The HTC Touch Diamond is a viable option in the white hot smartphone category. It offers the full suite of features that have come to be expected of devices in this category but doesn’t stand out even among other HTC made phones. It’s worthy of consideration by first time smartphone users but is priced the same as the preferable Apple iPhone 3G 8GB and more than the far more flexible T-Mobile G1. If you generally find this device a winner, you’ll prefer the HTC Touch Pro, especially if you’re a business user.

Standout Features

• EV-DO Rev A High Speed Data Transfer
• 640 x 480 Pixel Resistive Touch Screen
• HTC TouchFlo User Interface

Features

The first thing you’ll notice about the HTC Touch Diamond is the beautiful display images on its 2.8-inch diagonal measure touch screen. It’s smaller than several of the screens offered by other devices in the category but that just adds to the brilliance of the tight packing of 640 x 480 pixels into that space. Though you can operate the touch screen with a finger, being resistive, there is also the option of using the included stylus. This can be particularly helpful for typing because the full QWERTY keyboard is rather cramped and it’s easy to make missed touches with a finger. There are options other than full QWERTY for the virtual keyboard but, frankly, they’re not likely to prove preferable. The device is equipped with the 3D simulating HTC TouchFlo user interface which is more intuitive to use than Windows Mobile’s default interface.

The HTC Touch Diamond is EV-DO Rev A capable making for very fast web surfing and file transfer when in a coverage area. With integrated Wi-Fi, high speeds are also available when lesser cell network coverage is available. A GPS receiver is incorporated into the device.

As with other smartphones using the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS, this device comes loaded with the MS Office Mobile suite of applications so you can view and edit Word and Excel documents. MS Exchange and Outlook is supported as are personal POP3 and IMAP email protocols.

The HTC Touch Diamond has a 3.2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom. It has several options for capture mode and resolution quality but photos are mediocre. There is also a lackluster video recorder. As you’d expect with a WinMo device, Windows Media Player 10 is installed and supports most popular audio and video file formats. The device features 4GB of built-in memory which is more than most competitors.

It lacks a standard 3.5mm headphone jack but supports Bluetooth wireless stereo.

The HTC Touch Diamond’s estimated talk time is 252 minutes and standby time is rated at 396 hours.

Summary of Reviews from Across the Internet

Users love the look of the HTC Touch Diamond—it’s a sleek, slim device. Slightly rounded corners and edges soften the otherwise boxy, minimalist design. Its brilliant screen is a standout aesthetically.

4GB is a boon in the memory department, however, the number can be deceiving because the Touch Diamond lacks an expansion slot for additional memory so you’re stuck with just the 4GB.

Summary

This device falls short of the standards set by the top smartphones. Still, it offers a wide array of features and is worth a look if you’re a fairly light user of the smartphone features and prefer WinMo to other operating systems.
 

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