HTC Sensation XL on sale in the UK

[Larry-G]

The HTC Sensation XL has gone on sale in the UK, filling the pockets of eager Brits with its massive screen, Beats audio and Android jollies.

Carphone Warehouse is flogging the 4.7-inch phone on O2, Three and Orange, but we've also seen it available on T-Mobile and Vodafone via Phones4u.

If you want to get the Sensation XL for free up front, the cheapest deal appears to be a £31 monthly contract with Orange that ties you in for 24 months -- long enough to leave the Sensation XL looking like the technological equivalent of a pointy bit of flint.

That deal gets you 600 minutes, unlimited texts and a rather paltry 250MB of data.

If you've got upfront wonga and are too free-spirited to be tied down to a contract, online retailer Clove is selling the giganto-phone for £486.

The XL is one of the largest phones around, with a finger-bending 4.7-inch screen, making it bigger than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but not quite as large as the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note.

It offers a tasteful white casing, and comes with a set of Beats headphones in the box. There's some clever on-board sound manipulation that will most likely give your tunes a bit more of that buttery biscuit bass.

An 8-megapixel camera is sitting pretty round the back, and there's a 1.5GHz processor on the inside, powering the Sense 3.5 user interface.

Expect our full in-depth review of the Sensation XL very soon -- we'd recommend holding off on a purchase until you read our definitive verdict. It looks like a cool phone, though we have our reservations about the 163g weight -- HTC makes bulky blowers, so when you crank the screen size up so high, you could end up with an intolerably weighty gadget.

We'll have a final judgement very soon, in the meantime let us know -- are you thinking of splashing out on this monolithic mobile? Or does another smart phone hold your heart? Tell us in the comments,

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/htc-sensation-xl-on-sale-in-the-uk-50005892/