The beat goes on
Smartphone specialist HTC launched the second product of its union with Beats by Dr Dre at a glitzy launch event in Camden, London yesterday. The HTC Sensation XL has, as the name implies, a larger screen, but the USP is the claimed quality of audio thanks to Beats.
CEO Peter Chou made the effort to turn up for the event, and told us how important he thinks smartphones are as media consumption devices. He then handed over to Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Beats by Dr Dre, who reiterated his view of what a negative influence on the quality of the music we listen to the digital era has been. Apparently the two men started discussing this back at CES at the start of this year, and the partnership developed from there.
"With Beats Audio, the HTC Sensation XL continues HTC's commitment of delivering the best audio possible on your phone whether you're listening to music, watching a movie or playing a game," said Chou. "This is an amazing example of why our partnership with Beats makes so much sense for customers today and into the future."
"HTC is an incredible partner and has completely embraced our desire to make the music experience on the mobile phone as powerful and as rich as it can be," said Iovine. The two men are in the centre of the image below, flanked by a couple of other HTC senior execs, who left no superlative unturned in launching the handset to us.
You can see the pix ‘n' spex below, but the market positioning of this phone is a bit confusing. The Sensation XE - also featuring Beats audio - was launched less than a month ago. While the XE has a slightly smaller screen (4.3 inches vs. 4.7), the resolution is actually higher (540x960 vs. 480 x 800).
The reason for this is presumably HTC's decision to use an older, lower-performance SoC in the XL - the single-core Snapdragon MSM 8255, albeit clocked to 1.5 GHz. From this we can only assume this phone will be positioned as a mass market, as opposed to high-end device.
That explains the emphasis on celebs at the event. Among the superstars to grace it with their presence were Lady Gaga, Will.i.am and Cheryl Cole. Sadly us lowly tech hacks were kept apart from the pop royalty, so we'll refer you to this Mail piece for your celeb-watching. It seems this phone is supposed to be ‘cool', as much as anything else, but we'd like to see it priced to reflect the lower spec when it launches in November.
Processor: Qualcomm MSM 8255 - 1.5 GHz
Platform: Android with HTC Sense
Memory
- Total internal phone storage: 16 GB
- Available storage: up to 12.64GB
- RAM: 768 MB
Dimensions (LxWxT): 132.5 x 70.7 x 9.9 mm
Weight: 162.5 grams with battery
Display: 4.7-inch touch LCD screen with WVGA (480 x 800) Gorilla glass
Network
- HSPA/WCDMA (850/900/2100 MHz)
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
- Upload speed of up to 5.76 Mbps and download speed of up to 14.4 Mbps
Sensors
- Gyro sensor
- G-Sensor
- GPS
- Digital compass
- Proximity sensor
- Ambient light sensor
Connectivity
- 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
- Bluetooth 3.0 with support for the following profiles: FTP/OPP for file transfer, HSP/A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, HFP 1.5, AVRCP and PBAP
- Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
- DLNA for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to your TV or computer.
Camera
- 8 megapixel colour camera with BSI sensor, auto focus, f/2.2, 28mm lens and dual LED flash
- 720p HD video recording with stereo audio
- 1.3 MP fixed focus front camera
Audio supported formats
- Audio DSP Codec chip
- Playback: .aac, .amr,.mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9), SP-MIDI
- Recording: .amr, .aac, .mp3, .wav, .wma
Video supported formats
- Playback: H.263, H.264, MPEG-4,.wmv (Windows Media Video 9)
- Recording: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264, .wmv
- Stereo sound video recording
Battery
- Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
- Capacity: 1600 mAh
- Talk time: 140-410 minutes for WCDMA and 250-710 minutes for GSM
- Standby time: 230-460 hours for WCDMA and 230-360 hours for GSM
AC adapter
- Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
- DC output: 5 V and 1 A
