Samsung Galaxy S2 vs HTC Sensation


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and my turn to throw a bone in, coz i havent gotten a satisfactory answer.... HTC Sensation ???? i was looking at that over the SGSII ..... just curious what you guys think... smile.gif

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You will miss SUPER AMOLED Plus(Gorilla Glass),8.49mm Slim Design, 2 MP Front Camera, Battery 1650,A-GPS.

trust me SUPER AMOLED Plus is awesome.... HTC screen is not that great from what i have seen from local best buy stores.

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I have a different angle, I would avoid Samsung Android devices altogether. I had a Galaxy S last fall and it was my worst experience with Android, I quickly resold it and got an HTC Desire Z (T-Mobile G2) and glad I did. I am on my fourth Android phone, I have had all HTC (starting with the G1/Dream) with the exception of the Galaxy S. If you want to experience Android like I want to, that is with A LOT OF user interaction/customization/hacks then HTC is the ONLY way to go, HTC easily has the largest community (just log onto xda and see for yourself), Cyanogen himself uses HTC.

I did not like touchwiz interface, the Galaxy was laggy (well known issue for Galaxy S), very slow to update Android releases, poor community support/development etc... Samsung do have attractive devices, I love their displays, very good audio quality, good camera's etc...None of that means squat pin the android worlds if there is poor community involvement, if you want a pretty device get an iPhone, if you want an Android device stick with HTC.

I used to do unlocking and rooting for a local phone seller (still do in spare time a little)and have used a plethora of Android phones, HTC is definitely the way to go if you want to do a lot with and to your device, HTC is where the community goes.

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I have a different angle, I would avoid Samsung Android devices altogether. I had a Galaxy S last fall and it was my worst experience with Android, I quickly resold it and got an HTC Desire Z (T-Mobile G2) and glad I did. I am on my fourth Android phone, I have had all HTC (starting with the G1/Dream) with the exception of the Galaxy S. If you want to experience Android like I want to, that is with A LOT OF user interaction/customization/hacks then HTC is the ONLY way to go, HTC easily has the largest community (just log onto xda and see for yourself), Cyanogen himself uses HTC.

I did not like touchwiz interface, the Galaxy was laggy (well known issue for Galaxy S), very slow to update Android releases, poor community support/development etc... Samsung do have attractive devices, I love their displays, very good audio quality, good camera's etc...None of that means squat pin the android worlds if there is poor community involvement, if you want a pretty device get an iPhone, if you want an Android device stick with HTC.

I used to do unlocking and rooting for a local phone seller (still do in spare time a little)and have used a plethora of Android phones, HTC is definitely the way to go if you want to do a lot with and to your device, HTC is where the community goes.

He's not comparing it to a Galaxy S, but an S II, which is a major improvement over the first gen Galaxy.

I had a Galaxy S Captivate, I got it the day it was released in Vancouver and my unit was buggy right away and it kept randomly shutting off. They ended up giving me a replacement (refurbished, which really ****ed me off after paying $650 for a new one out of contract price) and it worked fine, but I was too ****ed off they gave me a refurb model and left the carrier (Rogers).

From what I've read about the Galaxy S II is it puts all those issues to bed with the new hardware and TouchWiz 4.0 is supposed to be a major improvement over 3.0.

If that phone was released here I would abandon my iPhone 4 for it, but alas, Canada gets phones so slowly compared to the States. I think Bell has it, but I'd NEVER go with Bell, they're horrible.

As for the HTC Sensation, I'm not sure how you would justify buying that over an S2. Super AMOLED Plus, VERY slim design. Dual Core CPU, the hardware doesn't lie for the S2. It's the better phone.

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Samsung makes fantastic hardware (gotta love screen and profile) - only to be plagued with **** software, terrible support, horrible update future, and terrible dev. support. The GS2 is a fantastic looking phone, but it will never contend with HTC devices, which on the other hand have great software (Sense > Touchwiz), good support, good update history, and amazing dev. support.

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samsung has everything you'll want and need. sensation has nothing going for it besides sense which runs pretty rubbish anyway. Sensation's got nothing going for it what so ever. A lot of ex desire/nexus one users including myself are going to the SGS2 because it is quite simply that outstanding of a device and HTC is just pumping out regurgitated rubbish over and over coupled with crap hardware, battery life and everything else we've come to expect from them while layering on nonsense to sense to make it even worse by every new version.

The galaxy s 2 is in a league of it's own and can't be compared to the original SGS on software and internal hardware terms. They learned their lessons. The dev community is also steadily growing regularly as people switch over and leave sense dev rubbish behind.

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I've got the Sensation and it is a fantastic phone, i bought it over the SGS2 because i prefer the shape/design of it. It actually feels far better in the hand and look smaller which is what i wanted. Also Sense 3.0 works super fast too and it is about to get its bootloader unlocked officially by HTC.

The SGS2 has a slighty better spec but the quality of the phone compared to the Sensation is terrible.

I suggest you go and hold both in the shop and see which you like best.

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coming from a HTC Desire here. Just got the Galaxy S2 today, and it's the best choice imho.

I tested the HTC Sensation at work (we have all the Bell devices for support) and didn't like the Sensation that much.

And I agree with the other poster, the original Galaxy S had quite a few issues. Galaxy S2 feels much more polished and of course better.

If you only look at the hardware, it's a clear win for the GS2.

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I've got the Sensation and it is a fantastic phone, i bought it over the SGS2 because i prefer the shape/design of it. It actually feels far better in the hand and look smaller which is what i wanted. Also Sense 3.0 works super fast too and it is about to get its bootloader unlocked officially by HTC.

The SGS2 has a slighty better spec but the quality of the phone compared to the Sensation is terrible.

I suggest you go and hold both in the shop and see which you like best.

Size is probably the only thing that I am put off by the SGS2 because 4.3" is kind of pushing to the high end of can fit in your hand and pocket. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to get perhaps the best all around android phone on the market right now.

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I've always used HTC devices and was completely sold on the Sensation.... then I used a Galaxy S II for a bit...... HTC Sensation didn't get another look.

The Galaxy S II already has a fair following on XDA and I'm sure that will increase significantly soon.

I love this phone :)

1 Vote for The Samsung Galaxy S II.

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The SGS2 is light years better. It's not even a question.

BetaAddict: I don't know what you used before, but 4.3" isn't that big. I'm currently using the Samsung Infuse temporarily while I wait for the SGS II on AT&T, and it's a 4.5" screen, and still isn't too big. The SGS II's 4.3" screen comes at very little overall size increase of the phone compared to the 4" SGS. It's also incredibly thin. Unless you're wearing spandex, it won't be an issue.

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Just go and look at each phone and see for yourself as the galaxy S 2 is not light years ahead at all! may have slighty better internals but it is not light years ahead and the software on the HTC is better and the build quality is better.

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Here's a quick rundown from a spec sheet.

SGSII:

Quad Band HSPA compared to dual band

8.5mm thick vs 11.3mm

116g vs 148g

Super AMOLED+

16/32 GB internal storage vs 1 GB

1 GB RAM vs 768 MB

HSDPA up to 21 Mbps vs 14.4 Mbps

2 MP FFC vs VGA

1650 mAh battery vs 1520 mAh

Sensation:

qHD resolution vs WVGA

dual led flash vs single led

I didn't mention the CPU and GPU because they are both very close, and both very good either way. Benchmarks can be manipulated, but they are both very fast.

Now, I'm not saying all these differences are incredibly important, I'm just listing the differences when comparing the two at gsmarena. The Sensation really has nothing over the SGS II unless you're considering the actual package or software, then that's all up to your opinion. (Hell, I'd replace both with LauncherPro probably)

Being the owner of an Captivate, I experienced a lot of the issues that Samsung had early on with that line of phones, however, especially when you were going to install a custom ROM, the phone itself was very nice. I'm using an Infuse right now temporarily until the SGS II comes out, and they have fixed basically all of their software issues from before, and TW4 on the SGS II is very nice if you should want to use it. I consider both TouchWiz and Sense to be a bit bloated though, and prefer a more lightweight launcher like LauncherPro. HTC makes very nice phones, but Samsung has created a masterpiece in the SGS 2.

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Here's a quick rundown from a spec sheet.

SGSII:

Quad Band HSPA compared to dual band

8.5mm thick vs 11.3mm

116g vs 148g

Super AMOLED+

16/32 GB internal storage vs 1 GB

1 GB RAM vs 768 MB

HSDPA up to 21 Mbps vs 14.4 Mbps

2 MP FFC vs VGA

1650 mAh battery vs 1520 mAh

Sensation:

qHD resolution vs WVGA

dual led flash vs single led

I didn't mention the CPU and GPU because they are both very close, and both very good either way. Benchmarks can be manipulated, but they are both very fast.

Now, I'm not saying all these differences are incredibly important, I'm just listing the differences when comparing the two at gsmarena. The Sensation really has nothing over the SGS II unless you're considering the actual package or software, then that's all up to your opinion. (Hell, I'd replace both with LauncherPro probably)

Being the owner of an Captivate, I experienced a lot of the issues that Samsung had early on with that line of phones, however, especially when you were going to install a custom ROM, the phone itself was very nice. I'm using an Infuse right now temporarily until the SGS II comes out, and they have fixed basically all of their software issues from before, and TW4 on the SGS II is very nice if you should want to use it. I consider both TouchWiz and Sense to be a bit bloated though, and prefer a more lightweight launcher like LauncherPro. HTC makes very nice phones, but Samsung has created a masterpiece in the SGS 2.

Good post, that's a good look at the two head to head.

Unless you are an avid follower of HTC I don't see how anyone could choose the Sensation over the SGSII

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Screen resolution on the Sensation is what matters for me that's why I wouldn't buy the SGII.

Plus the design is so much better, its not like I'm using a plastic phone.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Screen resolution on the Sensation is what matters for me that's why I wouldn't buy the SGII.

Plus the design is so much better, its not like I'm using a plastic phone.

This was the winner for me too. Had a few GS2's come back with issues so far too, hardly inspired

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Screen resolution on the Sensation is what matters for me that's why I wouldn't buy the SGII.

Plus the design is so much better, its not like I'm using a plastic phone.

The screen resolution debate is a complete non issue really. Next to each other you don't get more icons on your homescreen because of the higher resolution on the Sensation which is a bummer. The Super AMOLED+ screen on the Sensation never fails to amaze anyone that views photos on it or videos, So vivid and so crisp. Samsung said themselves that for this phone they decided against using a high res display as it wasn't needed, and rightly so.

On the Sensation you get colour shifting from wide angles and also washed out colours. Just like you do on all non AMOLED phones. Blacks are also dark grey.. A lot of people like the fact that you can't tell where the screen starts and end on the S2 which makes for a cool effect on all black themes apps:

sgs-ii_mpc_remote.jpg

The GSII offers more scope, is lighter, thinner and thus more pocket friendly AND it is a tough phone as well. It may be plastic but it has no creaking or parts that come off easily. It is a tight fit as far as the shell goes and has a massive following from the XDA community and now Modaco since this week Paul Obrien released his ROM for the S2.

Sensation is a great phone but it was always 2nd best from the very start as it was late to the game and it isn't as powerful or as popular as the Galaxy. note that the camera is also of higher quality on the Galaxy S II. The Sensation has stereo recording but the video transition when it meters from light to dark and vice versa still stuttesy from HTC's weaker camera hardware. It's better than all other HTC phones but it's nowhere near as smooth as the Samsung or even the iPhone 4.

And then there's the measly 1GB of internal storage, even if you move apps to SD card the App data still remains on internal memory and this grows over time so that 1GB of storage fills up if you are using your smartphone daily as.....a modern smartphone. The exact same problem hit the HTC Desire and only Apps2SD and various scripts in ROMs helped like Data2SD/cache2SD. Quite why HTC only give you 1GB for internal mem I don't know..

IMO you've got to be a die hard HTC/SenseUI fan to choose a Sensation over an S2.

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I had an S2 for a week and it struggled to display white text on certain wallpapers. The text would have a faint black edge to it.

Couldn't live with it so I took it back.

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Possibly a faulty handset as no issues here and certainly no issues like that I've noticed on any of the dev/support forums I'm on. Did you not try another unit?

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I had an S2 for a week and it struggled to display white text on certain wallpapers. The text would have a faint black edge to it.

Couldn't live with it so I took it back.

Bad phone maybe ? I have no such problem.

We have pretty much all the phones here at works, I tested the Sensation, I was not that impressed with it. But I was impressed with the GS2.

Of course it is unlocked, rooted and custom rom FTW.

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Prefer HTC Sense to Samsung Touchwiz, but you'd be crazy to buy a Sensation over an SGS2. The SGS2 is better in every way other than software... but you'll get over that shortcoming. If you don't like Touchwiz you can root and install stock Android. If you went for the Sensation you can't do anything about the hardware, but if you go the SGS2 there are options to improve the software experience should you want to explore them.

That's just my opinion. A lot of people like Touchwiz.

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Touchwhiz is just the launcher and not the internal core of Samsung's ROM, worth noting bevcause you can completely uninstall Touchwhiz and still have full functionality of the phone using an alt launcher like GoLauncherEX which IMO is much better.

If you remove SenseUI from a HTC phone then you won't be able to boot the phone properly at all. SenseUI has to be running in the background in order for the phone to work even if you use another Launcher app because it relies on a lot of core services to work together.

Samsung also employs hardware acceleration in everything whereas HTC's SenseUI does not.

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Bad phone maybe ? I have no such problem.

We have pretty much all the phones here at works, I tested the Sensation, I was not that impressed with it. But I was impressed with the GS2.

Of course it is unlocked, rooted and custom rom FTW.

http://i.imgur.com/oSZut.jpg

That's a screenshot I took from the phone.

There's no outline on the picture itself, but if you view it full-screen on an S2, you can see a faint outline around the white text.

Let me know if you can see it on your phone because I sometimes wonder if I just imagined it all and returned the phone too quickly.

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http://i.imgur.com/oSZut.jpg

That's a screenshot I took from the phone.

There's no outline on the picture itself, but if you view it full-screen on an S2, you can see a faint outline around the white text.

Let me know if you can see it on your phone because I sometimes wonder if I just imagined it all and returned the phone too quickly.

I don't see any outline on mine on that image or any like it locally.

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