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HTC hasn’t had the greatest year if one were to look by the financials, but if I were to pick an Android OEM that made the greatest strides in 2012, I would undoubtedly give it to them. They have made several right steps, including cutting their losses with the disaster that was Beats and refocusing their products along the One line.
However, what stands out for me is the rethink on what Sense is meant to do. While Samsung was busy adding ripple-effect lockscreens to their own custom skin, HTC decided to reduce the bloat and focus on speed with their Sense 4.0. And, if this post on Geeksaber is to be believed, they have doubled down yet again on Sense 4.1. A ROM based on their yet-to-be-released skin for the international version of the HTC One X has made it’s way to XDA-Developers, and having given it a shot, Geeksaber has a lot of good things to say about it. The highlight? A 5900+ score on Quadrant.
Here’s their summary on the changes Sense 4.1 brings:
Sense 4.1 RUU has been leaked (version number 2.15.401.5) , and after some testing, we found the following fixes:
- Live wallpaper lag has been fixed
- There’s a dedicated button in the Camera app to switch between Front/Backward facing cameras. (earlier you’d have to go into the menu for that.)
- A dedicated button to switch tabs in the browser. (You’d have to go into the menu for that, too)
- Complete removal of all 3D-Effects in the launcher leading to a completely lag-free experience.
- Probably the most important- Rebased on Android 4.0.4
- Added ability to remap the recent apps button/ Long-press recent apps/ Long-press Home as Menu. (yes, it removes the Virtual menu bar) under Settings->Display, Gestures and Buttons
- New, blazing fast kernel. We mean it. It scored a pretty impressive 59oo+ in Quadrant benchmark (compared to 5100+ on Sense 4)
- Wifi-dropping/ Icon showing weak signal Fixes.
- Better Battery life- 5 Hour+ Screen-on time as compared to a measly 3 Hour+ on Sense 4.
If anyone else has tried the ROM, do share your experience with us in the comments.
Yawn. Benchmarks only tell a small percentage of the story. I’ll wait until one is in my hands. Until then, I’ll keep my Nexus.
From now on thats the only Android device im buying
I’m on the fence. I’ve been with HTC since the Hero and love it. I’ve since owned Desire, Desire S, Incredible S and now a Sensation XE. I loved their widgets (and their uniformity) and lots of little things (text wrapping in the browser? Lovely.) Must say that i disagree with the article slightly saying that beats were a Disaster. Sure it wasn’t hugely financially successful but it certainly has created a lot of brand awareness for HTC. I see a lot of their phones in public and often have to check my phone as i think it’s my text tone! I enjoyed my beats, I the controls worked well and they felt and sounded better than HTC’s normal “in the box” ones. It factored (in a small way) into my decision to get that phone and I don’t regret it. However, after that long i got bored of Sense and have since been running stock roms. It’s just so much quicker and now feels more uniform. Won’t be able to get a Nexus till Next September mind, but how amazing will that phone be!
Same, after having only a year old phone still officially on Gingerbread, if I buy another Android phone, it’ll ONLY be a Nexus.
ROOT THAT SHIIIIIIIT.
I did, but CM9 and 10 don’t work very well on my Dinc2. HTC never released a new kernel.
Same here. Hopefully the rumor that there will be multiple Nexii this fall is true, because that will mean we’ll have plenty of choice for Nexus devices, and we won’t have any reason to buy anything else from now on.
Great news as I just bought one yesterday!!
Moved from CM10 to this ROM, with Faux’s new kernel. Totally stunning, feels like a new phone.
removing premium features like 3d effects which the phone should eaisly be able to do without any lag seems like they over did themselfs in the first place. fixing it by removing the 3d effects seems like a childish escape route
as much as i prefer stock. touchwiz 4.0 is alot better than sence 4.0. the software and hardware work alot better than the first attempt of sence 4.0 (international ones anyway)
I really enjoy the build of htc phones. The sensation felt awesome in the hand but i found the hsrdware to be slow and laggy compaired to my partners galaxy s2.
I upgraded to the s3 on launch and love it. its very fast on stock software as it should be without lag and without them having to rebuild the entire skin. with the jelly bean preview it feels like we have finally caught up with iOS.
also the ripple effect is awesome :)
I disagree about the ripple effect being awesome. It WOULD be awesome if there wasn’t a small delay between when I first start dragging my finger across the screen and when the ripple effect begins. It doesn’t always do this, but it does quite a lot. Annoys me so much I’ve turned it off.
A childish escape route would be adding more 3D BS, oh and maybe a ripple effect, to distract the simple-minded.
Maybe. but atleast its better than no 3d effects in the launcher. My nexus s could handle 3d effects without lag on the home screen. Adding more to make the problem worse? no thats not childish thats stupid.
They had me until I saw battery life from 3+hr to 5+hrs. No way can a minor update increase the battery life like that.
Sure it can. If they updated the radio or took care of the WiFi connection issues. Let alone kernel tweaks. With the International HOX this could be a simple matter of going to the ULV 5th core of the Tegra 3.
They changed the kernel, probably has some nVidia changes in there.
Well i have the new evo.. i hope this update comes soon.. I love my phone.. my phone already lasts 2 days with one charge.. so this would help alot..
2 days? Are you rooted? I too have the evo (stock) and I get from 7am till 1am.
How much did it score before?
” It scored a pretty impressive 59oo+ in Quadrant benchmark (compared to 5100+ on Sense 4)”
Can’t wait for this to land on my at&t One X!