HTC Sensation


The HTC Sensation is a smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC Corporation that runs the Android 2.3 Gingerbread software stock. Officially announced by HTC on April 12, 2011, the HTC Sensation was launched by Vodafone in key European markets including the United Kingdom on May 19, 2011 and by T-Mobile in the United States on June 12, 2011. It was HTC's fifth flagship Android phone and the first HTC phone to support the HTC Sense 3.0 user interface. At the time of its release, the Sensation XE was the world's fastest Android phone.

Software

The device shipped with Android 2.3.3 and includes HTC Sense 3.0 UI.
The device was part of a new generation of HTC phones that have a signed bootloader. As a consequence, the phones were originally not rootable, thus denying users administrative rights to their phones. Despite originally being shipped with the locked bootloader, it was announced on July 10, 2011 that HTC Sensation devices would have their bootloaders unlocked due to overwhelming customer feedback since the device's initial release.
On July 29, 2011, a tool named Revolutionary was released by AlphaRevX and unrevoked which enabled S-off, and subsequently, allowed permanent root.
In August 2011, HTC officially allowed unlocking HTC Sensation bootloaders at the HTCdev.com website.

Update

In the beginning of March 2012, HTC updated their devices to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The update re-locked the bootloader, but developers found a procedure that made it possible to obtain S-off after the new ICS bootloader installed.
HTC decided to fork their Sense user interface, leaving Sensation owners who updated to ICS with the Sense 3.6 interface, as opposed to getting Sense 4.0 which came with newer phones.
The phone can be upgraded to Android 7.1.2 with a custom ROM but development has stopped as the device is currently considered obsolete.

Variants

HTC Sensation XE

On September 14, 2011, HTC released the Extended Edition of the HTC Sensation in Europe under the name HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio. The Sensation XE had a faster dual core processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, a 1500mAh and 1730mAh battery, and shipped with Android 2.3.4 OS with HTC Sense 3.0. The Sensation XE featured a red speaker, buttons, rear camera, and the Beats logo to differentiate it from older Sensations. It included urbeats earphones, a renamed and redesigned iBeats headphone.

HTC Sensation XL

On October 6, 2011, HTC released Sensation XL with a larger 4.7 inch screen running HTC Sense 3.5 with Beats Audio.