The HTC Sensation, which was launched on May 19 in major European markets including the UK, has emerged as a serious contender in the hotly contested Smartphone market in the British Isles.

The HTC Sensation features a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen with 540x960-pixel resolution and runs the latest version of Google's platform, the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and has HTC's Sense UI Version 3.0.

The Sense UI's animations and impressive menus gives the phone an edge over other Android based phones from the Taiwanese manufacturer. The device is made up of a sleek single piece of aluminium and is similar to the several other HTC Android phones, including the HTC Desire, the Desire HD and the Legend.

Sensation comes with an impressive Web browser and supports Flash video and multitouch zooming. It has an 8-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and a front-facing VGA camera for video calling.

Telstra is selling the HTC Sensation for $0 upfront on its $79 freedom connect plan over 24 months and the smartphoneis also offered with Telstra's $59 business mobile maximiser Plan. It will also be sold without SIM at $792.