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HTC Touch Diamond2 Smartphone Review

Author	Niall Magennis
Published	20th May 2009
Manufacturer	HTC
Price	£376.80 (Exc VAT)
as reviewed	£442.74 (Inc VAT)
Latest Price	Click here

Design
Features
Performance
Value
Overall

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Another area where this model scores highly over its predecessor is the screen. As we've already seen, the Diamond2's 3.2in display fills pretty much the whole of the front face of the phone. Colours look excellent and the screen is nice and bright so it's easy to read outdoors. The resolution is 480 x 800 pixels - the same as on the Touch HD's 3.8in screen - and text and graphics look just as sharp. However, the screen is resistive rather than the capacitive type used by the HTC Magic and iPhone and as such is less accurate and responsive when registering finger presses - something which is especially noticeable in the Opera web browser where it can sometimes take three or four presses on smaller links for the handset to respond correctly.

Despite this, the Diamond2's onscreen keyboard works surprisingly well. In part this is because HTC has redesigned the keyboard so now when you press a key a pop-up graphic of the letter or number appears above it (just as on the iPhone's virtual keyboard). The phone also vibrates slightly when a key is pressed to give you a little bit more feedback. These additions, along with the XT9 predictive text system helps speed up text entry.

The list of smartphones with pretty ho-hum cameras is surprisingly long, but thankfully HTC has just managed to keep the Diamond2 off that list. While its not right up there with the very best snappers from say Sony Ericsson's Cybershot range, it is significantly better than most you see on today's smartphones. For starters, it has a decent 5-megapixel resolution and also packs in autofocus. As a result, shots taken outdoors look reasonably sharp and detailed. There are also some neat features in the cameraphone app such as the ability to stitch together shots to create quick panoramas. However, the snapper is let down somewhat by its longish shutter lag and lack of a flash.

One of the key features that this handset boasts over previous HTC models is the touch-sensitive zoom bar that sits under the screen. It works in most of the key applications including the picture viewer, Google Maps app and the Opera web browser. It's not quite as good as having the iPhone's multi-touch pinch to zoom feature, but it's probably the nearest thing to it in terms of usability, and really does make a massive difference when using the browser. The usefulness of being able to quickly slide the zoom control to resize text and graphics on web pages really shouldn't be underestimated.

Latest 4 of 19 Comments

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Nicholas Pires said on 2nd June 2009

I've had this phone since the beginning of April and have to say it is fantastic. It's my first window mobile phone and have to say I'm very impressed. Even used its... more

AlexRat said on 29th July 2009

In the video it's mentioned that you have to scroll through every screen. I've read/seen this mentioned about the original Diamond and it simply wasn't true.
... more

Donald said on 6th October 2009

Now if we can get HTC to get off their collective butts and pay Qualcomm for the video acceleration drivers it and the rest of the TP series would be truely a work of art. But till... more

John said on 4th November 2009

I bought my phone from Handtec in May. The screen is fantastic and I rarely have to reset it - a big improvement over older phones. Video streaming works a treat and the built in YouTube app is great. Sound quality is fine and it is handy to be able to pull the micro SD storage card in and out without resetting the phone. So far, I haven't had a problem with software running off the storage card locking up after the phone has been in standby mode - a big irritation with WM5.

A few gripes and 1 major ISSUE:
- Touch Flo looks great but irritates as it takes more steps to get to all the detail of a contact, diary, etc. I end up working around Touch Flo rather than using it much
- The HTC browser looks great but doesn't seem to work that well. Big delays and oversensitive zoom slider. I end up using Internet Explorer - much better than earlier versions but still nothing like as good as iphone browser
- Touchflo has a nice feature on contacts where commonly used contacts can be selected and listed on the top Contacts screen. Unfortunately the PC sync software regularly loses its mind and does a complete re-sync, overwriting these selections on the phone. Looks nice but I have lost patience reinstating them every couple of weeks and now just ignore it.
- Typing with the stylus is quite slow as you need quite a lot of pressure to get the phone to register your key presses
- The camera is very slow and the lack of flash makes it pretty useless indoors
- The headphone socket is combined with the mini USB sync/charge socket is a HTC variation of the mini USB plug. You need to use HTC headphones or buy an adapter - cheap on Ebay but a little annoying
- The casing and screen are very sensitive to finger prints – I end up wiping it constantly. The screen is pretty useless in sunlight.
- MAJOR WATCHOUT: The reset button is under the back cover. Right next to this is a recessed casing screw with an anti-tamper 'void' sticker. It is very easy to stick the stylus into the screw instead of the button by mistake. I found out the very expensive consequence (£70) when the touch screen developed a fault after only a few weeks. I then spend many more weeks arguing with Handtec and HTC to no avail - I had to pay up. HTC even emailed a photo of the damaged 'void' sticker which had pretty clearly never had a screwdriver in it. There is very little clearance inside the casing to put tape over the screw hole and if you block the hole with something you would again risk damaging the sticker in some way. All this would be avoided if the 'void' sticker were simply put on a different screw. If I were cynical I might think this was deliberate to avoid paying out for warranty claims!
- The phone Handtec provided is apparently an Eastern European model. I found this out when I tried to download the Win 6.5 upgrade and was refused. A support call to HTC clarified why. Apparently the E European version will be released later in Nov.

I bought my phone from Handtec in May. The screen is fantastic and I rarely have to reset it - a big improvement over older phones. Video streaming works a treat and the built in... more

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