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Review of HTC Touch Diamond2 June 07, 2009 [Pocket PC phone] | By Edward J. R. HTC Touch Diamond2 is a great phone and apart from HTC Touch Pro2, it is the only phone that is getting official upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5, so you can buy it now, without the fear of buying a phone that soon will become outdated. Obviously, if you prefer a phone with QWERTY keyboard, then HTC Touch Pro2 is the better choice, but if you are one of those people who like touch-screen-only phones, Diamond2 might be for you! HTC Touch Diamond2 has 5 megapixel camera, that is working very fast and that has fantastic "touch-to-focus" feature: 
To see how "touch-to-focus" works, see this photo with SIM cards where we touched the Swiss SIM card (upper left corner) to get focus on it. It worked! This camera has autofocus and takes very nice pictures. To see another example of a photo taken with this camera, click here. When it comes to display it is very nice - quite big and it offers ultra-high 800x480 resolution: 
You can notice above, that there is no cursor keys and only 4 keys: phone call start, Windows key, back key and phone call end key. Apart from that, there is a zooming bar under the display, that works for example in Opera Mobile browser. The "Windows key" is a requirement for hardware manufacturers to be able to run Windows Mobile 6.5 - requirement imposed by Microsoft. The backside of HTC Touch Diamond2 is very flat so the phone is not wobbling when placed on a table: 
The battery is bigger this time (1100 mAh): 
... and the SIM card is under battery: 
The SD card socket (microSD, supports up to 32 GB) is placed on the side of the phone (see also video review below!) and it can be exchanged without the need to pull out the battery, but one needs to take out the cover only (but phone still can operate then). The power button is on the top and it works very well, i.e. even light press works: 
At the bottom one can find ExtUSB proprietary connector that provides charging (compatible with miniUSB), synching and headset connection (special headset required): 
On the left side one can see volume buttons: 
On the right side one can see a speaker and a stylus (it is not magnetic): 
Interestingly a very comfortable case is included, that on one side holds the phone: 
... and on the other side is open for access: 
HTC Touch Diamond2 features HTC TouchFLO 3D extension: 
... that is an overlay over Windows Mobile, designed to make usage more pleasant and more consistent. The behavior when user presses "Windows" symbol on the screen or the Widnows hardware button is such that it simulates Windows Mobile 6.5, i.e. a set of icons is presented: 
If you are interested how it will look like in Windows Mobile 6.5, here it is: 
Since Diamond2 will get official (100% confirmed) upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5, it means that HTC wanted simply to make the experience of using program launching a bit similar to Windows Mobile 6.5. HTC has written many programs that have a look and feel of HTC TouchFLO 3D, what is not a bad thing because it gives consistent user experience and nice transition effects (for example when moving the finger on the display from the bottom to the top): 
The "vibrate device when call is connected" feature is also included: 
... and it makes phone calling a total pleasure! You simply don't have to look at the display if you are connected but you can keep redialing until you get the vibration. By the way: vibrations are also occuring when moving around the HTC TouchFLO 3D user interface and when typing on the virtual keyboard: 
... that is comfortable to use. Since Windows Mobile 6.5 will be released to manufacturing by Microsoft in September 2009, Diamond2 is still powered by Widnows Mobile 6.1 (as of June 2009 - when we wrote this review): 
Advantages:
* * * * * See also: our video review of HTC Touch Diamond2 (2 parts: software and hardware!), our comparison of HTC Touch Diamond2 with HTC Touch Diamond and finally the official product page of HTC Touch Diamond2. * * * * * Special thanks to Eric Lin from HTC, John Szymanski from Nelson Bostock and Sarah Behan from Nelson Bostock - for arranging the loaner unit for this review.  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 2 Comments ]
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