Feature Articles
Event: HTC Sensation And Wildfire S Launch – Sensational And Wild!
A Sizzling Affair
Considerably HTC’s largest affair this year so far, the launch of the company’s latest Android smartphones at the Republiq in Resorts World in Pasay City became a spectacle where gorgeous bodies, local celebrities, and various media entities gathered together to witness the arrival of the HTC Sensation and the HTC Wildfire S in the Philippines.
The first thing noticeable during the event was the absence of Rhian Ramos, whom we had been seeing in past events as HTC’s brand ambassador. Instead of her, HTC gathered a number of teen stars hailing from both the Kapamilya (ABS-CBN) and the Kapuso (GMA) networks. According to a representative from HTC, the move of choosing several spokespersons is intended for promoting HTC smartphones as handsets for a large and diversified audience.
As a starter, HTC fired up the event by throwing a sizzling dance number followed by a parade of ladies clad in skimpy outfits. Certainly, the organizers had staged a sensational and wild event – consistent with the names of the new smartphones from HTC.
HTC Sensation
The HTC Sensation is a giant of a superphone clad in an aluminum unibody casing, packed with a 4.3-inch touchscreen S-LCD display, and powered by a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.2GHz. To make its display more durable, the Sensation uses a sheet of Corning’s Gorilla glass that is contoured along the edge of the screen. This prevents the glass’ surface from having contact with tiny particles, like grit and sand, when the handset is face down.
A first on an HTC smartphone, the new HTC Watch premieres on the Sensation. HTC Watch is a video streaming service that will send new movies to the Sensation via 3G or Wi-Fi connection. Leveraging on a progressive download technology, HTC Watch buffers video content to the handset so the user can start viewing the movie, instead of waiting to finish the download. The experience of watching HD movies on the Sensation is enhanced as it uses 540 x 960 qHD resolution.
The Sensation is one of the first smartphones that features HTC Sense 3.0. Running on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), HTC Sense 3.0 provides users with a more responsive way to work and play around with various smartphone applications. Additionally, users will be able to flip through home screens in 3D view. HTC Sense 3.0 will be limited only to some current HTC smartphones and older models with previous versions of HTC Sense are not upgradeable for now.
Slated to be available via Smart Communications and authorized retailers, the Sensation is on offer at a suggested retail price of PhP 31,990.
HTC Wildfire S
Espousing a smaller form factor, the HTC Wildfire S is an ideal smartphone for young consumers and entry-level smartphone users. Considerably HTC's latest mainstream Android device offering, the Wildfire S succeeds the Wildfire coming with a better display resolution of 320 x 480 and a snappier OS performance with its faster mobile processor clocked at 600MHz.
Like the Sensation, the Wildfire S also uses a Gorilla glass panel but has a smaller screen size of 3.2 inches. The smartphone already runs on Gingerbread but still has the older HTC Sense 2.1. With the Wildfire S, users can stay connected with their friends and share photos in a snap through the smartphone’s built-in social networking applications.
The HTC Wildfire S is now available in Bloom Pink, Silver White, and Dark Gray at Smart Communications and authorized retailers at a suggested retail price of PhP 15,500.
