Samsung Galaxy S3 Vs HTC Sensation 4G: Which Android Smartphone Should You Buy?

The HTC Sensation 4G featuring the new HTC Watch video and the latest User Interface (UI) version 3.0 was announced in April 2011 and released a couple of months later, in June. The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor and although does not run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich ICS)) out of the box, is expected to receive the update.

Check out how the Sensation 4G stacks up against Samsung's flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S3

Display

The HTC Sensation 4G features a 4.3in Super LCD capacitive touchscreen with HTC Sense 3.0 User Interface (UI). The resolution of the display is 540x960 pixels with a pixel density of 256 pixels per inch (ppi).

Samsung's latest Galaxy S series smartphone - Galaxy S3, in contrast, features a 4.8in Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen protected with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The display features the TouchWiz User Interface (UI) v4.0 and the resolution of the display is 720x1280 pixels with a density of 306 ppi.

Dimensions

The HTC Sensation measures 126.1x65.4x11.3mm and weighs 148g whereas the Galaxy S3 measures 136.6x70.6x8.6mm and weighs 133g.

Operating System

The HTC Sensation launched with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which can be upgraded to ICS. The Galaxy S3 comes preloaded with ICS.

Processor

The HTC Sensation is powered by Qualcomm's MSM8260 Snapdragon chip with a dual-core 1.2GHz Scorpion processor and packs 768MB of RAM. The Galaxy S3 will be powered by the Exynos 4 quad-core processor, which has been clocked at 1.4GHz, and packs 1GB of RAM.

Camera

The HTC Sensation is equipped with an eight megapixel main camera with auto-focus and dual-LED flash and the camera includes other features like geo-tagging, touch-focus, image stabilisation, face detection and instant capture. The camera can capture video in 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps) with stereo sound recording. The front-facing camera of the smartphone is a VGA-quality camera.

The Galaxy S3 will be equipped with a main camera of eight megapixels with auto-focus, LED flash and other features such as simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch-focus, face and smile detection and image stabilisation. The camera can record video at 1080p and 30 fps. The handset packs a secondary camera of 1.9 megapixels, which can record video in 720p at 30 fps.

The difference between the main cameras of both smartphones is that the Sensation 4G's camera features dual-flash. However, on the flip side, the Galaxy S3's cameras have some impressive technological innovations, most notably Smart Stay - the front-facing camera recognises when the user is looking at the screen and keeps it well lit and unlocked during that time, automatically dimming and locking when not in use.

Connectivity

The HTC Sensation offers Wi-Fi b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 3.0 with A2DP and 3G connectivity. It supports data speeds up to HSDPA 14.4 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps.

The Galaxy S3 offers Wi-Fi b/g/n, Wi-Fi HT40, Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth v4.0. It supports data speeds up to HSDPA 21Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps. The Galaxy S3 can connect to 4G networks.

Storage

The HTC Sensation offers onboard space of 1GB, which is wretchedly poor. However, it does have a microSD card for space up to 32GB. The S3 comes in two models - with 16/ 32GB of onboard space; a 64GB model is also expected. The S3 will also support microSD cards.

Battery

The HTC Sensation is powered by a LI-ion battery of 1520mAh which delivers talk time of eight hours. The Galaxy S3 will be powered by a Li-ion 2100mAh battery and is expected to deliver longer talk time than its HTC rival.