What to Expect From HTC Sense 4.0: A Hands On Report

Among the many new things that will be unveiled at next months Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HTC Sense 4.0 is one that you may have forgotten about. If your anything like me, you don’t really care for manufacturers UI overlays, and prefer the vanilla experience as Android intended it. I have always thought the Sense UI was one of the more obtrusive UI’s and I have a fear that Sense 4.0 will ruin the lovely ICS experience that I have fallen in love with. Who knows,  maybe I am worrying too much because the folks over at Pocketnow got a sneak peek at the unfinished product and say it’s a “step in the right direction.” Hopefully they weren’t just being nice.

Although PocketNow was unable to snap any pictures of the Sense 4.0 look, they were able to share some of the featured highlights and improvements. Here is what we can expect:

• Landscape support for the home screen
• Bubbly sliders have been replaced with squared buttons
• Sense buttons now feature descriptive text which accompanies the button icon
• Lock screen will be able to display task or to-do lists, favorite contacts for quick dialing and direct access to notification bar
• Updated email client with threaded messages and improved layout
• Smart Sync technology which syncs your email based on your usage habits
• Reader feature in browser strips away ads and other useless web clutter
• Read/Watch Later feature in browser saves content in a widget which can be accessed at a later time (even offline)
• Guest Mode Scene disables phone functionality and access to personal data
• Beats Audio profile updated to work with third party applications
• Full DropBox integration with 50GB of free cloud storage

For those of you who are used to Android 4.0 on the Galaxy Nexus, keep in mind HTC devices will be a little different. According to leaked images of upcoming HTC phones, they have opted to add physical capacitive buttons (Primo excluded) rather than go with on-screen buttons, like Samsung did. One thing I will say, Sense 4.0 will most likely do away with the prominent ICS search bar due to the fact that HTC phones have a permanent search button as seen in the linked images above.

Regardless of button choice, I am still looking forward to seeing some sense 4.0 in action, whether it be in video, pictures, or in person. The closer we get to its unveiling, the more probable leaks become, and leaks make me happy. Lets just hope I get happy sometime soon. If we see or hear anything more, you can rest assured knowing that we will keep you in the loop.

What are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to seeing what HTC has done with Android 4.0, or do you hate it already? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: PocketNow

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