HTC hopes that the Diamond is a geek's best friend
HTC had a big shindig in London today and officially announced the Diamond, already being hailed (as many before it) as an "iPhone killer". The HTC Diamond is a stylish black smooth phone that is very thin and sports HTC's new interface TouchFLO 3D. The phone will be rolled out in Europe in June and in the US in the last half of this year. Interestingly one of the photos of the Diamond on the HTC web site shows an icon for YouTube which is surprising as the Diamond runs on Windows Mobile which doesn't play YouTube videos yet. Hmmm. No question the Diamond is a very nice phone and I can't wait to see one in person. Full specs right here. Note the 2.8-inch VGA screen.
According to what I've read, it's using Opera, hence the ability to play YouTube.
Posted by: Jeff_R | May 06, 2008 at 01:39 PM
I'm impressed with the hardware specs, but call me a keyboard junkie-- I'm waiting on the Raphael that features the slide-out keyboard.
Posted by: GoodThings2Life | May 06, 2008 at 01:52 PM
YouTube is through a custom HTC built app. WM still doesn't support it
Posted by: michael gartenberg | May 06, 2008 at 02:29 PM
I guess the youtube clip I've been watching on my WM phone since one year are a product of my imagination....
Posted by: Hugo | May 06, 2008 at 03:43 PM
WM as an OS does not support FLV videos (e.g. youtube) out of the box. But since it is an open system you can write software that will let you do that. In fact that's exactly what HTC did.
I already have that ability on my touch dual
Posted by: Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz | May 06, 2008 at 04:21 PM
Any info on price?
Posted by: laser21 | May 06, 2008 at 04:40 PM
Only one problem with this device, the battery is of 900mAh, very poor battery ¿not?
Posted by: dan | May 06, 2008 at 10:26 PM
HTC is saying something about it not using as much power as previous models, but it has a 500 Mhz CPU, wifi, GPS, you name it... and a 900mah battery, as dan points out.
Even during the presentation event, where glossing over any issues whatsoever would be standard operating procedure, they mention there will be an extended battery available, if I remember correctly, so they pretty much know a 900mah battery is insufficient. The usability of the device has clearly taken a hit due to the design part ("very thin").
900mah is in fact most likely a deal breaker for me. I have a plain PDA with 1100mah and that battery is way too small - and that is when the device isn't even my phone!
The lack of a dedicated 3.5mm headphone port is certainly also an annoyance, necessitating the use of a dongle.
I'll reserve judgement for now. They got many things right, but at least one crucial thing looks pretty wrong.
Posted by: cr0ft | May 07, 2008 at 03:51 AM
Gotta admit, that thing is drop-dead gorgeous. It makes my very capable HTC P4000 look like an ugly duckling. I hope we see it in Canada in the near future.
Posted by: tablet envy | May 07, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Apple realizes that the US is the world's #1 market. HTC clearly doesn't understand this. In the US Apple will continue its dominance over HTC.
Posted by: Virtuous | May 07, 2008 at 11:06 PM
This thing is awesome, can't wait until it comes out!
Posted by: Bryan | May 07, 2008 at 11:44 PM
Demos of this unit on the web look awesome. There are two main reasons for my holding back a purchase, #1 no VGA out, #2 no SDmicro slot. I understand both will be present in the Raphael. The battery capacity is a concern, and will be for the Raphael as well.
Posted by: dbrotzen | May 08, 2008 at 12:27 AM
Haha. Apparently there are already youtube videos of it online. And they show just horrible performance for their fancy new "3D touch".
Do I smell another driver fiasco?
I hope blogs and (especially) journalists and professional reviewers pick up on the missing drivers story and make a big deal out of it in connection with this launch.
Another phone that promises the moon and then delivers worse performance then phones from 2 years ago ... HTC when will you learn?
Posted by: SiteCharts.com | May 08, 2008 at 02:32 PM