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HTC Sensation Line to Get Android 4.0, But Only Sense 3.6

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HTC Sensation owners (including all variants) have long know that they’d be getting Android 4.0, but it looks like you won’t be getting the new HTC Sense 4.0 that will be found on HTC One phones. HTC confirmed the unfortunate news to Recombu.

They say that the decision to exclude Sense 4.0 on these devices was due to the fact that the new software was designed to take full advantage of the newest hardware advancements inside their “One” devices. While the Sensation devices are all dual-core Snapdragon devices, they’re housing the older S3 model and not the S4 model which will come inside the HTC One X.

It leads us to believe that their other S3 devices will all be getting the same treatment, though this hasn’t been confirmed. It really is a shame that devices released less than a year ago won’t be getting the same experience, but if HTC says they can’t do it, well, they can’t do it.

That doesn’t mean the community can’t do it, however, as you can be sure that there will be Sense 4.0 ROMs in the works for their most popular dual-core and maybe even single core phones. The HTC Sensation will still be getting an upgraded experience, though.

It’ll be HTC Sense 3.6 and will bring several improvements, but nothing nearly as significant as Android 4.0. Even though I’m not an HTC user I’m a bit saddened by this news. But, again, those who root and flash ROMs shouldn’t have much to worry about.

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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47 Comments

  1. well this makes sense because if they really did debloat sense 4.0, then upgrading older versions of sense would actually remove features. 

  2. The One X won’t have S4 but Tegra 3.
    Only US LTE version will come with the dualcore S4.

    1. And, that might be a good thing.  The Dual Core Snapdragon S4 is built off 28nm, A15 architecture.. compared to the A9 architecture of the Tegra3. In most cases, the S4 Dual core is actually outperforming the quad core. 

      1. Yes, I have just read this & was quite surprised, it does out perform it in most cases but, the Tegra 3 might have the advantage in battery life.

        1. The whole idea of 28nm and big little design of A15 chip is to provide better performance at a much lower battery cost. So the idea that Tegra 3’s 40nm (pentacore) chip will be more efficient seems invalid. Real life usage will tell us more. However, Nvidia may have a better performing GPU since that is their speciality.

          In short A15 > A9

          Also to those complaining about Sense 3.6. Android 4.0 isn’t Sense 4.0. Sense is just a layer on top of Android 4.0. You will get your new Android update.

          1. As for the last paragraph of your comment: I think everybody is perfectly aware of that, since that is the point of this article :)

          2.   I have no  sympathy…This exactly what happened to the the folks
            including myself when we purchased or signed our life away for 2 to 3
            yrs on contract for the HTC Desire!!  HTC flip flopping for 5 months on
            if we got 2.3 Gingerbread or not ..Only to to say nay!  And leaving us
            with a dev stripped down version we had to manually port wiping out the
            entire phone and it’s setting!  You idiots praising this new One X /One S
            bs!  Really? No removable battery or Quad core chip as intended ( only
            International) North America gets shafted by HTC again!  Might as well
            bend over and take in the rear by Apple and it’s Iphone than! 
            Sorry HTC and their BS indecisions that drag on for months. ICS came out
            in Nov and they are just now only coming with it to their phones. They
            didn’t do the buyers any favors. They claim they stripped down sense
            cause it was bloated. Thats BS they are incapable of skinning ICS
            properly and you know it kills them to have a vanilla port of ICS on
            their devices! Yet they claim other wise saying it was all for the
            people lol !  HTC are so full of it!

          3. +10000∅000000000000000000000000

  3. Wait a minute… First they say Sense 4.0 is much lighter than any version since Sense 2, now they say the s3 hardware isn’t up to snuff? Which is it guys, you’re about to lose a customer with this kind of b.s.

    1. HTC …….Masters of the Flip Flop !

    2. Just because it’s less stress on the CPU, does not mean less stress on the GPU. There’s probably many improvements to other chips that Sense 4.0 can take advantage of. It’s not just about the CPU and how much RAM a phone has.

    3. Don’t worry dude. I’ve been running Sense 3.6 and Android 4.0 on my Sensation for a few weeks now, and it’s hardly different from Sense 4.0. It’s pretty lite, and still has the multitasking function (you hold the home button)… really the only difference is the dock looks SLIGHTLY different, the notification bar isn’t transparent, and the camera software. It’s not a big deal. It’s still Ice Cream Sandwich and represents it very well. So HTC really isn’t BS-ing, they’re doing something good. Besides, Sense 4.0 only uses 3 buttons. Sensation has 4. Sense 3.6 is great.

  4. Send it to my Rezound!

  5. If you have S-OFF and
    unlocked  Bootloader . Nothing will stop Dev. to get Sense 4000…. on the Sensation

    1. Its the wrong attitude and lack of commitment of htc we are talking about here. Of course there will be Xda which will deliver sense 4. That’s not the point here.

  6. If my Rezound doesn’t get Sense 4.0 I am selling it.

  7. If they do the same with my Amaze I will most likely be rooting and throwing a ROM on it

  8. O well, that’s why we have rom developers , so I’m sure there will be ICS and sense 4.0 on my aging sensation. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, I still have my g-nex .

  9. It’s obvious that this is just their way of getting people to buy a new phone.

    1.  Don’t know why? The whole reason to get HTC was it’s sense U.I that differentiate from other companies OS U.I skin. Now they have become incapable of even doing that right!  Even with the new phones ICS with Sense 4.0 is a joke. They couldn’t deliver so they just have assed it and it’s mostly vanilla ICS!  Just look at the version on the sensation and Rezound the interface was fine it was an actual upgrade from 2.3 – now it’s just a stripped down version of what could have been great!

      1. I don’t buy HTC because I like the skin better. I like HTC because the apps that come with are for the most part have more features and are more polished than on other phone or thrid party apps. 

        Sense is not just the skin. It’s also layer so that all the HTC apps can work together or use common code. I’m not bothered if Sense ends up ‘looking’ like vanilla ICS so long as all those HTC apps can continue to talk to each other in a consistant way.

  10. As long as we get ICS and new Sense on top I’m fine, just want better performance. Whatever the Secs community comes up with as well will be ok.

  11. Ok…so HTC lied to us when they specifically stated that the Rezound would be getting ICS in the first part of 2012.  I expected the timeframe to be pretty loose, but the fact that it looks like they are completely turning away from ICS is absolutely unacceptable.  Don’t make promises that you can’t keep. and ESPECIALLY don’t put it in writing!  Lame.  Thankfully I have an upgrade coming up on one of my phones.  My RZ works fine, but so do most of the other new phones on Verizon.  Bad business practices eventually lead to NO BUSINESS.  

    1. It is getting ICS, just not the Sense 4.0 update that will be seen on HTC One phones.

    2.  Welcome to DESIRE LAND!  Home of the FROYO and half ass GINGERBREAD!

  12. I think it has to do with the camera and the dropbox integration. What is the different between sense 3.6 and 4?

  13. “newest hardware advancements” – this isn’t specifically mentioning the processor speed of the phones, I’d guess it’s more likely down to Sense 4.0 being designed with the new capacitive button layout of the One series. Sense 4.0 assumes that search and menu aren’t present, which isn’t the case on the Sensation – so 3.6 is more suitable.

  14. ICS is the most important thing.

  15. It would be nice to have Sense 4.0 on the Sensation and other HTC phones, but I have to say that I’m not surprised. HTC’s Jeff Gordon mentioned last week at CES that the all older HTC phones that will be upgraded to Android 4.0 will be getting HTC Sense 3.6 since it is designed specifically to work with devices with 4 capacitive buttons. 
    http://htcsource.com/2012/02/htc-hopes-google-will-select-them-to-develop-jelly-bean-powered-nexus-phone/ 

    One of the main selling point for the HTC One phones is the dropbox integration and new camera features (which use a dedicated imaging chip not present in older HTC phones). If you really want Sesne 4.0 and have an EVO 3D or the Sensation, devs have an HTC One X port working already. http://htcsource.com/2012/02/vitruouss4x-rom-ports-htc-endeavor-ruu-to-the-htc-sensation-and-htc-evo-3d/

  16. theres already a sense 4.0 rom out there made for the sensation so if you want it that bad root and download it! its by team virtuous

  17. I have no god dam sympathy…This exactly what happened to the the folks including myself when we purchased or signed our life away for 2 to 3 yrs on contract for the HTC Desire!!  HTC flip flopping for 5 months on if we got 2.3 Gingerbread or not ..Only to to say nay!  And leaving us with a dev stripped down version we had to manually port wiping out the entire phone and it’s setting!  You idiots praising this new One X /One S bs!  Really? No removable battery or Quad core chip as intended ( only International) North America gets shafted by HTC again!  Might as well bend over and take in the rear by Apple and it’s Iphone than!  Sorry HTC and their BS indecisions that drag on for months. ICS came out in Nov and they are just now only coming with it to their phones. They didn’t do the buyers any favors. They claim they stripped down sense cause it was bloated. Thats BS they are incapable of skinning ICS properly and you know it kills them to have a vanilla port of ICS on their devices! Yet they claim other wise saying it was all for the people lol !  HTC are so full of SHIOT!    

    1.  I think you are the idiot. How many time do people have to say just because it is a dual-core does not mean a quad-core is better. It depend on the chipset. Intel and AMD been doing this for years. Intel chip are better with less core because of the chipset. You know why the Desire has a stripped down sense, it is the internal storage you numb nut. The desire only have 512 mb of storage. The sense rom alone is over 400 mb. So they want everything to work so it is up to the user to download it and install. If you think Sense 4.0 is vanilla port you are pretty dumb. And by the way, name one phone beside the Nexus that has ICS? Even the Nexus S has just gotten the OTA update to ICS.  

      1. Thats your opinion and your entitled to it. Just the same as i think your mother is great at peeling my potatoes and tossing my salad.IMO :P

    2. no need to post it five times, i only take it 1/5th as seriously now

      1.  my bad every time i refreshed it dissipated into thin air. Sorry I thought it was a Win 8 bug of a mod/Isheepel was killing my post :(

  18. There are already sense 4.0 roms out there and ready for your consumption

  19.  I have no god dam sympathy…This exactly what happened to the the folks
    including myself when we purchased or signed our life away for 2 to 3
    yrs on contract for the HTC Desire!!  HTC flip flopping for 5 months on
    if we got 2.3 Gingerbread or not ..Only to to say nay!  And leaving us
    with a dev stripped down version we had to manually port wiping out the
    entire phone and it’s setting!  You idiots praising this new One X /One S
    bs!  Really? No removable battery or Quad core chip as intended ( only International) North America gets shafted by HTC again!  Might as well bend over and take in the rear by Apple and it’s Iphone than! 
    Sorry HTC and their BS indecisions that drag on for months. ICS came out
    in Nov and they are just now only coming with it to their phones. They
    didn’t do the buyers any favors. They claim they stripped down sense
    cause it was bloated. Thats BS they are incapable of skinning ICS
    properly and you know it kills them to have a vanilla port of ICS on
    their devices! Yet they claim other wise saying it was all for the
    people lol !  HTC are so full of SHIOT! 

    1.  now delete that again!

  20.  I have no  sympathy…This exactly what happened to the the folks
    including myself when we purchased or signed our life away for 2 to 3
    yrs on contract for the HTC Desire!!  HTC flip flopping for 5 months on
    if we got 2.3 Gingerbread or not ..Only to to say nay!  And leaving us
    with a dev stripped down version we had to manually port wiping out the
    entire phone and it’s setting!  You idiots praising this new One X /One S
    bs!  Really? No removable battery or Quad core chip as intended ( only International) North America gets shafted by HTC again!  Might as well bend over and take in the rear by Apple and it’s Iphone than! 
    Sorry HTC and their BS indecisions that drag on for months. ICS came out
    in Nov and they are just now only coming with it to their phones. They
    didn’t do the buyers any favors. They claim they stripped down sense
    cause it was bloated. Thats BS they are incapable of skinning ICS
    properly and you know it kills them to have a vanilla port of ICS on
    their devices! Yet they claim other wise saying it was all for the
    people lol !  HTC are so full of it!

  21.  I have no  sympathy…This exactly what happened to the the folks
    including myself when we purchased or signed our life away for 2 to 3
    yrs on contract for the HTC Desire!!  HTC flip flopping for 5 months on
    if we got 2.3 Gingerbread or not ..Only to to say nay!  And leaving us
    with a dev stripped down version we had to manually port wiping out the
    entire phone and it’s setting!  You idiots praising this new One X /One S
    bs!  Really? No removable battery or Quad core chip as intended ( only
    International) North America gets shafted by HTC again!  Might as well
    bend over and take in the rear by Apple and it’s Iphone than! 
    Sorry HTC and their BS indecisions that drag on for months. ICS came out
    in Nov and they are just now only coming with it to their phones. They
    didn’t do the buyers any favors. They claim they stripped down sense
    cause it was bloated. Thats BS they are incapable of skinning ICS
    properly and you know it kills them to have a vanilla port of ICS on
    their devices! Yet they claim other wise saying it was all for the
    people lol !  HTC are so full of it!

  22. HTC evo 3d owner here….everyone buy samsung, boycott htc, we are just slave peasents to them, evident how they pull this crap all the time

    1. Lol. Ever been to a Samsung forum? Same threats to jump, slightly different reasons.

      You have to face facts. The manufacturers are in a war right now that’s very fast paced. When things get really messy at the front end, it’s the back end that suffers the most.

      There’s still a lot of the market that doesn’t have a smartphone and that’s where all the manufacturers are aiming at. None of them have the time or the need to bother too much about the existing customer right now. Things will only get better for the exisiting user when the majority of phone users are on smartphones. That’ll be the point when customer service will be more important.

  23. well I have been running the Insert Coin 5.1.1 ICS 4.0.3 final release from HTC and all that I can say is stop crying and go flash your phones. I have mine with Go Launcher on top of Sense.. and my phone flyes… who needs Sense 4.0 we need ICS and we have it.

  24. PEOPLE. SENSE 4.0 and ANDROID 4.0 are TWO DIFFERENT PIECES OF SOFTWARE. Sorry for the caps i just hope this gets seen and people stop bitching on forums. You can have the newest version of android on your phone and still run Sense 3.6 Ive been runing ICS on my phone for a few months now. The sensation 4g is still a pretty boss phone. There hasnt been a single app yet that can slow it down.

  25. I don’t know why they say they cant do thise. There a 3 good Sense 4 ROMS for this phone, that only have scaling issues.

  26. Wow just installed the android 4.0.3 and sense 4.0 on my sensation and its nice. When you look at the time app there is a globe that you can spin and see what contries are in day light or night time, its a nice touch!!

  27. When is the Update coming out ? does anyone knows a DATE ?

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