HTC Touch Diamond (CDMA)
Phone Scoop Review
Oct 3, 2008 by Eric M. Zeman
HTC offers up a CDMA version of its Touch Diamond for Sprint. It is a mixed bag of HTC goodness and Windows Mobile madness. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Awesome Phone
I will admit, there is a learning curve for this phone and this is my FIRST Pocket PC phone, I had the Muziq until today.
Pros: The net is really fast (EVDO REV A), pics (for me) are nice, VERY CUSTOMIZABLE, ability to silence phone but have alarm still go off. ABILITY TO CHOOSE MULTIPLE INPUT STYLES, really good call quality, much better than what I'm used to. Sprint PICTURE MAIL built in for the first time for a smartphone.
CONS- a lot of these are for first time touchscreen users: Screen Protector mulls volume (at least for me), I've accidentally hung up a few times due to the location of the end call button, touchscreen can be either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Compact Qwerty is a bit cramped, but I'm used to t9 so I'm going to use it for the time being until I learn Qwerty on a phone.
Don't be fooled, i'm more descriptive about the cons but those are the only ones I can find right now that stick out. Again, this is my first Pocket PC so I must get used to it. I suppose that longtime users will have no troubles with this phone.
Almost There...
Positives: gorgeous screen, very compact phone. Opera browser and You-tube app are nice. Accelerometer is OK. WM6.1
Cons: If you're a heavy email user the TF3D gets to be a pain. The preview mode doesn't let you do anything but flick through the previews. To delete them you have to go into the WM interface by clicking on the In-box button first or tapping the email to open that message (something I inadvertently do a lot when trying to flick). Also I have four exchange accounts (3 are via IMAP) and all four are just single, small, unlabeled e icons. They do show an unread mail indicator, a yellow circle with the number of unread emails).
The weather screen doesn't allow you to enter in specific city, you can only select from the list of cities pre-installed with the app.
The touch interface is not as smooth/responsive as the iPhone.
I wish you could reorganize the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
Speaking about the buttons... the buttons are all flush with the surface on the side which makes them really hard to find by feel. The buttons on the front are really just pressure sensitive areas which are as bad since it's just the four corners around the wheel. I don't know if it's just my unit but for some reason it's extremely difficult to press the left side of the wheel, I have to press it really hard and it feels like there's something underneath that side (like a wire?). It's also a challenge to press the center of the wheel (it's a small freakin' circle) without accidentally pressing the up, down, or right sides of the wheel.
Which reminds me of the camera... to take a picture you press the center of the wheel which tells the phone to start the auto-focus process (a small square blinks white on the screen, when it turns green the phone takes the picture. So basically about two to four seconds after pressing the button, if you don't accidentally press the side of the wheel and go into video mode, the phone takes the picture.
Rivals iPhone...
Awesome phone which rivals the iPhone. I have been searching for a phone which could login to my brokerage account and actually place a trade like the iPhone and this phone is it!!! I tried the Blackberrys which I could login however I could not place the trade and until now the iPhone was the only one that could do this with the Safari browser. The Opera browser which the Touch Diamond uses is every bit as good. The interface on the iPhone is still a little better though I must admit however this one's on a par with the iPhone. The Diamond shoots video has a 3.2 megapixel camera which are better than the iPhone. However it is not as user-friendly I think like the iPhone. I still can't figure out how to use the GPS which Sprint offers which I probably have to go read the directions. The only other thing is the battery does not last so long - sort of reminds me of the HTC Shadow which I had previously with T-Mobile - these HTC batteries are the worst I've used. However this phone features are EXCELLENT!!! I am quite happy with this phone when compared with the iPhone!!!
Best phone ever
I love this phone. I used to have the Palm Centro and this makes the Centro look like crap.
Would be good, except for Windows
This would be a great phone if it wasn't for Windows Mobile under the hood. I'm a techie and work in PC and Mac worlds, although I prefer Mac. There hasn't been a piece of hardware I couldn't figure out in a flew minutes until I met HTC Diamond running Windows Mobile.
I am utterly frustrated. Even the most straight forward processes are difficult, if not impossible. The phone gets confused and bogged down.
HTC made a cool phone and the TouchFlow UI is a pretty piece of work. The phone is a slick 'looking' machine, I gotta tell you. But I am returning it tomorrow.
I'll buy another HTC for sure when they get Windows Mobile out it. This company is doing cool stuff. Keep an eye on them.
Big Disappointment
I tried this phone for a week and finally returned it. After reading the reviews on this phone I thought it was going to be the next best thing to sliced bread. What a big disappointment.
Pros
-VGA screen (best feature)
-Camera
Cons
-battery life
-screen too small to use properly
-typing with the keyboard on screen very difficult
-back cover color (not my thing)
-touchflo difficult to use because of size of screen. Not that accurate.
My advice is to wait for the next generation with hopefully a bigger screen so that the touchflo works better.
DIamond is A great phone
This is a lovely phone [...] keyboard is great everything Is awesome.
Ed. note: removed response to other review
way have a phone that has to be pluged in?
Phone is way over rated
pros
camera is great best iv seen
screen is great
easy to use
cons
NO BATTERY LIFE
keep a charger on hand
The only thing Hot about this phone is the Battery!
I have two major complaints about this phone:
1. Battery Life is terrible
Battery gets very very hot
2. Drops calls frequently in places I never
drop calls with Sprint
This phone is all flash and no substance. The touch screen works poorly when emailing &/or texting. If you use your phone to talk or text/email on it it will not work well.
I have had several Sprint Phones & never get dropped like I do on this phone.
To the person who said the Diamond is better than an iphone - you don't know what you are talking about. Dream on!
Nice phone, but returning it.
The phone is very nice. It does everything...which is why I am returning it and just sticking with my Katana that I have had for over 2 years.
PROS:
Phone is compact and has all the features of a true SmartPhone.
Call quality is superior
CONS:
For me, it's just simply too much phone. I am surprised because I am a tech gadget but the phone is just too much.
Too many redundant features. Text messaging is very difficult to navigate.
