HTC Sensation 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy S2
What's up Prizefight, fans?
I'm Brian Tong and this is a matchup between 2 Editor's Choice splurgy phones that you, the people, have been asking for.
It's a Prizefight Punchout between the HTC Sensation 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S II.
Now our judges for this fight, our senior editor, Bonnie "Boom-Boom" Cha, the associate editor, Jessica "Duke It Out" Dolcourt and myself, Brian "Ring-a-ling-a-ding" Tong.
Now we'll take all 3 judges' blind scores and average them out to the nearest tenth each round.
The final Prizefight score will be an average of all rounds using the same decimal system.
It's 5 rounds to the finish, so let's get it on.
Round 1 is design.
HTC Sensation 4G brings its curve body and crisp UHD display that looks great.
It's a nice design that feels solid but that backing still has a female-inspired design to it.
That's not for everyone.
Now the Samsung Galaxy S II is the
slimmest 4.3-inch screen I've held and you can't ignore its AMOLED screen that makes colors pop.
It's lighter in weight and doesn't feel as sturdy, but this is one sweet and sexy phone.
The Galaxy S II gets a 4.7 and the Sensation 4G gets a 4.3.
Next round is controls and user interface.
HTC Sensation 4G makes the Sense UI even better with sweet animations, polished menus and an innovative lockscreen that will let you launch common apps before unlocking your phone.
Now the Galaxy S II
keeps it simplified with its TouchWiz interface that gets the job done.
I can't really say there's anything really special to get excited about.
They simplified things by removing one of the Android shortcuts on the bottom of the phone and there are shades of IOS here.
HTC keeps impressing us and they get a perfect 5 with the Sense UI and the Galaxy gets a 4. So after averaging 2 rounds, the Sensation 4G leads by 3/10 of a point.
Next round is features.
Both phones are packed with all of gingerbread goodies like sleeker cut, copy and paste and better
app management.
These are also dual-core processor phones with 8-megapixel cameras and Android standouts for turn-by-turn directions and voice-to-text.
The Sensation 4G has Trace which is its own version of swipe but its Achilles heel is the 1 gigabit internal memory and an 8-gig card that takes up the expansion card slot and limits you.
Now the Galaxy S II is an unlock phone which makes it more versatile even though it's pricey and the swipe keyboard is pre-loaded.
But its biggest advantage is the 16 gigs of internal memory
and an available SD card expansion slot.
Samsung takes this round with a 4.7 and HTC gets a 4.3.
Next round is web browsing and multimedia.
Web browsing is excellent for both phones with Flash support and they were super responsive with pinch-to-zoom.
The Sensation 4G has a dual-LED flash that records 1080p video with more shooting options.
The pictures were a little washed out.
Now the Watch app provides you TV and movie rentals plus the new and improved Android marketplace is a real multimedia solution now.
The Galaxy S II has a single flash but it takes much better pictures and smoother 1080p video.
Plus, it comes loaded with its own suite of multimedia apps for music, reading and movies.
So both phones handle media well and this round, we're calling it a tie at 4.7 points apiece.
So after averaging 4 rounds, HTC leads by just 1/10 of a point.
This is anyone's battle to win.
The final round that decides it all is call quality and performance.
Call quality varies depending on the area.
But overall,
the Sensation 4G had solid call quality and in some cases, it was cleaner-sounding but it had a little teeny quality.
Now this is a speedy performing phone but sometimes even the eye candy animations feel like it's slowing it down.
Now the Galaxy S II had good call quality as well but its speakerphone sounded even better between the two.
The 1.2 GHz of Orion processor also seemed to be the snappier performer with the straightforward navigation.
This one's another tight round and we end up even again at 4.3 points apiece.
So let's average out all 5 rounds and end a Prizefight with a Sensation 4G jumped out ahead.
The Galaxy S II closed the gap with the last 2 rounds ending up tied and we end up tied at 4.5 points apiece.
But you know we can't leave it like this, so we'll go to 1/100 of a point and in another epic Prizefight battle, the HTC Sensation 4G just squeaks it out 4.52 to 4.48 and is your Prizefight winner.
In this battle
between Editor's Choice phones, you can't go wrong and really it might come down to the difference between a locked and an unlocked phone.
I'm Brian Tong.
Thanks for watching.
We'll catch you guys next week on another Prizefight.
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