The HTC Touch Diamond is a brave new product that tries to capture some of the iPhone's popularity by featuring a finger-friendly interface that looks better than anything we've seen on a Windows Mobile handset before. But can HTC apply Apple's success by using Windows Mobile and a fancy new interface?
The HTC Touch Diamond will be available soon on most major networks for free on a monthly contract.
Design
The HTC Touch Diamond looks fantastic compared to any Windows Mobile phone we've seen before. It's not too large or small and has a thin profile, which makes it easy fit into a pocket. Unlike previous models, HTC has added an attractive twist to the design of the back of the phone by using a prism-like surface. It looks less boring that your traditional smart phone.
The Touch Diamond's VGA (640x480 pixels), 71mm (2.8-inch) touchscreen is very sharp and displays pictures really well. Unfortunately, it's very glossy, so you may struggle to see what's going on in bright light. Another disadvantage of the Diamond's glossy surfaces is that they pick up unsightly fingerprints on the back and face grease on the front. Expect to clean this phone often if you want to keep it looking good.
Underneath the touchscreen, you'll find a set of flat, clickable keys. Interestingly, the four-way navigation key doubles up as a touch-sensitive scroll wheel in certain apps such as the photo viewer, letting you zoom in and out of pictures. Bizarrely, the scroll wheel doesn't work everywhere, which is a shame, particularly since we would have liked to use it to scroll through long contact lists or music tracks.
Features
Considering its size, the Touch Diamond is packed with features. It's
one of the most feature-rich Windows Mobile phones out there and boasts
almost everything you'd need on the move. There's GPS that you can use
with Google Maps -- it looks great on the Diamond's screen, too -- and
HSDPA and Wi-Fi, which makes browsing the Web and picking up emails
fast and possible almost everywhere you go.
A customised version of Opera Mobile also makes surfing the Internet enjoyable. It lets you see an entire page and then zoom in on the parts you want to see properly. Opera Mobile also lets you open new tabs, which means you can navigate through a few different pages without needing to open new windows. It's one of our favourite apps and it works well on the Diamond's ample touchscreen.
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User reviews14
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doug1234 18 July 2012
Good: The touch sreen
Bad: Battery
Comment: This phone was 2nd hand
But the battery iss VERY POOR
Oliver85 1 August 2009
Good: Google maps, weather reports and microsoft office, reasonable build quality.
Bad: Slow performance, battery life, crashing all the time and random calling.
Comment: I got this as a free upgrade, thinking this will change my life etc but I was wrong. I owned the phone for 8 months and it had to go, performance was slow, kept crashing at times and just froze, navigation buttons would skip to the next menu that I did not use. All in all, nice try but this phone did not do the job for me.
kpaxm77 27 July 2009
Good: user Interface not very bad
Bad: Newton rings, Poor customer care, Poor PC connectivity
Comment: Just google HTC Touch diamond with Newtons rings and you will find terrible sad tales. I bought mine 11 months back and it has developed the so called newton rings. The customer care insistes that this was caused by misuse whereas I have taken care of it like my baby.An inherent problem in diamonds, the screen has ring like patterns when this problem starts showing itself. Mine is under warranty and they say this does not come under warranty. Send it to them for repairs and you will have to cough up atleast £15 to get it back plus the repair charges if you decide to get it repaired. A sorry state of affair, HTC is afailed story. Go for other celphone companies who have experience in making such phones.
See all 14 user reviews