HTC unveils Touch Diamond, competition for iPhone
High Tech Computer on Tuesday launched a more powerful version of its popular Touch smartphone, hoping to lure consumers from better-known rivals such as Apple’s iPhone. The Touch Diamond, which supports carriers’ 3G broadband-like networks, includes features that focus on Web browsing and checking e-mail. The device, which runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, includes a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen that the company claims provides near-print-quality viewing. The smartphone’s Web browser can zoom and pan Web sites. In addition, turning the device sideways automatically rotates the page view from portrait to landscape.
HTC has also developed its own YouTube application to watch video from the popular site. The software also optimizes the use of Google’s mobile mapping service for accessing street maps and getting traffic data. The Touch Diamond weighs less than 4 ounces and includes a 3.2-megapixel camera. The device comes with 4 GB of storage, and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technologies. Talk time is up to four hours on a fully charged battery, according to HTC. Its size is roughly 4 by 2 by 0.4 inches. HTC plans to offer the Touch Diamond through all major European carriers in June, and later this quarter in Asia and the Middle East. The device is scheduled to ship in North America and Latin America in the second half of the year.
Source: ComputerWeek
3G broadband-like networks ?
You mean 7.2mbit HSDPA - over 18 times faster than 3G
Cool gadget but ridiculously expensive!
N95 8 gb for the win anyway
As I said in the Zune post - I’ll wait for a competitor…sweet I’m ordering this baby!
Actually HSDPA requires a 2G or 3G phone network, it isn’t a seperate network at all. HSDPA on 2G doesn’t give anywhere like 7.2Mbps, it’s about half that speed, for full 7.2Mbps speed it does require a 3G connection. HSDPA on 2G networks is commonly referred to as 2.5G. (I work for one of the major mobile phone retailers here in the UK).
So, this looks like a good phone but is way too expensive. Wonder how good it will be compared to the new, faster 3G iPhone due in Europe later this year.
how much is this gonna retail for?
i have had a htc phone for nearly two years now.
i am due a upgrade
im off to hong kong in a few months
i will be buying mine then…can’t wait
here is the price here in the uk
http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=163250
I will wait to see how the new iPhone goes.. If it really comes out with GPS and a 32gb ver comes out I will sell my N80 and ipod straight away lol
HTC still doesn’t get it.. the reason why the iPhone is so popular is because it’s an ‘all-in’ package.. it’s finished, both the soft- and hardware are created to work perfectly with one another.. HTC just creates the package, it still runs on Windows Mobile..
I’ve had a HTC Kaiser/Tilt/MDA Vario III for about 8 months. And I can tell you that unless the Bastards at HTC have put some drivers in this thing, there’s no point in buying it. For driver information on HTC phones, visit htcclassaction.org. It’s a MASSIVE topic regarding HTC Devices at the minute. My opinion, don’t let HTC rob you.
@10, windows mobile is the better software compared to Apples anyday.
@12
Says who? The iPhone software is clearly the most advanced of any cell phone out there right now. The iPhone hardware is nothing special. It’s the iPhone’s software (and possibly multi-touch which this cheap HTC knock-off of course doesn’t have) that have made it a wildly popular device.
“It’s the software” is a message Apple knows well. And it’s there where they shine. The iPhone plus its SDK basically make it an ultra-mobile Mac. It will be years till companies like Nokia or Sony Ericsson will be able to offer such a browsing experience for example.
The reason Windows Mobile is still around (apart from the fact that MS has dumped billions into it) is because Palm has failed to innovate and RIM still hasn’t decided if they want to make a phone or a PDA. Once the iPhone hits 3G and gets stuff like the SDK and GPS what will any run off the mill Windows mobile device have going for it? The real iPhone competitor will be Android. Because like Apple, Google has understood that it’s about software. They will get their software onto the best hardware available and people will love it.
In a few years from now people will have either Android based ultra-mobiles or iPhone-based devices. Windows Mobile will be the thing people get when they don’t know what the heck they’re looking for.
You know what makes me laugh about these new phones. They sdvertise them showing what pictures it can take, how much music you can listen to blah, blah, blah.
They forget to mention one detail….what is the quality of the calls like ? The amount of peolle who are all excited about having the latest phone, then a week later are cursing it because it keeps cutting out, freezing etc.
By the way, what is texting like on this phone (or the iphone)? Using a touchscreen to type on the photocopier at work is a nightmare . So i imagine these new touchphones without keypads are not text friendly.
I’ll wait for sonyericsson xperia =)
how about a phone that isnt a scam. i wish there was a phone that was open sourced and could use any internet connection to make free calls.
Anyone tried to install Windows XP SP3 on this thing? My iPhone suddenly found GPS hardware after SP3 installation and memory increased in first week to 32GB, now it is at 64BG. Thank you Bill.
Looks EXTREMELY similar to mWG Atom V
ok, so we have…
iphone and 3G coming
HTC Touch Diamond which looks cool
SE Experia coming soon which also looks great
Samsung Instinct which is great!
4 great phones or mobiles to choose from this year, choose wisely!!!!
@16
Android afaik is open soured. So you can expect a lot of good things from it.
As far as this phone goes, its way too expensive. If they want to compete against the iPhone they really need to bring the prices down especially considering iPhone dominant position, and the trust consumers already have in their products. These guys dont stand a chance, they need atleast one thing going for them and that needs to be the price.
Recently Carphone Warehouse and O2 were selling the iPhone for 170GBP (~350USD) to get rid of the oldstock of iPhones in preparation for the iPhone.v2, which is probably going to retail in the range of 250-300GBP (500-600USD). So with this phone being at 400+GBP, even higher than the iPhones starting price, Apple should have nothing to worry about.
i really hate touch screen devices, i can’t understand whats wrong with buttons, they are doing the same mistake as iphone. at least this one seems to have a few buttons.
runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile
:D 
nuff said
Being an iPhone user I can say I do like it alot but hardly love it. To say that its the combination of iPhone hardware and software that make it so great is ridiculous. All the things I want it to do, I have to use third party software for…No MMS capability, no exchange support (even new version wont be anywhere near as seamless as windows mobile), search contacts or calendar, the forced requirement to use ITunes (Which I hate), slow speeds, games are third party, ring tones cost money (Or at least a thurd party program to install), no 3g currently, no support for multiple file formats for media other tahn mp3 and m4v, etc, etc, etc.
It is its form factor and intuitive touch input that I love. Give that to me on a Windows mobile device and I would get there anyway.
The only thing Apple did right out of the box was get to the market first with a great idea. Just like the iPod, it gained a quick support in the aftermarket with tons of accesories. In my opinion, there are tons of devices out there that are better than the iPod but it simply has all teh support for bein there first. THat was people first device as well usually, so they stick with it in future purchases.
Sorry for the rant….Great phones coming out this summer!
Sorry, I meant give me the touch screen on a windows device and I would buy it anyday. Then, you have way more support and options than the iphone for software and such.
You are forgetting how many more Windows mobile devices exist than iPhones in the market! They have way outsold the iPhone currently!
Hey Staff:
In subsequent posts can you please put links to the news source? … and if not active links, a url I can cut and paste? 99% of the time I want to read the entire article and not a condensed version…
Thanks.
Nevermind this little gadget. I’m patiently waiting for the coveted N96. Its f*cking amazing. Heres what i grabbed off their website.
“Summary of Key Features
* 16GB memory, extensible with card slot
* High-quality video on a stunning 2.8 inch display
* Wide range of supported video formats
* Transfer video using Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity
* Live TV with DVB-H technology
* Program guide and interactive services
* Reminders and 30-second replay
* Great sound with built-in 3D stereo speakers
* Integrated A-GPS and Nokia Maps
* 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Optics
* Nokia web browser with Mini Map
* Nokia Nseries PC Suite - The bridge between your life, your device and your PC.”
Here is a link to the picture on wikipedia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Nokia_n96_00.jpg
Some people just have to remember that with any mobile you have compromises.
I want the 3.something mega pixel camera but this carrier doesn’t offer picture mail with this phone.
I want the fast internet but I don’t have mms capability or exchange service…
It’s give and take, never mind the price of these phones what are you willing to give up besides money to get it?
You can have this great feature at the cost of something you might be used to or depend on.
One day some beautiful bastard’s going to figure it all out with a work of art and we’ll be on our knees bowing down to it like nothing else before… and that is the day that I’ll be buying my ticket to hell for worshiping a false idol.
@13 Simon- I own both an i-Phone and an HTC with touch screen and WinMob6. There is absolutely no comparison between the two, HTC runs circles around the proprietary formats of the pathetic i-Phone garbage.
You said “The iPhone software is clearly the most advanced of any cell phone” As a CELL phone maybe, but as a mobile device or smart phone, i-Pod doesn’t even get out of the shallow end of the Mr.Turtle pool.
i-Phones are kiddie toys for downloading the grossly over-compressed i-Tunes garbage excuse for an audio format.
My i-Phone collects dust, I think it’s under the dresser or something. My HTC P4000 is a worthwhile tool, a much more useful and compatible device than my i-Phone. if i wanted i-Tunes quality crap to listen to, I’d piss away money on an i-Pod, but I’m not THAT stupid or desperate to fit into the teeny bopper’s trendy mold.
I think the big reason kiddies don’t mind i-pods is that the quality of recordings these days is dismal to begin with, they simply don’t understand what quality audio is anymore.
A kiddie phone pretending to be a mobile device, what a joke!
just got a XDA Orbit 2(HTC Touch Cruise) a few months ago, quite a gadget,have to say, although the camera is bit of rubbish( very slow) but dont really need that function. TOMTOM software works better than CoPilot based on my experience. iphone is nothing to compare with it when it’s down to the ppc and GPS function. so if you need a GPS,PPC and a mobile, HTC should be the one.
iPhone sucks… it’s only a limited geek toy.. You can’t customize anything at all, it’s an iPod with cell phone capabilities..
Don’t compare plz!
@30
you can fully customize an iphone/ipod touch by jailbreaking it. learn to browse the internet before you make uninformed posts
You’d buy any HTC phone only if you never had one before. They do look attractive, but they also do fail, and fail so often that you promise yourself - NEVER. EVER. ANOTHER. HTC. PHONE.
@12 Agreed Completely
@13 - While out of the box it may not have everything, Windows Mobile has been hacked/modded to hell and back. If you want your phone to look or act a certain way, there is software for it. Like the iphone? There are mods to make it look exactly like it. My HTC 6700 Apache phone came out early 2005, and its still doing everything some of the new phones are because people have written custom roms for it, I have a kitchen that lets me make my own roms for it and I can run just about any bit of software on it made for any of the Windows Mobile based phones. Not to mention I’ve had EVDO on my phone for 2+ years now which trumps AT&Ts EDGE network in speed. Using my friends iphone for internet was painful. You say the iphone has wifi? So does mine but I never turn it on because the cell data connection was fast enough for me to not bother.
My only complaint with HTC that Apple did right was the screen size. HTC, stop giving us the same size screen, even if you up the resolution, I want a bigger screen.
seems great, wanna buy it !!!
People are going to compete with the iPhone for awhile and they’ll never catch up.
iphone suxx - just a quick list of what win mobile has on my 2 y.o. Qtec 9000
1.Has word-excel mobile.
2.VGA resolution 640×480
3.Plays avi(dix,xvid as well),wav,mp3,mp4,mpeg and a ton of others as well.
4.Its 3G
5.Its got gps navigation
6.Its got so many games i don’t know where to start lol. A good example would be Myst(and its got the same graphx - looks f*kin amazing).
7.It can be used as a wireless modem and connected to pc via usb - wireless - bluetooth ,ir u name it
And of course lets not forget it doesn’t depend on the pathetic itunes platform and that its windows so any soft for it, is usually duped,cracked or hacked within days of rls.
I feel sorry for anyone bought an iphone as its nothing but a fancy touchscreen for rich teens.
A company always target the masses not the minorities, few people buys a product because of its features but by its brand.
Oh its apple im gonna buy it toinkz!
@37
I agree with that comment a lot, not many people give other companies a chance and are willing to just waste money on a product they would trust and wont know what good products are avialable.
I categorize people in 3 categories; Geek wanabe’s, Followers and True geeks.
Geek wanabe’s: people who just go for and research big name brands that everyone has heard of and pick a product suited for them and follows the trend.
Wanabe’s: Well lol they try and follow the trend and dont give a crap about what is good or not.
True geeks: a open minded person fully researched and knows what they want and what is the best product for compatability, software features and etc. Does not care about trend as much.
and another thing I hate when people keeps bringing up “iPhone copy” man get a life everyone copies even in school you copy your friends work just becuase its better or your just to lazy to do it.
enough rambling, already pre-ordered this phone was going to get the touch cruise but saved a bit more for this.