand certain keywords we speak and virtually do everything on the device. ‘Siri’ is capable of scheduling meetings, checking weather, setting timer, sending & reading messages and etc. While voice search and voice command assisted applications were available in the market ‘Siri’ is quite a unique approach and sounds more user-friendly. iPhone 4S comes with iCloud as well, enabling users to manage content across multiple devices. iCloud wirelessly pushes files across multiple devices managed together. Applications for iPhone 4 S will be available on Apple App Store; however it will take some time for the number of applications supporting iOS 5 to increase.
- the highly intriguing Siri personal organisation, voice recognition software that’s been hard wired in to the iPhone 4S
- iOS 5 has basically robbed all the best bits of Android and integrated them in to its own UI. This is not intended as a slur. Android has done plenty of robbing itself and, it’s all to the consumer’s benefit if such systems borrow from one another. Right now, though, iOS is just a little fresher but that could all change when Ice Cream Sandwicharrives on the scene
XL running Andoid Gingerbread and gets the benefit of HTC Sense 3.5 UI which is known for its neat integration of your contacts and their details, as well as an excellent graphical look and feel. Futhermore the XL also comes with the Beats by Dr Dre audio circuitry inside to improve the quality of your digital music. iPhone 4 wins here
Storage
Tie: iPhone 4S : 16/32/64GB
- Tie: Sensation XL: 16GB
Tie as both has 16GB Internal Memory.
Price
iPhone 4S : £499 (16GB)
- Sensation XL: £unknown (16GB)
Since there is no prices for the HTC Sensation XL, so this category is inconclusive until when we get the price for XL.
Conclusion
- 1st: iPhone 4S
- 2nd: Sensation XL
Based on the analysis above the iPhone 4S A5 chip is a big, its is fair to say our winner is iPhone 4S
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