HTC Touch Diamond 2 Review

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HTC Touch Diamond 2
★★★★☆
3.7
From 5 reviews
80.0% of users recommend this
  • Screen Quality

  • Battery Life

  • Features

  • Reception

  • Style

  • Value For Money

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Jasonnaicker's review of HTC Touch Diamond 2

“I got this phone as an upgrade on T-Mobile where its...”

★★★★☆

written by Jasonnaicker on 19/06/2009

Good Points
Incredible screen, easy to install apps, easy to transfer info and music, clever little case, ooooooh factor when you leave it on your desk

Bad Points
Call quality not too good, ringtones too quiet, internet is a little intermittent, no voice dialling, abysmal battery, fingerprint magnet

General Comments
I got this phone as an upgrade on T-Mobile where its called the "Compact V".



I've used the T-Mobile MDA and Varios now for quite a while (started with a Compact III, then went to the Vario (aka HTC TYTNII)) so I'm used to the brand.



I was given the phone as an upgrade from a Nokia E71 (to be honest the E71 changed my opinion of Nokias from toys to serious business phone).



I've had the Diamond 2/Compact V for a couple of days now so the "new toy" shine is beginning to fade, I'll be honest I'm pretty hard on phones so this review is going to be "warts and all".



Undoing the T-Mobile box you get a screen protector which is a bit more solid than previously given but I would suggest lining it up along the long side when you fit it as the screen is flush mounted so it's easy to put it on crooked. There is a spare stylus and a clever little case which you can slide the phone into from either end but a little piece of ribbon stops it from falling out the other end but no belt loop so it just stops the phone from getting scraped in your pocket.



The plus points are that HTC have improved the front end - so the windows element is hidden, good in some ways but not in others (told you I was awkward!). It is almost as smooth as the iPhone there is a little lagginess but it is only very slight, it gets worse if you have a couple of applications open but still serviceable. I have found the on-screen keyboard a bit awkward as the keys at the extreme edges don't always get pressed so I have resorted to using the stylus to press some keys (although the transcriber is very good if you're going to use the stylus). I like the fact that customising the start menu is very easy although if you're walking and not thinking it is easy to accidentally delete an item from the start menu (just as easy to put it back though).



Legibility in sunlight is very good on a par with or possibly better than the E71 (yes the sun has been shining - I've got a new phone so everything is right in the world!)



Ringtone volume however is poor, if it's in a trouser pocket in its case you won't hear it as you walk down the high road - so make sure you have it vibrate as well and/or keep it in a shirt pocket. I am going to tinker with some customised ringtones to see if that makes it any better.



Call quality is the important bit - I can hear others perfectly although I have had a couple of people complain about it "echoing" but that could be a reception/network issue, the internet also plays up occasionally, but this could be the same problem. The speaker isn't as loud as the E71 so I have to press it against my ear, although HTC haven't got the Samsung problem of disconnecting when it touches you (I've written a review of the F480 Tocco). Cleverly though the HTC turns the screen on when you take it away from your face so putting in a PIN number for phone banking is easy - guess they improved that after the TYTN2 got a lot of criticism.



On the down side I do use my phone in the car (and before you start tutting - it's with a hands free Jabra) - the problem is the E71 had a very good voice dialling feature, my old Sony Ericsson did too, and the TYTN2 let you assign "voice tags" in a way similar to the first Nokia phones - unfortunately the Diamond2 doesn't seem to have this feature so I now have to get a cradle and finger dial - but fortunately you can set "favourite contacts" on a carousel type feature so you just have to press the top button and scroll down (a way round this is to have it plugged into the car charger and set it so that it doesn't "sleep" when on external power).



The problem of it being a finger print magnet is the same with all touchscreen phones - the T-Mobile verson has a nice matt back rather than the polished steel of the E71 which also attracted fingerprints and grot which got caught into the etching.



The big downside is that the battery life is poor - although it is slowly improving, it is possible that this is one of those batteries which works better after a few charges - time will tell - on the plus side when you connect it to a PC to sync with the USB cable it will charge as well (the E71 didn't).



The headphones use the silly mini USB connector - so time to dig out the adapter as the supplied phones aren't brilliant (they don't block out the noise of the train or the half-wits wittering on about last nights TV). That mini USB connector is also used for charging so if you've got an old Motorola charger you'll be fine.



The camera seems faster than the Nokia N96 (my wife has one of these) and is a big improvement over the previous HTC phones but there isn't a flash and it isn't a replacement for a real camera but its good for those unexpected shots, just ensure that you put the camera feature onto the start menu to make it nice and easy to find. The shutter is fired by touching the screen button which takes a little getting used to and touching the screen/viewfinder means you can change the point of focus so a pic of the kids next to a landmark means you can focus on them and not have the camera blur them and focus on the scenery instead.



The T-Mobile ad promises "free" sat-nav - not so - its only if you've got a "Combi" package and I've got a "FlexT" - if you call T-Mobile they give you the phone number of ALK (the makers of Co-Pilot) who will sell you an upgrade package- erm thanks but I'll just keep using my old TomTom in the car as it's louder and erm free! if I use the sat nav on a phone its only for walking to a visit or back to the station - download Google Maps instead - its free and fast. The satnav on the phone is remarkable - finds the satellite faster than my old TomTom, but the speaker is too quiet to make it a viable replacement, so it's only useful for walking and cycling.



If the speaker was better, the battery life improved, and voice dialling was present it'd be a lot better

  • Value For Money

  • Battery Life

  • Less than a Week

    Time Phone Owned

  • Screen Quality

  • Features

  • Reception

  • Style

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