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HTC Touch Diamond Review – Familiar Power and Unfamiliar Design Superiority

Any Microsoft Windows users are going to find that the HTC Touch Diamond is highly intuitive and it’s going to be familiar enough to be able to get up to speed very quickly. What will surprise Windows users are the sensibilities that make this design superior.

Just on the power side alone the processor rips along at a pretty fast 528 megahertz. It uses ROM type memory of 256 mega bytes and has 192 megabytes of RAM. Combined with high speed internet using HSDPA the connectivity moves at 384 kilobytes per second on the upload and downloads a whopping 7.2 megabytes per second on the download side.

Impressive.

The makers of this phone brag of the broadband like experience of using this phone and I do have to say that during testing it definitely rivaled my experience of using my power user PC at home. I am looking forward to reading how some of my fellow reviewers faired with it in testing and under what – if any – conditions it failed to deliver that kind of an experience.

There’s the ubiquitous start button that I’ve come to expect from any Windows operating system, and a simple tweak like positioning in the upper, top left hand corner managed to give it a bit of a unique twist. I think its human nature that as much as thrive with standardized development, we do want to see changes that feel like improvements.

The glossy 2.8 inch touch screen is contrasted with the brushed metal finish around it. TouchFLO 3D, HTC’s proprietary touch screen interface, offers tactile feedback to users and is touch-responsive. The interface is designed to specifically give images and videos a more lifelike 3 dimensional feel and is fueled by a 3D graphics processor. I definitely enjoyed the ease with which I was able to play with, select, launch and scroll through using my fingertips, as well as the vivid look as I did.

There are the familiar capabilities including a 3.2 mega pixel camera with video recording capabilities. You also have BlueTooth and WiFi built in, as well as USB support.

The battery allows for up to 330 minutes of talk time, up to 396 hours of standby and up to 145 hours of video call time, depending of course on network and phone usage.

I’ve never actually been a big fan of GPS until I started using it, and now I’m hooked. The GPS is integrated for use with maps software, which allows for a full turn-by-turn satellite navigation experience, something that’s missing from most camera phones bragging about GPS capability. You can even find out the weather, which in many crowded metropolitan areas can be a big factor in traffic congestion.

All this power and familiar technology is packed into a 110 gram package. Not bad.

Overall, I haven’t yet found a good reason to NOT recommend this phone, and am taking a good hard look at changing to it myself. I’ll keep you posted.

About the Author

Andrew Wallis is a gadget geek and loves putting the latest tech toys to the test. Although usually found in whatever part of the store carries the latest and greatest, we can occasionally find him online recommending resources like the latest info on Mobile Phones in the UK

HTC Touch Diamond Review – Familiar Power and Unfamiliar Design Superiority by Andrew Wallis

HTC Touch Diamond Review – This Diamond is Definitely Not in the Rough

Do you ever have days where you just love your job? I’ve appointed myself Technical Review Guru on the Prowl and I have to admit I’ve also had days where the latest mobile phone I was putting through its paces was doing nothing much besides boring me to tears. Useful, functional, does what the tin says – and boring.

And then I have days where I get to review a piece of machinery that has my cynical eyebrow climbing over hyped up advertising words like “exhilarating design” but still has me downright, well – exhilarated to be playing with. And so it goes with the HTC Touch Diamond.

I’m a bit of a soft touch myself for a highly visual design ethic and that was definitely the first thing that leapt out at me about the HTC Touch Diamond. To my geeky eye it was total candy. The 2.8 inch touch screen is framed by brushed metal and features faceted edges, and while I wouldn’t quite call it “stunning”, it is pretty impressive. At the risk of outing myself as a total geek, the shape of the facets reminded me for some reason of the Star Trek Enterprise. Embarrassing – but true.

I guess its also a bad sign of how much of a geek I really am because I’m also highly attracted to cool. I didn’t feel the least bit Trekkie handling the HTC Touch Diamond and instead just loved the slick coolness factor of it.

And in true geek fashion – functionality was a must – and this baby has it in spades. For starters, the high speed internet access is HSDPA. That means that accessing the internet is almost fast enough to have a broadband like feel to it. I was amazed at how easily I was able to even watch videos online, with an ease and a speed that rivaled my highly belled and whistled PC at home.

The built in camera is a perfectly usable 3.2 mega pixels, even for the fairly advanced digital photo enthusiast. The camera is entirely auto focused, which may be a plus for some and a drawback for others, since it doesn’t allow for any kind of a manual override.

The 4 gigabytes of onboard storage space are a personal must in my complicated world. That means that I won’t be spending more time and energy that I should be managing my data, files, music, photos and videos. The extra elbow room for storage instead means that I’ll be managing my goals and objectives and using the phone to meet them. That’s a bare level minimum demand that I personally have for the technology that I use; it has to be a partner in producing my goals.

The touch screen itself brags that it has 4 times the resolution of most screens, and I did find it lovely to use and to look at. During testing the screen proved to be sensitive and I do find that the touch responsive screens help me to work more efficiently.

I have some more testing to do, but so far I can say that this phone is worth a closer look.

About the Author

Andrew Wallis is a gadget geek and loves putting the latest tech toys to the test. Although usually found in whatever part of the store carries the latest and greatest, we can occasionally find him online recommending resources like the latest info on Mobile Phones in the UK

HTC Touch Diamond Review – This Diamond is Definitely Not in the Rough by Andrew Wallis

Dual Sim Mobile Phones

Dual sim mobile phones are gaining popularity and their need is felt in the Asian markets above the European market. The dual sim card phones work on both the networks simultaneously and are used by people who want to have two numbers but don’t want to carry two phones. In the Indian phone market the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology has a fair reach but the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) or better known as the sim card technology has a preferred appeal.

The CDMA service providers have reduced call rates for their consumers but have an inferior network reach over the GSM technology. Hence dual sim card phones are also designed to support one CDMA network and the other, a GSM network. The dual sim phones in India were first launched by Spice mobile phones. They pioneered in providing a reasonably good handset which used the dual sim technology. They garnered immense popularity for their dual sim phone launch and have been synonymous with this phone technology.

The common drawback of these dual sim phones is the battery life. The switching of the networks reduces the battery life and it is inconvenient for the user to charge the phone every few hours, if you use it extensively. These dual sim mobiles try to pack in the multimedia features but they are not up to the mark. Hence a dual sim phone serves only the purpose of a plain phone supporting 2 networks and the other features are not attractive.

Samsung Mobile also launched a couple of dual sim card phones. They have received appreciation for the ease of operations and the smooth navigation between the networks. The dual sim card mobile phones are very promising and they have a huge potential market. The dual sim card provides for the comfort of using two numbers at the same time. It gives you the ease of switching between networks at your convenience. It also provides with the comfort of attaining calls and messages from both networks simultaneously.

These dual sim mobile phones are pricey and are usually above the entry level mark. They have now started sporting different forms such as clamshell and slider designs. They are more popular in the Asian markets and are gaining relevance in the European markets. There are varieties of dual sim mobiles such as twin CDMA supporting phones, CDMA and GSM networks support phones or twin GSM network phones. You can choose the one that best suits your needs and fits your budget.

About the Author

Pooja Lapasia is a reputed author and has written her views on mobile phones, digital camera, online shopping, gifts and many other topics

Dual Sim Mobile Phones by Pooja Lapasia