A new Sense UI theme for Mobile Shell 3.5.x has emerged over at XDA. This time, it’s modeled after the updated Sense interface found on the HTC Espresso (myTouch Slide), an unreleased Android device. The theme is an evolution of MobileSense, which we covered last month.

Compared to MobileSense, the menu bar of this theme has a less curvy look and some of its functions have been altered as well. The left button doesn’t open the carousel anymore; it’s actually been remapped to Mobile Shell’s task manager. This is great for HTC users because Mobile Shell 3.5.3 disables HTC’s task manager. The carousel can still be activated by pressing the right edit/settings button.

The middle button opens the programs launcher, which can be configured with 20 shortcuts. Sliding left or right on this screen will pull up SPB Menu, which has been skinned with hints of Android. Of course, you can switch these two functions in Mobile Shell’s settings. Once you launch the task manager or SPB Menu/Launcher, a contacts button will be revealed for access to the phonebook, favorite contacts, and call history. Some widgets, like the ones for messaging, have also been beautifully skinned.

Users with WVGA devices can grab the theme from XDA-developers. After installing a fresh copy of Mobile Shell 3.5.x, simply install the CAB file for the Espresso theme. QVGA and WQVGA versions are currently in the works. Unfortunately, the background changer, which allowed users to change the image displayed in all MS menus, has been removed from this theme. The developer has included several backgrounds to choose from via a second download. To install one, just drop the corresponding vp_bkg_now.dat file into the SPB Mobile Shell folder in your programs directory.

Update: VGA version is also available. It should be very similar to the WVGA version in the screenshots above, though there may be slight differences.

Update 2: QVGA/WQVGA versions available too.