There’s a lot to expect from HTC in the release of Sense 3.0, coming out along with the HTC Sensation. We’ve known to look forward to a 3D-enabled home screen, a revamped lock screen packed full of information, and new apps like HTC Watch for movie downloads. We’ve also been looking forward to the unexpected, preparing to experience much of Sense 3.0′s surprises for the first item as we discover them ourselves. One new Sense addition that we hadn’t heard of yet has been revealed today, a very Swype-like keyboard called HTC Trace.

Just like Swype, Trace invites you to drag your finger across its on-screen keyboard, connecting the dots, as it were, to spell out your message. Accommodating differences in finger size and how you hold your phone, Trace will let you configure sensitivity options to reach optimum performance. It won’t be set as the default keyboard, at least on the Sensation, but can quickly be enabled for interested users.

Granted, Swype for Android is still in beta, but we can’t help but think that Swype has had much more time to refine its algorithms, and may have presented a superior option to HTC’s in-house effort. If that’s true, it’d be disappointing to see HTC pass on licensing Swype in favor of Trace, but we’ll hold off judgement until we’re actually able to give Trace a spin and see how it performs. In any case, it will be interesting to see how Swype reacts to such a blatant attempt to copy its system. Look for Trace to be available on future HTC phones running Sense 3.0.

Source: Android Central