I just returned my sensation. Or my usability study of the sensation.

[npoc]

I just tried to make the switch from at&t to t-mobile. I had my sensation for about a week, and just returned it this morning.

Reasons I loved the sensation.

• Decent battery life *(not as great as everyone made me expect.
• Awesome Camera, especially outside- I really could see myself using this phone as a replacement for a cheap point and shoot.
• The hardware was pretty much all around fantastic. Great feel in hand. A ton thinner than the evo 3d, especially around the edges. This phone has such a nice shape that it almost gets lost in my pocket. I actually found myself grabbing my pocket to make sure it hadn't fallen out.
• The wifi-calling was a great value add.
• The screen was fantastic. My next phone will have to have a qhd or better display (no sgsII for me). Say what you want about contrast ratios, but I rarely use my phone outside. Having the extra pixels however was absolutely awesome for browsing the web. The extra pixels also made living without a hardware keyboard a little bit easier to bare *(when in portrait mode).
• The unlock page that came with sense 3.0. Other than that sense just seemed to get in my way.
• FM radio. I'm the guy who wants to watch and listen to the tv-s at the gym.

Why I just couldn't risk spending 2 years with it.

• I had no reception at my house or work on t-mo. This is really the biggest reason why I had to return my phone.
• Because of the above the cell radio was draining the battery attempting to connect to the networks. I really don't want to spend two years having to remember to turn off the cell radio every time I get home.
• T-mobile support was an exercise in frustration to deal with.
• Will I still even get 3g/4g service in 2 years? This is debatable. AT&T will have to repurpose some of T-mo's spectrum from somewhere.
• The built-in picasa upload is broken *(I use this all the time).
• No way to jump to the galery app when in camera mode. This seems like a really obvious omission.
• The speakephone volume over wifi calling really shouldn't be considered a speakerphone at all. I couldn't test speakerphone over t-mo because I never had reception when I wanted to make a call.
• There was no setting to auto disable the cell radio when connected over wi-fi and wi-fi calling was enabled. I admit this is a nit-pick, but it really would have been nice.
• I counted at least 3 backup apps all of which were trying to send my contacts to different parts of the world. Why do I need to backup any of my contacts? For me everything is in google, that's why I want an android phone. The killer part about this is that these apps will suck your battery dry.
• Currently no way to remove all the crap-ware that t-mo stuffs it's phones with. There is a lot of it. I bet that is why there is so much discussion about the a performance problem between the sensation and the evo 3d screen rotate speed.
• No NFC. Not really a deal-breaker, but it is disappointing.

So give me a non-bloatwared, boot-loader unlocked sensation, add NFC, put it on a carrier that gives me reception, and I'll have my next phone. As for now I'll have to live with my rooted/ cyanogen-modded G1 on AT&T.

--troll away!--

 

[xnifex]

Why I just could risk spending 2 years with it.

I think you accidentally a conjunction in there

 

[BonesRed]

I think you accidentally a conjunction in there

Lulz irony abounds, he missed a conjunction and you omitted a word from your sentence, pointing out his omitted conjunction @[email protected]

I just tried to make the switch from at&t to t-mobile. I had my sensation for about a week, and just returned it this morning.

Reasons I loved the sensation.

• Decent battery life *(not as great as everyone made me expect.
• Awesome Camera, especially outside- I really could see myself using this phone as a replacement for a cheap point and shoot.
• The hardware was pretty much all around fantastic. Great feel in hand. A ton thinner than the evo 3d, especially around the edges. This phone has such a nice shape that it almost gets lost in my pocket. I actually found myself grabbing my pocket to make sure it hadn't fallen out.
• The wifi-calling was a great value add.
• The screen was fantastic. My next phone will have to have a qhd or better display (no sgsII for me). Say what you want about contrast ratios, but I rarely use my phone outside. Having the extra pixels however was absolutely awesome for browsing the web. The extra pixels also made living without a hardware keyboard a little bit easier to bare *(when in portrait mode).
• The unlock page that came with sense 3.0. Other than that sense just seemed to get in my way.
• FM radio. I'm the guy who wants to watch and listen to the tv-s at the gym.

Why I just could risk spending 2 years with it.

• I had no reception at my house or work on t-mo. This is really the biggest reason why I had to return my phone.
• Because of the above the cell radio was draining the battery attempting to connect to the networks. I really don't want to spend two years having to remember to turn off the cell radio every time I get home.
• T-mobile support was an exercise in frustration to deal with.
• Will I still even get 3g/4g service in 2 years? This is debatable. AT&T will have to repurpose some of T-mo's spectrum from somewhere.
• The built-in picasa upload is broken *(I use this all the time).
• No way to jump to the galery app when in camera mode. This seems like a really obvious omission.
• The speakephone volume over wifi calling really shouldn't be considered a speakerphone at all. I couldn't test speakerphone over t-mo because I never had reception when I wanted to make a call.
• There was no setting to auto disable the cell radio when connected over wi-fi and wi-fi calling was enabled. I admit this is a nit-pick, but it really would have been nice.
• I counted at least 3 backup apps all of which were trying to send my contacts to different parts of the world. Why do I need to backup any of my contacts? For me everything is in google, that's why I want an android phone. The killer part about this is that these apps will suck your battery dry.
• Currently no way to remove all the crap-ware that t-mo stuffs it's phones with. There is a lot of it. I bet that is why there is so much discussion about the a performance problem between the sensation and the evo 3d screen rotate speed.
• No NFC. Not really a deal-breaker, but it is disappointing.

So give me a non-bloatwared, boot-loader unlocked sensation, add NFC, put it on a carrier that gives me reception, and I'll have my next phone. As for now I'll have to live with my rooted/ cyanogen-modded G1 on AT&T.

--troll away!--

- Also to the OP: A bunch of these problems are fixable with root, also there is a way to go to the gallery from the stock camera app... and even if there wasn't why wouldn't you just DL a camera app from market that would allow you to do what you wanted?

- Turn off the other contacts backup services... I did

- Why wouldn't you have 4g in 2 years? 4G will actually be much faster in two years and will be approaching "actual" 4G speeds.

- You couldnt do a one click disable of the cell radio while on wifi and wifi calling was enabled because that happens automatically.

- Speakerphone was too low on wifi calling? Wow, that's probably fixable as well.

- And if you have a smart phone YOU will need to learn how to manage its battery life. The Sensation actually does have preeettty good battery life for a smartphone.

Cheers, good luck on ATT we'll all probably be there next year anyway.

 

[dellybelly]

Thats def not a good experience; as you say it sounds mostly coverage related which is the case for most carriers. Tmo has always been good to me where ive lived (4g here where i work and around my home).

Every phone/network won't work for everyone. Although the NFC is something that initially gave me pause, but I really don't see that being something i won't be able to live without in just 2 years; it's barely rolled out; not to mention text transactions and CC soda machines are also on the rise.

I am personally a little annoyed with how sense handles (or doesn't) the picasa gallery (Why can't i make a slide show with my picasa stuff).

Enjoy your G1 even with cyanogen; not sure I could go back THAT far even if I had crappy service

I am missing my MIUI though, still running my N1 with MIUI latest and it's been getting amazingly robust the past few updates (5 way unlock specifically).

 

[B3astofthe3ast]

I believe the Cell Radios turn off when you activate WiFi calling. And I have a way to get to the gallery from my camera app...

A G1 though?! I'd rather take all the cons you listed than go all the way back to that poor thing, on EDGE no less. G1 was awesome back in the day, but now you're just torturing the poor thing.

 

[BarryH_GEG]

So give me a non-bloatwared, boot-loader unlocked sensation, add NFC, put it on a carrier that gives me reception, and I'll have my next phone. As for now I'll have to live with my rooted/ cyanogen-modded G1 on AT&T.

--troll away!--

Unless you buy an unlocked manufacturer phone from overseas your stuck with carrier bloatware and hardware/software changes. That or one of the Nexus series. And your only choice for NFC right now is Nexus. So I think we've found your next phone.

 

[npoc]

I believe the Cell Radios turn off when you activate WiFi calling. And I have a way to get to the gallery from my camera app...

A G1 though?! I'd rather take all the cons you listed than go all the way back to that poor thing, on EDGE no less. G1 was awesome back in the day, but now you're just torturing the poor thing.

I'm pretty sure i had to manually disable the cell radios if I wanted them off when on wi-fi. It did however route my calls over wi-fi automatically. It did not automatically turn off my cell radio when wi-fi calling was enabled. When I was at work or at home, the power graph was pretty ugly with the cell radios on.

 

[npoc]

Lulz irony abounds, he missed a conjunction and you omitted a word from your sentence, pointing out his omitted conjunction @[email protected]

- Also to the OP: A bunch of these problems are fixable with root, also there is a way to go to the gallery from the stock camera app... and even if there wasn't why wouldn't you just DL a camera app from market that would allow you to do what you wanted?

- Turn off the other contacts backup services... I did

- Why wouldn't you have 4g in 2 years? 4G will actually be much faster in two years and will be approaching "actual" 4G speeds.

- You couldnt do a one click disable of the cell radio while on wifi and wifi calling was enabled because that happens automatically.

- Speakerphone was too low on wifi calling? Wow, that's probably fixable as well.

- And if you have a smart phone YOU will need to learn how to manage its battery life. The Sensation actually does have preeettty good battery life for a smartphone.

Cheers, good luck on ATT we'll all probably be there next year anyway.

As I said the big reason I had to return it was poor reception.

Being a t-mo customer you are not guaranteed anything over the next 2 years. AT&T is trying to acquire t-mo to repurpose some of t-mo's spectrum. What part of their owned spectrum is anyone's guess

I agree that all the firmware issues are fixable, but they are still annoyances that I shouldn't have to deal with. I don't know how long it will take for HTC to unlock the sensation's bootloader or for someone to get root on the phone, but I had 14 days to make a decision on whether I wanted to be stuck with a 2 year contract. The speakerphone is a firmware deal-breaker for me atm, as I do have to use my phone for conference calls.

As for me my current plan is to find a recent boot-loader unlocked AT&T *cough* 4g compatible phone on craigslist, and then sign a contract on ATT or VZ when the right phone comes up.

 

[woldy2]

in settings, there is an option to what you want it to do...cell preferred, wi-fi preferred, or wifi only

 

[npoc]

in settings, there is an option to what you want it to do...cell preferred, wi-fi preferred, or wifi only

You completely missed the point. Wi-fi was preferred, but it leaves the cell radio on which drains battery. Better luck next time.

 

[relic419]

I'm pretty sure i had to manually disable the cell radios if I wanted them off when on wi-fi. It did however route my calls over wi-fi automatically. It did not automatically turn off my cell radio when wi-fi calling was enabled. When I was at work or at home, the power graph was pretty ugly with the cell radios on.

I get pretty good service even though I live in a basement (I was barely getting any bars on Sprint and Verizon before that). However, I still use WiFi calling to maximize my battery life (and it's working), and I use a Tasker profile to automate turning on wifi, turning off cell radio when it detect the cell towers by my house and my wifi ssid.

 

[npoc]

I get pretty good service even though I live in a basement (I was barely getting any bars on Sprint and Verizon before that). However, I still use WiFi calling to maximize my battery life (and it's working), and I use a Tasker profile to automate turning on wifi, turning off cell radio when it detect the cell towers by my house and my wifi ssid.

Good suggestion, I will have to use that if I ever go back to T-Mo. Still, T-Mo should have made that a setting in their app.

 

[dubie76]

I am about to return mine after 4 days of use. I love the phone and will be exchanging it for a new one.

Mine has started randomly making calls while sitting on my desk charging, The unlock ring started bouncing around the screen when I unlocked it and I had to turn off phone to get it to stop, it can charge all night long and still only show 75%, and I am dropping calls. Not what I want from a $600 device. I hope my second one is up to par. I have never had to exchange a phone with Tmobile before for these reasons.

 

[heygrl]

A few notes.

If you used WiFi calling you wouldn't have to (nor CAN you) turn off the radio. It doesn't drain the battery in WiFi calling mode, you know nothing about how it works.

I upload to Picasa no problem.

Speakerphone volume is always low, the speakerphone sucks.

AT&T support and/or customer service is horrible. If you are speaking with a regular T-Mobile rep (one that does NOT introduce themselves as Android or PDA support) for phone issues you are speaking to the WRONG representative.

 

[tigerz0202]

I couldn't ever see my self going back to a G1, may as well get out the bag phone again

 

[akkidy]

I'm coming from Sprint and switched to T-Mobile primarily because of WiFi-Calling, and secondly because of the HTC Sensation. Not a single carrier has signal inside my apartment unit. Sprint gave me an Airave which works well for about a year, but recently started giving me problem where I cannot hear the caller, but the caller can hear me most of the time. With T-Mobile's WiFi-Calling, it works all the time. The sound quality may not be the greatest, but acceptable enough that I can have a conversation using it over an hour. On a full charge, 0 bar signal, using WiFi-Calling for almost half an hour, I did not see a drop on my battery charge, not even 1%, last time I checked.
I'm sad to leave Sprint, but T-Mo's WiFi-Calling is unbeatable, specially when travelling overseas.