Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII) vs HTC Sensation: Battle For The Ultimate Android Phone Continues… [A Detailed Comparison]

Well, now we know that HTC Sensation has finally started to ship in some European countries and will also be shipping in US very soon. So, time for another battle to find the best Android phone in the world today. This battle is going to be between the Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII) and HTC Sensation! But why between these two? You might ask: well the reason is that as we already know by now that Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII) is the king of the Android world for now (well it would be more precise to say the king of both iOS and Android world). But now HTC Sensation is also joining the party and is quite possibly the ONLY phone that can take the title of the Best Smartphone in the World from Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII). But if HTC Sensation has it what it takes to be the ultimate in the Android world by dethroning THE best from Samsung world? Only one way to find out – a detailed head to head comparison in terms of specs and features!

Read on to find out …

Size and Weight:

HTC Sensation: 126.1mm x 65.4mm x 11.3mm, 148 g
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm, 116 g

You can see that  in terms of length and width they are pretty much comparable mostly because both support the same screen size. However, Samsung Galaxy S2 is much thinner than the HTC Sensation. No wonder currently it is the thinnest smartphone available on the market. Second advantage comes in terms of the weight. Samsung Galaxy S2 is far lighter than the HTC Sensation, this is where all the plastic used in the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes in handy to make it lighter! By now you already know who is the winner here – right? Before we mover to the next section I should mention that there are some reviewers who used the HTC Sensation say that construction seems more classy and solid in hand as compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2. Also HTC Sensation does have more curvy and stylish design that might add to it’s appeal for some people.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2

Screen Size and Resolution:

HTC Sensation: 109 mm (4.3") S-LCD capacitive touch screen with qHD (540 X 960) resolution
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 4.3 inches Super AMOLED display, 480 x 800 pixels

What to say ! It is so nice to have competition because now we have two extremely sharp displays to pick from, it is hard to go wrong either way. Samsung’s AMOLED display is vibrant and sharp, a real treat to look at with great contrast. While HTC Sensation does have qHD resolution so it excels in the resolution department. However, we feel that overall display quality is higher for the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Winner: Draw

Connectivity Options:

HTC Sensation: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 3.0, microUSB (MHL) v2.0
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, HSDPA/HSUPA, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth version 3.0+HS, micro USB version 2.0, NFC

Well, not much to say here as both the phones support all the cutting edge connectivity features such as latest Wi-Fi standards, Bluetooth 3.0 support and DLNA etc. Although NFC capability is missing in the HTC Sensation.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2 with a narrow margin

Processor and GPU Power:

HTC Sensation: 1.2 GHz Dual-core Snapdragon Processor with Adreno 220 GPU
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 1.2 GHZ Dual-Core ARM Cortex A9 processor with Mali-400MP GPU

Galaxy S2 appears to be lightning fast based on the reviews coming out so far. It is hard to know which phone will post higher numbers, but the important thing is performance in the background of the relevant OS and applications. Galaxy S2 has already shown that it can do that flawlessly. However HTC Sensation also supports 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, so performance should be very close to the Samsung Galaxy S2. As for the GPU although they are based on two different technologies but both are very powerful and fully capable to play the latest games and running the 1080p full HD video.

Winner: Draw

Camera:

HTC Sensation: 8 Megapixel Rear with dual LED flash light,, Front Facing VGA fixed focus color camera. Video at 1080p HD at 30fps

Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 8 MP Rear with LED flash featuring Autofocus, Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization. 2 MP Front Facing Camera. Video at 1080p at 30fps

Both cameras appear to be rather similar in terms of specs, HTC sensation camera has dual LED flash but same 30fps video recording at full HD as Galaxy S2. Again, it is very important to see what will be the real life performance of these cameras. In case of Samsung Galaxy S2 now we know for sure that it has a fantastic camera that even beats the iPhone 4 camera by a punch. For the HTC Sensation camera although it also supports the 8.0 MP resolution, but as of now we are not completely sure about the picture quality. Particularly consider the fact that Samsung has a far better history of integrating quality cameras in their smartphones as compared to the HTC. Also, note that HTC Sensation has only a VGA front-facing camera!

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2

Storage:

HTC Sensation: 1GB on board, additional memory through micro SD card, 768MB of RAM
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): 16/32 GB, supports additional memory through micro SD card, 1GB of RAM

Ok this one easily goes to the Samsung Galaxy S2 as it has 8GB of internal memory as compared to the meager 1GB in case of HTC Sensation. Comparing the on-board RAM again Samsung Galaxy S2 has the edge. Higher RAM means smoother multi-tasking as more application can stay alive at the same time in background without slowing down.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S2

Battery:

HTC Sensation: Li-Ion  1520 mAh
Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): Li-Ion 1650 mAh

Very hard to comment on as both phones seems to have similar battery capacities. Although Samsung Galaxy S2 has a slight edge here. Galaxy S2’s battery life is not the best on the face of planet, but it is very decent and easily lasts a day with good use and can stretch out to 2 days with mostly calls and texting.

Winner: Draw

Operating System:

HTC Sensation: Android 2.3.3 with HTC Sense™

Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII): Android 2.3.3 with TouchWiz 4.0

Android has lots of clustering due to the various versions and handsets available. On the positive side it offer a lot of customization though, and generally more appealing to people who like to tweak things here and there. Both phones support the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS. Difference lies in the top layering of the HTC Sense (in case of HTC Sensation) and TouchWiz 4.0 (in case of Samsung Galaxy S2). Actually, if you ask me I dislike both the toppings and will prefer the stock Android interface much more. But it is a subjective decision as both HTC Sense and TouchWiz have their following. Although, somehow I feel that HTC Sense has more loyal fan-base out there you know! I will declare it a draw as well.

Winner: Draw

Other Features:

Samsung Galaxy S2

- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- NFC support (optional)
- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- Digital compass
- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- Adobe Flash 10.1 support
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (Swype)

HTC Sensation

- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
- SNS integration
- Digital compass
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail
- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player
- XviD/MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input (T9 Trace)

Here, I listed all the other features of both phones. Not much to say here, considering that both are next generation phones, features here are pretty much comparable. Although as mentioned before HTC Sensation misses on the NFC part.

Winner: Draw

Final Words

So, here we are guys. As you can see two solid wins for the Samsung Galaxy S2 in terms of thickness, weight and storage,RAM category. While most others you can consider as Draw or very close. Based on above observations in a number of key aspects I would regard Samsung Galaxy S2 as a superior device. However, it doesn’t mean that HTC Sensation is an inferior device in any way. In fact, there will be for sure some cases where users will prefer the HTC Sensation (i.e. qHD display, HTC Sense interface). In the end, it really depends on the user requirements and preferences that he want to see in a smartphone. Both of these devices are at the cutting edge what current technology can support.

We hope you enjoyed this comparison! You might also want to check out our earlier head-to-head comparison articles:

• Samsung Galaxy S2 (SII) vs Apple iPhone 5: Clash Of The Titans !!
• Motorola Atrix 4G vs Samsung Galaxy S2 – Shootout For The Ultimate Android Smartphone

[Some Specs are taken from GSM Arena 1,2]