HTC Touch Diamond2 Review

Introduction:

When a product proves to be a success, it´s fairly logical it sooner or later gets a successor. As it name suggests, the HTC Touch Diamond2 comes out to lend some more color to the otherwise nice, but aging model that was released last year. Hitting the shelves less than a year after its predecessor first appeared, the new smart phone doesn´t feature any ground-breaking novelties, but rather picks us where the previous model left off improving on blunders HTC made with the predecessor. It seems the model has gotten a bit fatter, but it sports larger screen, more powerful battery and system memory and has got an expansion slot.

The preceding shiny diamond-shaped box has been replaced with a rather ordinary looking parallelepiped and here is what you find inside:

• HTC Touch Diamond2

• Charger
  
• Headphones
  
• miniUSB cable
• Extra stylus
  
• Screen protector
  
• User's Manual
  
• Software CD
  

We do miss a protective cover, but at least the other accessories are with decent quality.

Design:

Let´s get started with a piece of sad news for all gem lovers. The number two in HTC Touch Diamond2 doesn´t mean twice the amount of diamonds, on the contrary. The first thing we did when we kicked it off with the successor of the, perhaps, the most popular windows mobile powered phone was to take a peek at its back… unfortunately, the diamond faceted back is missing. HTC provides glossy black plastic instead that happens to really love fingerprints and it´s only the area surrounding the camera that reminds of the fact it´s a Diamond you´ve got in your hands.





You can compare the HTC Touch Diamond2 with many other phone using our Size Visualization Tool.

It´s either the lead designer has made an about face on his taste or the Taiwanese company fired him and hired a rather conservative dude to take his place (what the heck, he´s a genius?!). Speaking of boring outward appearance, we simply must tell you that it not only applies to the back cover, but to the overall look as well. It still looks dainty and stylish (even if a bit thicker), but less exciting at the same time. We do miss the black color and blinking D-Pad that made its predecessor more appealing. Everything about this phone looks too orderly and shipshape (a row of buttons and another touch sensitive one for zoomingjust above), but the good news is the design really seems to have helped towards larger screen. The latter is now 3.2-inch one with resolution of no less but 480x800 pixels and gives you the opportunity to properly see more of any internet pageor document you have opened. We definitely didn´t spring on surprise to see the screen looked great indoors and we were equally unsurprised to find out it didn´t do well in direct sunlight. Even when not in the open, you can easily notice the screen is glossy and makes for a nice mirror, but this comes in annoying if you need to use the device in intense light – it´s almost impossible to read whatever pops up on the display, because it gets way too gray.

We can´t complain of the buttons, though they are all a bit thinner than we would´ve liked. If you´re wondering why the memory expansion slot is nowhere to be found, calm down, it´s present, it´s just under the battery cover and you can hot swap cards without turning the phone off.

As a whole, everything seems on par, we´re just a bit disappointed to see the unique design that the first model features have been replaced with a humdrum, dull new look.

Interface:

We do think HTC outdid themselves with the design of the first Touch Diamond and its software was really above and beyond. The first gem was the first to ever introduce the TouchFLO 3D interface that we think is the best Windows Mobile customization yet to date (although newer HTC models have also brought out nice features)

Thorough a home screen with many tabs that you switch between with a carousel at the bottom, HTC has tried to bring the troubles you may have with the standard Windows Mobile interface down to a minimum. Here are the tabs you have on the HTC Touch Diamond2:

•    Home screen showing a clock, date and information regarding missed call, tasks etc. Clicking on the clock gets you to the brushed-up world clock and alarm setting pages, both of which look really upbeat.



•    Favorite contacts sporting cute picture and shortcuts to your call register and composing of new message or email.
•    Messages – you can browse through them, but if you get down to typing one in, you are faced with the well-known, old-fashioned interface.
•   Email – what you see is pretty much the same as in the messages menu, but it´s visualized as an animated letter where you can only see the top part of the text.



•    Calendar is the only new tab available. It allows you to scroll through your task list for any given date. What we don´t like is how the days with events are marked, as it could have been done better and more obvious.  Weather forecast, if you keep an eye on this, appears when you pick out any of the next five days (more on this in a minute).



•   Internet tab gives you a Google search field, links to Opera mobile browser, YouTube app and favorite push pages application. When you configure the push pages, you need to choose how often they are to be refreshed (1/3/6/12/24 hours) so you can take a look at new content in a snap, while if they haven´t been updated recently, you will be able to do that manually.
•    Stock helps you keeps tabs on the stock market
•   Pictures and video – allows you to browse your albums and there are camera/camcorder shortcuts.



•   Music – gives you quick access to music album selection and song playback without leaving the home screen. You can also start the really comfy music player from here.
•    Weather forecast clearly suggest what the app does, the important thing is animations are really cool and you can pick up to ten different locations and get info what the weather will be like in five days running.
•    Settings - allows you to access most frequently used settings and saves you the trouble of entering the chaotic Windows Mobile menus. We do like the HTC pages for sound notifications and communication options. What´s new here? A link that gets you to your business card customization and HTC menu to set up new email accounts. We disliked we had to wait until almost 500 emails got downloaded, because the email setup didn´t ask how many or how old letters it was supposed to show/sync.



A rather pleasing Task manager shows up when you click at the top, right part of the screen, while tapping the middle of this line makes the new Notification screen appear on screen. There you´ll be able to see not only any missed calls, messages etc., but the available wireless networks in range as well. Nice novelty indeed, since the corresponding interface on other Windows Mobile phones can throw you into despair.




The application shortcuts tab has disappeared and similarly looking menu with 29 shortcuts turns up where the original Start menu is. It opens from either the upper left corner or through pressing the dedicated Windows button. A vertical list of all programs installed on your device unfolds through the Start menu as well. We do find it appealing, since it´s easy to use and click on with your fingers, but we just can´t hold back saying HTC must´ve been inspired by the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 and all changes it´s bringing out.

Software:

A brand new feature is to be found in your contacts, which looks great and quite out of character of typical Windows based phones. Names are showed in large fields with a single small pic next to each one. You can scroll the list, pick out the first letter or search any name. Adding new contacts reveals huge “most used details” boxes that let you use your fingers comfortably. You´ll have to fall back on the stylus In case you need to see all available information fields (and there are many on Windows Mobile devices), because that gets you to the standard interface.



Clicking onto a contact makes a pleasing information screen spring up on the screen, but that´s just the first of all tabs. The next ones show you all exchanged messages in a threaded messaging style, emails as well as more details on call history. Basically, all communication can be easily accessed in one place, which comes in handy indeed. This is somewhat reminiscent of the synergy of webOS.



HTC Touch Diamond2 lends color to screen keyboard design as well – you have a horizontal QWERTY layout, while the vertical one sports different design and buttons in a chess-like pattern. This should make the life of many people a whole lot easier and we like the final result. People who happen to have thicker fingers will most probably fall upon using the stylus.



Unfortunately, there are cases when you don´t have a choice and will have to get back to the standard Windows Mobile 6.1 interface, which as we have been saying all over again, is far from being the most good looking thing on the planet. To help ease the pain, HTC has increased the customized menus that pop up when clicking the soft keys.

Unlike the Samsung OMNIA, HTC doesn´t try to pass the Touch Diamond2 as a multimedia monster. Its camera features a likeable interface, but is somewhat uncomfortable to use with one hand, since there is no camera shutter button, but just a software onscreen one. Outdoor picture quality is good, although not something to get ecstatic over. The lack of camera flash tips us off camera won´t be any good for taking snapshots indoors.

Most pictures and good enough to see on your phone and you can browse them from a convenient gallery application.






As we previously mentioned, the music player has quite good interface. Unfortunately, sound out of the built-in loudspeaker is nothing short of disaster and not great with your headset on (even the Audio Booster equalizer doesn´t seem to help at the least). We do think it would be great if there was a miniUSB to 3.5 mm. jack adapter in the set, so anyone willing to listen to some music could plug in a pair of decent earphones. Things are not looking better when it comes to the video capabilities of this device either. The HTC Touch Diamond2 can play MP4 clips only (either H.263 or H.264 coded). Video quality is decent at higher resolutions, but we noticed sound lagged behind video itself, plus we saw the device skip frames at times, both of which made for somewhat unpleasing experience. Installing third party video players gets you both DivX and Xvid support, but this is something that a number of high end “not that smart” phones sport by default.



The HTC Diamond2 doesn’t come brimming with preloaded software, but Windows Mobile 6.1 features loads of apps anyway. Preloaded are the Teeter game, Google Maps and QuickGPS to help you pinpoint satellites fast, RSS Hub, Adobe Reader LE and of course, Office Mobile.

Performance:

Unlike its predecessor, even early units of the HTC Touch Diamond2 are fast and promptly responding. Apparently, the increased amount of system memory proves beneficial to the good-looking smart phone. The screen is also very sensitive and reacts to your even lighter touch. Taken together, these make for a fast Windows Mobile phone. Well, it can hardly win out over the Flash superhero, but it´s speed is definitely pleasing.

We are delighted with in-call quality, no remarks whatsoever, this is definitely one of the leading devices with this regard.

HTC rates the battery very good, at 5.5 hours talk time and 15 days standby. Anyway, we´d advise you to turn Wi-Fi off when you´re not using it.

Conclusion:
 
As a whole, the Diamond2 proves to be a worthy successor in the lineup and it´s not a disappointment, except for the fact it´s less innovative alongside of previous models. The Touch brought out both TouchFLO and design that had been hard to imagine by then, while the Touch Diamond featured the awesome TouchFLO 3D and even shinier design. The Diamond2 is more ordinary looking phone, but it´s been devised as phone to allow easier use from the get go, features more robust battery, system memory that makes for faster response, memory expansion slot and even better interface than before. Throw excellent in-call quality into the deal and the HTC Touch Diamond2 definitely is one of the best Windows Mobile phones at present. There are other decent alternatives, such as the first Touch Diamond, the multimedia Samsung OMNIA as well as the Touch Pro and TouchPro2, both of which sport hardware QWERTY keyboard, but keep in mind the latter has not been released yet. We expect HTC to release Windows Mobile 6.5 updates for both the Diamond2 and TouchPro2 when the new version of the OS launches.

The software version of the reviewed unit is1.39.479.1 (47382) WWE