HTC Touch-Diamond Review - At a Glance
At a GlanceWhat’s Good: Stunning hardware design and elegant software user interface; front panel is subdued, intuitive and refined; display is bright and sharp with excellent contrast; sensitive touch-screen; amazing orientation and localized haptic feedback capabilities; secondary camera for video calls; easy internet connection sharing; glorious font rendition. What’s Not Good: Stylus is a virtual requirement for accessing certain parts of the user interface; landscape mode is underutilized and landscape QWERTY availability is far too rare; some minor integration flaws between Windows Mobile 6.1 and TouchFLO 3D; no memory expansion options; proprietary HTC USB jack for headphones. Bottom Line: With its unique body and incredibly sleek interface, HTC's Touch Diamond is a beautiful, distinguished handset. The crisp display is a joy to play with, and the screen is very responsive to the touch. The accelerometers are equally sensitive and accurate, and the localized haptic feedback is the best I've ever experienced. Innovative hard and software interface elements, like the nearly imperceptible scroll ring, are so well-integrated and gratifying that they make you wonder how you ever lived without them. It's an amazing phone, but the occasional behavioral oddity and unfulfilled expectation are evidence that the software needs to catch up with the very capable hardware. Specs:
- Make/Model: HTC Touch Diamond
- Network: GSM/HSDPA: 900/1800/1900 and 900/2100, respectively.
- Data: GPRS/EDGE/W-CDMA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
- Carrier: Unlocked
- Size: 102 X 51 X 11.35 mm
- Weight: 110 g
- Form Factor: Candy bar with Touchscreen
- Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
- Memory: 256 MB ROM, 192 MB RAM, Internal storage: 4 GB
- Notable Features: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, TouchFLO™ 3D, GPS (A-GPS-capable with additional free software),
- FM Radio,
- 3.2 MP camera with auto focus, and a secondary VGA CMOS cam for video calls.
To preface this review, and hopefully prevent some confusion, I need to clarify some differences in the three versions of the Touch Diamond that are available at the time of this writing (thank you, Noah). There is the European 3G, unlocked device, which I used in preparation for this review; there is a North American 3G, GSM unlocked variation, which is identical to the European version, outside of frequency band usage; and there is Sprint's CDMA phone, which does introduce some minor changes in form and function to the Diamond line-up. One of my complaints regarding the European Diamond is battery life, which has been addressed in the Sprint release. A trade-off is that the secondary camera for video calls is missing from Sprint's phone.
You can catch Noah's full video review of the Sprint Diamond here: Part 1, and Part 2.
Next: Introduction »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonOur fancy algorithm says this stuff is related...Unboxing the Sprint version of the HTC Touch Diamond. Noah's quick tour shows some Sprint modifications to the design and software, including Sprint TV and Music Store support. Noah gets up close and personal with the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro in GSM and CDMA (Sprint) versions. Check out the styling differences between the Sprint and unlocked versions, and Noah's attempts to lip-synch on camera and overdub his voice in later ... It's the third and final part of the battle of the beasts. This episode focuses on messaging and overall impressions. Specs? UI? Flexibility? What really does matter in a phone? Voice quality, even? Three of the heaviest heavyweights take center stage in part two of this PhoneDog Dogfight. In this corner - the iconic iPhone 3G. In that corner - the "Windows Mobile with a cherry on top" HTC Touch Diamond. And in, uh, that corner - the super-spec'd Samsung Omnia. Whose cuisine will reign supreme? Three of the heaviest heavyweights take center stage in part one of this PhoneDog Dogfight. In this corner - the iconic iPhone 3G. In that corner - the "Windows Mobile with a cherry on top" HTC Touch Diamond. And in, uh, that corner - the super-spec'd Samsung Omnia. Whose cuisine will reign supreme? HTC sends Noah an early birthday present - The Touch Diamond. This is a slick little Windows Mobile smartphone with a great touchscreen, TouchFLO 3D, and lots of other goodies. Check it out.
Love the HTC Touch Diamond but tired of basic black? Or maybe you're
into Sprint's red version but wish you could get the GSM version with
the original "faceted" back plate done up in red? You may be in luck.
French retailer Phone and Phone has the Touch Diamond in seven new
colors on its website, and while there's nothing about worldwide
availability of the newly colored faceplates, if this is legit it would
stand to... So you never know with these things, but I got a tip about the
Verizon version of the HTC Touch Diamond and figured I'd pass it
along. This is from a fairly new source who's been pretty accurate
with a few *very minor* bits of information passed along to me over the
past few weeks. Let's throw this new tip to the lions, shall we, and
see how it turns out: HTC Touch Diamond is be released for Verizon in OctoberCould end up as the... I'm going to be honest with you: It's 9:20 AM and I don't feel good.
Yesterday at this time I also didn't feel good. That was because I partied too much the night before. Happy hour with a few industry friends, then a press party, Nokia party, Verizon party ... these things add up. Today I don't feel good because I actually worked the show yesterday. And while I kept the partying to a healthy minimum last night and got... Two quick updates on the HTC front:First, that HTC Touch Diamond that's available for pre-order via Best Buy? According to Engadget it is a US-spec 3G version, after all. It's still $699 and its status is still pre-order, but apparently an Engadget reader combed through BB's RSS feed long enough to notice "HTCTOUCHDIAMOND UNLKD 3G" lurking in a product description. Sounds good to me.Second, something called the HTC QUAR100 has... Really want an HTC Touch Diamond? Really, really want one? Like, want one so badly that you can't wait for the GSM version with North American 3G to be released, and/or don't want to sign up with Sprint to get the CDMA version that should be out in a week or two?Lucky for you my uber-obsessed friend, Best Buy's got your back. The mega-retailer of consumer electronics will reportedly be selling the current unlocked GSM version... A thread on Sprint Users "confirms" release and pricing info for HTC's Touch Diamond and Touch Pro smartphones on Sprint. To be fair, the thread has images of device hotsheets, so this looks pretty legit. I just like putting words like "confirms" in quotes whenever I can.
Looks like we'll see the Touch Diamond by the middle of this month (that'd be September) at an on-contract/after rebate price of $249.99. Rumors are pointing...
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