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We've got our hands on the HTC Sensation XE Ice Cream Sandwich update that rolls in Android 4 and Sense 3.6. This isn't a leaked ROM, it's the bona fide FOTA update from HTC, going out in a select preview programme to a lucky few.
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HTC has told us that Sense 3.6 and Sense 4, as seen on the new HTC One X, were developed in parallel and Sense 3.6 is going to roll out to the Sensation and Sensation XE. We still don't know if Sense 4 will be available to older devices, but we've asked. You can check out Sense 4 in our for a comparison. We're still exploring the new update, so if we don't cover anything, or there is something else you want us to examine, then please use the comments section below. First things first, the update is 283MB and you are given the option to go Wi-Fi only or via mobile data. Once downloaded, the update will take over, restart the phone and takes about 10 minutes.
Kiss goodbye to the old home screen The HTC home screen has been iconic since its arrival on the HTC Hero in 2009. It hasn't changed much until now. Picking up Ice Cream Sandwich's 'favourites tray', which HTC calls the 'launch bar', it's now much more dynamic, dropping the old apps/phone/personalise buttons. We're sure this is one of the biggest complaints that current HTC owners have, as HTC's solution up to Sense 3.5 really wasn't that useful. A central 'All apps' button opens the apps tray and is flanked by four spaces for shortcuts or folders.
Press and hold an icon and you can switch it out as normal for Android. Drag one icon on to another and you'll instantly create a folder on your favourites tray, which you can name as you wish. You still get up to seven home screens, but you can cut them down if you don't need them. In Sense 3.5 you could spin the entire carousel of home screens and you still can in Sense 3.6.
Interestingly you can't in Sense 4 on the new HTC One series, you can only go left and right. Buttons and controls Ice Cream Sandwich rolls in on-screen controls in favour of traditional or capacitive buttons. With the HTC Sensation XE featuring four capacitive buttons across the bottom of the display, this is obviously a difference that needs to be dealt with. In fact, it's not that different or complicated. The home, back and search buttons work exactly as they always have.
Ice Cream Sandwich Cake Recipe
The menu button opens the menu in the app you're in, except now things are presented in Ice Cream Sandwich style - ie, simpler and cleaner. Of course, menus differ from app to app, one of the criticisms of Android.
In some cases the menu button will open a menu exactly as it was before, like in the Skype app for example. In other apps, where you'd expect Ice Cream Sandwich's three dots menu icon, they're simply missing and the menu opens from the bottom of the screen.
In reality, apart from the inconsistency, it makes little difference: if you want the menu you press the menu button and we haven’t found an app yet where you get an on-screen option that duplicates the capacitive menu button. Recent apps and apps tray One of the highlights of Android 4 is the move away from the old and tired approach to multitasking. A long press of the home button will pop-up the recent apps list for you to scroll up and down and swipe away to kill that particular app. As executed here, it's the same visually as on the Galaxy Nexus, which we like a lot. However, in Sense 4 on the HTC One X, HTC has customised this view, so it will rotate in to landscape and offers larger thumbnails. We actually prefer it in Sense 3.6: it's less fussy than Sense 4, and more like Android.
A press of the 'all apps' button in the centre of the launcher opens up the apps tray - which is the same as it was before, scrolling between pages vertically, and offering tabs across the bottom to skip over to frequent or downloads. In this case, Sense 4 is slightly better, offering search and access to Android Market from the same screen, which you don't get in Sense 3.6. Widgets and customisation When we upgraded our HTC Sensation XE, all the customisations we'd made were retained. Shortcuts and widgets were all the same, all the apps, accounts and settings appeared to all be the same, except the sound profile, which did change. HTC's widgets are all here as you'd expect and in some cases they've replaced standard Android 4 widgets. However, some default Android widgets still survive and some are resizeable, so can be dragged out to suit your requirements. Customisation is still high on HTC's agenda.
From the home screen, a long press on the wallpaper takes you to a familiar 'personalise' page where you can change the appearance and add widgets as you could before. However, previously you had that button on the launch bar to open the personalise pages and here it has snuck into the menu options. Hit the menu button on the home screens and you'll get personalise, wallpaper and settings, pretty much a duplication. Lock screen The lock screen remains the familiar customisable affair, but with a difference. Previously you had the option to select those apps that you wanted to unlock to. Now the only option is to have the launch bar shortcuts, or nothing. So, whatever you place on that launch bar will appear on your lock screen.
In reality, we quite like that option. Rather than having to set the individual apps again, you only need to set-up your launch bar the way you want it. The chances are, if there's an app you want to unlock to, you probably have it on your launch bar anyway. You also get face unlock, one of the ICS features. This will let you set face recognition to unlock the device, which is mostly a bit of fun and not a high-security feature. It acts just like the pattern or PIN unlock, so you can still use lock screen shortcuts - you just have to deal with security before your app opens. You also get access to notifications on the lock screen.
Drag down from the top of the screen and you get the normal HTC notification bar, so you can open recent apps, change settings, or go straight to those messages and alerts. You can swipe notifications away to clear out the list too. Core Google services In real terms, the apps that have been hit with the biggest dollop of Ice Cream are those from Google itself. Many, in fact most, third-party apps are pretty similar on Gingerbread or ICS, but things like Google Maps or Gmail do look different. The biggest change is in layout of actions.
Where you used to have to open a menu to get to some options, you'll now find some of them across the bottom of the app or in a dropdown list. This makes use a little faster in some cases, like using forward or 'reply all' in Gmail, which is cleaner than in Gingerbread. The use of people tags, instead of straight names is also convenient. As we've already mentioned, some apps don't stick to ICS's menu conventions because of the capacitive menu buttons, so aren't the same as you'll find on other ICS devices. Browser The browser looks the same as previously, but there are a few changes behind the scenes.
You don't get the convenient ICS tab navigator, which is a shame, as you still have to press menuwindows to get to other tabs. But you do get to force desktop mode. This means that you can avoid those irritating mobile sites, or those that refer you to an app, like ITV Player.
We fired up The Only Way Is Essex to prove it worked, which it did. Of course, we watched TOWIE using Incognito mode, another useful feature.
Summing up We've covered some of the major features that Ice Cream Sandwich introduces to HTC Sense 3.6 and the more you dig around, the more comes out. The screenshot feature is present with a long press of volume down and standby. You'll also find that in some places you hit a glorious raw Android menu - like in face unlock - which either HTC has missed, or not bothered to change. The latter is likely, as we’ve seen a spelling mistake too, so some polish is still to come.
There is a lot here that hasn't changed. The keyboard is still HTC's, the camera app is the same, music and media remains just as it was. So is the integrated People app and the HTC apps you'll be familiar with. If you dive into the Settings menu you get a great example of how Sense and Android sit together. Below we've used one native ICS screen grab (left) and one from Sense 3.6 (right), displaying the same thing.
Raw Android is more efficient with space and HTC's tinkering isn't always to your benefit, although bear in mind these screenshots are from devices with different resolution displays. The HTC Sensation XL, HTC EVO 3D, HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S, HTC Desire HD Ice Cream Sandwich updates will follow later in the year. If you want to know more about Android 4, be sure to read our. Overall it's a very welcome update, bringing quite a refresh to the Sensation XE and we've had no problems with it in the recent hours we've been playing with it.
Certainly the biggest change is that launch bar, which is the thing we'll appreciate the most. Anything else you'd like to see? Any questions?
Restore ipsw without itunes verify. Just let us know via the comments below.
More Info. Consider it the fallout from a decade-plus of reality TV, but our made-by-the-masses approach has expanded into new territory: technology R&D.
Or so Samsung's very public handling of the would have us believe. Thrust into an American Idol-like spotlight at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the still-unfinished slate, a follow-up to the pen-enabled phone, was forced to perform for hordes of skeptical insiders. Sure, there was raw talent on display and we could see the promise of this 10-inch contender (we said as much in our exhaustive ), but it was also clear the company was testing consumer waters, fishing for a vote of confidence before continuing down the development track. Does this make Samsung's latest flagship the Kelly Clarkson of the tablet category? It's an apt analogy, if you think about it: Kelly wants to be country, the Note 10.1 wants to be a pro-designer tool, but neither are allowed. Well, simply put, products sell better when they're made more palatable for a wider range of tastes. Which is why the company used MWC to gauge popular opinion before molding its untested product into something wth a broader appeal.
Ultimately, that meant a drastic makeover: since MWC, the Note 10.1 has received a slot for that S-Pen, streamlined software, a quad-core Exynos 4 chip and two storage configurations: 16GB / 32GB, priced at $499 and $549, respectively. So it now has more horsepower under the hood, that much is assured, but is that chip enough to boost the Note 10.1's mass appeal? Will savvy shoppers be able to forgive that relatively low-res 1,280 x 800 display? Will its Wacom digitizer elevate this slate past its more generic Android and iOS rivals? Or will that feature hamper its widespread appeal, attracting mainly creative professionals? Meet us after the break to see if the Note 10.1 can succeed as the multitasking everyman's go-to tablet. Hardware For better or worse, Samsung's sticking to the durability of its signature plastic enclosures.
Brushed aluminum backs, it would seem, are for other OEMs. So if premium builds are tops on your checklist, you can safely stop reading now. In its prototype form, the Note 10.1 felt like a luxury item, thanks to its matte enclosure (then gunmetal gray).
But in a surprising reversal of course, that subdued finish has since vanished, only to be replaced with the same sort of glossy backing used on the OG 10.1. It's no small wonder that the company made this change, given its bloated lineup of near-identical tablets. This is an Android slate that calls attention to itself, though it might not be the right kind. There's no two ways about it: the Note 10.1 looks and feels kind of cheap. Starting with our most serious complaint, it's prone to the squeaks and creaks of inferior budget devices, which is definitely not something you'd associate with a $499 product - let alone a flagship.
Despite our protestations, though, this is Samsung's M.O. But, as with the company's other halo product, the, we ultimately decided it's best to make peace with this lack of design flair and instead try to appreciate the feature set that makes it a stand-out device. Back when it was still in development, the Note 10.1 had one glaring flaw: the lack of an S-Pen slot. That oversight's since been remedied and as a result, the chassis is a tad wider at 0.35 x 7.1 x 10.3 inches (8.9 x 180.4 x 261.6mm), allowing it to accommodate that housing along the bottom right edge. On the surface, that's about that's about the extent of the tablet's alterations (take note: the HSPA+ global version adds a SIM slot for voice and data use). The arrangement of its ports and hardware keys have remained unchanged, matching the layout on the. There's a proprietary charging slot on the bottom edge, a dual-speaker setup flanking the screen and a power button, volume rocker, microSD slot (supporting cards up to 64GB), an IR blaster and 3.5mm headphone jack up top.
Around back, the Note 10.1 is completely blank, showcasing only Samsung's logo. You will, however, find a silver strip along the upper half of the lid, which houses the 5-megapixel rear camera (up from 3 megapixels when it was first announced) and a single LED flash. As for the module's companion 1.9-megapixel front-facer, it sits above the display along with an ambient sensor.
Perhaps the most important changes here are the ones Samsung made to the Note 10.1's internals. Whereas it was announced with a dual-core CPU, the company's swapped that out for the more powerful quad-core Exynos 4 clocked at 1.4GHz - and what a difference four cores makes. To complement this processing might, Samsung threw in a healthy 2GB RAM and a 7,000mAh battery to keep the experience afloat.
We'll delve deeper into the performance later on, but rest assured this tab can take whatever you throw at it and then some. So the overall construction holds fast to the tried-and-true approach of Samsung devices past, but how does it feel in hand? Well, considering its dimensions have expanded, it still feels reassuringly light and manageable. Weighing 1.31lbs (0.6kg), it's comfortable to hold in one hand while you grip the S-Pen in the other, though the edges could do with a bit of softening. And how about that S-Pen?
Has it seen an evolution? Are there any additional bells and whistles packed into it? Does its oblong shape make for a natural fit in-hand?
Well, yes, no and sorta kinda. Allow us to elaborate. For all its girth, the S-Pen still feels as light as a feather - and that's not necessarily a good thing. Like the tablet itself, the pen conveys an inferior and ultimately disposable feel. For what it's worth, there's a well placed function button located on the side of the pen that's easy to find with your finger.
If that's not impressive enough, Samsung will sell two additional pens - one with an eraser tip and the other a larger holster for a more natural grip. Ding, ding, ding. That's how many times the bell should ring to count out the Note 10.1's 1,280 x 800 TFT LCD display. Samsung obviously made a compromise to keep costs down, but there's really no reason for the company to have settled on such a middling display. When we previewed the tablet it was a work in progress, so the forgettable display was easier to forgive - Apple's had just seen a public launch, leaving Samsung plenty of time to rejigger its part list and potentially bump that screen to 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. Yet, the company didn't and we remain confused. Still, it's a serviceable panel: its colors are balanced (helped by a Dynamic and Movie mode) and viewing angles are sharp, though the screen does fall prey to a little washout and glare.
Mainly, we're frustrated by the tab's pixel density, and we can't imagine graphic designers and other creative types will be impressed either. Performance and multitasking The guts of the Note 10.1 should be a source of pride for Samsung's engineers, and nowhere is this more evident than in the tablet's slick multiscreen implementation (more on this in a moment). But while anecdotal software impressions can paint an abstract picture of what's happening under the hood, benchmarks lay out a blueprint for what's truly possible, and hint at what potential might be lying untapped. Since the tab's spec list is an uneven mix, we pitted it against a range of contemporary Android slates that share some of the same traits - be it a similar resolution, multi-core CPU or Android 4.0 as an OS.
In this instance, many of the rivals we selected -, and - pack Tegra 3 internals. (The dual-core Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 does not.) Yet, despite being armed with such considerable horsepower, none proved a fair match for Samsung's proprietary chipset. That's not to say the Note 10.1 notched undisputed wins across the board; we logged a marginal AnTuTu loss and a Nenamark result that put in on par with all those Tegra 3 tablets we mentioned. So about that multiscreen option. This feature, which wasn't demoed on the original model announced at MWC, affords a convenient split-screen view.
All told, you can choose from six apps - S Note, Gallery, Video, Browser, Polaris Office and Email. But the multitasking fun doesn't end there: power users can load a pop-up video player on the upper half of the screen, call up various of mini apps from an onscreen shortcut or drag and drop clipboard content from the browser or Gallery to S Note and Polaris Office. During our testing, we launched as many as eight apps simultaneously, which appeared to have no detrimental effect on video playback and only slightly hampered the slate's overall response time. In real-world usage, you'd be hard-pressed to find a scenario where such extreme multitasking is even necessary, and we suspect that workhorse potential will satisfy even the most discerning power users. As you might expect, the Note 10.1 delivers consistently solid performance unless burdened with an unrealistic workload (see above). All told, the tablet delivers a snappy, fluid experience, which happily doesn't include many jarring transitions.
The included camera UI is no different than that of other Samsung-branded tablets and smartphones, though it does offer up Share shot and Buddy photo share - two smart functions that debuted on the Galaxy S III and which send photos to other devices via WiFi Direct. Aside from those new settings, the rest is your usual assortment of scene and shooting modes, toggles for ISO, white balance and exposure, as well as a panorama option. The 720p video capture mode yields similarly half-baked results. Playback suffers from similar hazy image quality and also appears quite shaky due to a lack of image stabilization. Our audio, for the most part, was distinct, if a tad muffled, but then again we happened to catch a reprieve from the crush of surrounding traffic. The competition Starting at $499, Samsung's base Note 10.1 model seems a reasonable enough buy when you factor in the addition of the S-Pen, PS Touch, Exynos 4 processor and 16GB of storage. That is, until you cast a glance at other Android tablets of equal cost, like ASUS' Transformer Infinity Pad TF700, which boasts a crisper 1,920 x 1,200 display, double the storage (32GB) and a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU.
That across-the-board spec bump alone should give you pause considering these dueling slates both run skinned ICS and are separated by a stylus alone. But shift your gaze to yet another similar Google-fied offering, Acer's Iconia Tab A700, and the path to purchase becomes fuzzier, as that tablet manages to offer the same top shelf- specs at $50 less - an excellent proposition that, again, lacks only a built-in digitizer. What about the iPad? Indeed, Apple's tidy iOS ecosystem is where most consumers will instinctively want to invest their dollars based on the tab's nigh-ubiquitous market death grip.
And we'd be hard pressed to direct their attention otherwise since Cupertino's newest tablet iteration lays claim to the best panel available today - a 2,048 x 1,536 Retina display - and bears the same $499 pricing for a 16GB configuration. Laid out plainly as this, the Note 10.1's case as a compelling tablet alternative is unavoidably weak. For consumers who, arguably, already own a primary PC, plunking that chunk of cash for Samsung's latest requires a hefty commitment to the S-Pen.
Really, it's the tablet's only differentiating factor and one we're not convinced ordinary households will find lust-worthy. Had the company slapped on a different build and gone just one step up in the resolution department, we could see this being a fair fight. As it is, the Note 10.1 succeeds as an early adopter platform - an attractive option for diehard fans of the original Note. Wrap-up It's been a long time - six months, to be exact - since Samsung first gave birth to the Galaxy Note 10.1. Our initial reaction was one of intrigue; a risky bet we were eager to see play out in final form, especially given stiff competition from various quad-core competitors.
So, does the Note 10.1 manage to overcome its well-matched rivals and carve out its own spot in the crowded tablet space? Ultimately, no matter how deftly executed and streamlined the S-Pen experience may be, this tab still feels like a niche device, especially since the suite of compatible applications is still pretty small. This is the sort of purchase early adopters and creative professionals are likely to make based on their familiarity with Android and the additional flexibility afforded by that stylus. Yes, it's neat to have access to apps like PS Touch and S Note or even tinker with that newly baked multi-screen functionality, but we suspect that won't be enough to sway average consumers. People creating content (read: the very segment Samsung's going after) are already well-served by traditional PCs, mice, keyboards and Wacom pads and again, the Note 10.1 doesn't have that many optimized apps in its own right. At $499, meanwhile, there are a host of other tablets with sharper displays, equal or greater built-in storage and quad-core CPUs. To seal the deal and move units off shelves, Samsung should've priced the Note 10.1 at about $100 less.
Ice Cream Sandwich Android
Instead, it stands on even retail ground with higher-end rivals, forcing you, the consumer, to choose between the finger and the pen. Zach Honig contributed to this review. Special thanks to Negri Electronics for loaning us an HSPA+ unit.