HTC Touch Diamond2 Spec
How well we remember HTC’s first full touchscreen handset, 2007’s “iPhone-killing” Touch. And oh, how we quaked with mirth at its attempts to hide a Windows Mobile interface ’neath the gossamer thin façade of a touchscreen, which reacted with a disinterested shrug to all but the most vigorous prodding, and a “3D” interface. It was a bit like putting lipstick and a nice hat on the Elephant Man.
Now though, times have changed. The Touch Diamond2 is smaller than you’d expect, with the 3.2-inch TFT LCD screen taking up most of the front. Slim and light, it makes an agreeable change from the cumbersome handsets currently clogging the market like so many obese children.
Many will buy HTC’s mobile for its Exchange push email, Office Mobile and GPS applications and these are all solid. However, it’s the greatly improved, five-meg camera that stands out here. Photos are of high quality and it’s also fast – a huge advantage over many phone cameras. You can even manually adjust the autofocus, just by tapping on the screen. The only thing missing is a flash.
While it’s still running Windows Mobile 6.1, HTC’s TouchFlo 3D skin now does a better job of masking the flaws of that troublesome OS. One thing it can’t hide is WinMo’s tendency to be sluggish. Again, it’s not as bad as previous models, but still leaves it lagging behind other phones on the market.
The occasionally unresponsive touchscreen is unhelpful, too. Whether it’s down to a slow processor or poor coding, frustration results when the phone pauses to load, say, the photo album. It’s doubly annoying on the Diamond2 because you can swirl through its 3D icons at breakneck speed, only to grind to a halt when you want to open an app. Hopefully a fi rmware update, frequently the saviour of initially slow HTC handsets, will come to the rescue again.
Connectivity? The Wi-Fi worked perfectly, but although it boasts 7.2Mbps HSDPA mobile internet speeds on the tin, we found it hard to actually get a true 3G connection, even in spots where we normally browse. In fact, reception in general proved to be a challenge. Despite that, the Touch Diamond2 is a very good Windows Mobile phone. It pales in comparison to the iPhone, BlackBerry Bold or Nokia N97 for the overall user experience, but what the Diamond2 lacks in processing power and touchscreen response, it makes up in efficiency, reliability and push email power.
The hardcore army of Windows Mobile fans will take this over any of the phones mentioned above any day, of course – they’d sooner be seen cross-dressing than with an iPhone. If HTC sorts out the 3G it’ll be a very high-power business tool. Us? We’re not sure we’ll be ditching our Android G1s, iPhones and Sony Ericssons for it just yet. Certainly not until Windows Mobile 6.5 launches later this year...
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