Categories Custom ROMSHTC

Install Android 4.4.2 KitKat On HTC Sensation Using CM 11 Custom ROM

HTC Sensation came out in the year 2011. The device sported some great specifications of that time, these included a 4.3 inches S-LCD display with 256 ppi. A RAM of 1 GB is there and 8 GB internal storage provided by a microSD card slot. HTC used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 1.2 GHz dual core CPU to power up this device accompanied by Adreno 220 GPU. The device initially ran on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and received an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Smartphone manufacturers do not keep their old devices alive for a very long time when it comes to the software updates, so is what HTC did with the HTC Sensation and it didn’t receive any further Android update after ICS.

Although this device is pretty much old now, but due it’s nice mid-range specifications, many of the Android users own this device. XDA developers always come up with something nice, specially when it comes to the devices which are forgotten by the manufacturers. To cheer up the HTC Sensation owners, XDA recognized contributor albinoman887 has come up with Android 4.4.2 KitKat for our beloved HTC Sensation. This firmware is based on CyanogenMod 11, the most popular aftermarket Android firmware. The current version of this ROM is stable and hopefully it’s bug free. It’s presented by Team Hydra.

In case you own this device and you’re willing to get a KitKat for your HTC Sensation, you may have spotted the right place as we are going to flash this Android 4.4.2 KitKat CM 11 on this device in the proceeding post. Let’s go through the early preparation and then install this firmware.

Early Preparations:

This is only for HTC Sensation!

This custom ROM is only for the device mentioned above. Make sure that your model number matches the one listed above. To do so, go to Settings > About Device on your device and see your model number. Flashing this ROM on any other device will result in bricking it so make sure that you meet this requirement first of all.

Battery should be charged at least over 60%.

Make sure that your battery is charged enough to complete the flashing process. In case your battery is low and your device goes dead during the flashing process, you may end up soft bricking your device as it won’t complete the flashing process.

Flash a Custom Recovery.

A custom recovery, 4EXT recovery is required to flash this ROM. You may find guide to install 4EXT recovery on your Sensation device on our site and flash it using the instructions explained in the guide.

4. Backup everything!

Just to be on the safe side, you may consider backing up each and everything from your Android device. This is highly recommended so that in case anything goes wrong, you still have the access to all of your data and you can restore it immediately. You may backup everything as listed below.

Backup SMS Messages
Backup Call Logs
Backup Contacts
Backup Media – Copy your files manually to your PC or Laptop.
Titanium Backup – If already rooted, use Titanium Backup to backup all of your apps, system data and other important content.
Backup Nandroid – Use 4EXT recovery to do so.

5. Disclaimer

The methods involved in flashing custom recoveries, roms and rooting your phone are highly custom and may result in bricking your device, and has nothing to do with Google or the device manufacturer that is HTC in our case. Also rooting your device will void its warranty and you will be no longer eligible for any kind of free device services by the manufacturers/warranty providers. In case of any mishap we may not be held responsible. Follow these instructions to the letter to avoid any mishap or bricking. Make sure that whatever you do, you are doing it at your own responsibility.

How To Install Android 4.4.2 KitKat On HTC Sensation Using CM 11 Custom ROM:

Make sure that you’ve installed a custom recovery. There’s 4EXT recovery linked above.
Download cm-11-20140424-UNOFFICIAL-pyramid.zip
Download Google Gapps.zip file
Copy both the .zip files to your phone’s SD card.
Boot into 4EXT recovery mode on your phone now. To do so, turn if off completely first. Now turn it on by pressing and holding Power + Volume Down. As soon as you see the screen turning on, leave the buttons and you should boot into the bootloader, and then select recovery from and enter in it.
Once in recovery, perform and factory data reset and also wipe cache.
Now select “Install from SD card > Choose Zip from SDcard > locate the cm-11-20140424-UNOFFICIAL-pyramid.zip file > Yes” and flash it.
Once flashed, now once again select “Install from SD card > Choose Zip from SDcard > locate the Gapps.zip file” and flash it.
Once flashed Gapps, wipe cache and dalvik cache from the 4EXT recovery and reboot your device.
As soon as your device boots up, you will see the CM 11 ROM by Team Hydra
First boot may take up to 10 minutes, hold on tight till it boots up completely.
That’s all. Enjoy KitKat on your device now.

In case you got any issues or you face any difficulties regarding this post, please feel free to stop by the comment box below and let us know. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you all.

Usama M

Usama is a software engineer by profession and at TechBeasts.com he uses his expertise to solve everyday consumer tech problems with his main areas of interest being Android, iOS and Windows.

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View Comments

Martin says:

September 3, 2014 at 2:01 pm

Hey, I have been testing this room for 10 days and it is pretty fast, but there are a few bugs... cam corder is not working on both cameras, contact synchronization is broken and I experienced faster battery draining, but it solved somehow and some minor unimportant bugs :)