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

"So this thing's definitely got some heft to it -- and honestly, especially for a business-centric device in this class, we don't think that's a bad thing. As with just about everything HTC churns out, the Touch Pro2 is exquisitely manufactured, feels rock-solid, and the WVGA is absolutely awesome -- we noticed that the gestures and animations are totally smooth and responsive, proving that WinMo is perfectly capable of handling this kind of UI dazzle."

The Engadget gang have another video for us, this time it's of the Touch Pro2. The second video (go to the Engadget article to see it) shows some of the new UI elements in TouchFlo 3D. HTC is really amping up the "special sauce" in their software - there are some seriously cool things that HTC has added. You can also see HTC's Eric Lin nearly drop this lovely device in the second video. Good thing he caught it! Engadget mentions the heft of this new phone, and sure enough, it's 10 grams heavier than the Touch Pro - but it's also 0.8mm thinner. My big problem with slider phones is how thick they are, so it's nice to see HTC making it a bit thinner. I have the impossible dream of seeing a slider phone that's 13mm thin someday - maybe by 2012?

"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.