HTC continually puts out some of the best smartphones in the market today. The HTC Touch Diamond 2 is no different and, in my opinion, puts up the best fight against the iPhone’s market dominance in terms of pure phone features.
It’s undeniably HTC’s best handset to date and, despite coming out just a year after its predecessor, leaves the original HTC Diamond in the dust. Physically, it’s a gorgeous handset, with striking looks and exceptional build. From the outward appearance to the hardware lying in its guts, this phone does seem to pack it all.
The 3.2-inch touchscreen renders beautiful images, with a rich 400 x 800 resolution. Unlike many non-Apple touch devices, the responsiveness of the touchscreen interface is exceptional. Before we delve deeper into smartphone territory, it’s important to note that both calls and messaging are great strengths in this device – yes, I found the onscreen keys a breeze to type in.
Despite using the decidedly unappetizing Windows Mobile 6.1, the UI comes out sleek and fast, thanks to HTC’s TouchFlo3D running on top of it. In place of boring lists and menus, we now get plenty of thumb-sized buttons all around as well as a permanent zoom bar right at the bottom of the screen. Overall, it’s a gorgeous interface that sits right up there with the best UIs any handset can offer.
Camera has been upgraded to a generous 5 megapixels, with excellent picture quality. It’s not going to match the best that both Nokia and Sony Ericsson has to offer, but it sits right up there. Media playback continues to be an HTC strength, with the Diamond 2 playing every single format I could throw at it with great sound and stellar display.
The HTC Touch Diamond 2 is as solid and top-of-the-line as a do-it-all smartphone can ever hope to be. If only WinMo offered more than it does now, we would really have had an iPhone killer in our midst.
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