Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Here it is: the latest and greatest from HTC in their Touch line, the Touch Diamond2. [Affiliate] This Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 smartphone has a 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A processor, 288 MB of RAM, 512 MB of ROM, and a gorgeous 3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with a massive 480 X 800 WVGA screen resolution.

This is a 3G GSM phone, featuring HSDPA/WCDMA on the Europe/Asia frequencies of 900/2100 MHz. It's a quad-band 2G: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz are supported. It also has a built-in GPS, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus (no flash). There's a small front-facing VGA camera for video calling, and a microSDHC slot allows you to expand the storage memory on the device. Oh, and there's an FM radio and G-Sensor (accelerometre) as well.

It weighs 117.5 grams (4.15 ounces) with the batter, is 4.25 inches tall (107.85mm), 2.09 inches wide (53.1mm), and 0.54 inches thick (13.7mm). The 1100mAh battery allows for 300 minutes of talk time (3G) or 340 minutes of talk time (2G).

Keen on the new HTC Touch Pro2? [Affiliate] Chris Leckness over at MobilitySite put together a 26 minute video - wow, 26 minutes! That's a lot of detail to chew on - check it out!

My friend Chris Leckness over at MobilitySite got his hands on a Touch Diamond2 [Affiliate] and does a 17 minute walkthrough video of the device. Chris does a few size comparisons and gives the viewer a great overview of what you get. This device looks great - or, rather, the device that works as a 3G device in North America will be great...we just have to keep on waiting for it.

"When a product proves to be a success, it´s fairly logical it sooner or later gets a successor. As it name suggests, the HTC Touch Diamond2 comes out to lend some more color to the otherwise nice, but aging model that was released last year. Hitting the shelves less than a year after its predecessor first appeared, the new smart phone doesn´t feature any ground-breaking novelties, but rather picks us where the previous model left off improving on blunders HTC made with the predecessor. It seems the model has gotten a bit fatter, but it sports larger screen, more powerful battery and system memory and has got an expansion slot."

phoneArea.com always has extremely detailed reviews, and this one is no exception: they take a really detailed look at the HTC Touch Diamond2 [Affiliate]. Their verdict? It's a bit of a mixed bag - they don't like the new "boring" look compared to the design of the first-gen Touch Diamond, and say it's difficult to see the screen in direct sunlight. That's a legitimate complaint, but I've yet to see a Windows Mobile device with a screen that's sunlight-friendly. Even OLED screens aren't sunlight friendly. Those minor complaints aside, phoneArea.com gives the Touch Diamond2 a 9/10 rating and it looks like it's ready for Windows Mobile 6.5 when it comes out later this year.

"Yesterday I managed to get my hands on a pre-release version of the Diamond2 which I'm going to use to start off my review of the handset. This pre-release unit is final hardware but there will be a few more tweaks to the ROM before the final version goes on sale in the next few days. I've had the Diamond2 for less than 24 hours so far and I have to say that I like what I see. I'm happy that the back is now flat rather than angular like the original Diamond and despite the larger screen, larger battery and the inclusion of the MicroSD card socket HTC have managed to keep the overall size and weight down so that it's not much bigger or heavier than the Diamond and still retains the slim-appeal."

Salivating over the forthcoming HTC Touch Diamond2? Then you'll enjoy this 18 minute long video that goes into great detail on this new device. I was shocked to see how quickly it booted up - evidently HTC has figured out a fairly major optimization here since it's still Windows Mobile 6.1, not 6.5. All in all, looks like a nice device - especially that screen resolution. Our affiliate partner Expansys is selling the Diamond2, Euro/Asia 3G frequencies, for $574.99 USD.

"There's a reason companies around the world often go to HTC when they need to outsource handsets - they're without a doubt among the best when it comes to build, form and design. This year at CTIA, the HTC Snap announced this morning was the only new addition the company showed off, but that doesn't mean we can't take another look at two of the most exciting upcoming handsets currently on deck too, right? Hit the jump and get your gawk on."

Want to have a look at some of the new models HTC have come up with? Boy Genius Report dropped in at the HTC booth at CTIA and took some nice snaps (pun intended) of three upcoming models, including the Snap, Touch Pro2 and Touch Diamond2. Hit the link for the gallery.

"While HTC's press didn't deliver on our Android dreams -- or electric sheep -- it did land us the new Touch Diamond2. First off, this set is a stunner, build quality and feel in your hand is really a quality affair. The material choices in both metal and plastics used here are really first rate -- we gush because we're rather impressed."

Ah, those lucky Engadget guys! They got their mitts on the new Touch Diamond2 we posted about on Monday. One-man trade-show camera work is tricky, so unfortunately much of the video of what's happening on the screen of the Touch Diamond2 is blurry - but you still get a good feel for the size of the device and the responsiveness of the user interface. And speaking of size, the original Touch Diamond was 11.3 mm thick, while this new one is 13.7mm thick - 2mm doesn't sound like a lot, but combined with the 0.25 inches of extra length and the two-tone body, the Touch Diamond2 looks thicker in the hand than the orignal unit. Getting the boost in resolution, and a microSD card slot, is probably worth it though.

"I like the new Windows Mobile 6.5 interface, specially the new home screen, which is brilliantly executed. Running on the new HTC Touch Diamond 2, everything looked smoother, cleaner, and matched the iPhone's lick factor."

Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo was lucky enough to get a little touchy feely time with not only Windows Mobile 6.5 but also the HTC Touch Diamond2. From what we can see from the video posted on Gizmodo, the new version of Windows Mobile looks really nifty, though a bit sluggish at times. It is my understanding that the platform is not production ready yet so hopefully by the time we start seeing some of these drool worthy devices popping up at our favorite retailers in the near future a lot of the kinks and jerky movements that are seen in this video will be a thing of the past.

"Building upon the iconic design of the first HTC Touch Diamond, the HTC Touch Diamond2 is a full touchscreen device with a 3.2 inch WVGA display that incorporates a new touch sensitive zoom bar. The device uses HTC's latest HTC TouchFLO 3D technology which has been even more deeply integrated into Windows Mobile 6.1. Additional specifications are below..."

First impressions? I love the look of this phone! It seems pretty similar to the previous generation Touch Diamond though in terms of specs, though it's larger (in a good way). The processor is a Qualcomm MSM7200ATM 528 MHz, the OS is Windows Mobile 6.1 (why not 6.5? just wait...), memory is 512 MB ROM and 288 MB RAM. Unlike the previous generation Touch Diamond, this one features a microSD memory card slot - too bad it's not SDXC compatible, I guess we'll have to "make due" with 32 GB of storage. Dimensions? 4.25 X 2.09 X 0.54 inches (HxWxT). Weight? 4.15 ounces (with battery). The display is a much bigger 3.2 inch TFT-LCD WVGA (480x800) touchscreen - love that resolution! Another big jump is in the camera: the Touch Diamond2 now boasts a 5 megapixel autofocus camera. Question is, will it be decent? HTC cameras in the past have tended to be rather shoddy - let's hope this one is an improvement. The whole lot is powered by a 1100mAh LiIon battery. Will that be enough to get decent run-time from that bigger, higher-resolution screen? We'll see.

After the break, the Touch Pro2 - and new software additions from HTC dubbed "Push Internet" (looks like pre-fetch caching of favourite pages), and "Straight Talk", an integrated email, voice, and speakerphone experience. When you flip the Touch Pro2 over it turns into a conference room speakerphone system. Sweet! Read more...