SEVENCLICK
Mobile Technology Evangelists

I am really glad to write this post about the new HTC Touch Diamond2 which I have had in my hands . I will talk about the real experience I had with it and of course with new TouchFLO 3D. I will not focus on every technical specification cause they are really similar to HTC Touch Cruise ones, which was already posted. You can see some of the following improvements in the video below, recorded and produced by our friends in Confëttika (thank you friends, great job!).

If your reader app does not support embedded video, click here and enjoy it!

I will explain more important changes and improvements of the device:

Size.

We may think it is too big, but it is the price we pay when we go to mobile devices that are thought to browse the web, use a touchable keyboard and have a good screen to see your videos and pictures. So it has 107.85 mm high, and 53.1 mm wide. About its thickness, its 13.7 mm make me think it is too much. In general, I think it has a good size, for instance is shorter and narrower than iPhone, but much thicker.

Compared to the HTC Touch Diamond (1) it is taller, wider and thicker, as you can see in the below and above pictures.

The screen.

At first sight, it shows a big screen of 3.2 inches (TFT-LCD), and WVGA resolution (480×800). But it is not only physically ‘big’, it also has a good touch response, it is not needed to make too much pressure on the screen, less than in usual Windows Mobile devices, and it also has better response for finger touch pressure.

Zoom bar.

This device adds a new touchable area close to the screen, it is a touchable zoom bar. It is horizontal and it is located behind the screen. I found it really useful cause you can use it everywhere you think it will be able, like browsing the web or watching your pictures.

Windows button.

This device also includes a Windows button that is a quick link to the ‘old’ Programs section. I say ‘old’ cause it has disappeared from the TouchFLO carrusel and the only way to acces it now is by pressing this button or pressing the ‘Start’ traditional link in the Windows bar which is always on the top of the screen. In traditional Windows Mobile devices pressing that ‘Start’ link, shows a menu with most recent used programs, settings section and some others, which is not available so that TouchFLo replaces them.

As a detail, previous HTC devices with Windows Mobile had a Home button instead of this, but actually the behaviour was to access the first section set in the TouchFLO carrusel (which could be selected by the user).

Camera.

It has an amazing 5 megapixels camera with autofocus in the back side, an also a VGA CMOS camera in the front side for videoconference. Here you can see a picture I took with it.

TouchFLO 3D.

It has version 2.0.37890.0 which includes several improvements. These are most important features:

• Contacts.This part has considerably improved. When you click a contact you can not only access its contact info like, telephone number or e-mail, now HTC brings us the chance of accessing the SMSs, e-mails, and calls we have sent/received with each contact, so we can see this actions by contact instead of entering the Messages section for instance (this keeps available). And all this with a good and pretty user interface, much better than Windows one, like HTC is used to showing us.In addition, when you make or receive a call, it shows up a menu that also allows you to access the SMSs, e-mails and calls, while you are talking with your friend. I find this useful when you need to find a previous related conversation with that contact, instead of going throw a lot of steps by entering the menu, which is always annoying while you are talking.
• Pictures and video previewer.It has improved cause it lets you move the picture touching the screen, instead of pressing hard buttons like in HTC Touch Diamond (1).
• Configuration Manager.I emphasize in this point cause apparently it has not changed but it has. In the previous version of TouchFLO, when you pressed on an item in the Configuration section, then you just could activate or deactivate it. Now you activate it pressing the switch on the right and also can enter its settings pressing the left side of the item. This could only be done by entering the Windows Mobile Configuration section, which is not so easy to use (it keeps available).

In my opinion it is a good device, but maybe too thick and heavy. About TouchFLO 3D… just say it is modern and smart. I really like the look and feel it gets, but I like even more HTC Sense on Android phones. I wish you could change the whole Windows Mobile interface… ;D