HTC's Touch Diamond2 adds zoom bar, mega screen, surprisingly few diamonds

HTC is following up on its ultra-sexy touchphone, the Touch Diamond, with the new Touch Diamond2, which seems quite worthy of the title of successor. This time around there's much more room for screen, with a huge 3.6-inch 480 x 800 LCD up front, and around back there's a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus. The other main addition is a "touch zoom bar" below the screen -- just like on big brother Touch Pro2 -- which we presume provides expected (and welcome) functionality. There's also the new version of TouchFLO 3D running on Windows Mobile, but under the hood there's the same old 528MHz processor, and the whole kit is actually a tad thicker a 0.54-inches. Still, memory is up to 512MB ROM and 288MB RAM, and if HTC keeps hoisting pixels and sexy on us at this rate we can hardly complain. This phone should hit major markets in Europe and Asia in "early Q2 2009," with more spots to follow later in the year.

HTC's Touch Diamond2 adds zoom bar, mega screen, surprisingly few diamonds

[Suomaa Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:34AM]

Great screen is wasted because WinMo only supports 16-bit displays at max.

[r34p3r Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:37AM]

But does this screen even go past 16 bpp?

[fnuky Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:46AM]

WinMo only supports 16-bit? Not true. It just happens to handle higher colour depths in an incredibly ugly way that means performance is a pile of rubbish!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:47AM]

Maybe that's why they have TouchFlow 3D. I guess they should know what they're doing

[WixosTrix Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:04AM]

funny cuz i thought there were going to be some new versions of WinMo...

[fluxVortex Posted Mar 7th 2009 1:44PM]

I now officially hate Asia and Europe.

[r34p3r Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:35AM]

DITCH QUALCOMM!!!

[Sheppard Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:37AM]

Oh my god just when you thought HTC devices couldnt get any sleeker, this is gorgeous.

[Adamgs Posted Feb 16th 2009 8:46AM]

I think it looks horrible.

A brick, with no subtle detailing or edging. Plus it has a chin....

I didnt like the original either though, too much gloss, after a week it would be covered in fingerprints and scratches.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:40AM]

Excellent! The bad thing, another addition to my "I-might-get-this-phone" list.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:42AM]

The competition for smart phones is going to be quite violent this year ... Apple better not rest on its laurels.

[r34p3r Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:45AM]

Oh they won't have to worry about that.

The rest of the market who are the casual consumer who doesn't care about technology like this will continue to buy up the iPhone in massive quantities; therefore ensuring that no matter what competing devices come out and devices with advanced functionality that the iPhone will remain on top.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:51AM]

to Aaron: maybe not all teenagers want the crappy iPhone. Actually, I'm only turning 13 and I check gizmodo.com and engadget.com everyday. They're just blinded by Apple's reign making them think that the iPhone is actually nice (which it is not)

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:12AM]

good thing for you yG. pinoy ka? I don't like the iPhone too. If this Touch Diamond 2 gets good reviews them I'm getting one. Hope it's not so expensive when gets here in Phils.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 11:20AM]

iPhone has nothing to worry about. TouchFlo is so slow and clumsy like the one in first-gen Touch Diamond.

[oldmanhorton Posted Feb 16th 2009 4:57PM]

i am also 13 and i read engadget every day when i get home from school. The iPhone is nice, but i just got a new phone, and if i had the choice to get any phone on any network, including the G1 on TMo, iPhone on ATT, and so on, i woud have chosen the Fuze or the Sprint Diamond.

And now, i really really want the Touch Pro2 or the Diamond2
way more than the current iPhone

[fluxVortex Posted Mar 7th 2009 1:46PM]

Apple still has the fastest CPU under the hood and speed is what gives users a satisfying experience...not clunky, slow FPS animating menus. Plus, no browser on the WinMo can beat Safari....actually, I meant **PLUS+++++++**

[fnuky Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:47AM]

I really hate the way they say it has 288MB RAM.

The applications processor is the only one we care about and that has 256MB RAM. So what if the Modem has 32MB RAM as well? Can we use it?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:50AM]

I do hope it comes pre-loaded with Diana Mayer's contact details - she's hot

[CJ Posted Feb 16th 2009 10:25AM]

Unfortunately, when 'she' started working for HTC, 'her' name was Darren May

Then there was the joke 'she' made with the office guillotine, which made EVERYBODY laugh. Until it went horribly, HORRIBLY wrong.'

[NewL Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:53AM]

So, what's the difference between this and the Touch HD, other than slightly different screen & device size? Seems pretty much identical other than that.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:57AM]

Well, the Touch HD doesn't really give anything "HD", so I've heard.

[ZSX Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:09AM]

You are right - not huge amounts.

Hardware-wise I'm coming from a HTC Touch Diamond and although this represents the next step I am finding it difficult to justify the upgrade. WVGA is nice, but brings with it some software incompatibility. The main limitation on the current Diamond is the battery life especially with HSDPA switched on. With the better battery, hopefully it will last at least a day which is just not possible with 3.5G at the moment.

With any luck most of the software improvements will eventually come to the original Diamond.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:00AM]

Why won't companies just put a "Switch to a different OS" button? In that option, every major OS out there will be listed in that section so just everyone can be just happy?
This question is asked to everyone.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:02AM]

Grammar correction on that last sentence!!!
**Everyone is asked this question

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:26PM]

yG:

say you started yG Phone Corp.
you produce the ultimate smartphone: 1440x900 screen resolution, bose-level speakerphone quality, and you use quantum physics to design the ultimate battery that gives 10hours of internet browsing on wifi plus speakerphone talk time on 4g per charge.
anyways...
this phone's hardware would be specifically designed for a single os. (buttons and such, you remember the whole kogan android phone delay thing?) and you still have to pay microsoft a fee for every copy of winmo that you use. meaning you want to maximize your profit because that's why you went into the business in the first place. and how hot would microsoft be with you licensing windows mobile for a phone that doesn't have to use their os at all? not to mention the companies like rim and apple use proprietary (meaning they own them) operating systems. palm only went to a different os as a last ditch effort.

[Flix C Posted Feb 21st 2009 7:48AM]

Say you Open-source your hardware specs and drivers because everyone uses the same hardware anyway...
Then of course you could run any OS...

AND DON'T TELL ME THIS WILL RUIN THE HARDWARE COMPETITION THERE IS NONE !
Every smartphone has the fucking same hardware specs (exept for the iPhone which has the specs/2)

Plus if you base your phone of snapdragon or any platform of such the OS compatibility increases..

And it's not really a problem to program 4 buttons at the bottom of the screen....

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:15AM]

Wow, hard to choose between this and SE's Idou for my next phone.

[Siddharth Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:16AM]

quite a disappointment after all the hype about android devices being launched at MWC after being almost a no-show at CES.

[oldmanhorton Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:01PM]

for from over, it is

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:20AM]

Any word on storage memory medium? The 4GB and no expansion on the HTC Touch Diamond was almost a deal breaker for me, so I hope they're improved on that front.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 7:07AM]

its 512mb builtin and SDHC expansion now, so a mixed bag

[Rohan Singh Posted Feb 16th 2009 7:09AM]

It has a SD card slot now, but the tradeoff is that it only comes with 512 MB internal memory.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:26AM]

Guys, its a 3" not a 3.6" screen. The Pro2 has 3.6"

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 7:08AM]

it's actually a 3.2 for the diamond2 and a 2.6 for the pro2

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 6:30AM]

It's a lag of hurt!

[mocax Posted Feb 16th 2009 7:14AM]

this thing needs a Zii....

too late i gues...

Diamond3 then... or Touch HD 2

[MaxSMoke777 Posted Feb 16th 2009 10:33AM]

Where is the F'n memory card slot? Geezzz! I'm tired of the "pro" versions. I don't need a hardware keyboard, but I have to have at least a MicroSD slot. Come on HTC, help a brother out!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 11:20AM]

It's still not as fast as the iPhone. Instant fail.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 1:16PM]

i love the iphone idiots that put "i" in there name. as if we go around saying sonyericssoncallum or what ever. the iphone is a good phone. its lasted a while but lacks some features such as mms proper bluetooth and video recording and video calling. i would of got one if it had those features. but so many people with iphones like you put the phone to shame. seriosuly.


get a life you bafoon !

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 1:18PM]

So does it have a 3.5 mm jack now? please?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 16th 2009 4:20PM]

"HD" doesn't mean High Definition. It means Horribly Deformed.

[oldmanhorton Posted Feb 16th 2009 5:03PM]

Im pretty sure Samsung just proved you 100% WRONG

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 17th 2009 10:39AM]

sucks that they omitted the proximity sensor on this but gave it to touch pro2, also strange that this has a 5mp camera and touch pro2 3mp

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 17th 2009 9:42PM]

Wow
Very Good Article



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