HTC today announced their new flagship Android smartphone, the HTC Sensation aka HTC Pyramid. I was there for the press conference and had my first hands-on with the device.

The HTC Sensation is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread 'superphone' running on a dual core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM 8260 processor with 1GB user accessible ROM and 768MB RAM. It has a 4.3? Super LCD capacitive touchscreen with qHD 540 x 960 resolution with Gorilla Glass protection. Imaging wise, the Sensation has a 8MP camera with dual LED flash capable of 1080p video recording and VGA front camera.

Connectivity wise, the phone includes HSDPA, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, microUSB port with MHL support for HDMI out and DLNA. Other features includes the GPS receiver, accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light sensor and proximity sensor. A 1520 mAh battery powers the device. All of these are packed inside an aluminium unibody shell that weighs 148g and measures 126.1 x 65.4 x 11.3 mm.

The HTC Sensation comes with the latest HTC Sense UI and HTC Watch, a film rental and purchase store. The new HTC Sense includes support for endless scrolling and a new lock-screen not too dissimilar to Nokia Betalabs Bubbles. Users can assign application icons onto the lockscreen and be dragged around to a launcher ring that unlocks the phone, and immediately launches the application.

HTC Watch is due to be launch with over 600 titles, with pricing to be confirmed later. Films, once purchased or rented, can be played almost immediately over WiFi. Because the HTC Sensation comes with HDMI out capability (with a microUSB MHL adapter), users can easily watch films on a big HD screen. The Watch application was easy to use and films were easy to browse. Trailers play automatically regardless of whether the user is on 3G or WiFi.

I had a brief hardware hands-on with the device. The HTC Sensation felt good, has a built-quality similar to that of their other phones like the Desire S. Despite the large screen, it felt comfortable to hold and use. Overall the device felt solid, light and portable. The aluminium unibody not only looked good, but also felt good to touch. With the Sensation, HTC did not stray far in terms of design. In fact there are grumblings in the room that if HTC did not tell us, the Sensation could easily be mistaken for one of their other past products.

HTC claims that the HTC Sensation is their fastest phone yet, and that it is able to open applications twice as fast as their previous single-core smartphones. Browsing is also quicker. The device felt fast, and it did not complain at any applications I threw at it. In fact it feels so much quicker than my Motorola Milestone 2 and Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc. The new HTC Sense was a joy to use and is now easily the best out-of-the-box custom Android launcher.

HTC has not confirmed pricing for the HTC Sensation. In the UK, the Sensation will be exclusive Vodafone UK for one month. Three UK has also confirmed that the Sensation will be available on their network. In the US, the HTC Sensation will be known as the Sensation 4G.