HTC Sensation - The Final Word

Well then, I've had this HTC Sensation from (Thanks) Telstra, for a little while and I'm about to have to give it back, sadly... (I never thought I'd say that)

I honestly didn't know what to expect, as I've had a HTC before (HD2 // Windows) and the experience was very very flawed (Hello, Windows!) I've had every model of iNQ phone (Brew Os with a terrible camera!) I've had almost every model of Blackberry up until the Storm and I've also had a LOT of the Sony Ericsson phones, which in their time, I think, had the best camera on the market...

So, I collect the Sensation and the first thing I notice when I take it from its little box (before the train had pulled out of Melbourne Central station) is the MASSIVE looking screen! It's big... It's sleek... It's big... (Did I mention big?.. More on that later)

Four point Three Inches to be precise... But it doesn't feel that big... Anyway, I've got this HTC Sensation because I use my phone a LOT for my work, and derivatives of my work.. I'm a 'social media type' which means, in short, that I manage communities, I write content, I post stuff, I Facebook, I Tweet, I Skype, I Flickr, I generate content in video and audio and image and I use my phone whilst out and about to do a lot of this -  the HTC could do all of this stuff with its little bitty hands tied firmly behind its sleek body... It's got its own little dual core 1.2ghz processor and is faster than the proverbial drain pipe bound feline... But, there's one thing the little gem can't do, with all its hard-core tech, with all its stunning good looks - it couldn't Instagram!

What the heck IS Instagram I hear you click... Well, it's a photo sharing application for iPhone, in short. It has cool filters and simple sharing that you set up once and can choose each time you take and upload a new picture where to share it to... For example, the picture above, I shared that on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and FourSquare.. I can also share it to Posterous, but I'm not using Posterous, currently... You can also configure to email the completed images directly from the app, so I have my mum's email in there and send her copies of the images via email... She likes that (I have a two year old who she likes to knit for etc etc)

So what? Well, that's what I use to share my day... I Tweet and so on, but with Instagram, I can send an image (as I'm a very visual person) and I can use the Instagram interface to be a Tweet, too... I can @ people, I can # it out if I like... It's all in there - and, if I want, I can even use a service like Blurb and make a book, directly form my Instagram account! (Starting to see why so many people are using it, yet?)

The Applications that make it all the more fun.

A phone is only as good as its next app, right? So, what apps did I choose for the HTC? Well, here's a list... I'll slap them down for you and let you know what I thought...

Photoshop ExpressFxCameraLittlePhotoRetroCamera (Thanks @MeansBlue) Lightbox PhotosMagicHour FreePudding Camera (I was hungry OK!) Another good option is Instasize

...and, yes as pointed out by  @_Disco // Disco stu from the internet // Vignette (The trial version) which has become my favourite in the shortest time...

disco-stu-from-the-internet

I thought about this, and I even started noting down what each app does.. Aside from Photoshop Express which is more aimed toward the "Crop, rotate, adjust color, and add artistic effects" market... Oh, wait, that's pretty much what they all do! Most of the camera apps that you see listed above do some pretty similar things - They use the onboard camera to take a photo, they allow you to apply many filters to that photo so that it looks either old, or vintage or retro or dark or vignetted or ...you see where I'm going with this - there are literally hundreds of filters across the various apps, most of them look pretty same same...

When it came down to it, the phone could do all that my iPhone could do, and, in most case it did those things easily as well as the iPhone, sometimes slightly better / faster, sometimes I wanted to smash it on the nearest rock.

Here's some of my favourite images from my time with the HTC Sensation

HTC-Sensation-Channel-Nine-Melbourne-Image

red-shoes-gtvone-htc-sensation-telstra

HTC-Sensation-Depth-of-Field-Camera-App-Telstra

Steve-Irwin-Likes-Coffee-HTC-Sensation-Telstra

Swan-Street-Richmond-Evening-Golden-Hour-HTC-Sensation-Telstra

Ask-Yourself-Why-Gtv-Nine-Sensation-HTC-Telstra

Rancilio-Coffee-Latte-HTC-Sensation-Gtvone-Telstra

That pretty much brings me to the end of my time with the HTC Sensation.... (Well, until @Telstra decide to send the boys around to pry it from my cold, dead hands!) But, before I go - just a shout out to the social media team at Telstra, they work 24hours a day and manage to keep a sense of humour despite a million "my internet doesn't work" complaints... (and my "I can see the tower, but ain't got no NextGen coverage...ugh (Which they speedily fixed, thanks) Here's that coffee I was talking about at 2:33am

lindy-telstra-social-media-team-coffee-gtvone

It's all about the apps... HTC day three

...or is it?

So day two was to be all about apps for taking photos and what those apps could do... But it turned into a bit of a nightmare day and then by the time I got to the little HTC to put up content, I had gone flat (2 days, fair play) and is forgotten the pin for the sim card!!! #fail

Well... What it meant was that I went and took photos today and had some fun with the device, and I have to say, I think the camera whilst being a bit keen on colour and actual accurate white balance etc (its a bit off) is very very good... It has built in pre and post options on in standard camera filters and some of them are quite fun. (Sure, one or two of them make me go 'err what!?') ...anyway, on with our story!

I was out with @bradles76 and @ronny_eh last night seeing the Pearl Jam film (Cameron Crowe) very good if you're a fan.. and they both gave me hell!! "You're not going to instagram your coffee!!!??" ...after some explaining, I was in the clear, just..

Anyway, I thought I would document my evening coffee and I've used the standard camera and I've also used Golden Hour (free) for Android... It'd a great app!.. so far I'd say Golden Hour, Lightbox Camera (for instagram like sharing) and the standard HTC Sensation camera are my three favourite things.. oh and the fact that this is the quickest phone I have ever used !! - bar none

Anyway -photos!!

HTC comes through day one on form..

You know I thought the little (big!) HTC was going to be tough to get along with..

Day one, I wanted to be able to be able to take some photographs and upload them to my blog.. The combo of an above average camera, a half decent and fun set of 'as standard' filters and this MASSIVE screen make it a very pleasing experience... That and the fact that this thing is actually as responsive as all hell! Fast? You better believe it.... Anyway, you know I don't say much on instagram, so let's get on with the images shall we?

Most of these are GTV9 (rather than one!) Focussed, as I live right by the old studios that are being torn down... Sad but true...

So, these are all images directly from the Telstra HTC Sensation's camera, some using the built in effects.

Tomorrow we take a little look at some Android camera apps..

--sime

Let the HTC flavoured games begin!

Telstra have kindly sent me out the HTC Sensation, and to a degree, it is a sensational telephone (and so much more) For those of you that I bother on the internet, daily, you will know that I tend to Instagram a LOT of stuff... [my recent Steve series is fun] well, Android don't do Instagram, so this week I will be posting my adventure directly to my blog via the handset... I have decreed that all I want to do whilst mobilishly creative has to come from the device - I can't wait and go back home and upload via my mac, the image processing or the video content has to be captured, edited and published via the Sensation...

First round will be tonight, right here on gtvone.com

On Twitter I will use the #gtvonehtc for you that like to follow more easily.. You can RSS [feedburner] so that you don't even need to come here... you can have ME delivered to you...

Click he picture above for the full res version of this file.... The project hasn't started yet, so the shot above DOES have a touch of contrast and a little black crushy crushy via Lightroom... [purists, be pure]

Me, Telstra and the Phone that I never thought I'd try...

So then, you know, they say "Once you go Mac, you never go back!" and, well, to some extent, they're right... Or are they? I met with the guys at Telstra today, they're like BT if you're from the UK... Verizon in the US? ..you get my point! ...so I met with those guys to collect one of the new HTC Sensation mobile phone / computer / camera / soup maker!

It is large [126.1mm x 65.4mm x 11.3mm 4.96" x 2.57" x 0.44"] and it is powerful [1.2 GHz, dual core]

You might well ask "What the hell are you doing with that?!" Well, I'll tell you dear reader... I'm taking photos with it! I'm installing photo apps on it and I'm racing it with my iPhone 4... Will it emerge 'sensational' or will I want to stir my instant coffee with its shredded remains! Time will tell... [Keep an eye on the blog or subscribe via RSS]

The first image I took with the HTC Sensation is just below here... the top one is straight out of the camera phone, the one below has been tousled with Adobe Lightroom III, my weapon of photographic developing choice...

Here's that 'other' version...