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Video review
HTC’s gang of Touch phones have so far fallen short of matching the iPhone’s peerless UI, but their new leader looks like it could live up to its bold assassination claims.
Before you get too excited, the Diamond doesn’t have multi-touch skills. But its 3D TouchFlo UI has been vastly improved, exhibiting some neat iPhone traits like moving around full-fat web pages via your pinkie and cover flow-esque photo navigation.
Best of both worlds
The Diamond isn’t solely touch-driven – it has a mechanised five-way joypad and surrounding call buttons for those who like the feel of buttons. With no keypad, you’re left to the virtual on-screen for inputting text which, like the iPhone, can be a tad tricky, although a stylus is poised to lend a hand.
Next to the iPhone, the Touch Diamond is very trim, flaunting a fetching Nokia Prism-esque rear design. HTC has also dressed up the new Windows 6.1 OS with a funky front-end UI to obviously distance itself from its starchy business rep. There are still clues to its Windows heritage but the new graphics make it far more approachable and fun to use.
Festival of features
The Diamond is also tanked up with top features from its Touch Cruise cousin that make the iPhone positively anaemic. This includes built-in GPS, rapido HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, and a 3.2megapixel camera. HTC has also squeezed in a healthy 4GB dollop of internal memory, accelerometer motion sensors and a stunning VGA-quality 2.8in screen.
And this pin-sharp hi-res screen contributes massively to the Touch Diamond’s slick internet surfing exploits. The peerless Opera Mini web browsing easily gets the nod over Internet Explorer and web pages load swiftly over 7.2Mbps-flavoured HSDPA and even faster over Wi-Fi.
This smartie may not have multi-touch pinching talents for zooming in and out of web pages but a concealed touch sensitive navi-wheel circling the centre button expertly handles prowling duties.
Crude camera
Although far from being a disaster, the 3.2MP snapper with autofocus isn’t the sharpest we’ve seen but it still delivers decent photos. Thankfully, its navigation performance was far better with Google Maps on board and a GPS receiver, abetted by A-GPS, is able to sniff out a sputnik fix in double-quick time.
The HTC Touch Diamond's only major flaw is that it lacks that extra sensitivity that makes the iPhone such a pleasure to fondle. Indeed, the processor makes it sluggish to operate.
But its mouth-watering feature set make these niggles easier to forgive and, with the competition closing in fast, the 3G iPhone needs to pull out all the stops.
Tech Specs
- Bluetooth
- Yes
- Dedicated MP3 player software
- Yes
- Dimensions
- 102x51x11.5mm
- FM radio
- Yes
- Main camera resolution
- 3.2 Megapixels
- Memory card slots
- Yes
- Memory card type
- Micro SD
- Operating system
- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
- Optical zoom rating
- 0x
- Screen resolution
- 480x640px
- Standby time
- 285hrs
- Storage
- 4GB Internal Memory
- Supported music formats
- MP3, WMA
- Talktime
- 5.5hrs
- Triband
- Yes
- Video resolution
- 240x320px
- Weight
- 110g
- Xenon flash
- No
Comments
pamelaann681
13 weeks ago
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jb4522jb
1 year ago
The HTC is such a great phone. You cannot go wrong with it at all. You will love the speed of this phone. There is nothing faster. mesothelioma information lawyer maryland
Evans2012
3 years ago
i have aN n97 MINI AND SWAPPED IT WITH MY MATES FOR A WHILE-IT WAS COMPLETE RUBBISH- THE CAM WAS BAD TOUCH SCREEN UNRESPONSIVE AND KEYBOARD REDICULOUSLY SMALL ONLY GOOD THIS WAS THE DESIGNON THE BACK-LOVEEELLYYY.
russell0411
4 years ago
This phone is disgusting to use! I got it thinking it would be the answer to all my needs: internet, qwerty, windows mobile etc, but it is a nightmare. It is so slow to do anything, constantly stalling and needing turning off or the sim taking out to start it again. The internet cuts out randomly and the screen fills with a blank space where the keypad should be. Texting is an infuriating experience: the keys are unresponsive and words are slow to appear on the screen. The predictive text is awful,and using anything other than the alphanumeric keypad is impossible unless you have the thinnest fingers in the world. General usability is so poor that I hate doing anything on it, as it takes ages, often goes wrong and generally winds me up. I am tied into an 18 month contract but just want to get rid of it and buy something else.
m12HA3L
4 years ago
I have had this phone replaced 4 times now. It lags, connects to the internet randomly, without any programs running uses up 65% of the processor, at times disables the speakers, the buttons on an often occasion stop working, programs crash a lot, never connects to a network with a password, Bluetooth never works, while using GPS the phone will last about 10 minutes (and that includes the time it takes for the GPS to eventually find satellites) and many more. The menu is very fiddly especially when you want to add a new number. If i was not tied into an 18 month contract i would slam it into a brick wall. no-one should ever purchase this waste of time phone oXo
nickmgray
4 years ago
I'm loving the Sprint Diamond. THe red back is a lot better than the shiney original http://htcsource.com/index.php/HTC/Sprint-HTC-Touch-Diamond-Ready-for-September-Launch.html
shutternut
4 years ago
The HTC diamond is a great mobile. It has 3.2megapixels camera, window 6.1 operation system, 4GB internal storage, HSDPA and of course a 2.8-inch LCD flat touch-sensitive screen. The best price i found is ikit.net. They also have plenty of HTC products. Shae with u guys: http://www.ikit.net/mobile-phones/htc/htc-touch-diamond-builtin-4-gb-p-2850.html
Adam84
4 years ago
I received this as an upgrade from http://www.mobilephonesdirect.co.uk/Brands/HTC/b509/n443/p2491.aspx and I love it! May not be as easy to use as some other phones available, but there are so many features available!
JayHarry
4 years ago
Terrible! The touch screen is slow to react, the screen turns to black within seconds making it impossible to use let alone see while making a call. Texting is a nightmare as the keys (in any qwerty size) are just too small unless you use the stylus pen thing. I HATE IT!! Sending it back to Orange today!
mjk
4 years ago
after using a iphone for a few months i received a htc touch diamond as a free upgrade from my network(orange). after a couple of hours messing around with it i have decided to return it and hope to never see another one..everything just seems to be a bit of a mission even a simple task like sending a text had me pulling my hair out.