t e c h i e - t a l k s ::: technology at its best

After one whole day of messing around with the HTC Touch Diamond, it’s probably time to give my opinion on the performance of the HTC Touch Diamond retail set. Since this is the first time I’m using a smartphone with a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, I’ll try to give an opinion to the best of my knowledge on smartphones.

Aesthetics

Looks wise, the HTC Diamond is really very sleek. It weighs like an average “candy-bar” handphone and is as thin as most of the candy-bar phones you’d find in the market. The HTC Touch Diamond makes the Nokia N-series look tremendously overweight and makes the iPhone feel too fat to hold. It’s thin & sleek design makes it perfect for users to slip it in their pocket like any other small candy-bar phone; minus the unflattering bulge you’d get from the Nokia N-series.

With the Touchflow-3D, the HTC Touch Diamond takes the Windows mobile interface to the next level. This sleek looking dock makes navigation a breeze and takes the bore of scrolling through messages, videos and photos (I’m sure all of you have seen the videos). The interface is watered down version of iPhone’s stylish interface but it does the job of impressing me.

However, the HTC Touch Diamond’s beauty is also it’s flaw. The sleek black-glossy look attracts hideous fingerprints which is difficult to clean.

On top of that, the stylish interface is the major cause of the Touch Diamond’s software issues. One of the most irritating problem, in my opinion, is the erratic screen freeze after one start up his/her phone. The phone will “hang” at the “Tap here to launch Tuchflow-3D” screen and you’ve got to restart your phone and try again (there was once I nearly took 10+ minutes to switch on the phone successfully). The other nitty thing is the “lag-time” of the interface that I had discussed earlier. It is a split second lag but at times, it does get to my nerves whenever it freezes. Thus, it was not an entirely positive experience with the HTC Touch Diamond’s aesthetics - unlike publicized by many websites prior to the launch.

Performance

I’m generally quite happy with the HTC Touch Diamond’s performance. Most of the applications and hardware work “out-of-the-box”, which is rare when it comes to complicated embedded devices like the smartphones. I’ve tested the WiFi and it worked seamlessly with Wireless@SG and the pre-installed Opera browser was churning websites out with ease. It was easy to sync bluetooth devices with the HTC Touch Diamond. In fact, it was too easy that I almost became too lazy to sync the HTC Touch Diamond with a USB-cable connection. I haven’t tried the 3.5G connection yet (I’m waiting for my new SIM-card to be activated) and neither have I tried the GPS (but I’ve heard that the GPS does not work properly without some tweaks).

What I love about this phone is it’s applications. It came with the complete Office Mobile (Words, Powerpoint and Excel), Adobe reader, Mail client, an easy to use appointment manager, flash player, media player and lots more! And it all work out-of-the-box! It must be HTC’s first ever model to have most of the hardware & software work at time of launch.

However, there are a few things that made me a little uncomfortable using the phone. Firstly, the volume of the voice-calls is inconsistent. I get a soft & choppy voice-calls whenever I’m in the midst of completing an SMS message. At other times, the voice-calls are clear & crisp. As of now, the FM player does not work. Reception is non-existent, even with popular local channels like Class 95 and Perfect 10. It could be some settings that I may have overlooked. For now, IT IS NOT WORKING!

Verdict

The reason why I say that the phone is not for the faint hearted is because of the effort needed to make the phone work for you. Some of the aforementioned problems can be solved by tweaking the HTC Touch Diamond. This involves installing third party programs and messing with the OS’ registries. It’s not that difficult (well at first it did look quite daunting) but it could pose problems to those who aren’t familiar with tweaking phones for better performance. After tweaking, I found that the Touchflow-3D is more responsive with minimal lag-time. However, the screen-freeze at the start of launching the phone still persists (although less occasionally now).

Overall, I’d say that the phone is near great but not spectacular. I’m quite disappointed because from the advert videos and reviews, the phone seemed to have no problems at all. The number of complain threads in mobile forums are growing as more people succumb to the beauty of the HTC Touch Diamond. I guess it’s normal when it comes to phones that are “fresh from the factory”. Give it a little more time and slowly, the issues will be ironed out with upcoming updates.

But the more I use the HTC Touch Diamond, the more I’m loving it. The HTC Touch Diamond may take sometime to get used to (the different available keyboards for SMS-ing for example) but it’s worth the trouble. To those who think that the HTC Touch Diamond is an iPhone killa’ - I’m sure you’d take back your words! I’m not saying that the iPhone is better but there are some perks found in the HTC Touch Diamond that can’t be found in the iPhone (and vice-versa). If you want to get this phone, I’ll suggest you to wait a lil longer. Maybe by that time, the HTC Touch PRO (Diamond’s “upgraded model”) will be out!

For now, I’ll just enjoy my spoils! Maybe I’ll post some HOW-TOs when I’m free! Cheers!