[HTC Sensation] jab1972:
I have just upgraded from an unbranded Desire I used on Voda UK to a Voda UK Sensation and I am very disappointed.

The Sensation has the potential to be a fantastic phone, but for a few really annoying faults.

1) The Phone network reception is terrible. In my house I have a very good 2g Voda reception and quite good 3g reception (One of the reasons I went with Voda years ago) I have NEVER had a problem with any other phone on Voda in my house before until now. The sensation will one minute show 3-4 bars of 2g signal, if I then pick it up and start using it, browsing the web etc, the phone will often go to no service. When I am talking on the phone in my house the person at the other end constantly complains that I am cutting out.

I have read about the alleged “grip of death” problems the sensation has if you hold the phone at the top with the Wi-Fi signal dropping and mine does that as well. I think the GSM/3G aerial is at the bottom of the case which is exactly where most people hold their phone normally and holding it defiantly affects the mobile signal as well as Wi-Fi a LOT more then I have experienced with any other phone to the point of it losing the signal in a strong area.

I am getting a replacement from Voda next week as I am still within the 7 days. I really hope this one is better with regard to GSM/3G signal.

2) I am getting the well documented problem with the Widgets (even the HTC power widget) intermittently getting coloured lines through it. It may be fine for a day then one starts and then they all start ending up in the widgets becoming unread able. To clear the problem you either have to remove the widget and then re place it on the home screen or change the scene and then back again or reboot the phone (rebooting does not always work, seems to be pot luck). I have read that HTC say that this is to do with 3rd party software not being written for QHD resolution!! Well HTC as the Sensation is, as far as I am aware, the first phone to have a QHD screen, how many f**king apps do they think will be written for QHD screens?? This is not the case anyway as sometimes they display fine for a day or so and sometimes their own power widget suffers!! Come on HTC, it is your responsibility to make sure at least 3rd party software written for earlier resolutions display without corruption, I can understand when apps display small and don’t take up the whole screen but this is a BUG.

3) I am also getting another commonly reported problem. Sense almost always reboots after installing/removing/moving an app and sometimes after exiting an app. I have read that people have put this down to the new sense being quite memory hungry and the device can shut Sense down sometimes if memory runs low??? WHAT ??? This version of sense was written by HTC for THIS PHONE!!! How can this phone not have enough RAM memory to deal with it??? I experimented with custom ported versions of this sense on my rooted Desire and sense would very, very rarely reboot, but I accepted those very few occasional sense reboots as they were custom roms with ported software not designed for that phone also modified to use the SD card for internal storage to overcome the Desires lack of internal storage. Again this is a BUG, possibly a memory leak somewhere?

I really do not expect these sort of serious, normal use affecting BUGS on a stock rom from HTC.

I have received the OTA update 1.35.161.2 but note that it isn’t quite the latest version released by HTC but I suppose it’s the Voda version, but this hasnt solved these problems.

I really hope HTC sort the software problems out ASAP, as there really is a lot to like about the Sensation, the screen looks fantastic with text/pictures and videos and the speed of the phone is very impressive and the new sense is very good software if these bugs are sorted.

But if my replacement Sensation has the same signal performance as this one, I am afraid it will be back to the slow, small screened desire for me as at least I can use it properly and generally reliably as a phone!!!!

Rant over!!!