Review: HTC Touch Diamond2

HTC’s original Touch Diamond was a good little smartphone and it stood up well against the competition. But time moves on, and the Diamond was ready for a refresh. The new Touch Diamond2 updates its predecessor all round, and is a solid and very desirable device.

Specs & info
Price: £382 – available now from DeviceWire
Operating system: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7200A 528Mhz
Memory: 512MB ROM, 288MB RAM
Dimensions: 107.85mm x 53.1mm x 13.7mm
Weight: 117.5g
Display size: 3.2 diagonal inches
Display resolution: 480 x 800
Expansion slot: 1 x microSD

The Touch Diamond2 feels somewhat industrial thanks to its hefty casing. The metal-looking sections of the shell make a change from an all-black surround, and make the Touch Diamond2 look like it will take a fair few knocks. At 117g it isn’t all that weighty, though. It is a bit on the tall and thin side at 107.85mm x 53.1mm x 13.7mm, but that enables it to accommodate a sizeable screen and the new-fangled zoom bar.

The screen is a generous 3.2 inches across diagonal corners and offers 480 x 800 pixels. It is clear and bright, although does wash out quite badly in sunlight, and when turned on its side for Web browsing offers a good widescreen view.

The zoom bar is a touch sensitive area running across the bottom of the screen. Sweep it to zoom in and out of Web pages, documents and photos, or even text messages and emails. We thought it might have been a bit of a fudge on a device that wanted but was unable to do the iPhone’s pinch to zoom gesture, but it actually worked well. In fact the whole touch screen seems to have undergone a bit of a lift, and in general tapping and sweeping were responsive.

Under the zoom bar is a thin strip of buttons. Call and End buttons, a back button and the new-look Windows start button that’ll feature on all Windows Mobile devices in the future thanks to Microsoft’s desire for some uniform branding.

Press that Windows start button and you get an iPhone-like group of icons for application shortcuts. This also pops up when you tap the standard Start button on screen. In fact HTC has worked harder than ever to hide Windows Mobile behind its own TouchFLO interface, and done a fairly good job. You do get through to Windows Mobile in the end, but can do quite a lot without seeing it.

We like the person-centric approach to handling communications. What this boils down to is being able to message a contact direct from their listing entry and being able to see a complete communications history with any contact regardless of the format in which those communications have taken, with SMS, emails etc all being grouped together by contact.

The 5 megapixel camera lacks a flash and frankly if you are into mobile photography you might want to look elsewhere. But it is decent enough for taking shots to MMS, and is an improvement on the camera in the original Touch Diamond.

The Touch Diamond2 supports HSDPA to 7.2Mbps and has a front camera for two way video calls. An RSS feed reader helps with keeping up to date on news and an accelerometer helps ensure the screen rotates as you turn the device. If you are a real web-junkie you can preset Web pages to load at set intervals so they are there when you want them. HTC calls this ‘push Internet’. It’s of limited practical use – while it loads an individual page in an instant, as soon as you click a link on that page you have to wait once again for it to load.

Media playback is fine and there is a generous 512MB of built in memory with a microSD card under the battery cover for adding more. An FM radio is here for when you get bored of your own tunes, and an equaliser lets you fiddle with sound output. It is a real pity that the headset shares the USB connector with mains power and PC connection. HTC really needs to find space for a 3.5mm slot on its advanced smartphones.

GPS is built in and Google Maps is pre-installed. Battery life is reputedly improved by 50 percent over the original Touch Diamond, and while it still does not match the best on the market it is at least respectable.

The Touch Diamond2 makes improvements in all the areas where its predecessor was lacking, and as a result finally takes its place as one of the most impressive Windows Mobile smartphones available

Essential Verdict
Performance: 8/10
Finger friendly software, wide screen helps a lot

Design: 7/10
A little lacking in class in the looks department, more sturdy than stylish

Features: 9/10
Plenty of innovative extras sitting alongside top end staples

Value for Money: 8/10
Well priced for a leading edge device

Overall score: 9/10

Buy the HTC Touch Diamond2 from DeviceWire

Written by Sandra Vogel. Originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine.

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