For some, music is much more than an ambient distraction. For those who are really into their music, the authenticity and the quality of sound is of paramount importance. After all, listening to music is their hobby – not a background function. Now, when a person with such finely tuned ears goes in search of a mobile phone, they’ll have probably ruled out the possibility that a phone could provide sound quality to the levels they’re accustomed to or eternally searching for.
However, it seems that new ground has been broken by the HTC Sensation XL, a new handset from the Taiwanese mobile giant designed and built around Beats Audio technology. It’s hard to believe that HTC are just throwing it out there as a gimmick with a logo sticker. Mainly because Beats is backed by Dr Dre – and he doesn’t strike us as someone whose name they’ll want to tarnish.
When we got our hands on the prototype for a preview, we used the limited edition Beats over-ear headphones which are unquestionably superior in performance to the in-ear version that come as standard. However, the question is not being asked of the ear/headphones, but of the phone. Does its built-in Beats technology make a substantial difference when paired with the ear/headphones? The answer is a very loud, clear and bass-filled yes.
The resulting sound reproduction is as clear as the bass itself, although thankfully it doesn’t have an ego problem or push for centre stage. It plays its part, and plays it well without making the other ingredients like the melody, treble and vocal feel like supporting acts. We found ourselves wanting to re-listen to all our favourite tracks through the device before we had to hand it back over.
The Sensation XL hasn’t forgotten that it’s ultimately a phone though. It looks almost as good as the music sounds, with its 4.7-inch Super LCD capacitive touch-screen producing a really bright and colourful window to view all of your content. This is important for the XL because it’s aiming to impress not just as a music device, but an all-round multimedia handset.
HTC’s Sense user interface makes a reappearance on the XL and provides a smooth and responsive ride through the many screens. Although it uses a single core processor (unlike the dual-core Sensation and Sensation XE that preceded), the device still runs at a pleasurable speed.
Even with a nice modest engine under the hood and plenty of solid elements, the Beats tech is intentionally and undeniably the driving force of the Sensation XL vehicle. HTC might be ‘quietly brilliant’ as per their slogan, but the Beats technology is really something to shout about. They’re also sending a loud message that they’re taking music in mobile very seriously indeed.
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