HTC Sensation vs Nokia N9

HTC Sensation vs Nokia N9 ;

Form:
Nokia N9 - 116.5x61.2x12.1mm, 135g
HTC Sensation - 126.1x65.4x11.3mm, 148g

The HTC Sensation looks very much like any other HTC smartphone. The proportions are nice and it’s got those distinctively HTC style rounded corners. Generally, it's very nice to look out but doesn’t live up to its name in terms of visual flair.

The N9’s looks are potentially pretty divisive. It is bold, brave and adventurous, but some might find it a bit ‘too much’ with wacky colours and a curved screen which contrasts with the extremely squared-off bodywork.

The handset actually looks much better coloured black in our view as the shape is already different enough, the bright cyan and magenta options are just a bit too jarring. The screen is really nicely shaped and extends right up to the edges of the device giving it a very sci-fi feel.

We actually like what Nokia has done here but with black bodywork - it’s got all the contrast it needs in the interesting shapes and looks far better with a more understated colour choice.

Winner – Nokia N9

Display:
Nokia’s N9 is fitted with a 3.9-inch Amoled capacitive touchscreen with the resolution coming in at 480 x 854 pixels while pixel density is 238 pixels-per-inch (PPI).

The display is made from extra tough Gorilla Glass and has been coated with an anti-glare polariser, meaning you don’t have to put the phone away when the sun comes out.

The N9 features multi-touch input support and an accelerometer sensor for screen rotate functionality.

The Sensation’s screen is larger at 4.3-inches and instead of Amoled it’s a Sony produced S-LCD capacitive touchscreen.

The resolution is higher than the N9’s at 540x960 pixels, as is the pixel density of 256ppi.

Gorilla Glass is used here too for a robust screen, though, it doesn’t have the anti-glare properties of the N9 so not so good for bright conditions.

The handset comes with the HTC Sense 3.0 user interface (UI) already installed and it sports multi-touch input along with an accelerometer and gyro sensor.

The S-LCD and Amoled technology behind these screens is fairly evenly matched, both offering good power efficiency and brightness along with more vivid colours than regular screens.

The larger screen size along with higher resolution and pixel density of the HTC Sensation makes it our preference on display.

Winner – HTC Sensation

Storage:
Storage is probably the HTC Sensation’s biggest weakness with only 1GB of usable internal space to play with. While for some people this is more than enough, compared with other similarly powerful handsets it’s on the lower end of things.

We say usable space because in reality the phone’s memory is more like 2GB but half of that is used as the system partition with the operating system and HTC Sense taking up quite a bit of room.

External memory is also well catered for with MicroSD card support up to 32GB. Meanwhile, to back up the processing capability there’s an impressive 768MB of RAM.

The N9 does quite a bit better on internal space with two options to choose from, there’s either the 16GB or the 64GB versions, either way you’ll be able to cram a lot of apps and media content onto the phone.

Nokia’s handset also trumps the Sensation on RAM with a whole 1GB and there’s also 512MB of ROM, but the fly in the ointment is the complete lack of any card support.

The N9 has a much higher internal capacity in both variants along with much more RAM and some bonus ROM.

The absence of a card slot isn’t great but it still wins out on balance.

Winner – Nokia N9

Processor:

HTC’s handset is a dual core device and packs a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor on the MSM 8260 Snapdragon chipset. Whizzy visuals are handled by an Adreno 220 graphics processing unit (GPU).

Nokia has opted for single core technology in the N9. It uses a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor on the TI OMAP 3630 chipset.

Graphical wizardry comes from a PowerVR SGX530 GPU, while other phone tasks such as image, audio and data transmission fall to the integrated 430 MHz TI TMS320C64x digital signal processor.

The HTC’s dual core 1.2GHz setup is the faster of the two but both are great processors running some really nice hardware.

Winner – HTC Sensation

Operating System:

MeeGo 1.2 ‘Harmattan’ is the oddball name of Nokia and Intel’s Linux based operating system you’ll find running on the new N9.

Harmattan has been designed to support gesture based control and navigation and as the N9 is a button-less device that’s exactly how it functions here, with different swipes taking you to one of the three specialised home screens.

The screens seem to be focused on applications access and management so there’s the possibility Nokia has given a good deal of attention to the multi-tasking capabilities of MeeGo.

The Applications home screen is fairly self-descriptive as it allows you to organise and launch system apps. It works in tandem with ‘Open Apps’ where you can see and control what is currently running.

The ‘Events’ screen aggregates system notifications but will also show social networking updates too.

MeeGo features an in-built Webkit 2 based browser with HTML5 support. Mail services include multiple mail accounts and push mail capability. Attachments are supported for Microsoft Office, PDF and Open Office file formats.

To keep you in touch on the go you’ll find Facebook, Skype, GoogleTalk, Gmail and Twitter apps built in to the system and to help you find where you’re going there’s the Nokia Maps app. If you’re getting there by train or bus you can play one of the games packaged with the system, including a version of Angry Birds.

Over-the-air updates are promised to the MeeGo system, meaning you won’t have to bother with cumbersome update packs, while Nokia Link means you can synchronise your phone with a Mac or PC for transferring media files.

The Sensation runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is currently as good as it gets for Android based smartphones until the arrival of Ice Cream Sandwich.

Android has for some time been the ‘go to’ operating system for multi-tasking performance and this had been improved even further with Gingerbread, but not just in terms of smoothness of operation - functionally Gingerbread has made multi-tasking better than ever, too.

For starters, there’s the new app management interface that lets you see some useful statistics, memory, battery and processor usage are displayed along with how much storage space each app takes up and the menu grants you control over which apps are running and when.

Better still, if you don’t want to take an active interest in what your phone is up to, Gingerbread will keep a close eye on what your applications are doing and ensure they stay in line.

In other areas, the whole interface has received an update to be faster and more intuitive to get around, likewise the touch keyboard has been brought up to standard and is now pretty much as good as what you’ll find in an iPhone, as opposed to the laggy rage-inducing monstrosity of previous builds.

Browsing is something of a sore spot, overall poor performance along with no tabs and poor scroll and zoom functions makes us sad.

It’s difficult to comment on MeeGo. Historically Nokia’s operating systems have been unimpressive but this one certainly has potential, like the handset itself though it does seem to have a few eccentricities and we wonder how well they might be received at large.

It also remains to be seen how accessible the system is to most users and how well provided for it will be in terms of apps and development but the open-source base could be a boon in this regard.

Android performs well - it’s functional and reliable and you get the added satisfaction of an extensively customisable interface - but until MeeGo Harmattan is really tried and tested we can’t say one is better than the other.

Winner - Draw

Camera:

HTC’s device packs an 8-megapixel primary camera at 3264x2448-pixels with video capture at 1080p with stereo sound recording. The phone’s secondary camera is VGA.

Features include touch focus, autofocus, face detection, geo-tagging, image stabilisation, instant capture and dual LED flash.

The N9 also has an 8-megpaxiel primary at the same resolution, but this one is made by manufacturer Carl Zeiss.

There’s a secondary camera too, while video capture is of slightly lower quality at 720p but the phone also supports video calls.

Autofocus, a dual LED flash, geo-tagging, face detection, touch-focus, exposure control and white balance round off the package.

Either setup should appeal to the more avid shutterbugs out there, but although we like the added exposure control and white balance of the N9’s Carl Zeiss camera, the better video quality of the Sensation has a little more going for it.

Winner – HTC Sensation

Final Thoughts:

The HTC Sensation ticks more of the right boxes for us than Nokia’s N9, even though we admire the creativity and flair of Nokia’s device more.

It’s not all flowers and sunshine on the Sensation though as the storage setup is not what it could be. Despite this we think it’s a very usable and complete smartphone.