HTC Touch Diamond: the best anti 3G iPhone device so far?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 09 June 2008 13:12

Your IT - Mobility

The competing i-mate Ultimate 9502 device beats the HTC Touch Diamond’s data capabilities by being 7.2 up and 1.9 down, although the i-mate only has the standard Window Mobile interface, not the otherwise very cool HTC Touch Diamond interface.

But at least the HTC Touch Diamond can be used as a wireless modem for your computer, like all Windows Moible devices, whether through Bluetooth or via a USB connection at HSDPA speeds. It’s more than can be said for the iPhone – unless Steve Jobs makes the 3G iPhone usable as a wireless modem, too.

The screen is 2.8-inches, as opposed to the 2G iPhone’s 3.5-inches. Rumours suggest the 3G iPhone might only have a 3.2-inch screen, but that’s yet to be confirmed. Either way, the HTC Touch Diamond looks like it will have a smaller screen that either iPhone, but by most mobile phone standards, it’s still a very big screen.

There’s Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and the now virtually obligatory GPS and A-GPS which are fast becoming standard, must have features for any smart phone these days,

Precisely which software powers the GPS for spoken navigation is unknown at this stage - if anything beyond Google Maps which doesn't as yet do voice nav - but I'm very happy to see GPS included as standard.

Battery life is rated at up to 270 minutes for WCDMA (3G) and up to 330 minutes for GSM (2G). Standby time is up to 396 hours for WCDMA and up to 285 hours for GSM, although quite why GSM gets fewer standby hours that WCDMA is odd - perhaps HTC made a misprint, it's normally the other way around.

Video call time is up to 145 minutes, and is obviously only available when connected to WCDMA.

There's also a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus but sadly no flash, a secondary VGA front camera for video calls, an FM radio, speakerphone and a USB connection for power, data transfer and audio in one.

Sadly the audio goes through the USB connection. Why oh why wasn’t a 3.5mm headphone socket good enough to also include? I know that USB is supposed to deliver better audio than a 3.5mm socket, but phone manufacturers should honestly be banned from releasing any phone, with or without a music player, ever, unless it has a 3.5mm headphone socket!!!

Man, if I had Cylons at my disposal, they’d be sent to the manufacturing plant of every phone maker on the planet, and sent to pay the CEO of every phone manufacturer a ‘visit’ in their comfy HQ office suites, and amazingly, every phone would suddenly have a 3.5mm headphone socket, just like that. Cylons do have their uses. But sadly, they don’t exist. Such a shame.

So, after all of that, the HTC Touch Diamond looks to nevertheless being the best 3G iPhone competitor. There is also the HTC Touch Pro to consider, with its built-in keyboard – it might give the i-mate Ultimate 9502 more of a run for its money.

But the HTC Touch Diamond is a “fashion phone” that will elicit plenty of oohs and ahs, will still do all the Outlook and other “business” synchronisation needed for work, and as a response to the iPhone, it’s a giant step in the right direction for Windows Mobile phones.

It sets HTC apart from its Windows Mobile competition, although the Sony Ericsson Experia is another device to keep an eye on, while existing Windows Mobile devices such as those from i-mate and others can get a massive visual upgrade today by the application of the very cool SPB Mobile Shell.