Now it’s time for a battle between two siblings from the same manufacturer, HTC Titan will stacks up against HTC Sensation XE. Despite produced by the same manufacturer each device running on different operating system. The HTC Titan runs on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Mango Update platform while its cousin, the HTC Sensation XE runs on the ever popular Google’s Android OS. If you are still undecided which phone is better for your money, you should better sticks with us and find out which one is the best device just after the jump.
The first specification to compare as usual is the phones’ form. The HTC Titan has 131.5 x 70.7 x 9.9 mm, 160g of dimension and weight while the HTC Sensation XE has 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3 mm, 151g. Similar with any other HTC devices you can find in the market, both HTC Titan and HTC Sensation XE have been built with so much quality. HTC do not compromise with quality and only using high quality material to produce their smartphones. Instead of using lightweight but cheap-looking plastic as the material like many other manufactures do the HTC offers combination of plastic and metal which add more exclusive and fashionable feels to the device.
With the use of some metal for the smartphones’ material, both phones are not quite the lightest phone on the today market with each has 160 & 151 grams of weight. However the phones’ weight won’t likely to bring any trouble or inconvenience for the phone user, in fact in the contrary it has the reassuring weight that offer a nice feeling and balance in the hand.
Verdict: Both phones come from the same manufacturer; boast the same school of style. It’s a clear draw for this round comparison.
The second specification to compare is the phones’ screen. The HTC Titan boasts a 4.7-inch S-LCD screen with 480 x 800 of screen resolution and 199ppi. It is a great spec but not quite spectacular on the pixel density. On the other hand the HTC Sensation XE comes up with a slightly smaller S-LCD screen at only 4.3-inches but has more impressive resolution at 540 x 960 and also a far better pixel density at 256ppi.
Verdict: Both phones offer some solid screen specifications. On the real world application it will be no big difference between the screens of both phones. However if you are kind of people who take the visual spec really seriously and has the intention to watch a lot of content on your smartphone it is recommendable that you choose the higher quality display of the HTC Sensation XE.
The next spec to compare is the phones’ processor setup. The HTC Titan runs on a 1.5GHz single-core Scorpion processor on a Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset combined with an Adreno 205GPU to handle the visual tidy bit. The device also comes with 512MB of RAM which could become easily aged with the other Android rivals looking to move beyond 1GB. It will not satisfying every gadget fan boy in the world however it still able to offer the much needed stability and speed to the device’s daily performance.
In the meantime the HTC Sensation XE is powered with 1.5GHz dual core processors along with Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon chipset. To handle visual whizzies, the device is also equipped with the impressive Adreno 220 graphic processing unit. The inclusion of 768MB is better than what is provided by the HTC Titan but it still somehow lagged behind its other competitor from different manufacturers who are looking to move beyond 1GB of RAM.
Verdict: With the dual core processor, better graphic processing unit as well as better RAM, the HTC Sensation XE wins this round comparison.
The fourth, and probably the most exciting spec to compare is the phones’ operating system. The HTC Titan as we mention earlier runs on the Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Mango Update which is undoubtedly one of the most exciting operating system this year. The new Mango update offers more than 500 tweaks and changes to the relatively new operating system. Therefore you can expect vast improvements in term of functionality as well as a lot of interesting new features after this update.
There are improvements in the Live Tiles feature. This feature has been well received by the Microsoft Windows Phone 7’s users thanks to its innovative and user-friendly method to presents information. With the present of ‘Mango’ update, the Live Tiles has given some interesting tune-up to make it even better.
The first noticeable improvement is that the Live Tiles on ‘Mango’ update now display more detailed information than before. In this new update, the Live Tiles is not only displaying information or messages from the device’ native apps but only allow the info from third-party app. This can be possible because Microsoft has launched developer APIs to increase third third-party apps involvement. With such of update the Live Tiles in Mango now could a scrolling ticker of all your events for the rest of the day with full clock and calendar information even before a diary app’s Live Tiles might display your next appointment.
The next most noticeable improvement is that the OS update is now really integrated than ever. With the new Mango update you’ll get the convenience to get to everything you want with only one tap or swipe. The Mango update gives much attention to Social Networking integration with the availability of native apps for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn in the system.
There is also the interesting ‘People’ hub to watch in this Mango update. It’s an interesting feature that combines all methods of communication into continuous threads. It’s including amongst others social networking like Facebook, Twitter, as well as instant messaging, email and text. One of the usable functions of this feature is that it will notify you when your contacts are online across mediums. This will come in handy to decide which kind of medium is more effective to reach the desirable contact.
Another functional element on the People Hub that will likely come in handy is how the feature handles the name. The People hub allows you create groups of your favourite contacts and subsequently combined the contacts’ all Tweets, messages, texts, Facebook updates and so on. By creating the groups, then you can also sending message out to all members of a group across multiple mediums at once. It’s really smart and convenience way to help you being active in your social circle.
In addition you can decide by your own whether you want to combines or separates your email accounts to your inboxes. To prevent the risk of double booking or events at the same time, the Mango update will also smartly check incoming mail for event invitations and check any against your calendar info while then will stick a warning into the text if it happened to contradict with your other schedule.
On the other hand the HTC Sensation XE runs on the world conquering Android OS version 2.3.4 Gingerbread. The Gingerbread improves significantly from its predecessor with the plentiful addition of improved functionality as well as the liberal application of streamlining to boot. Moreover the Gingerbread is also excelling in term of running speed, smoothness of navigation and so on. One of the most noticeable improvements of the Gingerbread compared to Froyo is its increasing performance on multi-tasking capability. Android OS is always well-known for its decent multi tasking capability; with Gingerbread it’s even better. It is slicker and gives you extra control with the addition of several extra tools.
The updated touch keyboard in the Gingerbread is also a big improvement for the OS. While the one we found in the Froyo version often give us a hard time, the one in Gingerbread is really a joy to use. However if you’re already stuck in the Froyo version, you can still tastes the Gingerbread’s touch keyboard using an unofficial app that enables you to convert Gingerbread’s keyboard for use in Froyo too.
To conclude it we have to say that the Gingerbread will certainly get replaced by the soon-to be-released Ice Cream Sandwich as the best version of android for Smartphone. However until the new boy arrives, the Gingerbread will still be the best of Android for Smartphone.
Verdict: Both Android gingerbread and Window Phone 7 Mango are really great and reliable operating system with its own positives. There is not much to differentiate between the two OS. For now on we called it draw for this round comparison.
The last spec to compare is the phones’ camera setup. It is not a secret that HTC rarely offers strong optic specs however we still provide the information for you. The HTC Titan comes with an 8-megapixel primary snapper with features include autofocus, LED-flash and geo-tagging and has 720P video capture capability as well as offers a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling.
In the meantime the HTC Sensation XE boasts the same 8-megapixel primary camera while features include dual-LED flash, autofocus, geo-tagging, image stabilization, face detection and instant capture. The device’s optic setup also boasts 1080P video capture capability as well as a secondary VGA camera for video calling.
Both optic setups seem to be promising on the sheet; however don’t get your hopes to high because it actually offers less capture quality than what you might expect from such specifications.
Verdict: Both phones offer the same 8 megapixel primary camera and similar features. Therefore it is the camera’s video capture capability that decides the winner for this round comparison. It’s a win for HTC Sensation XE.
Final Verdict: It has been a great head to head battle between the two HTC devices with both offering sophisticated specifications for its users.
The HTC Titan offers a very interesting and slick ‘mango’ operating system while comes up with the steady Android operating system. It’s a draw.
htc titan vs htc sensation (1)