HTC Touch Diamond launch coverage

Obviously, HTC has put lots of effort on the exterior. According to the company’s CEO, Peter Chou, this is exactly what they wanted in design aspect and proudly called it “the prettiest on the market”. The small and slim candybar is attractive for the consumer, yet suitable for a businessman. The designers have been inspired by the automobile design and fashion clothes. The old matte plastic is gone, and the whole phone is in piano finish instead.


The name “Diamond” comes from the shape of the back, which resembles one of these precious stones. You are correct, this is very similar to the Nokia Prism family and the Sony Ericsson Z555, but is the first such smartphone. Yes, for a smart phone, the HTC Touch Diamond looks incredibly well. It feels that way too, in the hand, and in the pocket. Even next to the high-end designer phone like the Nokia 8800 Arte, it is not “a piece of plastic” but a very nice handheld.

However, there is one problem all phones with piano (black) finish have: they are fingerprint magnets. The Touch Diamond is not an exception. Just the opposite; this problem is more apparent here and even the LG Prada is easier to be kept clean.

The good news is that HTC will ship it with a soft pouch, which will wipe it clean once you take the phone in and out. Unfortunately, it cannot be attached to a belt. Another interesting fact about the accessories is that the AC Charger has the HTC logo, which illuminates once the phone is being charged.

HTC uses metal in the housing of the Touch Diamond. Yet, don’t expect it to feel as an all-metal phone, and the brushed steel is seen only on the thin sides. The left one houses the volume keys and an “HTC innovation” slogan, while on the right is an indicator of “4GB internal memory”. On the front, typically for this form factor there is a 2.8” large VGA display accompanied by the navigation keys.

This is the first pocket-friendly HTC phone with VGA display and we welcome it. Previously, the Advantage XV7500 and XV7510 had such resolution, but they were not really what we imagined when we heard the word “smartphone”. The VGA size of 640x480 pixels is four times larger than QVGA (320x240), therefore delivers more detailed image and is more suitable for viewing large text files or a webpage. We’ve been waiting for such display to be incorporated in HTC phone for a long tune, since other manufacturers, such as Eten, released their VGA+ models.

The keypad consists of Home and Back, Send and End and a navigation key between them. Unlike many other slim devices, they are standard physical keys instead of touch sensitive ones. None of them is colored and all are illuminated in white, which looks cool on the all-black phone. It is strange that HTC has used Home and Back keys, which are typically found in Windows Mobile Standard smartphones (those without touch screens) instead of the Windows and OK combination. However, obviously the manufacturer has decided to force the customer to use the touch screen and stay away from “key navigation”.