Upgrading to an HTC Sensation 4G

Posted on Jun 26, 2011 by Paul White

My Current Cell Phone is an HTC HD2 that I ported to Android 2.3. There hasn't been much reason to upgrade, as most phones had the same screen size, or the same resolution. Finally the HTC Sensation has arrived. In my opinion its the logical upgrade from my HD2. Same 4.3" LCD, higher Resolution, and 8 MP camera with 1080P video recording, along with 1.2 Ghz Dual Core snap dragon CPU.

HTC HD2 specs

1 Ghz Snapdragon CPU ( Single Core )
5 MP camera with 480P video
4.3" 800 x 480 lcd
1300 mAh Battery
Windows Mobile 6.5 ( Ported to Nandroid 2.3 )

HTC Sensation specs

1.2 Ghz Snapdragon CPU ( Dual Core )
8 MP camera with 1080P video
4.3" 960 x 540 lcd
1520 mAh Battery
Android 2.3

Market Prices of HTC Sensation 4G

If you were to buy it off T-Mobile's website it would cost $549.99, If you signed your life away for 2 years to T-Mobile then they would discount it to $199.99. However you can also get the phone off ebay. I was able to get mine for $465 with no contract and free UPS shipping. Over time the market prices for this phone will slowly go down. Especially as other phones come to market like the droid 3. However I predict the prices won't go much below $450 in the next 3 months. I spent quite a while on ebay hunting for the right deal. During this time I saw phones sell for as high as $525, and as low as $460.

Planned Modifications to my HTC Sensation 4G

The first thing I did was buy some extra batteries via ebay. For $14.95 I was able to get 3 x 1800 mAh batteries with wall charger. Only negative is they are coming direct from China and it will take 2-3 weeks for them to arrive. Its hard to really believe that these will hold 1800 mAh of power, but the last batteries I bought for my HD2 have held up great with no problems, so even if they store the same 1520 mAh as the stock batteries I am happy. Once I get the phone in hand the first thing I am going to do is root it then install a custom rom to it that does not have the HTC sense 3.0. I like my phones to be clean and fast with no additional garbage. Then I plan to take the phone apart. The rear battery cover is made of both plastic and Aluminum. I will remove all the plastic pieces, and hand polish the aluminum using some sand paper and polishing cream until its a perfect mirrored finished. I did the same thing with my HD2. I will be documenting this entire process in a future blog entry.

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Discussion

Tom L | Jun 29, 2011 9:45 PM
I'm doing the exact same upgrade (HD2 with android to Sensation). Any tips on getting all of my data (photos, SMS messages etc..) from one to the other?

Thanks much (buying you a beer in advance)

Tom

Paul | Jun 29, 2011 10:44 PM
Tom,
Moving the photos should be easy as they are usually stored in the DCIM Folder on your SD card. So just copy this fold to your new SD card and your are set. I am not too worried about backing up my SMS messages, as none of them are anything I need to hold onto. But From a google search it seems the SMS backup and restore App looks promising. Hope this helps.

blumen | Sep 6, 2011 9:42 PM
hi, I too bought an HTC sensation last month but I am disappointed with battery life. I mostly use my phone to make calls and browse internet using wifi/gprs for like an hour or 2 a day and may be 1 hour of calls. My phone battery turns orange for this usage and I end up charging twice a day. I have removed most of the apps I had like task killer and battery monitor to see if it improves battery life, but I dont see a huge improvement. I have not made other changes to my phones software like custom ROM. Also the phones gets warm even if its locked. Have you experienced similar behavior?

Paul | Sep 6, 2011 9:55 PM
@blumen
I used to have the same problem. But once I got an aftermarket ROM on XDA-Developer, my battery life is much better. I highly recommend you checkout the threads on XDA-Developers for the HTC Sensation

There are many great ROMs on there.
First you have root your device,
Then you can install whichever ROM you want
Sense, and all the Tmobile Crap slows down your phone, and eats up your battery.
The best ROM for performance and Battery life is Cyanogenmod, but that team of developers has not yet released it for the Sensation. Its coming soon though.
For the time being I highly recommend Superlite by HTCClay
This is what I am running, very fast and very smooth.

I have been meaning to write an article talking about custom ROMs for the Sensation, just haven't had the time. Hope this helps.

blumen | Sep 7, 2011 11:14 AM
Thanks for the info Paul. Just a few more queries: 1. Will it void my phone warranty if I root my device 2. Is it possible to revert to factory state once I root the device and install a custom ROM 3. Is rooting same as unlocking? Could you please suggest a good article on rooting HTC sensation and applying ROMs Appreciate your reply.

Paul | Sep 7, 2011 11:27 PM
@bluemen
1 and 2. Yes it will void your warranty, however its possible to unroot your phone which would bring it back to stock conditions, and they would not be able to tell. Don't ask me how that is done you would have to read up on it on the XDA-Developers section for the Sensation.
3. No Unlocking a phone is where you can then use it with any carrier ( of course the carrier has to support your phone's frequencies, which is another issue altogether ). Rooting your phone is not the same as unlocking. When you Root a phone you then have direct access to write to the system's memory, and change the ROM.

Check on XDA-Developers for a tutorial on how to root your phone. I know things are not very straight forward on there, but if you spend some time reading up on everything you will get the hang of it.

blumen | Sep 10, 2011 10:13 PM
@Paul Thanks alot :)

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