HTC Touch Diamond2 – an improved smartphone

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great design, sharp display, lots of improvements over the previous HTC Diamond like 5 MP camera and revamped TouchFlo interface.

Thumbs Down:

Lacks a standard headphone jack, virtual keyboard is cramped.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Candybar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: TouchFLO™ 3D, Bluetooth® 2.0, G-Sensor, FM Radio

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HTC Touch Diamond2 is a 3.2 inch TFT LCD display with a display resolution of 480X800 pixels, supported media formats are eAAC+, AAC+, MIDI, WMA, WAV, QCP, MP3, AMR, AAC. Supported video formats are AVI, M4V, 3G2, 3GP, MP4, ASF, WMV. The handset has a 5.0 mega pixel camera with auto focus in the back and a VGA CMOS camera in the front for video calling.

The phone is powered by Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz, comes with 512 MB of ROM, 512 MB of RAM, runs on Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional. The phone is powered by 1100 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery, gives talk time of 340 minutes and standby time is 500 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

All HTC phones look really sexy and this one too doesn’t fall behind. The gorgeous screen and the brushed metal beneath, makes the phone look really pretty. The impressive exteriors are well complimented by the plethora of features on the inside. The handset is 0.54 inches thick, 2.09 inches wide, 4.25 inches high and weighs about 4.15 ounces.

Inside Dope:

HTC Touch Diamond2 is a successor to the HTC Diamond phone and comparing the two phones, this one has a bigger and sharper touch screen, the TouchFlo interface has been improved which is great for navigation. Another significant improvement is presence of 5 mega pixel camera on this phone.

The display of the phone is 3.2 inches big and has a resolution for 480×800 pixels. both the size of the display and the resolution is excellent for browsing through the web and watching videos. The quality of the screen is really great, images look bright, text can also be read easily. The display has built in accelerometer which changes the orientation from portrait to landscape. Though this feature is not available for all features, it is there when you need the most for applications like video, photo, e-mail and web pages.

The TouchFlo 3D interface, though looks the same on the outside, has some changes for better user experience. For example you get tabs for stock quotes and calendar, and you can remove and rearrange tabs on the home screen through the settings. If you don’t like the TouchFlo interface much, you can always switch back to the traditional Windows theme.

Another difference is that the Start menu now has a grid view instead of the earlier seen list view of settings and programs. This page is customizable and it gives you one touch access to tools and apps. Other significant addition is the presence of the onscreen button to answer or ignore calls.

The candy bar phone has a virtual QWERTY keyboard which can also be used in landscape mode. The keys give haptic feedback when they register a touch. The keys were cramped one against the other and the keyboard is nowhere close to what we have seen on the iPhone.

There four button below the display, End/Home and Talk buttons, back button and start menu shortcut. Above the navigation bar, there is a touch sensitive zoom bar for zooming in and out of web pages and photos.

The sides of the phone have a volume rocker, compartment for stylus and speaker. On the top there is a power button while on the bottom there is miniUSB port to connect the headset and power adapter. We would have loved a 3.5 mm headphone jack on such a smartphone.

Diamond2 comes with a protective case, wired headset, extra stylus, USB cord and AC adapter. Other features on the handset include multimedia and text messaging, three way calling, voice commands, smart dialing, speed dial and speakerphone. There is no limit for contacts on the address book, a single entry can store multiple numbers, work and home addresses, IM screen name, e-mail, spouse’s name, birthday, etc. Photo caller ID, custom ringtone and caller groups are all supported. Bluetooth 2.0 is also present with support for stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, object push, hands-free kits, file transfer, dial-up networking and personal area networking.

The handset comes with a built in GPS antenna and includes QuickGPS utility. It downloads the latest information from the satellite to help you find your position.

For advanced users, there are features like Opera Web browser, Windows Live integration, dedicated YouTube application and PIM tooks like task manager, notepad, calculator, voice recorder, Zip manager, Adobe Reader LE. You can always download more apps from the internet.

The camera, as mentioned earlier has been upgraded from 3.2 mega pixels to 5 mega pixels. You get camera tools and settings like image-quality and various resolution options, flicker adjustment, ISO settings, brightness and white balance controls. The camera can also be used to record videos.

Photos from the 5 MP camera looked great but we missed the dedicated camera key. You will have to use the onscreen capture button which might result in shaky pictures. Video quality was average, they looked grainy and a bit dark.

The Diamond2 was a bit disappointing when we tested it for call quality. Voices on our end sounded tinny and there was a background hiss at our end. However, we could hear what our friends were saying clearly but the quality could have been better. Our friends said that the voice was crackling. Speaker phone calls were not that good either, there was hollowness while talking. Paring the phone with a Bluetooth headset was fast and the voice was clear.

The Diamond2 comes with a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A processor, 288MB RAM and 512 MB ROM which is the reason why the phone is a bit faster than it predecessor.

The 1100mAH battery has a rated talk time of 5.6 hours and standby time is of 15 days. In our tests, the battery lasted a little less than eight hours which is really longer than the rated talk time.

Nitty Gritty:

HTC Touch Diamond2 has some improvements from the previous Diamond which makes it an even better smart phone. The only thing that turned us off was the below average call quality. Other than that, this is a great phone.