HTC Sensation Hits the UK – Vodafone Is First

The newly-announced HTC Sensation smartphone will be delivered by Vodafone in May in the UK and other European markets.

The phone is designed particularly for watching  video  content, and uses HTC’s Sense user interface on top of Android 2.3  “Gingergbread”, along with the HTC Watch video service  (as also seen in HTC’s Flyer tablet).

Taking video with you

HTC announced the Sensation this week, and Vodafone has a page for users to express interest (there is no price). 3UK has also said it will have the phone by “this summer”.

The phone has a 4.3-inch screen with 540 x 960 resolution, and a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and an 8Mpixel camera, which also shoots HD 1080 pixel video, with stereo sound.

It’s not a business phone, as the most obvious feature, on top of HTC’s new Sense 3.0 user interface is the HTC Watch video service, which lets users rent or buy films and TV programmes – which can be shared between up to five different HTC devices.

HTC Watch includes “progressive download” technology which lets users start watching videos before they have finish downloading.

HTC Sense includes a customisable lockscreen, which shows some information such as weather and social updates before the user properly turns on the phone. Users can go straight from the lockscreen to common tasks such as phone calls, emails or taking photos.

In the US, the phone, known as the The Sensation 4G, will come from T-Mobile, which is in the process of being acquired by AT&T.

Android is steadily increasing market share, despite fears that the operating system is fragementing, a possibility that has prompted Google to keep a tighter hold on the source code.