release date: June 2008

CONTENTS

1. Review
2. Features
3. Prices
4. Similar Phones
5. Useful Links
6. HTC Phones

RATING

SUMMARY

2.8-inch VGA toushscreen, TouchFlo 3D, 3G and HSDPA, 3.2 MP camera, Wi-Fi and GPS Windows Mobile 6.1 smart phone. Diamond-patterned back. Better than the iPhone?

Phones with free gifts >>

Review

HTC Touch Diamond - 2.8-inch 480 x 640 (VGA) touchscreen, 3G, HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi, TouchFLO™ 3G interface, Opera 9.5 Web browser, Windows Mobile 6.1, Google Maps, YouTube client... The HTC Diamond is HTC's latest attempt to compete with the Apple iPhone.

HTC Touch Diamond vs Apple iPhone

Dimensions: The Diamond is quite light for a smartphone - 110g vs the iPhone's 135g. The Diamond is also a lot smaller than the iPhone - 102 x 51 x 11.3 mm vs the iPhone's 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm. Winner: tie.

Screen: The HTC Touch Diamond has a wonderful VGA (480 x 640 pixel) resolution screen, however it's only 2.8-inches, compared to the iPhone's 3.5-inches. Thus, the iPhone has 50%+ more screen real estate, albeit at a lower resolution 320 x 480. The iPhone's screen is capacitive (use your fingers). The Diamond's screen is resistive - use your fingers OR a stylus (provided with the phone, and sits in its compartment bottom right of the phone). The iPhone has multi-touch. Winner: iPhone.

Storage: iPhone is available in 8GB and 16 GB flash drive versions. The Diamond has a comparatively measly 4 GB. Neither of the phones have a microSD card slot. Winner: iPhone.

Camera: 3.2 MP camera with auto-focus on the Diamond. 2 MP camera on the iPhone. Neither camera is top-notch, but the Diamond does have more features. Winner: HTC Touch Diamond.

Music Player: The Diamond has a similar interface to the iPhone's CoverFlow - flick through album covers. The iPhone has more storage, a 3.5 mm jack, and ties in with Apple iTunes. Winner: Apple iPhone.

Connectivity: Both phones have EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and GPS. The Diamond supports up to 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and has more Bluetooth standards. Apple iPhone has TV-out, HTC Touch Diamond does not. Winner: tie.

Design: The HTC Diamond-patterned back might not appeal to some - it doesn't sit flat on a table - it wobbles when you try to use it on flat surface. Both phones get grubby with fingerprints - HTC Touch Diamond perhaps more so. Winner: Apple iPhone.

Battery Life: iPhone: 10 hrs (2G), Diamond: 5.5 hours (2G). Winner: Apple iPhone.

HTC Diamond Pro

The Pro has a slide-out keyboard and microSD card slot.

T-Mobile MDA Compact IV

T-Mobile's branded version of the HTC Touch Diamond. Also has HSUPA (fast data upload speeds).

Design

Retail box: An upside-down truncated pyramid (a pyramid with its top cut off).

Stainless steel sides, shiny black plastic back cover. As with many shiny-surfaced phones, fingerprints are very noticeable. The plastic black cover is diamond-patterned. Build quality is fine. The back cover - you might like it, might not. Subjective.

The Diamond is quite small and light for a smartphone - just 110g and just 102 mm tall and 11.3 mm thick. Quick tour:

Front: 2.8-inch resistive touch-screen with VGA (480 x 640 pixels) resolution. Use your fingers or stylus to operate the touch-screen. Capacitive screens (such as the one on the iPhone 3G) require direct skin contact, the Diamond's screen responds to pressure.

Above the screen is the earpiece and VGA camera (for video calling). Beneath the screen are 4 mechanical buttons - home, back, call, end call and a central navigation control (d-pad). The D-pad is press-sensitive and touch-sensitive. Slide your finger clockwise/anti-clockwise to zoom out/in. Applications supporting zoom include: album, camera, Opera Mobile, Excel Mobile and Word Mobile.

Bottom: MiniUSB port (sync converter/earphone jack), strapholder.

Top: Power button, speaker.

Back: 3.2 MP camera (no flash) with steel surrounds, plastic diamond-patterned cover. Slide up to remove. Battery and SIM card slot are beneath the cover.

Left: Volume rocker. The words 'htc INNOVATION' are etched onto the side.

Right: Stylus holder is bottom right. The words '4 GB INTERNAL STORAGE' are etched onto this side.

Battery life: 900 mAh battery. Not great. HTC have announced a 1350 mAh battery pack, which will improve battery life. 5.5 hours battery life (2G network) - average.

No microSD memory card slot: 4 GB flash storage only. Would've been good to have an SDHC card slot.

No 3.5 mm jack: Use an adapter to plug in your earphones. The supplied earphones are OK.

Slow Interface?

Pre-release review handsets had a slow interface. The screen could freeze and there were supposedly a few bugs. HTC have since upgraded the RAM to 256 MB and issued a firmware update. Be sure you have the latest firmware release. Why HTC didn't think of this before giving out review handsets to magazine reviewers (many of them gave the HTC Touch Diamond a real slating for its slow performance), we don't know.

Another lesson can be learnt here - don't put much stock in pre-release reviews commenting on issues that can be remedied by a firmware update. Interface performance, bugs and camera image quality are the main areas.

Features

2.8-inch Touchscreen

Excellent VGA touch-screen. Use finger gestures to navigate the screen - zooming, panning, touch, tap, scroll, slide and flick. For example, scroll down contacts lists, Web pages, documents; drag finger vertically or horizontally across screen. There's no multi-touch (which you get on the iPhone). Whip out the stylus (from bottom right compartment) if you wish. You'll most likely need it for navigating Windows Mobile 6.1.

Home Screen and TouchFLO™ 3D

Fun to use and animated graphics, the TouchFLO 3D interface is the main interface. Swipe, drag and select options. The home screen features status icons, clock, start menu, missed calls and calendar. 10 buttons sit at the base of the screen - drag your finger across to reveal the other buttons. Quick access to phone, people, messages, inbox, Internet, photos and videos, music, weather, settings and programs. Pretty animated graphics are prevalent.

Windows Moible 6.1

Lots of features. Document editors, readers, Internet Explorer Mobile, MicroSoft Exchange and lots of other features. We don't particularly like the interface - too many menus and sub-menus, but feature-wise it's solid.

YouTube Client

Special YouTube client for HTC phones.

GPS and Google Maps

GPS and Google Maps - get turn-by-turn directions.

Connectivity

3G (video calling enabled), HSDPA (up to 7.2 Mbps) and Wi-Fi give fast Internet download speeds.

Tri-band Only

We're not sure what the problem is. Why do many top-end phones fail to support 850 Mhz. Pay nearly £400 for a phone, and there's no quad-band. Many sub-£200 phones have quad-band, why can't HTC manage it? Answers on a postcard.

Game: Teeter

Teeter - a marble game. The HTC Touch Diamond has an accelerometer - tilt the phone to move the marble. Hours of fun. Really.

3.2 MP Camera with Auto-Focus

OK image quality. No camera flash. There's a VGA front camera for video calling.

Text Entry

3 options:

Full QWERTY: 34 keys, 1 letter per key.
Compact QWERTY: 2 letters per key, 20 keys.
Phone Keypad: 12 keys, 3-4 letters per key.

Opera Mobile 9.5 Web Browser

Pretty good. Released in February 2008, this is Opera's latest mobile Web browser. You can zoom (Opera Zoom), pan, use Opera widgets and a faster speed (uses Opera's Presto rendering engine), save pages for offline browsing, Web address auto-complete, password manager, flash support, tabbed browsing, page overview, send link, send image, copy text...

Note: Opera Mobile is used on smartphones and PDAs. Opera Mini is used on non-smartphone devices.

Resolution is good - 480 x 640, but the screen can do with being bigger. Next time HTC, go big - 3.5-inch screen, and dump the hardware controls beneath the screen.

3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi can offer faster Web browsing speeds.

Summary

HTC's best touch-screen phone so far. Excellent connectivity, TouchFLO 3D is fun and easy to use, and its touchscreen is responsive. 4 GB storage won't be enough for many people. The 2.8-inch-screen, good as it is, really needs to match the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen. Battery life is mediocre - 5.5 hours on a 2G network.

A good iPhone alternative? Perhaps. Overall, we prefer the bigger iPhone screen size, App store, battery life and superior storage (up to 16 GB). We also think the Apple iPhone is simpler to use - no Windows Mobile menus to contend with.

Price: £390 SIM-free (July 2008), or get it far cheaper on a pay-monthly contract.

HTC Phones

  =   coming soon

• touch
• touch diamond

Prices

Prices coming soon.

Cheap phone contracts >>

TAGS: touchscreen, 3g, hsdpa, gps, wi-fi, smartphone, big screen, bar phones

Useful Links

Official Site:	HTC Touch Diamond
User Manual:	User Manual
TouchFLO 3D:	TouchFLO 3D
Media Gallery:	Media - Images, Videos
Press Release:	HTC Diamond Press Release
Specifications:	HTC Diamond Specs
PhoneArena:	In-depth HTC Diamond Review
GSM Arena:	HTC Touch Diamond
HTC Diamond Tour:	HTC Diamond Tour
Tracy and Matt:	HTC Diamond Video Review
Video Reviews - Revver:	HTC Touch Diamond Videos
Windows Mobile:	Windows Mobile
Opera Mobile:	Opera Mobile 9.5
YouTube Videos:	HTC Touch Diamond Videos
Images:	HTC Touch Diamond Images

Nokia phones, Samsung phones, LG phones, Sony Ericsson Phones, Motorola Phones, HTC Phones, Blackberry Phones, O2 Phones, Apple Phones, Mobile Phones

Fashion Phones, Music Phones, Camera Phones, Smart Phones, Touchscreen Phones, 3G Phones, HSDPA Phones, GPS Phones, Wi-Fi Phones, Slider Phones, Bar Phones, Flip Phones, Coming Soon Phones, Lightest Phones, Slimmest Phones, Thinnest Phones, Best Camera Phones, Top Phones, Big screens, Best Talk Time