HTC Touch Diamond2 Preview
BY: Ed Hardy, Brighthand.com Editor
The HTC Touch Diamond2 will, obviously, be the replacement for a smartphone that was introduced last year. While it will have generally the same tablet design as its predecessor, this upcoming Windows phone will have a larger, higher-resolution display.
I recently was able to get some time with a pre-release version of this device, and I recorded a short video preview of it:
First Thoughts
The Touch Diamond2 seems like a nice but somewhat uninteresting smartphone. It has some decent features, but there’s nothing about it that really grabs the attention. When I was checking out this device, I was with a group of editors from a variety of phone-related websites, and few of them gave the Diamond2 a second glance, as they were too busy looking at the HTC Touch Pro2, with its larger screen and built-in keyboard.
It didn’t help that the prototype we were looking at used a particularly unattractive grey plastic casing.
Still, this upcoming model is a nice improvement over its predecessor. The screen is both bigger and has a higher resolution. And it’s obvious HTC has put a lot of work into improving the user interface. The lag we saw with previous version of TouchFLO 3D appears to be a thing of the past.
An Overview of the HTC Touch Diamond2
This model will have a simple tablet shape that’s focused on its 3.2-inch WVGA (800 by 480 pixel) touchscreen, a jump up from the VGA screen on the original. Below this will be a new touch-sensitive zoom bar.
It will debut running Windows Mobile 6.1, but HTC has committed to an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 when this new version is available.
This phone will use a new version of HTC’s TouchFLO 3D user interface which has been more deeply integrated into Windows Mobile to deliver more consistency throughout applications and menus. Focused on making navigation easier with a fingertip, TouchFLO 3D offers quicker access to contacts, messaging, email, photos, music, and weather than Microsoft’s standard UI.
The hardware at the heart of this smartphone will be near the high end: a 528 MHz processor from Qualcomm, 288 MB of RAM, and a microSD card slot.
There will definitely be a GSM version of the Touch Diamond2 with 3G, and a CDMA version with EV-DO is also likely. Both are expected to have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS
Unlike its predecessor, which chose 4 GB of built-in storage over a removable memory card, the upcoming model will have a microSD slot, giving it potentially much greater storage capacity.
The Touch Diamond2 will also have a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera and an 1100 mAh rechargeable battery.
It will be a relatively small device: 4.25 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide, and 0.5 inches thick. It will weigh 4.15 ounces with battery.
