Sprint HTC Touch Diamond Review

It’s hard to avoid making comparisons to Apple’s iPhone when you mention the HTC Touch Diamond. Although they are very different phones running on different operating systems, the Touch Diamond is arguably one of the closest competitors in the U.S. market today to the popular iPhone in terms of unique touch controls, an attractive looking user interface, power and versatility.

Even though the phones compete in some areas, it’s important to understand that there’s a big difference between the Touch Diamond and the iPhone in terms of their intended users. You see, HTC designed the Touch Diamond as a Windows Mobile, business-friendly device. Apple designed the iPhone from the ground up as a consumer-oriented device. Both phones offer similar functionality, but the way in which each company implemented certain features is different, largely because the audience is different. For this reason, we may point out similarities or differences, but each user must decide for himself which OS and feature set is most important when deciding on a phone.

That said, just because the Touch Diamond is business-friendly doesn’t mean it’s a device that’s all work and no play. Like other Windows Mobile phones, the Touch Diamond comes with a media player, built-in camera that can also capture video, and some slick-looking touch controls that are fun and easy to use. It also comes with a few addicting games. The Sprint version, which is what we’re evaluating here, supports Sprint TV and the Sprint Music Store as well.

There haven’t been very many Windows Mobile phones to date that have offered a plethora of touch controls. Part of this is simply due to the design of the OS: Windows Mobile, on its own, lends itself to stylus and keyboard navigational controls. HTC’s original Touch phone offers some touch controls with its TouchFLO interface, but you’ll still find yourself pulling out the stylus frequently while using this phone. The Touch Diamond takes the TouchFLO interface from the original Touch phone a step further by overhauling the interface and replacing it with Touch FLO 3D.

Another key difference between the Touch Diamond and other Windows Mobile phones to date is its size. The Touch Diamond is relatively small, especially when compared to thicker phones like the AT&T Tilt, which has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Thankfully, HTC didn’t sacrifice functionality for pocketability. This phone is just as powerful as many other Windows Mobile phones. Just how good of a job did HTC do at adding touch-friendly controls to the standard Windows Mobile interfaces?  Read on as we find out.