HTC Touch Diamond hands-on
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted May 6th 2008 9:57AM
posted May 6th 2008 9:57AM
Check out the gallery below, complete with comments and interface walk-through. A couple vids after the break, too!
A little game using the HTC Touch Diamond's accelerometer
HTC Touch Diamond's YouTube interface
HTC Touch Diamond's YouTube interface
I'm an Apple fanboy.....but even i must admit, this looks wayyyyyyy better than the iPhone!
wwwaaaayyy better?... hm.. well, I don't know. It does look very nice, but I also like the iPhone (almost) all screen face. BTW - any way we could get a side by side with the iPhone? screen comparison, etc.
The other thing is... Windows 6... maybe if they fixed some of the idiotic thinks in the OS it would be worth a little more. Last time I used Windows Mobile I wanted to throw myself off a bridge.
That being said, I think it's a gorgeous machine. I really look forward to some serious reviews and see how it holds up under regular use.
WinMo 6 and iPhone interface are like the Vista and the OS X interface. Microsoft interfaces tend to be more cluttered with menus to access the million features of the phone, most of which you'll never use, while Apple interfaces tend to be more elegant and simplistic at the sacrifice of some functionality. At the end of the day, I don't think you could argue that the interface of WinMo looks "better" than OS X (or the iPhone OS X), but, features will trump that for a certain number of users. For everyone else, they get overwhelmed with menus and options, thus alienating a large segment of the population.
I don't know about OS wise, as I've never used Windows Mobile.
However, you never know......the way Apple has attempted to control everything anyone does with the device may push a few people back to the dark side (Windows/ Windows Mobile).
@Enzei
Some, perhaps. But, Apple has always been about tight control of user experience - not leaving anything to chance. Their success has been marketing to people who are willing to give up a certain amount of functionality or extensibility in order to get that integrated user experience. I, for one, am fine with that. Others are not, and they can use Windows/Linux.
@ Froggy
If only you had thrown yourself off a bridge.
If only you had....
I love the new tack that all these anti-Apple fangirls have taken lately... They all preface their anti-iphone BS with " I have an iphone, but..." or "I love Apple, but" or "I'm an Apple fanboy however,". Then of course comes the anti-iphone "ZMOG The x phone is WAY BETTERZ THAN i-Crap"
such BS. Just be honest, loser
HW looks nice...too bad it runs WinMo. I've got a $1200 HP6965 sitting a paper weight. I'm too scared to use it coz it tends to make me want to kill everyone around me.
Apple does sacrifice some functionality, but the fact that it just works (and work smoothly it does) makes me never look at another WinMo device again.
From now on, its either iPhone or BB for me.
omg where's the video walkthrough!!
thinking the same thing
Come on engadget. At least give us better video.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=HTC+Touch+Diamond&search_type=
I WANT!!!!!!!
Please engadget, honestly, how tough is it to take a video? 17 pics?? A video will combine all your 50 pics into one. I really don't understand your addiction to insane amount of pics and obvious negation for a video.
Next time, please take a video. This is not for this time, but for all the times you made us flip through a hundred pics.
Other than that, engadget rocks.
I prefer the pics.
Thanks guys!
I prefer clear video.
Thanks guys!
I prefer chicken.
Thanks guys!
I said that because pics don't really convey anything different. The same pics are available at : http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=46294
They show the same thing, except taken better. Whereas, a video would have shown how easy and intuitive the interface, touchscreen gestures and the overall phone is. It would also have shown the features a lot more better.
That wasn't chicken Paul ;-)
Akshay, most, if not all those pictures are product renderings and not actual pics of the device.
In-hand pictures are much better resolution than video (even 1080p is barely 2MP) and do a good job of showing the real product in a detailed fashion.
I'm not disagreeing with you either, a video would be great, probably preferrable to see the TouchFLO 3D in action. I'm just saying you can't discount the benefit of a quality still picture (sadly these stills seem to be of typical Engadget quality...).
i still believe that using a video demonstrates the fluidity, and use of touch screen of WinMo 6.1 pro something the pics cannot convey, and as said by akshay there are plenty of pics up already in other places, i just want to see how it works...
I prefer nudes.
Thanks guys!
Am I too late on this bandwagon? lol.
I'm really considering dropping my iPhone for one of these or a BB 9000. All these new phones are secks! I'm waiting on Apple to make the announcement on the 3G iPhone to see if it's really worth the wait...
I couldn't stand not having the physical keyboard... right now, i've got Apache 6700 on Sprint, and i'm holding out (trying to , at least) until the Raphael comes out...that thing just looks amazing.
i FAIL at the on screen keyboard. i'm still in love with my i760, recessed screen and all.
Same here. The Raphael (or even better, Titanium, with the FRONT qwerty slider) will be a favorite.
This phone UI is amazing. They really did an extraordinary job with WM6.1. I didn't think this could happen, but now I am considering this phone OVER the HTC Dream (even though that would mean, NO ENKIN).
If they fix the "slowness", that is.
I just don't think the Dream's UI could top that one.... honest to God I don't.
Looks like a iphone competitor, looks like it does alot of the stuff of the iphone, right down to the keyboard, pluse it has some hard buttons... yea i like them hard
So the HTC Artemis which came out years ago can also do the same thing this phone can does that make it an iphone competitor also? To me I think HTC is not competing with the iphone really as they have been doing all touch screen based phone for years. It is just more recently steped up their game as competition became better.
That's what she said
The VGA screen is really a big thing. It's hard using Pocket Quran with a resolution so low. It looks so much better on my iPhone then on my 8525.
that keyboard is the pinnacle of fail.
Not sure why you got voted down--you're absolutely right. I mean, people don't have preexisting finger memory of a QWERTY phone (unless they have a Blackberry), but the Diamond's keyboard is gonna take some getting used to. At least they include T9, I know some people who wish their iPhone had it (Not me, I never could text very fast on my PEBL).
The on-screen KB? I think the on-screen KB engadget showed is extwemely nice compared to the ugly stylus-only KB imitation on my FS (like fudjitsu-siemens) 718 (WinMob 2003 SE). Its small, creepy and finger-unfriendly.
The KB on Diamond looks more usable on 2.8" VGA screen compared to 3.5" VGA screen on my device. "Looks like" because I need to touch the device to say for sure. Big "buttons" look nice.
I totally agree. But I want buttons. Watching that pathetic "scroll down" where the user decided to click on a video instead just illustrated that fact.
Fucking pretty.
Saying that with a Fabio avatar would have been better yet.
God, I hate being called that.
Guess its a good thing I wasn't calling you Fabio then. Don't worry though, I had longer hair than yours not one year ago so I was used to it as well.
The resolution is impeccable, makes the screen on my Zune 80 look pre-historic.
It's always been prehistoric.
I think I'm calling Angela :)
Already done!
Good looking UI, but I wonder how well it will perform, afterall it is WM...
The interface looks good, but, if you watch the demo videos on YouTube the interface is not as responsive and you'd think and the animations (i.e., zooming in, flipping pictures, scrolling etc, are quite stuttered). Why couldn't they get a decent graphics processor in there? Not to mention that the lack of multi-touch makes for some pretty zany gestures - I don't think my thumb is that dextrous.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJtmnsHDVbk
I'm not to sure what you're talking about not being responsive. On the videos the only thing that isnt that smooth is when they were zooming in on a picture. For all you know that was a 3.2 megapixel picture too which would take more graphics power to zoom in on. Every other animation looked real smooth. Did you look at the video for the Weather? This is definitely the phone that's replacing my Sprint Touch. Unless I decide to go with a Raphael for the keyboard.
@DonatoM3
Which is why I said the features that were stuttered involved pictures (i.e. flipping, zooming, etc.). A high resolution picture is no excuse for a poor use interface experience. It is this kind of foresight that is required when designing a product like this. Artists need to collaborate with the hardware people.
Also, you can't ignore the fact that the device is not responsible. He flips a picture, pulling his thumb all the way across then returns his thumb before it flips to the next picture. Similarly, when scrolling through Icons you can see them lagging behind his thumb motion (although when they do go, they are smooth). Again, seemingly minor things, but, these are important things that contribute to user experience. You can't just have pretty graphics if the hardware cannot keep up with what is being displayed.
Wow why are people voting you down for expressing a valid opinion/concern?
The guy is doing a lot of things with his thumb...a lil TOO much is going on there...
Plus you're right about responsiveness. ESPECIALLY at the pictures part...it looks like its slow or something.
it was a little stuttery at times, but (for example) for flicking through images, really it's not exactly that it's slow....
It's that it's based on Gestures, which is different than whatever the iPhone is - I'm not sure what it would be called, but the iPhone strives to feel physically correct: you touch-and-drag an image on the iPhone (and flick it off the screen to see the next one) whereas this type of gesture-based control just listens for the gesture then does the corresponding action.
So on the iPhone, you're actually sliding the images, and on this, you're *gesturing* that you want to see the next image and a little "slide" animation makes it seem a little more fancy.
I, personally, prefer the physical feel as opposed to gestures, because it feels more natural (and responsive) to me, and gestures seem to be an extra level of removal that never quite feels right, and seems MUCH less "discoverable"
@catachip
I do agree with you that it looks like it takes a moment for the picture to move after flicking through this but like Jeff said this is more due to the way the Touchflo system input is setup. The animations themself are very smooth which would indicate good video hardware. Trust me this is much smoother than anything my current Sprint Touch does. I would be interested to see how fast it responds if you were to use the d pad to scroll through pictures.
Thanks for the video link... were the circles to zoom the "zany" gestures u speak of? I don't like the iPhones multi touch to zoom because it requires two hands.. one to hold the phone and one to pinch and spread, or maybe you could do it one handed but it'd probably look pretty zany.
Dude are crazy, the link you just provided shows how smooth it is. Are you honestly that much of a fanboy to not admit that HTC did a good job. Can't waait for this phone on Sprint.
Try watching more than the first 30 seconds.