HTC Touch Diamond

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The HTC Touch Diamond is evidence that interface is king. Well, actually, the iPhone proved that already; the Diamond just confirms it. Though most users have not even seen one in the flesh, many are already heralding it as the one to beat after seeing videos of its TouchFLO 3D interface. Here's our take on this PDA-phone.

Design

Size-wise, the Diamond is very handy. PDA-phones are often guilty of being too wide, but this one has no such problem. If you look at the left and right sides of the display, you'll notice there's hardly any wasted space--the Diamond's horizontal dimension is just a touch wider than the screen's width.

The prism-like back cover of the Diamond.
(click for larger image)

Here's a brain teaser: How many corners will a rectangular block have if you cut off four of them? The answer to that question will give you a rough indication of what the back of the Diamond looks like as the four corners of the battery cover seem to have been lopped off--which fits in with the back surface's undulating prism design. Though HTC's photos and renderings show the feature quite obviously, we have to say it's not that striking on the actual device. It's not one of those things that make you go "yuck" for trying too hard and is quite tastefully done. The Diamond uses a glossy plastic material for it body, which leaves ugly marks if you have sweaty palms and nasty fingerprints.

As mentioned, the front of the Diamond is taken up mostly by its VGA display. Below that, you have four buttons and a directional pad. At first glance, you may think these buttons are touch-sensitive because there is no physical separation between each one and the entire surface is flush with the screen. It is true, the panel is touch-sensitive, but each button is depressible as well. The touch-sensitivity part of it comes into play only in specific situations, like when you want to use the directional pad as a scroll wheel. These shortcuts and selector button work fine, but we would have preferred if the four directional buttons around the selector were larger.

There are few buttons around the sides of this handheld, just the volume control on the left and power on the top. Keeping with the clean, uncluttered design, there is a single connector on the bottom, a mini-USB one for charging, syncing and connecting a wired headset.

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