Sliding Past Sensationalism? HTC Sensation vs. the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide

Sliding Past Sensationalism? HTC Sensation vs. the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide
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HTC Takes on Itself at T-Mobile

HTC has been on a rampage, releasing powerful smartphone after powerful smartphone on every carrier. T-Mobile is no exception as they’ve received the Sensation 4G and the myTouch 4G Slide. Both are incredibly powerful smartphones with access to the 4G network, and with close release dates, they have no choice but to fight each other to grab customers’ attentions. When the two HTC smartphones are pitted against each other, which one stands tall?

Design and Display

The Sensation and the myTouch 4G Slide take on different design cues, while retaining the initial, familiar, candy bar design. The front of both smartphones is dominated by clean, vibrant LCD displays and the four familiar Android shortcuts for home, menu, back and search. The myTouch 4G Slide adds a trackpad that doesn’t exist on the Sensation. The Sensation takes a smoother approach with capacitive shortcut keys, while the myTouch 4G Slide opts for physical buttons.

Side by side, the Sensation looks sleek, slim and stylish while the myTouch 4G Slide looks bulky, bright and almost toy-like. The physical buttons are actually fairly useful, but from a style perspective the Sensation does look better. The keyboard adds to the myTouch 4G Slide’s bulk, but even if it weren’t bulky, the overall design of the myTouch 4G Slide doesn’t seem as sleek as the Sensation. For the design and display arena, the HTC Sensation wins with its more sleek and subtle design.

Winner - HTC Sensation

Performance

Both the Sensation and the myTouch 4G Slide are dual core smartphones, meaning they are among the fastest smartphones currently available. The two are very much identical when it comes to performance, as they both run Android 2.3, and are both dual core. In fact, with Sense UI running on top of both smartphones, even the small bit of lag is nearly identical when it comes to performance.

The call quality on both is decent, but the myTouch 4G Slide actually edges out with a win for the quality, as it’s a bit clearer. The data speeds are identical as they both utilize T-Mobile’s HSPA+, or 4G network. The battery life is also identical, coming in at 1520 mAh, and both smartphones last around the same amount of time. This is one arena where it’s a tough call, but the slightly better call quality puts the myTouch 4G Slide ahead.

Winner - T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide

User Interface

When it comes to the user interface it’s really hard to distinguish between the Sensation and the myTouch 4G Slide. Both run on Android 2.3 with Sense UI, meaning they have identical interfaces. The only main difference would be the physical keyboard that comes with the myTouch 4G Slide, which isn’t the greatest keyboard available, but it is decent. However, the physical keyboard is a polarizing addition, as some people may like the feel of a physical keyboard, while others would prefer a slimmer smartphone, so it’s not really that big of an advantage for the myTouch 4G Slide.

In fact, other than the physical keyboard, the two smartphones are pretty much identical. This is somewhat of a recurring problem with HTC smartphones, as they make all their smartphones too similar to one another. In this particular arena, the two smartphones even out with no clear winner.

Winner - Tie

Features

The features on the Sensation and myTouch 4G Slide align yet again, as they both have 8 megapixel

myTouch 4G Slide

cameras that are capable of recording in 1080p. It’s another tough area for comparing the Sensation and the myTouch 4G Slide as both have great cameras, capable of taking some great shots. Overall, the myTouch 4G Slide does edge out with some better picture quality, as the Sensation looks a little under saturated.

Both smartphones offer a variety of options on the camera application, allowing you to take a slew of different types of pictures. However, the myTouch 4G offers a bit more than the Sensation, including HDR, multiple burst shot, portrait mode, effects, night action and manual modes. Add in the subtle, yet useful, dedicated camera button and the myTouch 4G Slide ends up being the better picture camera.

The video on the myTouch 4G Slide is also ever so slightly more colorful than the Sensation. Once again, the slight bit of under saturation causes the video on the Sensation to fall behind the myTouch 4G. The LED flash on both smartphones is on par, with both providing a decent amount of light in low light situations. Overall both smartphones could easily replace a separate digital camera, but the myTouch 4G Slide does a slightly better job and wins in this arena.

Winner - T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide

The Winner

Overall coming in with the win is the T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide, with a score of 2 wins, 1 loss and 1 tie. While the Sensation is no phone to be ignored, the myTouch 4G Slide does slide to home base with its performance and its main feature, the 8 megapixel camera. It really is the subtleties found on the myTouch 4G Slide that help it defeat the well-hyped and well-built HTC Sensation. For T-Mobile customers trying to decide between the two, the myTouch 4G Slide should be the choice to get.

Overall Winner - T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide

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