Apple iPhone 4S vs HTC Sensation XL

We're taking a look at Apple's new iPhone 4S and seeing how it stacks up against HTC's mammoth Sensation XL

Apple's iPhone 4S was unveiled a few days ago and, as ever, the device immediately set tongues wagging and divided opinion more than any other product in recent memory. The device is a firm upgrade, though, and as Apple's first smartphone with a dual-core chip it demands to be taken seriously.

With a view to bowing to that demand we've decided to put the iPhone 4S up against HTC's upcoming Sensation XL, a device that claims to pack a world of rich multimedia functionality into a good looking shell.

Will the iPhone 4S continue the success of its line or will the Sensation XL knockout this smartphone heavyweight before its had a chance to make an impact? Let's find out.

Power

Apple's latest creation is the company's premier dual-core smartphone and the 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU certainly give the device a drive-train to be proud of.

With this solid base sorted we hoped that Apple would see sense and bump up the RAM for the device, but the company decided to stick with a fairly standard 512MB, which doesn't mar the performance of the device terribly, but will take away its lastability and the 'wow' factor that we suspect Apple was hoping for.

The HTC Sensation XL is powered by a 1.5GHz single-core CPU and features an Adreno 205 GPU, which is a tried and tested combination that will allow the device to comfortably compete with its peers.

768MB RAM has been fitted too, arguably giving the device an edge over the iPhone 4S in terms of real world performance. However, Android isn't the most efficient beast at the best of times.

The Sensation XL is available with 16GB of storage,  while the iPhone 4S comes in 16/32/64GB flavours.

Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

Screen

The iPhone 4S is fitted with the same 3.5-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT as the original iPhone 4, giving it world-beating, high quality visuals.

The screen displays a resolution of 640x960 pixels and offers a truly peerless pixel density of 330ppi.

The Sensation XL features a 4.7-inch Super LCD display that operates at a resolution of 480x800-pixels and offers a pixel density of 199ppi which, while decent, looks very average when held up against the display tech of the Apple device.

The iPhone 4S shares the title of 'best mobile display on the market' with its brother, the iPhone 4 and wins this round hands-down, even if there have been a few complaints of a yellowish hue on the iPhone 4S.

Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

Software

HTC's Sensation XL runs on the latest version of Google's Android OS, version 2.3.4, which gives users the benefit of a stable, fast mobile platform that has plenty of potential for updates. Naturally you're able to access the thousands of apps on offer via the Android Market, too, many of which are free.

The real selling point with an HTC device - the Sensation XL included - is the addition of the company's Sense UI overlay though, which adds a glossy veneer of widgets, apps, social networking integration and other eye candy to the devices and makes the good Android OS, seem great.

The iPhone 4S runs on version 5.0 of Apple's iOS platform and the slick, easy to use software only gets better and better with every update.

This update includes Apple's new (and quite Android-esque, it must be said) Notification Center, iMessage and lots of other great tweaks which together makes this the definitive smartphone platform.

On top of the updates, eye candy and overall simplicity of the platform, you also get access to the biggest collection of smartphone apps around, via Apple's App Store.

Winner - Apple iPhone 4S

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