Related
Reading, swimming in the wave of complains (most of them not justified) posted here i felt the urge to write something positive about my\our new Diamond.
Some of the complains are amusing me because are the direct result of a totally unfamiliarity with the WM, a "jumping to conclusions" approach or because very high expectations.
I hate the complains written by ppl that don't owe a Diamond and are feeding us with useless and incorrect information they "heard from a friend". After an ironic answer to one of this kind of posters i even got a PM from a newbie who complained about my luck of patience and overdose of sarcasm.
I do think that in the next 2-3 month we are going to see the prices go down and the quality of the Diamonds go up. We are the pioneers, we have the $ to pay the high prices and the curiosity/balls to buy the first maybe not completely debugged ones that were sold.
Let's not forget also that HTC are constrained by the narrow mind programmers of Microsoft. Now to the subject:
1. I like direct acces from the today screen to the Phone History. It saves a click or two.
2. I like having more than 7 favorites programs at a click\flip of a finger. Now we have the old "7 items only" menu and the programs from Today Screen.\
3. Do i have to tell you how much i like sliding from one application to another in the today screen from the bottom menu bar OR from the top title bar OR from the middle of the screen?
4. I like having larger Storage Memory and Larger Program Memory than my old, faithful Trinity. I like even more the 4 G Internal Memory replacing the 2 G SD. Will i ever fill them up?!
5. I like pressing in the upper task bar to get a full screen with big buttons to check my memory, 3G state, Battery and so on..."System Status"
6. I like the Task Button that really can be finger touched because the screen is no more recessed.
7. I like flipping my favorites' pics. Again we have the option for more favorites contacts. We have 9 or more on speed dial and as many as we like on the contact's pics on the today screen.
8. I like the quality of sound (here a few ppl are going: woooooooo) but i like it.
9. I like using my BT headphones with the impeccable A2DP. No tweaks needed.
10. I like the option to retract the phone dial pad to see more contacts when i am using the smart dialing.
11. I like the 3.2 mp camera with auto focus and the quality of the pics/flics i get.
12. I like the VGA screen and the clarity and size of what is written on the screen.
13. I like the graphics.
14. I like (no, i have to correct myself) I LOVE the way it fits to my shirt pocket.
I am looking forward to:
- The first xda-dev made ROM.
- The extended battery Pack.
- OS Android or WM 7.
In conclusion: give it a chance, you'll might like it
What more I can say ... totally agree *thumbs up*
if you like it buy it, if you don`t like sell it and go elsewhere, if you don`t have it shut up
Adding to that list....
I have to admit that i am impressed with mine as well...
I have "tweaked" the touchflo a bit to mke it more responsive, and i love the fact that i can "scroll" through recieved texts and emails...
I am actually having fun with the diamond, especially as i made the transition directly from a Universal. its amusing to type with t9, i rarely have to grab the stylus. I have to agree that the headset for calls is stunning, and music is clear, both on BT headset and wired.
I still need to work out how to use the damn headset buttons though!
I like the fact that my Wizard's miniUSB charger fits this extUSB of the Diamond as well! Same goes for my car charger! It even works with standard USB -> miniUSB cables to connect to the computer.
Now only for an audio link in the car... maybe I could setup a nice bluetooth thingy with my car radio
Well, I've been using WM devices for quite a while now, and i'll state the point that makes the Diamond stand out based on my experience with WM devices:
1) VGA screen - I can't even see a darn pixel on screen. It's so friggin sharp (my first VGA device )
2) The G-sensor is sweet. The game teeter gives a good user experience. I wish there are more apps for the sensor
3) SIZE! I thought the original Touch was small.. and now this!!
4) I'm a sucker for graphic animation (still not going with iPxxne) So I like TouchFlo3D. Got everything there I need
Well.. thats pretty much makes the device stand out. ANd yea.. the device isnt half as bad as what others complained abt. It's not a decent device.. its an awesome one!
I almost like eveything about the diamond,except the memory issues,its a real RAM hog. especially with touchflo3d turned on because its leaks alot of memory.also program memory is lower that the kaiser,only 86mb total and almost 50mb in use already! same for RAM; total 113mb but already 60mb in use! thats not funny. hope the touch pro doesnt have these problems.
but the rest i love about the phone,the size of it, the graphics of the vga screen, the g-sensor apps, the gps thats super quick, touchflo3d for its user friendly simplicity and stunning graphics especially the weather i like very much, i like opera cuz its better than IE.maybe more to come as i use it more
overall: great phone,but needs better ROM thats more memory-efficiant, but a great one add to the collection
KukurikU said:
Reading, swimming in the wave of complains (most of them not justified) posted here i felt the urge to write something positive about my\our new Diamond.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said my friend. By the way, I used to live in Rehovot
Hello,
I love mine very much too...My main issue the the impossibility to install IGO 8 on this device...May be one day,
Philippe
I think you forgot about the GPS. Its simply amazing. Locks within 10 seconds cold or otherwise. When compared to my clunky TYTN II of which I never used the keyboard the GPS is fantastic. On my old TYTN II it could take about 2-3 minutes to get a lock. Of course there are still some application bugs for the IGO users but my Garmin Mobile XT flies.
Opps time to change my signature. Still says TYTN II
VGA, GPS, G-Sensor, Complete Flush screen, 3.2 MP, Small Size, NO External Keyboard....Opera 9.5 as default browser, Love my Diamond.
Just one word: Amazing!
j0bro said:
I like the fact that my Wizard's miniUSB charger fits this extUSB of the Diamond as well! Same goes for my car charger! It even works with standard USB -> miniUSB cables to connect to the computer.
Now only for an audio link in the car... maybe I could setup a nice bluetooth thingy with my car radio
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how are you doing this? i plugged in my diamond with the standard usb cable, and it is charging. but my computer does not recognize it as a phone. and i cannot activesync.
it might be the cable......
pauljohn54 said:
I think you forgot about the GPS. Its simply amazing. Locks within 10 seconds cold or otherwise. When compared to my clunky TYTN II of which I never used the keyboard the GPS is fantastic. On my old TYTN II it could take about 2-3 minutes to get a lock. Of course there are still some application bugs for the IGO users but my Garmin Mobile XT flies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with tomtom v6 it takes a couple of minutes. 2 or 3!!
so i do not like tomtom, but i love the diamond.!!!
i also like the free screen protector
I just got it today. What I like most is the size and the screen.
Compared to my "old" Touch Cruise, where I actually never liked the design, I have the feeling that it's only have the size and weight. No comparison to the sceen too. BtW Diamond is 16,7 Mio colors, isnt' it ?
This device could become the best smartphone I ever owned. Let the testing begin.
I owned a wizard, touch, touch xl, touch dual, but none of these pleased me more than the diamond!
my diamond is the best device ever made! let me point out why:
1. formfactor is outstanding, its small, strong, beautiful.
2. the design is outstanding!
3. the performance of the touchflo3d is very good, the stories about lag are just bullocks. the only lag I felt was during a2dp, wifi, teeter, and many apps opened.
4. speaking of a2dp, the bluetooth radio is the best there ever was on a device, 15 meters from diamond and still listening music
5. opera browser rules
6. teeter is a killer game.
7. g sensor rocks and works great
8. gps has a quick fix
9. camera makes beautiful pics(when a lot of licht is around)
10. love the way scrolling through my music albums with album art(love the non static feeling to it)
11. same with pics and videos
12. youtube player works very well with 3g and wifi(sometimes with gprs)
13. typed this text with opera and xt9 on my diamond so the keyboard works well.
14. my first vga screen an I must say, qvga sucks!
15. the build in light sensor is amazing
this device blows every other phone to pieces, I believe htc finally got it!
what I dislike:
- sometimes the dpad doesn't do what I like, but I think I can train myself with that.
- windows mobile sometimes gives a popup:
xxx.exe is not responding. but the device keeps working...
gr bram
The fact that its not a brick or door stop. and its so sexy looking
just because is so typical and ...funny. read it till the end. why FM radio sucks
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=401119
Excellent thread!!
Thanks all for sharing your positive feedback about your 'Diamonds'.
After having read this thread I've decided to return to HTC!! Now that is saying something.lol.
I was uhming and arrhing about the resticted 4GB storage as opposed to the current 12GB and soon to be 32GB cards, but if I am to be honest, yeah...I can use all that space up, but would never really need more than 3GB at any given time. The upcoming Pro version of the Diamond seems to have it all for me, but I just never use the tiny slide-out keyboard (just a novelty on such a small device IMHO), so Diamond...here I come.
All said and done though, you will unlikely ever get the solid type of after sales support that one gets from this forum.
XDA-developers rule!!
P.S. I've read that Open GLES works great with Call of Duty II...don't need my Ultimate i-mate with that Geforce chip anymore .
Looks like I'll be sticking to the Diamond until the new Nvidia APX 2500 enabled devices make it into HTC devices.
Thanks again for this thread and your comments....it has helped me greatly.
These are the first impressions of a power user after a week with the Diamond - I hope they might help others to decide whether to get one.
EDIT: Things have moved on since this post, you might want to look at post #39 too (page 4)
Background
I'm a power user but also a heavy day-to-day user as well. I use my phone for calling people, basic PDA functions, OTA google sync, web access, IMAP mail, GPS and also .NET software development. (I'm the author of 'Touch Settings') I used to have an HTC Touch. Before that, an HTC Prophet. Before that, an HTC MDA Compact.. ..you get the idea. I like HTC devices. I've stuck with them all, put up with their frustrations and watched them steadily improve. But this phone felt like the most exciting release yet. A massive leap forward in terms of specs. I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
So, one week in, here we go...
Great things
THE SCREEN
My favourite thing is the VGA screen. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the look of the phone, seriously. I could never go back to QVGA again now, this is a major improvement. Just reading the operator name in a slim, Arial-Narrow type font at the top of the screen and not being able to see the individual pixels, this is a true step forward. Everything, repeat, EVERYTHING looks better.
THE CAMERA
The auto-focus camera is nothing short of brilliant. Still rubbish in low-light levels, still no flash, but this is light-years ahead of the last one! I still get a little smirk of delight on my face when I hear it whirring as it focuses ahead of taking a picture!
A FASTER PROCESSOR
Hooray! FINALLY!... 528MHz ...4 times faster than my HTC Touch!...in theory. See below.
THE NEW ADD-ONS
Having GPS, FM radio, a tilt switch, a light sensor and more is fantastic. Teeter, the game, is awesome and will impress every person you know at a party.
THE SIZE
The Diamond is slightly smaller than the HTC Touch as well - easier to fit in a pocket. And it really does look gorgeous. Well done HTC.
Enough praise. Because then there's all this:
The Not-so-great things:
THE SPEED
Pop Quiz. Take your Windows Mobile phone. Tap the start button. Then tap 'Programs'. Does the window flash onto your screen immediately? No. There's a delay, isn't there? And sometimes you can even see it drawing every individual icon, top-to-bottom. On my HTC Touch, after a day of use, this took about 2 seconds.
On the Diamond, with TouchFlo 3D running, it's worse.
Skip this paragraph if you don't want a rant. Seriously, when are Windows Mobile phones actually going to get responsive enough to be useable? Delays when you press buttons, delays when you bring up menus, switch applications, etc, etc. What the hell is this operating system DOING with those 537 mega cycles per second??? Having patiently waited through my last THREE sloooow devices, I was thrilled at the thought of a phone that actually whizzed along... ...but it's a bit like going from XP on a slow computer to Vista on a fast computer - no noticable increase in speed at all. Such a crushing disappointment. My old Nokia could re-draw a screen faster 3 years ago. In this day and age, and with a processor doing a belting 500+ MHz, this should NOT be happening. Things should appear INSTANTLY and react the VERY MOMENT you touch them. I am running out of patience. The iPhone is looking more attactive every day.
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Fantastic to look at, but surprisngly sluggish to use. The more days that pass, the more it's becoming apparent that this interface is more about form and less about function. It's also often lacking in visual feedback; sometimes a button will move when you drag it (main nav bar at the bottom), sometimes not! You just have to swipe and see! Visual feedback is a very important part of user interface design.
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places; again, a big factor in user interface design, hence why you remember where your icons are on your PC's desktop.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
I can't add any custom home screen items! What the hell happened to being able to view my list of things to do? (tasks) Seriously, this is a shockingly bad step back. I know there are some apps to work around this, but I'm doing a review of the stock phone and software here.
THE JOYPAD
This should be renamed the joy-less pad. It's virtually impossible to click the Left and Right buttons without frequently mis-tapping and hitting the 'Back' or 'Hang Up' keys instead. There are no markings, you just sort of have to 'guess' where abouts on the flat screen to tap. The actual target area isn't big enough and I'm getting sick of quitting out of screens when I just want to move right or left. I've got fairly big hands but I'm no elephant.
The ipod-style 'whiz-around' wheel seems promising but when you try it, it's under-responsive and jerky in its movements. I would suggest that's why they've limited the applications that support it by default.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Another step back - from 8Gb storage on my HTC Touch (with a mini SD card) to a paltry 4Gb now. Not enough to put all my music on the phone plus nav software, and no slot for more storage.
GROSS GREASINESS
As other forum users have pointed out, all that swiping on this shiny black device - it looks like the back of a transit van after a minute or so of use.
CONCLUSION
Owning an HTC Diamond is without doubt a step forward from an HTC Touch, but it's a smaller step than you might think. Be prepared for a mixed bag of emotions. Joy at the look of the thing, disappointment when you realise it's slower than you hoped, shouts of happiness when you first play 'Teeter', cries of frustration when the screen turns off randomly during calls or you miss-hit the joypad button or you can't swipe the tiny bit of the screen you're meant to.
After all that, I might surprise you by saying this. I would still say this phone is the best option on the market for the day-to-day user who wants an ultra-portable device that packs enough power to do that bit more than just making calls.
Just 24 hours into owning the phone I did my first ROM flash, from 1.37...1 to 1.37...3 - and this helped the speed somewhat and fixed a memory leak. I also tweaked the registry as much as I could. This has helped too, but the above problems are all still too evident, nothing has really improved enough to make me retract any of them. Keep watching these forums, though, because future ROM updates have the power to make this device much, much better.
That's about it, I hope these comments have helped, or given you something to debate in the space below. I'm going to stick with the Diamond for now. But I wouldn't mind betting I'll have completely disabled TouchFlo 3D before the week is out...
Carlos
I too wonder how long I will last with TF3D. However, the joypad is no problem. Simply use the centre button as a reference point. If you rest part of your thumb in there and press any side of it, then it is easy to navigate. At least I find it easy anyway. Hope that might help you.
carlosp_uk said:
I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you were really a fan you would have made sure you were the first, and didn't have to run
mcwtrekkie said:
If you were really a fan you would have made sure you were the first, and didn't have to run
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I may well have been Orange's first online order! Could not wait.
evilskanker said:
I think I may well have been Orange's first online order! Could not wait.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the spirit!
Has anyone managed to add a UK city to the weather forecast page ? I found it almost impossible to scroll down to the last page, it keeps selecting wrong countries, the only way I see - scroll one-by-one using hardware buttons ....
Yes, I added 3. Scroll with finger, well, more of a flick.
evilskanker said:
Yes, I added 3. Scroll with finger, well, more of a flick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I've tried about 20 different ways of scrolling with a finger, always end up with a list of south american cities ... (
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
hertc said:
I think I've tried about 20 different ways of scrolling with a finger, always end up with a list of south american cities ... (
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's at times like these that it would be good to be able to use the wheel for scrolling down.
evilskanker said:
It's at times like these that it would be good to be able to use the wheel for scrolling down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, still remember Sony J7 I had long time ago, all these things were so easy with a wheel ..
hertc said:
Comparing to my old Orbit, I would say I have to press harder for screen to react ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apparently the Diamond is the first PocketPC device to have a tempered glass screen to make it extra tough. This makes it require a little more pressure than other devices.
But much more resilient to damage, and also nicer on the eye.
wasn't to amazed with the stock rom,
but after some days of usage and flashing the first cooked rom,
i am getting more and more into my new mobile..
Totally agree, using my Diamond for a week after three years on I-mate's.
carlosp_uk said:
CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places;
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a suggestion -
Speed Dialing.
you can place at least SOME off your favorites in the positions you want.. and then it will just be one long press.. and it will dial.
Phone - menu - Speed Dial.
and of course.. there is always voice dialing.
Turn off TF3D. Ive heard is does HUGE things for the interface speed, and you'll get your tasks back (first thing Im going to do when I get a sprint diamond on this side of the pond)
I agree on almost every point
Not having used touch before, I really can't say anything bad about the navigation. To me it's a revolution, but it's not quite there yet.
The biggest flaw is the biggest asset. Let me explain.
The biggest asset to this device is the screen. I have never liked the screen on any of the QVGA devices I have used (Wizard and Hermes). The VGA screen on the Diamond is fantastic! Crisp and easy to read, even in direct sunlight. The words by HTC "Not too big, not too small" really sums up my feelings about it. However. Screen size is relative to what you display on it. I'm sure a lot of research, testing and effort went in to decide the size of the elements on the TF3D interface. Personally I would have designed it differently.
The main professional reason I choose to use a WiMo is Active Sync OTA (Over-The-Air). Having direct push of Mail, Calendar and Contacts to my device is critical in my profession. This HAS to work, it has to be easy to use, and easy to read. On the Diamond it works fantastically. Lots better than on the Hermes. It takes some getting used to, when you have never used touchflo before.
The touch interface has to be finger friendly, demanding finger sized icons and buttons. Having a small screen required HTC to use the entire screen. That makes you wish for a larger screen, yet a larger screen would require a larger device and I dont want that. Dilemma.
Like you said, the TF3D interface lacks in visual feedback. This could be replaced by tactile feedback. The same technology used in the game TEETER could be used to give me feedback on my actions.
Being a WiMo certified pro I know that the main obstacle for HTC is WiMo itself, or rather the Windows CE it is built upon. Win CE 5 is nowhere near a realtime OS and the switch to Win CE 6 (afaik it will be the foundation for WiMo 7) will be a major leap. CE6 is not a RTOS either, but it has the means to enable truly great applications. I look forward to what Developers will create for WiMo7.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_CE_6.0)
The only thing I really dislike on my Diamond is the scrollwheel. I clearly does not work like you would expect it to. Unintuitive. And the Up/Down/Left/Right navigation around it is near unusable. Using the touch screen works though so it is not a showstopper for me.
Speed of the interface is good once you have used the cache size tweaks. Not great but good.
I fully agree on the speed comment, 527mhz... but it seems it's different mhz compared to my HTC Herald (P4350).
On my Herald I also have WM6.1, a 200mhz cpu (o'ced to 240 mhz) and everything starts faster!
I've got the 1.37.xxx.3 rom on my Diamond, TF3D disabled and still it's slower.
Very strange indeed.
guys i suggest you all to flash duttythroy's diamond project v2 rom. it increased the usability amazingly.
guys i suggest you all to flash duttythroy's diamond project v2 rom. it increased the usability amazingly. and c'mon guys, our shiny precioussssssss is out some weeks. look what they've done with the kaiser within one year... stay patient and keep being excited for that genius piece of hardware.
carlosp_uk said:
These are the first impressions of a power user after a week with the Diamond - I hope they might help others to decide whether to get one.
Background
I'm a power user but also a heavy day-to-day user as well. I use my phone for calling people, basic PDA functions, OTA google sync, web access, IMAP mail, GPS and also .NET software development. (I'm the author of 'Touch Settings') I used to have an HTC Touch. Before that, an HTC Prophet. Before that, an HTC MDA Compact.. ..you get the idea. I like HTC devices. I've stuck with them all, put up with their frustrations and watched them steadily improve. But this phone felt like the most exciting release yet. A massive leap forward in terms of specs. I was calling up Orange for about a month to find out the ETA. I actually RAN to the Orange Shop in Oxford Street and managed to get their last one in stock at the weekend!
So, one week in, here we go...
Great things
THE SCREEN
My favourite thing is the VGA screen. I cannot believe the difference it makes to the look of the phone, seriously. I could never go back to QVGA again now, this is a major improvement. Just reading the operator name in a slim, Arial-Narrow type font at the top of the screen and not being able to see the individual pixels, this is a true step forward. Everything, repeat, EVERYTHING looks better.
THE CAMERA
The auto-focus camera is nothing short of brilliant. Still rubbish in low-light levels, still no flash, but this is light-years ahead of the last one! I still get a little smirk of delight on my face when I hear it whirring as it focuses ahead of taking a picture!
A FASTER PROCESSOR
Hooray! FINALLY!... 528MHz ...4 times faster than my HTC Touch!...in theory. See below.
THE NEW ADD-ONS
Having GPS, FM radio, a tilt switch, a light sensor and more is fantastic. Teeter, the game, is awesome and will impress every person you know at a party.
THE SIZE
The Diamond is slightly smaller than the HTC Touch as well - easier to fit in a pocket. And it really does look gorgeous. Well done HTC.
Enough praise. Because then there's all this:
The Not-so-great things:
THE SPEED
Pop Quiz. Take your Windows Mobile phone. Tap the start button. Then tap 'Programs'. Does the window flash onto your screen immediately? No. There's a delay, isn't there? And sometimes you can even see it drawing every individual icon, top-to-bottom. On my HTC Touch, after a day of use, this took about 2 seconds.
On the Diamond, with TouchFlo 3D running, it's worse.
Skip this paragraph if you don't want a rant. Seriously, when are Windows Mobile phones actually going to get responsive enough to be useable? Delays when you press buttons, delays when you bring up menus, switch applications, etc, etc. What the hell is this operating system DOING with those 537 mega cycles per second??? Having patiently waited through my last THREE sloooow devices, I was thrilled at the thought of a phone that actually whizzed along... ...but it's a bit like going from XP on a slow computer to Vista on a fast computer - no noticable increase in speed at all. Such a crushing disappointment. My old Nokia could re-draw a screen faster 3 years ago. In this day and age, and with a processor doing a belting 500+ MHz, this should NOT be happening. Things should appear INSTANTLY and react the VERY MOMENT you touch them. I am running out of patience. The iPhone is looking more attactive every day.
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Fantastic to look at, but surprisngly sluggish to use. The more days that pass, the more it's becoming apparent that this interface is more about form and less about function. It's also often lacking in visual feedback; sometimes a button will move when you drag it (main nav bar at the bottom), sometimes not! You just have to swipe and see! Visual feedback is a very important part of user interface design.
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
I feel that, action-wise, some things have (incredibly) got HARDER since my HTC Touch. For example, I used to be able to call my favourite contacts with a swipe and a tap.. ..now it's a swipe, a complicated side-swipey thing, a painstaking wait for the piccies to flip around, and finally a tap. Er, hello? This is the MAIN THING I USE THE PHONE FOR - CALLING PEOPLE! I can't even position my favourite contacts in memorable places; again, a big factor in user interface design, hence why you remember where your icons are on your PC's desktop.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
I can't add any custom home screen items! What the hell happened to being able to view my list of things to do? (tasks) Seriously, this is a shockingly bad step back. I know there are some apps to work around this, but I'm doing a review of the stock phone and software here.
THE JOYPAD
This should be renamed the joy-less pad. It's virtually impossible to click the Left and Right buttons without frequently mis-tapping and hitting the 'Back' or 'Hang Up' keys instead. There are no markings, you just sort of have to 'guess' where abouts on the flat screen to tap. The actual target area isn't big enough and I'm getting sick of quitting out of screens when I just want to move right or left. I've got fairly big hands but I'm no elephant.
The ipod-style 'whiz-around' wheel seems promising but when you try it, it's under-responsive and jerky in its movements. I would suggest that's why they've limited the applications that support it by default.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Another step back - from 8Gb storage on my HTC Touch (with a mini SD card) to a paltry 4Gb now. Not enough to put all my music on the phone plus nav software, and no slot for more storage.
GROSS GREASINESS
As other forum users have pointed out, all that swiping on this shiny black device - it looks like the back of a transit van after a minute or so of use.
CONCLUSION
Owning an HTC Diamond is without doubt a step forward from an HTC Touch, but it's a smaller step than you might think. Be prepared for a mixed bag of emotions. Joy at the look of the thing, disappointment when you realise it's slower than you hoped, shouts of happiness when you first play 'Teeter', cries of frustration when the screen turns off randomly during calls or you miss-hit the joypad button or you can't swipe the tiny bit of the screen you're meant to.
After all that, I might surprise you by saying this. I would still say this phone is the best option on the market for the day-to-day user who wants an ultra-portable device that packs enough power to do that bit more than just making calls.
Just 24 hours into owning the phone I did my first ROM flash, from 1.37...1 to 1.37...3 - and this helped the speed somewhat and fixed a memory leak. I also tweaked the registry as much as I could. This has helped too, but the above problems are all still too evident, nothing has really improved enough to make me retract any of them. Keep watching these forums, though, because future ROM updates have the power to make this device much, much better.
That's about it, I hope these comments have helped, or given you something to debate in the space below. I'm going to stick with the Diamond for now. But I wouldn't mind betting I'll have completely disabled TouchFlo 3D before the week is out...
Carlos
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what a crap...
THE SPEED
Put one of the new ROMs on it (Dutty, Walshieau), runs like hell. No delay here!
TFL3D - INTERFACE
Simply switch TF3D off if you don't like it.
And use an existing tool for your today (SPB Mobile Shell ect.).
COMMON ACTIONS, E.G. CALLING PEOPLE
Disable the Diamond dialer, you get your traditional dialer back.
HOME SCREEN (TFL3D again really)
Simply switch TF3D off.
Use an existing tool for today (SPB Mobile Shell ect.).
THE JOYPAD
Get used to it, it works perfect after a few weeks.
NO MINI SD CARD SLOT
Ok, maybe you got a point...
On the other hand: do you really need ALL your music all the time. A sync now and then for other music isn't that hard.
GROSS GREASINESS
Ok, the shiny cover gets greasy. But is't so beautiful,,,
just interested to see what people would choose.
sdhc slot.
have a longer battery life
Faster processor!
In htc album etc, the phone is a bit laggy. Iphone you can flick through photo's very fast, but diamond is much slower....
longer battery...
better speakers...like my old Nokia N95.
there isnt lag because of cpu the software isnt great(wm 6.1 is really slow)
I voted "longer battery life", but besides that, I have a bunch of things that would make my Diamond close to perfect for me:
- AWS-band 3G support for T-Mobile USA (this would easily be #1)
- slightly-rounded edge on the back battery cover and a flat back
- Easier-to-use buttons on the front panel. The panel is capacitive, why not take advantage of it?
- micro SD slot
well, voted for a bigger batery life. and #2 would be a microSD slot. then it would have been my ideal phone.
all things considered, after tweaking this device so much, you grow on it. but on second thought, if you have to do the tweaking first before you actually enjoy using it, then you may end up a bit dissapointed.
Tri-band UMTS.
SDHC slot.
jentech said:
longer battery...
better speakers...like my old Nokia N95.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah, how did you guys forget that speaker? It;s honestly the worst thing I have heard in years (specially loudspeaker through calls) - and I'm not exaggerating one bit
If they built the perfect phone - who would need to buy another one?
Theres loads of things I would change but I still love it.
I had to use my Kaiser the other day and it felt like I was using a BBC Micro!
Although I wonder what I will be saying when I get my hands on an HD
I wish it were as solid as the Touch. Battery cover comes off too easily.
better speaker is missing in the vote options
Have screen that says on during calls.
Vector-SS said:
Oh yeah, how did you guys forget that speaker? It;s honestly the worst thing I have heard in years (specially loudspeaker through calls) - and I'm not exaggerating one bit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really? i dont think its too bad - just a little to loud, when im in a call you can hear it in the room if its quiet :s. otherwise everyone thats used my phone has commented on my good call quality and most of my mates own blackberrys or nokia n-series handsets :s
i guess its official - battery life is the biggest thing to change loll
Id trade the dpad for a wide(tall)screen, and add another pair of buttons (matching the volume pair) on the other side for apps or shortcuts.
Mines a sprint, so battery life hasnt been an issue. Silly europeans and their super skinny paperweight once the battery runs out.
mSD slot would be nice, and better speaker(s) would be as well, but the screen size would be nicer.
- Music player sucks. When I add or delete new albums or songs it does not update itself.
- Some times TF3D does not respond.
- Birthdays doesn't appear on home screen.
- After 00:00 if I wake up the device it takes 10 seconds to display the time, because of the flipping effects.
- People (Quick dial) is stylish but is not really quick. Programs like quick dial would be much more usefull.
- E-Mail tab is useless.
- There is no CTRL key at the full QWERTY keyboard.
- I have to press add to add a word to my custom dictionary. With most of the PDA's it was automatic.
- I can't record phone calls.
- No built in answering machine.
wow someones really upset with there diamond loll
get rid of call history and calender tabs on home screen under the clock in tf3d cuz its nonsense
How long have you had your Diamond for and do you wish you had opted for something else? I'm just trying to gauge opinions of people who have owned the phone for a few months. Thanks.
I've owned mine for just 3 days so I'm still getting used to it....I think it's a terrible 'out of the box' product but it seems to improve with various add-ons. So far I've downloaded Diamond Tweak and IContacts.
My latest problem with it is that I'm encountering the notorious TomTom 'no maps found' error (Grrrr....this was never an issue on my old HTC device)
The Diamond is my first HTC or WinMo phone, I've owned it for 7 months and I don't regret it.
It's pretty slow at doing things and the battery life if terrible if you actually use the device, rather than leaving it in suspend mode with 3G coverage switched off. However, charge it at least once daily and it's livable with.
TF3D is crap too, get rid of that and it gets much better!
I have just sold my Diamond. I used it for about 6 months and could never get used to it's very slow speeds. Especially out of the box it was a huge dissapointment, although with a custom rom things did improve.
But still, the thing is just too slow in my opinion. Probably all due to the lovely Qualcomm chipset that's inside it. When you look at the specs (memory, mhz etc) it should fly, be awesome. But it just isn't.
I always compare to my old mda compact (qtek s100). When I used to run TomTom on that one it was smooth with good fps. Even on a device like the Diamond, years later, it runs like crap. And that is a bit dissapointing ofcourse.
Don't get me wrong, you get a lot in return. Nicer UI, VGA screen, much better touchscreen and a much much better looking phone. But in the speed department all of my HTC phones have been dissapointing.
(Yet still I buy them, they are too much fun. qtek s100, qtek s200, htc touch, touch cruise, diamond).
But for now, HTC will have to do without me .
I love my Fuze, I hate my Fuze
This article sums my feelings up very well:
http://www.mytodayscreen.com/i-hate-my-fuze-i-love-my-fuze/
I've never had so much fun hacking a device before, but at one and the same time I resent having to hack it into a proper phone in the first place.
I'm not getting rid of my Fuze any time soon, but with anyone shopping for a new phone I steer them away from it. I'm completely up front with them, and admit to them I've spent dozens of hours scouring message boards and web sites for hacks to get the phone to behave in a way in which I'm happy with.
Users should not have to hack a registry to change ANY of the settings I've wanted to tweak!!!
That felt good to get off my chest.
I love my Diamond and the small sleek form factor more htan the Toch HD I had for a week or so.
I do not go anywhere without my trusty diamond in my pocket, I have tried so many other phones/PDA's and this is the best, the smallest for what it can do.
Its also perfect for a walking GPS device with memory map.
Its a running GPS log, my music device, organiser, camera for meetings and quick memories, reading book, comic book, games, even acts as a spirit level, does practically everything I need, oh yes and its a phone too.
Choose the right ROM and the thing is so quick and responsive.
TF3D is brilliant, I am so used to it now I can't get on with anything else.
Simple answer no it just keeps getting better and better.
I regret not!
But it seems like software is always ahead of the hardware. Before I had my branded Diamond I had the GloFiish X500+, so in comparison to that I'm very happy with my MDAIV.
But WinMo does helps to keep me using PPC's, it's a great platform to work with.
no!
and a comparative with old devices is like ... ach no need any words.
dont forgett, the devices are all at first a phone. all other functions wasnt the premiere function. something was good something cant be good.
i.e. old device open a webside with more speed than a new device.
but how you go to internet? by cable or by gms ($).
and if you are finished with scrolling left-to-right and back you have to scroll up and down. the new device uses wlan to go internet or umts and your scroll-action is minimizing by overview the complete internet-side.
but asking other people for feeling if buy or not buy ... hmmm, be carefull, that are only feelings and oppinnions.
i can say, that all devices (htc, nokia, apple) have good and not-good thinks. my buddy have apple. with standars he have no problems, after installation some progs the apple will be slowly and he do resets his devicxe many time like me. YOUR GUT FEELING IS NEEDED!!!
No regrets at all. Like stated above with the right custom rom, tweaks and apps this is everything I need in a phone/ppc.
And whats fun about getting a phone right out of the box that does everything you want? Heck, modding it to your likings is most the fun.
after 2 years of using WinMob my diamond is the first one that people is asking "What is this?". I mean that has the greatest software (WinMob) and the best design.
What do you want more?
Hate it, but use it!
I have had a Diamond for about 6 months now, and only use it because of the size.
I prefer my TyTN II but it is just too bulky
I hate a touch screen keyboard and prefer the slide out of the TyTN II.
I also find the Diamond's volume very soft as compared to the TyTN II
But in any case this will be my last M$ Windows based device, until M$ issues a decent OS.
PS: The motherboard has already been replaced.
i just love my Diamond....
Hi !
I bot love and hate it equally... After six happy months, new ROMs etc... I am forced to send it back, since from the start, when I stay in H or 3G (I am 30 meters away from a big antenna), I don't get any call... One bar of H or 3G in my home... The phone displays bars, one or two, but is totally disconnected from network, and I miss ALL my phonecalls. Sometimes, two days after, I get messages notifications: twenty voicemails, 50 SMS... all sent two days ago but not received by the phone...
If you have any suggestion... I have tried everything, but I'm forced to leave it on "G" only (GSM/GPRS) which is a serious drawback as I'm always using it to surf the web, mail, TV on phone etc... with my all inclusive plan (French network SFR).
When I go to downtown (one km from my home, so I am downtown!) I have none of the issues stated above.
This phone is probably the worst receiver in the history of mobile phones... All y previous phones gave me five constant bars of H or 3G, this one only one or less... All my friends with cheaper devices have five bars in my place...
I really love my Diamond. Being my first WinMo phone I have to say sites like this here really help improve the phone. Coming from the iPhone I miss the multi-touch and easy surfing on Safari (but I found that Iris is an awesome browser.)
I love the size of my phone, that is what I did not like about the iPhone (too big for me)
In case you are wondering I have had it since it first launched in Canada (Dec 4, 2008)
i wont say that i regret buying my diamond but i am for sure going to buy the new touch pro2 as soon as it comes to denmark. the diamond is good but it aint the best... ive always have a lot of problem with the speed of the diamiond jsut like everyone else but after getting rid of tf3d it has improved a bit. but all in all im not disappointed with the phone.
Cornwall are you sure its because of the device? i dont know anyone who ever had that problem. it might not be the phone but the provider of the net. if that isnt the problem i sure would go to the place i bought the phone and demand to get a new one cause it might be that single phone that is screwed up.
I like the Diamond especially for its size. I have a clip-on pouch that is designed especially for Diamond. I don't like the ROM that came with my operator Telstra but I have since then upgraded to CT6.4 HD Lite ROM. It is fast, lite and stable and good battery. I also like the onscreen keyboard where I can hold the key and it types numbers instead of letters. Very handy.
One feature I wish it had was the TV-OUT capability, like that in Touch Pro.
Anyway, for the keyboardless phone, Diamond is the best for me so far. For phone with keyboard, I think Touch Pro 2 is the one to beat.
My Diamond is now 8 months old and the more I use it, the more I love it. But, I surely have plans to upgrade to TOUCH HD. Reason? I want a bigger screen to actually use those pixels. Cramming VGA display into a 2.8" does not bring any huge practical advantage as only Opera Mobile uses those pixels effectively.
Touch Diamond-2 has bigger screen, but it is 3.2" and crams WVGA resolution. Scene won't change much for me. I do not want a hardware keyboard and that rules out TP-2
I've just bought a Nokia E51 to replace my Diamond. The Diamond was my second HTC phone, the Touch was my first. I thought that the diamond would be a massive step up and for the first six months it was. The screen is much better, the touch sensitivity was better and it was loads quicker. However, once the honeymoon period is over the overall usability of the phone starts to show and for me it wasn't good.
The main negative is the battery life. You have to consciously manage the Diamond to make the battery last. Why cant I just put it in my pocket and have one less worry on life! After normal usage I could unplug the Diamond from the wall charger at 07:30 and by 18:00 it was showing critical battery level warnings. By comparison, with the same usage I unplugged my Nokia E51 over 24 hours ago and the battery is still almost full. One less worry!
Travelling abroad quite a lot I use Skype often, with the diamond I had to ensure I carried my handsfree kit with me so I could make a private call and not through the speaker phone. On top of that I had to keep pressing a button on the phone to stop it going into standby so the wifi doesn't go to sleep - A pain in the ass at best. With the E51 I can access the same wifi hotspot, load up fring and instantly use skype (or MSN) to phone home with the luxury of holding the handset to my ear - what a novelty! also knowing that the battery can cope.
Another big thing was the bluetooth integration to my car stereo. I have a Kenwood stereo and granted I could get into my car and turn the stereo on and that was it, I was connected to the handsfree. However it took 3 minutes or so do download the address book and when I finished a call it would disconnect forcing me to turn off the stereo and turn it back on again to initiate a handshake. The E51 establishes automatically, downloads the phone book in about 15 seconds and never disconnects, pretty much everything you would expect (oh, also it connects the audio automatically so I can play music from the phone through the car with no further faffing about)!
I've come to realise that the Diamond and Windows Mobile is a complete pain in the ass taking up far to much of my time to do things that should just happen. I cant believe how good the nokia E51 is in comparison. It does everything better according to my usual usage of a mobile phone.
It's going to be a few years before I go back to windows mobile, probably after WM 7 has been well established. Untill then I've got my Diamond in a draw as my spare phone.
I have owned my Diamond since June 2008.
The greatest thing about it is it's small size. I like my phones small, and would never consider a phone with a 3.5 inch screen.
I leave the Diamond in 2G mode, and only switch to 3G when I want to use data. My battery life easily lasts more than one day - usually 2 days, although I tend to recharge it every day anyway, so that I don't have to worry about the battery life.
I still use the stock ROM. Best thing you can do, is disable TouchFlo 3D and install the finger friendly SPB Mobile Shell. It is just so much faster, and above all, so much more practical to use, than TouchFlo 3D. I have introduced 3 colleagues with Diamonds to Mobile Shell, and each have promptly switched to Mobile Shell and haven't looked back.
No regrets about getting the Diamond. It was (and still is) really special when it first came out. Now however, I would recommend waiting for the Diamond 2 rather than the Diamond. The microSD card slot will come in handy. It is slightly larger than the Diamond, but not too big, with a bigger screen.
Hi everyone, right whoever has this HD7 can you tell me what its like? I'm really not sure if I should get this or the omnia 7, they both look great. Thanks for ya time.
Sent from my HTC Hero using Tapatalk
Moved to General
liverpoolfchero said:
Hi everyone, right whoever has this HD7 can you tell me what its like? I'm really not sure if I should get this or the omnia 7, they both look great. Thanks for ya time.
Sent from my HTC Hero using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just picked up one, its sweet. Go into any mobile shop and give it a test drive. I love mine.
I have had the HD7 for 4 days now and I am very impressed, however I also recognise that WP7 is very much a version 1 operating system and there are still a) a few bugs (nothing catastrophic) and b) some missing features. The promise is here though so if you don't mind a bit of "early adopter pioneering" go get one
if MS does not deal with the missing features and the bugs SOON I am selling mine again.
to name a few:
- No manual IP on Wifi
- No own ringtones
- no .avi container support - synch of 350mb movie takes aprox. 20 minutes.
- everything over 20mb needs to go over the marketplace (what do i have an unlimited data plan for?)
- no usb-hdd support
- no copy&paste (personally not missing this though)
- no proper multitasking. you can go back, but how do you go forwards?
- ringer only vibrates once, email sounds delayed
... i could go on
pencilcase said:
if MS does not deal with the missing features and the bugs SOON I am selling mine again.
to name a few:
- No manual IP on Wifi
- No own ringtones
- no .avi container support - synch of 350mb movie takes aprox. 20 minutes.
- everything over 20mb needs to go over the marketplace (what do i have an unlimited data plan for?)
- no usb-hdd support
- no copy&paste (personally not missing this though)
- no proper multitasking. you can go back, but how do you go forwards?
- ringer only vibrates once, email sounds delayed
... i could go on
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do mean by everything over 20Mb must go over the market place?
all downloads coming from the marketplace that exceed 20mb in size need to be downloaded with Wifi or over zune/cable.
pencilcase said:
all downloads coming from the marketplace that exceed 20mb in size need to be downloaded with Wifi or over zune/cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you'll find this is not just WP7 Devices, all smartphones these days do that including the iPhones, I suppose it was to cut down on the traffic and stuff on our carriers networks that are already overloaded with stuff.
Not saying it's right but that's the way it is.
ThePhoenix2007 said:
I think you'll find this is not just WP7 Devices, all smartphones these days do that including the iPhones, I suppose it was to cut down on the traffic and stuff on our carriers networks that are already overloaded with stuff.
Not saying it's right but that's the way it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I remember reading somewhere about the carriers (including O2) having panic attacks about networks overloaded by legions of downloaders.
pencilcase said:
all downloads coming from the marketplace that exceed 20mb in size need to be downloaded with Wifi or over zune/cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is very unfortunate! With my former HTC Desire running a custom rom (DeFrost) based on the ofiicial Android 2.2, I could download 136 MB on 3G, it was DeFrost roms, with were available through his DeFrost setup Tools. I never had an issue because the download speed was crazy fast! But I had to be in an area of very good coverage (all signal bars in the green) to have it within 20-25 minutes (sometimes up to 40 minutes). I used to do it during lunch time and flash from sd-card on my way back to the office. It's the only feature I miss from the Desire: the simplicity of the flash process, provided you have a custom recovery image, in my case, Clockwork recovery image.
f.
I've had mine for just over a week now and am thinking about returning it and getting a Omnia 7 instead, It has that reset bug that HTC said about, and the physical buttons on it are extremely annoying, none of them have a 'click' to them so you can never tell if your pushing it enough to activate it, also you end up pressing buttons without even noticing, I often end up launching the camera just because my finger rests on the button and activates it for example.
i love my hd7 so much but i would say this, if i could swap it for a 16gb omnia 7 i still would but i could not live with only 8gb even if there would be a work around, and i am to impatient to wait and see if anyone will stock it.
i pre-ordered HD7 for US Tmobile but i'm considering to cancel it and wait for the dell venue pro
people who got the device, what would you do ?
I am very pleased with the hd7, the feel of quality in the hand, the superb big screen together with those 16gb give it the edge IMHO.
adesonic said:
I am very pleased with the hd7, the feel of quality in the hand, the superb big screen together with those 16gb give it the edge IMHO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is also how I felt for the first couple days, but after you've had it for over a week like I have you might start to get frustrated with the problems I've had.
Milky1 said:
I've had mine for just over a week now and am thinking about returning it and getting a Omnia 7 instead, It has that reset bug that HTC said about, and the physical buttons on it are extremely annoying, none of them have a 'click' to them so you can never tell if your pushing it enough to activate it, also you end up pressing buttons without even noticing, I often end up launching the camera just because my finger rests on the button and activates it for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some other people have reported very "soft" hardware buttons (volume in particular) that are a bit mushy, and therefore hard to tell if you are applying enough pressure. Some people have swapped their HD7 for another one for this reason.
My own HD7 thankfully doesn't seem to suffer from this as the volume keys have a definite "click"-feel when pressed, so you can tell that you're pressing them right even if it's in your pocket.
Same with the camera button on mine; it's a 2-step camera button and you have to press fairly firmly to get the camera to activate. I've yet to accidently initialise the camera.
My HD7 is an O2 branded one in the EU with the dark gray chrome-like band. Perhaps the HD7s with the brighter chrome band suffer from this?
wheresmybeaver said:
Some other people have reported very "soft" hardware buttons (volume in particular) that are a bit mushy, and therefore hard to tell if you are applying enough pressure. Some people have swapped their HD7 for another one for this reason.
My own HD7 thankfully doesn't seem to suffer from this as the volume keys have a definite "click"-feel when pressed, so you can tell that you're pressing them right even if it's in your pocket.
Same with the camera button on mine; it's a 2-step camera button and you have to press fairly firmly to get the camera to activate. I've yet to accidently initialise the camera.
My HD7 is an O2 branded one in the EU with the dark gray chrome-like band. Perhaps the HD7s with the brighter chrome band suffer from this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is O2 UK and it has a dark band, and every button is completely soft, I don't know if it would annoy everyone but it drives me insane.
Odd! Mine was an O2 one... the only mushy button was the camera button. Never accidentally launched the camera app, but the Search keeps randomly appearing.
Milky1 said:
This is also how I felt for the first couple days, but after you've had it for over a week like I have you might start to get frustrated with the problems I've had.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats EXACTLY my opinion
I evaluated the HD 7 and found the absence of adequate configurable options most disappointing.
1. Unable to disable the haptics (vibrate on key press)
2. Unable to configure own WiFi settings, which means NO access to known hidden networks such as mine at home.
3. Level of java application support unknown
4. Co-Pilot not supported with localised maps when travelling
5. No MicroSD memory expansion
6. No file browser
That was enough to put me off ... although it is a fast and sleek new interface almost mimicking the i-phone monkey-see-monkey-do interface (dummies phone but vastly improving on WinMo, although so many things have dropped away such as the wifi router etc.
A great phone, but not for someone expecting more from their phone out of the box such as the HD 2 for example.