HTC had us quite eager to drop by their booth at the MWC in Barcelona and get some touchscreen action with WinMo and Android flavor. Two curious sequels in the face of the HTC Touch Pro2 and Touch Diamond2, along with the Android-based Magic sounded intriguing enough for a quick sneak peek.
Sadly, it was only the
HTC Touch Diamond2 that was on display at HTC booth. The
Touch Pro2 and the
HTC Magic are still early prototypes and were guarded pretty closely. Still, we had a good enough look on them as well, and we lived to tell the story.
HTC Touch Diamond2
Holding the Diamond2 in hand, the most striking novelty is the missing D-pad/scroll wheel. By the way that's the TouchPro2 approach too. Perhaps as of
Touch HD, HTC are ditching D-pads. Most users won't mind its absence in Number 2, though some situations required its use - picking an item off the relatively small high-res display of the Diamond using the touch screen with your finger is a real challenge while on a moving vehicle for example. So a more precise way of making your selections was welcomed. Nevertheless, the D-pad is nowhere to be found on these products.
So, that leads us to the brand new feature in the Diamond2 - the Zoom bar, which is placed at the bottom of the screen. Basically, it does the job of the
old Diamond's touch-sensitive scroll wheel. You can use it to zoom in and out on images, web pages and messages, and even in the camera. We think the bar does better than the wheel and is easier to handle.
Holding the Diamond2 in hand, the most striking novelty is the missing D-pad/scroll wheel. By the way that's the TouchPro2 approach too. Perhaps as of
Touch HD, HTC are ditching D-pads. Most users won't mind its absence in Number 2, though some situations required its use - picking an item off the relatively small high-res display of the Diamond using the touch screen with your finger is a real challenge while on a moving vehicle for example. So a more precise way of making your selections was welcomed. Nevertheless, the D-pad is nowhere to be found on these products.
So, that leads us to the brand new feature in the Diamond2 - the Zoom bar, which is placed at the bottom of the screen. Basically, it does the job of the
old Diamond's touch-sensitive scroll wheel. You can use it to zoom in and out on images, web pages and messages, and even in the camera. We think the bar does better than the wheel and is easier to handle.
The really nice visual upgrade however is the all-metal frame that surround the display and covers the upper part of the Diamond2 body. That's one excellent design.
We know what would have but no, a 3.5mm jack is not there again. The Diamond is not a music centric device, no doubt about that, but we see 3.5mm jacks in almost every high-end phone lately. Hell, even on
Sony Ericsson handsets.
And speaking quite seriously, what's up with HTC and camera keys? The new Diamond2 still doesn't have one on board. We don't really like software shutter keys and there's hardly anything that can change our mind.
By the way, there's another feature that the Diamond2 lacks - it's the magnetic stylus. The stylus is active as before, it's just that it doesn't relay on magnets any more to help plugging it back in. Shame, we really liked that feature.
To complete the hardware changes, the Diamond2 is cut quite differently at the rear - none of the faceted splendor of the original. The only thing that reminds of the first Diamond is the brushed metal plate around the camera lens. The latter by the way is up a notch to 5 megapixels but didn't really worked nicely on the displayed units, so we won't be posting camera samples.
