HTC Touch Diamond review (Verizon Wireless) – Expensive, Slow handset

Thumbs Up:

HTC Touch Diamond’s Verizon model has microSD card slot and comes with Verizon services such as Visual Voice Mail, EV-DO Rev.A network and VZ Navigator. It also has integrated Bluetooth, 3.2-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi.

Thumbs Down:

The smartphone is expensive and has slow performance.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS)/GSM
Band: dual-band of WCDMA (UMTS)/GSM 900/1800/1900
Phone design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: TouchFlo 3D touch-screen, Wi-Fi, 3.2-megapixel camera, microSD card slot

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HTC Touch Diamond has operating system as Microsoft Windows Mobile Professional 6.1. The Verizon’s model has 256MB of flash memory and 128MB of RAM. It also has a microSD card slot that supports up to 16GB cards. The Touch Diamond has inbuilt Opera Web browser, Microsoft Office Mobile Edition and Windows Media Player Mobile 10.

HTC Touch Diamond has 2.8 inches LCD display of 640×480 pixels resolution. The smartphone has a 3.2-megapixels camera with automatic focus adjustment. The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 EDR and IEEE 802.11 b/g.

The features of HTC Touch Diamond are HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), GPS, A-GPS and Mobile email. The supported audio formats are AAC+, AAC, MIDI, WMA, WAV, MPE and AMR.

HTC Touch Diamond has one 11-pin HTC ExtUSB data port. The Touch Diamond has 1340mAH lithium-ion battery that has a life of 300 minutes talk time. The accessories supplied inside the package contain reference material, software CD, an extra stylus, audio cable, USB cable and AC adapter.

Razzle Dazzle:

HTC Touch Diamond has a candy bar design. The Touch Diamond is 4 inches tall, 2 inches wide and 0.4 inches deep and weighs around 3.9 ounces. Three models of HTC Touch Diamond have same operating system, voice and camera. However, the carrier services are different.

Inside Dope:

Verizon Wireless consumers are waiting for the release of HTC Touch Diamond. The Touch Diamond has various features and Verizon has added its services like EV-DO Rev and VZ Navigator. You will get microSD expansion slot with Touch Diamond unlike other two models. HTC Touch Diamond has three versions – unlocked version, Verizon version and Sprint Model. HTC Touch Diamond costs $299.99 with two-year contract. This cost is very high considering that this version is being old and its life cycle will end with the release of HTC Touch Diamond2. Therefore, we would not recommend HTC Touch Diamond as your smartphone. Instead, you can check out Samsung Omnia from Verizon as it costs $100 less and has better camera, larger display and faster performance.

HTC Touch Diamond has 256MB flash memory and 128MB RAM with a microSD card slot that supports up to 16GB. Whereas, the Sprint Model and unlocked version has 4GB internal flash memory without any microSD card slot. The added Verizon services are VZ Navigator and Visual Voice Mail. VZ Navigator is a location-based GPS service that uses A-GPS feature to provide real-time traffic data, weather information, turn-by-turn directions, and more. The cost of VZ Navigator service is $2.99 per day or $9.99 per month.

HTC Touch Diamond has 3.2-megapixel camera. The image quality is good and rich in color. The Diamond does not have a dedicated camera button on the side panel to capture the shot, so you have to go inside the options for the same. The video quality was blurry when we tested it.

HTC Touch Diamond can store contacts as per the available memory. Each contact entry can save multiple phone numbers, home address, work address, email address, birthday, IM screen name and more. You can pair these contacts with caller group, a photo and a ring-tone.

The basic feature set of HTC Touch Diamond includes speed dial, voice dialing, multimedia and text messaging, EV-DO Rev.A support, and voice command. The Touch Diamond has onboard Bluetooth 2.0 that has features including support for stereo and mono headsets and hands-free kits, object push for basic imaging, vCard, and phonebook access profiles. However, the Bluetooth does not have support for all OBEX profiles. You can use HTC Touch Diamond as dial-up modem for your computer, but you have to sign up for Verizon’s Broadband Connect plan for browsing the internet.

The additional features of HTC Touch Diamond are MP3 Trimmer to create own ring-tones, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and YouTube application. The smartphone also has Verizon VZAppZone to download utilities, games, applications and more.

HTC Touch Diamond’s Verizon model has slow performance due to low RAM. While testing, it was sluggish and tripping over general actions such as to navigating through TouchFlo interface, creating new email or viewing missed calls. In addition, the Outlook crashed while composing a new email. We did not get any restart while working, but the delays in processing were quite frustrating.

We tested VZ Navigator on HTC Touch Diamond for GPS purpose and we were glad with what the phone had to offer. It was able to find the locations quickly and tracked the positions on our move. Navigator application also provided traffic data, weather forecasts and movie timings at our location.

To test the call quality, we made some calls from HTC Touch Diamond using Verizon Wireless service. The call quality was good overall. We received clear sound without background noise at our end. The callers also received same quality of sound, but some of them heard little hissing and echoes. We did not receive any dropped calls while testing. The speakerphone call quality was tinny. We did not get any problem in pairing Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset.

HTC Touch Diamond has inbuilt 1340 mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 5 hours talk time and 15 days of idle standby time. The digital SAR of the Touch Diamond is 0.853 watt per kilogram as per FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

Verizon Wireless model of HTC Touch Diamond is very expensive and slow. You can find better alternative smartphones for Verizon like Samsung Omnia. If you are diehard fan of HTC, then you’ll have to wait for some time until HTC launches Touch Diamond2 with upgraded features.