It's a case of 'live by the stylus, die by the stylus' for the Windows Mobile-driven HTC Touch Diamond2. Unlike finger-friendly touchscreen phones such as the iPhone, the Diamond2 uses a resistive touchscreen, and you'll need a tiny poker to get the most out of this powerful device.
The Diamond2 is available for pre-order on CleverKit.com for around £390, and is expected to go on sale on contract in May 2009.
Multi-faceted
With the Diamond2, HTC has ditched the faceted piano-black case that
gave the original Touch Diamond its name. Instead, it's gone for a
sober-looking matte metal front and maximum screen real estate. In our opinion, the Diamond2 veers slightly too far towards understated and takes a wrong turn into boring,
but it's certainly sleek-looking.
The Diamond2 sticks with its understated motif by having four very subtle buttons on the front. We found them large enough to use, but they could be bigger, since there's plenty of unused space.
The Diamond2 also has a touch-sensitive zoom control running along the bottom of its screen, which intelligently solves the problem of having a resistive screen: the lack of multitouch. Since you can't zoom with a pinch of the fingers, and zoom menus can be frustrating, a zoom control is handy. We found it rather fiddly, however. You have to swipe your finger along the control to get it to work, and we'd have liked the option to tap on zoom in or zoom out for finer control.
The mirror has two
interfaces
The zoom control is just one of many ways in which HTC has tried to
overcome the well-known user-interface quirks of Windows Mobile 6.1. We're not
just being WinMob haters: even Microsoft knows that it sorely needs an update,
and 6.5 is
looming on the horizon.
HTC's TouchFLO user interface covers the hideous visage of the Windows Mobile home screen with a veil of more finger-friendly shortcuts for the main features. The TouchFLO home screen has a fun, sliding menu that you use by dragging your finger horizontally along a series of customisable icons. Each icon leads to a TouchFLO application that tries to capture the glamour of features like Apple's Cover Flow.
The menu looks good but, because the Diamond2 uses a resistive touchscreen, you'll have to exert pressure to make it respond. It's possible to make it work with a fingertip, but we often found that we accidentally selected things when we only wanted to scroll through a list of options. It worked better with a fingernail, but the best response was achieved when we used the stylus hidden away in the side of the device, like mad Mrs Rochester.
Unfortunately for the Diamond2, it's not 2001 and we're not willing to wield a tiny pointer to get stuff done on our smart phones anymore. The TouchFLO interface definitely makes Windows Mobile easier on the eyes, but, together with the resistive touchscreen, it's not as finger-friendly as we'd like.
And TouchFLO hides a dirty secret -- underneath it's still Windows Mobile. When we strayed off the reservation of TouchFLO applications, things looked as tiny and dated as ever. For example, Windows Media Player presented us with a list of music and video files so small that we could barely tap them with a fingernail.
Another problem with combining the TouchFLO interface with Windows Mobile is that the two don't always seem to keep in touch. For example, when we transferred over music and video using Windows Media Player, we couldn't find our video in the TouchFLO media gallery, but we did spot it in the handset's Windows Media Player application.
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rovingrowe 4 November 2009
Good: Fantastic screen, does mostly what is says
Bad: Warranty issues / grey import
Comment: I bought my phone from Handtec in May. The screen is fantastic and I rarely have to reset it - a big improvement over older phones. Video streaming works a treat and the built in YouTube app is great. Sound quality is fine and it is handy to be able to pull the micro SD storage card in and out without resetting the phone. So far, I haven't had a problem with software running off the storage card locking up after the phone has been in standby mode - a big irritation with WM5.
A few gripes and 1 major ISSUE:
- Touch Flo looks great but irritates as it takes more steps to get to all the detail of a contact, diary, etc. I end up working around Touch Flo rather than using it much
- The HTC browser looks great but doesn't seem to work that well. Big delays and oversensitive zoom slider. I end up using Internet Explorer - much better than earlier versions but still nothing like as good as iphone browser
- Touchflo has a nice feature on Contacts where commonly used contacts can be selected and listed on the top Contacts screen. Unfortunately the PC sync software regularly loses its mind and does a complete re-sync, overwriting these selections on the phone. Looks nice but I have lost patience reinstating them every couple of weeks and now just ignore it.
- The headphone socket is combined with the mini USB sync/charge socket is a HTC variation of the mini USB plug. You need to use HTC headphones or buy an adapter - cheap on Ebay but a little annoying.
- MAJOR WATCHOUT: The reset button is under the back cover. Right next to this is a recessed casing screw with an anti-tamper 'void' sticker. It is very easy to stick the stylus into the screw instead of the button by mistake. I found out the very expensive consequence (£70) when the touch screen developed a fault after only a few weeks. I then spend many more weeks arguing with Handtec and HTC to no avail - I had to pay up. HTC even emailed a photo of the damaged 'void' sticker which had pretty clearly never had a screwdriver in it. There is very little clearance inside the casing to put tape over the screw hole and if you block the hole with something you would again risk damaging the sticker in some way. All this would be avoided if the 'void' sticker were simply put on a different screw. If I were cynical I might think this was deliberate to avoid paying out for warranty claims!
- The phone Handtec provided is apparently an Eastern European model. I found this out when I tried to download the Win 6.5 upgrade and was refused. A support call to HTC clarified why. Apparently the E European version will be released later in Nov.
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