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After strong releases last year, the flagship models for HTC and Samsung were always going to be this year’s most-wanted Androids.
(Credit: CBSi)
Not that we’re dismissing the excellent handsets produced by Motorola, LG and Sony Ericsson, but we’re guessing that most people walking into a phone shop in Australia, who are not intent on buying an iPhone, will probably have the Galaxy S II (GS2) and the Sensation on the top of their must-see lists.
To make this decision a bit easier, we’ll keep our comparison of specs short and talk more about how we compare our experiences with these two great smartphones.
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Dual-1.2GHz | Dual-1.2GHz |
| RAM | 1GB | 768MB |
| Internal storage | 16GB | 1GB |
| MicroSD included | N/A | 8GB |
| Screen size | 4.3-inch | 4.3-inch |
| Screen resolution | 800×480 | 960×540 |
| Screen type | Super AMOLED Plus | Super LCD |
| Battery | 1650mAh | 1520mAh |
The most important parts to take away from this table is the RAM and the combined user-accessible storage. Both screens have their pros and cons, and the differences in battery capacity don’t amount to a vastly different user experience.
You might be expecting us to discuss the pros and cons of HTC’s Sense user interface (UI) vs. Samsung’s TouchWiz UI in this section, but if you think about it that would be kind of redundant. In our experience, some people warm to one and are just as likely to hate using the other. Sense is more attractive with loads more customisation options, but it’s also far more complex than the TouchWiz UI. This, like all aesthetic considerations, will differ with individual tastes.
What’s far more important is the “feel” of the user experience. Does the system and the UI layer respond to a user’s input in a fluid, seamless fashion? How does each phone handle multitasking, how quickly does it load database data and galleries of images?
If you’ve read both reviews you’ll know that the GS2 fared better in these tests than the Sensation, with fast app execution, faster database read times and solid multitasking. HTC has obviously worked hard to optimise the performance of the Sense experience, and this is evident in the smooth transitions between home screens, but once you leave Sense we found the user experience isn’t quite as punchy.
To help us illustrate this, we’ve included the results of Vellamo Mobile Web Benchmark tests we ran on both phones. Vellamo has been developed by chipmaker Qualcomm, which is also responsible for the dual-core processor in the Sensation. The score displayed represents the average of three tests for each device.
Vellamo Mobile Web Benchmark
- Samsung Galaxy S II
- HTC Sensation
- Longer bars equal better performance
934
744
The Vellamo benchmark is quite extensive, running multiple common web-based tests including the well-known SunSpider and Acid tests, plus tests for HTML5 rendering and text and image scrolling speeds. Given that both phones run on the same version of Android (2.3.3) and both use similar stock web browsers, the difference in the results is interesting to note.
Last year’s best HTC and Samsung handsets were great for a number of reasons, but photography was not one of them. This year is a different story, with both companies really stepping up their game in regards to the photo prowess of their top-of-the-line handsets. Both the Sensation and the GS2 sport 8-megapixel camera sensors, both have bright LED flashes, autofocus with face detection settings, image stabilisation software and the standard range of presets and filters.
In the end, it all comes down to the photos these cameras take and Samsung’s camera is a cracker. Its colour reproduction is warm and bright and its autofocus is consistently good. The only downside is that its slower shutter speed might miss fast-moving subjects.
(Credit: CBSi)
The camera in the Sensation auto-focuses before you hit the shutter, so it fires almost immediately after you’ve hit the button. This is great, though we did find the autofocus wasn’t as consistent as with the GS2. When it works, the photos look crisp and sharp, but you might have to fire off a couple to achieve this. We also found the colours could be a bit dull using the autoscene mode and settings. We did manage to take some pics with great colour, but you might have to do some tweaking to get this right more often than not.
(Credit: CBSi)
If battery life was a race, the Sensation and the GS2 would be a tie for last place, closely followed by LG’s Optimus 3D.
This is the major trade-off you will need to anticipate before buying a phone with a 4.3-inch display. Though we were promised improved battery life with new screen technologies like AMOLED and more efficient dual-core processors, this hasn’t eventuated in this generation of phones.
If you want a large screen with better battery, we’d suggest the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc instead. Even with its 4.2-inch Reality display we managed to break the single-day battery cycle regularly when we reviewed it earlier this year.
The winner is…
Both are great phones, with great applications for business users, multimedia lovers, casual photographers and those addicted to social networks. But there can only be one winner.
If we were buying a phone today it’d be a Samsung Galaxy S II. Its lightening-fast user experience is the key to this decision, given that the phones are so closely comparable on our other metrics. Using the GS2 feels better and core apps seem to load instantaneously, which is the experience we are coming to expect from our phones this year.
HTC’s Sense UI is still the better user interface in our opinion, but its complexity may deter users new to the Android platform. Sadly, battery life is a big problem for both handsets, so we recommend you consider picking up a car charger or a second wall plug for the office to make sure you also stay charged.
