1Kampus.com

For cell phone fanatics, there's nothing worse than hearing about a cool new device launching overseas and having to wait to see when and if it will land in the States. Thankfully, this isn't that kind of story. Announced alongside the global launch in London today, HTC introduced its latest Android smartphone for the U.S. market, the HTC Sensation 4G, which is slated to hit T-Mobile this summer.

Long rumored as the HTC Pyramid, the Sensation 4G comes with all the talked-about hardware improvements, including a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a 4.3-inch HD (540x960-pixel resolution) Super LCD touch screen, and an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video recording and playback. It's an impressive list to be sure, but the phone is much more about content and user experience than it is about the specs.

For one thing, the Sensation 4G will be the first device to feature HTC Watch, the company's new video store. Enabled by HTC's investment in multimedia provider Saffron Digital, the service allows users to rent or buy movies and TV shows to watch on their smartphones, much like Samsung's Media Hub service.
Though details about specific studio partnerships were not disclosed at this time, HTC said customers will have access to many of today's popular TV shows and movies, and progressive downloads will allow you to watch your video as soon as it starts to download instead of having to wait till the whole show or movie is transferred to your device. You'll also be able to watch any purchased content on up to five different HTC devices, but unfortunately, you won't be able to use the Sensation 4G's HDMI port or DLNA capabilities to view them on your HDTV.

As for the user experience, the Sensation 4G will run the latest version of HTC Sense on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. No, not the version of HTC Sense that was recently launched on the HTC Inspire 4G, but an even more feature-rich and updated version that will also be used on the HTC Evo 3D for Sprint.
The biggest additions are a new lock screen that provides shortcuts to apps and spotlights user content, such as photos. The company also improved camera software to increase shutter speed, so there's not so much of a lag when starting the camera and between taking photos.

Some other features worth noting on the HTC Sensation 4G are the front-facing VGA camera, support for T-Mobile's HSPA+ 4G network (14.4Mbps), 768MB RAM, and 4GB internal storage (only 1GB is user accessible). The smartphone will also ship with a 8GB microSD card and 1,520mAh user-replaceable battery.