Sense 4.1 Is Leaked- We Go Hands-On!

Sense 4 was where everything was to change for HTC. It was a step forward towards a less intrusive, more stock Android experience. And while the whole One Line-Up was very well recieved and lauded, there were- and always will be- the little things. Sense 4 did lag when opening the app drawer, and scrollling through homescreens, and pulling down the notification bar. There were the minor inconveniences of  having to reach for that virtual menu button at the top-right corner of the screen in HTC’s native apps, and of course, the 48-pixel stealing menu bar in third-party apps.

Well, all that’s about to change. Sense 4.1 RUU has been leaked (version number 2.15.401.5) , and after some testing, we found the following fixes:

1. Live wallpaper lag has been fixed
2. There’s a dedicated button in the Camera app to switch between Front/Backward facing cameras. (earlier you’d have to go into the menu for that.)
3. A dedicated button to switch tabs in the browser. (You’d have to go into the menu for that, too)
4. Complete removal of all 3D-Effects in the launcher leading to a completely lag-free experience.
5. Probably the most important- Rebased on Android 4.0.4
6. Added ability to remap the recent apps button/ Long-press recent apps/ Long-press Home as Menu. (yes, it removes the Virtual menu bar) under Settings->Display, Gestures and Buttons
7. New, blazing fast kernel. We mean it. It scored a pretty impressive 59oo+ in Quadrant benchmark (compared to 5100+ on Sense 4)
8. Wifi-dropping/ Icon showing weak signal Fixes.
9. Better Battery life- 5 Hour+ Screen-on time as compared to a measly 3 Hour+ on Sense 4.

Currently there is only one ROM available based on it by xda-developer football (anybody who’s hacked an HTC device must know him) , and more are on the way. Download it here.

Note: This is ONLY for the International Tegra 3 HTC One X.