The HTC Sensation XE was only announced yesterday morning, but we've already managed to nab some hands on time with the first phone bearing the Beats logo.
Essentially it's just the popular HTC Sensation with the addition of Beats audio processing, but it's been given another couple of decent upgrades too.
The big one in our eyes is the battery - we're now being offered a 1730mAh power pack which should help offset the over the top power consumption that plagued the original Sensation.
But then again, the extra power could be swallowed up by the improved processor, which now comes in at a whopping 1.5GHz dual core flavour. When you consider only a couple of years ago we were gasping at 1GHz phones, it's a big leap forward.
The HTC Sensation XE does also completely outdo the original in the design stakes too; while it has the same shape and 'striped aluminium' design on the back, it's now been given some red accents and a darker chassis to make it look that much edgier. We're looking forward to holding it up when walking past gangs of youths to get the necessary respect.
Beyond the updated specs and the addition of red accents, there's not a lot of difference between this and the HTC Sensation. We had heard word the HTC Sensation XE was going to give us a taste of HTC Sense 3.5, but either it's so anonymous we didn't see it or we just missed it in the hubbub - either way, we'll spend some time checking it out in our imminent and in-depth HTC Sensation review.
We were impressed with the internet browser though - the Sensation's offering had an ever-so-slight stutter at times, but it seems that's been wiped out now on the XE. We'll email Dr Dre to say thank you.
So, onto the audio - that's what you'll be buying the phone for, right? The HTC Sensation XE features a dedicated Beats Audio profile, complete with the audio manipulation technology HTC bought the company for. You'll have to have a pair of Beats headphones to make it work, but thankfully a pair of earbuds is included in the box.
Switching between the Beats Audio mode and the normal HTC sound enhancer is easy, as the phone will automatically fire up the Beats profile when the headphones are connected, with a little icon appearing in the notifications bar at the top of the screen.
From here it's an easy step to disable or enable the sound enhancement - although there's still no option to skip tracks from the notifications bar, just pause the tracks and hop into the main music player.
The quality of the Beats Audio enhancement depends on your taste in music - there's no doubting that sounds are crisper, but the level of bass is much, much higher than many people will have experienced with normal headphones.
It's not a criticism, and we're fans of feeling our ears vibrate, but some people will find vocal quality can be slightly lost in the bass.
We were impressed to note the Beats Audio option was present in the video player as well, and we reckon most people won't be too upset with what they're hearing if using the Beats mode for movies.
Vocal tone remained undiminished, but the overall timbre of the sound was excellent, and notably less tinny than when just using the HTC Sound enhancer.
The HTC Sensation XE UK price has already been outed, and at £492 it's not the most expensive phone on the market by a long way - although the £36 a month on contract is hardly the cheapest.
If you're in the mood for an HTC Android phone and are trying to decide between the HTC Sensation and the Sensation XE, it should be a no brainer. The XE looks nicer, sounds better and (hopefully) lasts longer, so we suggest you keep it in mind if you're due an upgrade.
We're hoping to get a review sample of the phone any day now, so keep your eyes peeled for TechRadar's in-depth HTC Sensation XE review.
