Related
Basically, I am underwhelmed
After a few hours playing, my thoughts .....
The Good
Nice size
Looks good
Screen resolution
The bad
Touch interface is crap. Give me SPB Mobile Shell any day
The on/off switch is easily knocked on/off - in the pocket or especially when using the slip case
Frequent waits for a response from a screen press -so you press it again, and again, and again and then things lock up or slow down.
The back gets really hot when using GPS or heavy 3G use
... and the ugly
The phone looks a bloody greasy slimy slippery mess after being in the hand for only two minutes
A triumph of form over function
I wonder what other little gems are waiting to be discovered
Touch interface is crap. Give me SPB Mobile Shell any day
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tweaks solve this problem.
The on/off switch is easily knocked on/off - in the pocket or especially when using the slip case
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is indeed a big problem, if true.
Frequent waits for a response from a screen press -so you press it again, and again, and again and then things lock up or slow down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said above, tweaking solve it.
The back gets really hot when using GPS or heavy 3G use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How hot can it get ?, stop being a child.
The phone looks a bloody greasy slimy slippery mess after being in the hand for only two minutes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can buy a case that will always be on. It will be better protected too.
PaulusUK said:
The phone looks a bloody greasy slimy slippery mess after being in the hand for only two minutes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you shouldn't have eaten fried chicken before using it
tweaking is always the answer.. but why bother?
so it seems that even this Diamond that was announced as SO great needs tweaking to be REALLY usable :-(
But why do HTC always require to do all the job of installing, testing, tweaking, re-testing, uninstalling (as soft is not compatible with 'just' this device) , re-installing another one, test it for a few days, etc...
(including all the crashes that we have while testing it)
Lame !
Shame on HTC and Windows Mobile for making an OS where not-everything may work great.
Well.. iPhone then.
Come on, it's worth it just for Teeter! I've just finished it, need to call it a night.
Seriously though, the accelerometer by itself is a brilliant addition and I'm sure some amazing applications will come of it.
PaulusUK said:
Basically, I am underwhelmed
After a few hours playing, my thoughts .....
The Good
Nice size
Looks good
Screen resolution
The bad
Touch interface is crap. Give me SPB Mobile Shell any day
The on/off switch is easily knocked on/off - in the pocket or especially when using the slip case
Frequent waits for a response from a screen press -so you press it again, and again, and again and then things lock up or slow down.
The back gets really hot when using GPS or heavy 3G use
... and the ugly
The phone looks a bloody greasy slimy slippery mess after being in the hand for only two minutes
A triumph of form over function
I wonder what other little gems are waiting to be discovered
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol!
Wait until you need to use the speakerphone or direct push mail, and your battery only lasts 3 hours on standby.
mital said:
lol!
Wait until you need to use the speakerphone or direct push mail, and your battery only lasts 3 hours on standby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I use those and my phone lasts till the end of the day, How long have you had the phone? I have noticed with every charge the batterys improves.
Mital, you hd it for a few weeks now ?
happy overall or not ?
The battery is going to be that bad for most device when using push email, I have my HTC Trion and if push email on with GPRS it last a bit more than a working day, if Wifi then just around 8 hours,
seem sno much differece with Dimond then.
My first major problem was that of no GPS access - several programs would not access the GPS and the phone would freeze when the GPS was accessed. Then I loaded Microsoft Voice Command 1.6 and this completely locked the phone - TouchFlo worked, but nothing would open when clicked on, and no change after soft resets either.
So, the first hard reset.
Then after reinstalling some GPS software, still no access to the GPS - and no changes in the com port settings made any difference.
So after much faffing about, the second hard reset.
So here I am scared to touch the phone in case I upset it and it frezes me out again!
And I think Opera hogs the resourses not only in use, but even after its closed down. The diamond works even slower after I have used Opera. Wierd.
And yes it is red hot after GPS and GPRS/3G use. I will measure it tonight with and IR thermometer, but there is no way it can be handheld for a long time at that temperature.
I suppose I could fry some bacon and eggs on it while waiting for the OS to do something. lol
Mmm, bacon and eggs sounds good to me, count me in!
I have to say I'm not experiencing the problems your getting. The only problem, which is easily solved, is that I don't get as good reception as with other phones Ive previously owned, but Ive noticed there are a few Radio updates floating around XDA Developers so will look into that.
With regards to programs not closing correctly, i found that making sure that when the 'X' is touched it closes down the program, does it for me.
Also my GPS works flawlessly with Tom Tom. I think you may unfortunately have a faulty unit as im not experiencing any of what your suggesting. My phone gets warm but never hot enough for Bacon AND Eggs
I find the handset can be a bit frustrating when typing sometimes, but thats always been the case with touch screen phones and people who say that they are perfect and better than a hardware keyboard are telling porkies! HTC arent there yet, but for me, there not far off!
Seriously tho, im sorry to hear that your getting problems and hopefully they will be solved soon.
Well, I have my Diamond since mid-June and I have to say that at first I wasn't very impressed with its speed.
The TF3D was very jerky and took a long to respond to my inputs.
Since my unit was one of those grey imports from HK made by Expansys, I thought that it probably had something to do with it, mainly a very early ROM (It's my third HTC model and I'm used to buy it and then tweak it).
So I started to look in the xda-dev forum and to try some of the ROMs, tweaks and cab files that our xda-dev resident geniuses provide.
And I must say that my Diamond is behaving very well, certainly a lot, lot better than it did a month ago.
- I never had major problems with any kind of software (not that I have a lot of stuff installed)
- The 4Gb storage memory is (for the time being) enough for my needs.
- The GPS (with TomTom 6), BT, WiFi and all that is working OK.
- The battery duration improved and it lasts for a day or more (more significantly since ROM update)
- The VGA screen is a must
On the other hand it does get a bit hot doing certain tasks, but so does my laptop when I have it sitting in my lap.
Also, even though HTC made a huge effort (in my opinion) to make a more 'user friendly' interface, don't forget that it still runs on MS WM6, and that, for now, is something that we have to live with.
Overall, I recommend it, but to get the most of it, you really need to keep looking for updates (and xda-dev is the best place for it) to improve its performance.
Regards,
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,,,
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.
WOW, Before I start please don't flame me for maybe some stupid questions !!!
Having used my artemis for well over 2 yrs now , i've flashed, put apps on it , re-installed various ROM's & got it working to my likening.
Now I treated myself to the Diamond which I think is currently one of the best on the market as it stands,
Well here we go, WM6.5 - Does the Diamond take the OS safely ?? Like the format, but don't want to get rid of TouchFLO 3D coz it rocks !!
Is it a different app i need for customization of themes instead of Manilla 2D ??
Can i use the same IGO8 & TOM TOM that i've got or is that for QVGA only (basically will it work on the Diamond VGA ? )
Oh ! and anymore help would be appreciated
Many Thanks, D
Hey, I also just changed from the artemis after 2 years to the diamond. I've installed tomtom 6 onto the diamond which worked perfect on the artemis. I haven't been outside yet to see if it works, I guess it will. But even with no signal, there's usually a row of grey circles in the waiting for gps signal screen on the artemis, and mine is blank on the diamond. Tomtom7 might be better, dunno yet. Igo8 was slow as **** on the artemis, too memory intensive especially with those 3D maps so I binned it. Might be better on the diamond. Diamond has some great features, but you will probably, like me, be disappointed with a few things, such as:
Volume not as loud as artemis, particularly important when driving on noisy motorways and you want to hear the sat nav voice louder. There's a tweak on this forum for volume.
On/off button on top, much nicer on artemis on right side.
Soft reset button trickier to press as it's located inside the stylus housing. On artemis, as you know, it's on the left side.
Light goes off during phone calls after 4 seconds.
Using the stylus on the diamond screen is harder work than the artemis, you have to press more.The artemis is much better for that.
Gets very warm at the bottom of the device, artemis didn't.
Less physical buttons of course than the artemis, and the settings/buttons assignment tab is practically non existent, you'll need to get a 3rd party app.
No camera button like the one on the right side of the artemis.
Battery indicator shows blocks and no % numbers, no big deal I suppose.
Touch flow 3D is nice but makes things fiddly and a bit confusing till you get used to it. Sometimes I turn it off to get the same UI as the artemis, it makes getting around the device easier and looks less cluttered.
Screen is fractionally smaller I think.
Mr Roman5, do you think the Diamond is not as good as the artemis on spec alone maybe, or is it gonna take a bit of time to get used to the software ??
Cheers, D
Before i flash, any recommendations coz every ROM I've looked at looks TOP DOLLAR !!!
The diamond is better spec for sure, faster processor, better camera (3.2mp instead of 2.0) wifi, 3G, touch screen, etc. It's just that I miss certain features of the artemis that allowed me to go between applications incredibly easily. However, I definitely recommend the diamond. I've been adding tweaks that I found on here and that has improved things a lot already. It's definitely quite a fun phone.
Roman5 said:
The diamond is better spec for sure, faster processor, better camera (3.2mp instead of 2.0) wifi, 3G, touch screen, etc. It's just that I miss certain features of the artemis that allowed me to go between applications incredibly easily. However, I definitely recommend the diamond. I've been adding tweaks that I found on here and that has improved things a lot already. It's definitely quite a fun phone.
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Don't want to annoy you or bug you, but what about some of the questions i was asking earlier, WM6.5, Custimations, ETC, Sorry D.
droy68 said:
Don't want to annoy you or bug you, but what about some of the questions i was asking earlier, WM6.5, Custimations, ETC, Sorry D.
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Oh, not annoying me at all, I've been asking loads of questions myself as the diamond is a brand new toy for me.
I'm afraid I don't have the faintest clue about your other questions, but I reckon someone here will probably say that WM6.5 will work ok so you might be in luck. As far as themes, I don't know that either, and I would love to have one particular theme myself if someone knows. The blue one that the artemis has. That's the windows default one on artemis I think, and the one I've always used on that phone. Currently I've got guava bubbles theme on the diamond and without the TF3D on, the whole screen goes a really vibrant and warm sort of flameburst orange and red colour.
Roman5 said:
Oh, not annoying me at all, I've been asking loads of questions myself as the diamond is a brand new toy for me.
I'm afraid I don't have the faintest clue about your other questions, but I reckon someone here will probably say that WM6.5 will work ok so you might be in luck. As far as themes, I don't know that either, and I would love to have one particular theme myself if someone knows. The blue one that the artemis has. That's the windows default one on artemis I think, and the one I've always used on that phone. Currently I've got guava bubbles theme on the diamond and without the TF3D on, the whole screen goes a really vibrant and warm sort of flameburst orange and red colour.
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Click to collapse
Getting there slowly but surely, themes as in TF3D, i used the customization on the artemis but reading the forum there is one i might need to use for the Diamond, but surely i'll get there with some of the great members of this thread, Heh Heh
Hey, I mentioned the gps and tomtom. Well, it's way better than the artemis for a fix. I've just been outside and got a fix for both copilot and tomtom6 in a matter of seconds. That's in my car, in the phone holder, WITH the silicon case over it. Even after switching off the phone for a few minutes and rebooting, it got an instant fix. I'll test it further by leaving the phone off for an hour and see how fast it is then. But, at least it works!
EDIT: retested by switching phone back from cold 45 minutes later. Yes, instant gps fix, woohoo! Compared to 2 minutes or sometimes more on the artemis, this has to be the single best thing about the diamond. I hope it continues to find a fix quickly in different areas.
Hi,
Sorry to bother you people, but I was wondering if the reviews I am looking at are giving an accurate picture of the diamond?
Most say it is horribly slow with bad GPS detection.
Of course it is as the videos show.. but when you start using it on regular basis and not just using it for 10min you will notice some sluggish times (as with everything). But with some tweaks (check the forums) to the phone and TF3D, it should be responsive and smooth.
I take it the problem is ram? That seems to be the only difference between the diamond and the fuze.
Those are the two phones I'm stuck between. I'm a bit concerned that the fuze is a bit too bulky.
I would rate it very stable,but definitely nothing remotely like fast,comparing it to previously owned pocket pc's,its mainly laggy when multitasking or when interrupting a process it's already doing,and can be very annoying.....I personally won't buy another HTC until they stop using Qualcomm 7 series cpu's....nothing to do with ram IMO,it's the cpu that chokes and different rom's can only do so much.
On the flip side though,it's easily the most stable thing I've owned,and have only had the odd glitch with googlemap's and youtube application's,I only use GPS with googlemaps and it seems pretty good to me.
I don't use tf3d.
well.. i'm coming in from a wizard.
It was just lagging too much with the wm 6.1 rom with touch flo. Am I walking into a similar situation?
I found myself always on the lookout for the fastest ROM, this suggest that I'm not too satisfied with its speed.
While the phone is normally fairly responsive at times it can be very annoying just like gerryjoson said.
This same impression I had with the polaris and topaz of my colleagues, it must really be the CPU in it.
However I would not call it horribly slow and by the way GPS works beautifully.
Its biggest drawback is the battery which lasts 2 days max with low usage, only a few hours if you use wifi or 3g . GPS will suck it empty even faster.