Should I buy it ? - Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General

Hi everyone.
I`m new here, and I am very sorry that I don`t read trough the whole forum, I know that answers to my questions are already posted, but here it goes :
I have the possibility to buy the Diamond tomorrow morning, but I need to give the seller an answer tonight.
I never had a WM device before, the most were Symbian phones from Nokia, and I am a little unsecure.
My needs are wi-fi, large screen, nice design, music&video playback, and fluid e-mail. As I know, the Diamond meets these requirements.
Considering all it has been said and done about this device, would you still buy it ?
Thanks, and sorry again for not reading the forum, but I lack the time until I need to give the answer.

I can only give you this: if you want to buy a touchscreen phone, buy one where you won't need a stylus.. I'm starting to get annoyed with this. But maybe cuz I have played around with the Iphone, which works alot better.
Some people still like the stylus, but I don't anymore..
As for WM goes.. I'm tired of the choppy animations.
GPS software and multimedia playback are nice though.. which are the greatest advantages..

It is absolutely necessary to use the stylus ? Isn`t the finger enough ?

I'd say, that u should go for it, if you don't mind the weak battery.
On the other hand there will be the HTC Touch HD coming shortly, so you might want to wait for that one. (To get that one or to get the Diamond cheaper).
Allthough I really don't like the weak battery and it's also quite some work to adapt the diamond to your needs, I still wouldn't like to exchange it against anything else available so far.

You can use your finger with the TouchFlo interface, but the rest not so much. Also typing is not that great. If you use the keyboard, u will have to use stylus. If you use the more finger friendly keyboard, you won't see half of the screen. I just gets irritating after a while. But beside that it is a nice phone (ok, they could do ALOT better with the battery). Good camera, good GPS, good sound when calling. It's complete..
Edit: I just remembered, like when ur going through ur contacts, it is very hard to flip or scroll. I think that's just WM, because Resco File Explorer works nice..

Thank you for your answers.
So for usual tasks ( looking for contacts, making calls, ) the finger is enough, right ? Texting and other stuff, with stylus.
Also, are there apps for reading e-books ? Like mobipocket on symbian ?
Does the phone freeze sometimes ? Or acts erratically ?
Considering that I actually like to "play" with and tweak devices, maybe I will give it a try.
If anyone wants to give other advices, please feel free.

Lots of tweaks and playing around with it.. Especially thanks to these forums! It is possible to use ur finger for usual tasks, so go for it.. texting is possible with finger, but because of the screensize and the big size of the keyboard, it is much better to use a smaller keyboard and use stylus..

monty99 said:
Hi everyone.
I`m new here, and I am very sorry that I don`t read trough the whole forum, I know that answers to my questions are already posted, but here it goes :
I have the possibility to buy the Diamond tomorrow morning, but I need to give the seller an answer tonight.
I never had a WM device before, the most were Symbian phones from Nokia, and I am a little unsecure.
My needs are wi-fi, large screen, nice design, music&video playback, and fluid e-mail. As I know, the Diamond meets these requirements.
Considering all it has been said and done about this device, would you still buy it ?
Thanks, and sorry again for not reading the forum, but I lack the time until I need to give the answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
come and think of it
diamond
1-weak battery life
2-using GPS the battrey only last 2 to 2:30 hour and the device goes hot
3-using wifi also the device goes hot
so you can say the weak point on diamond is the battery and need radio upgrade
im saying you a nokia fan im shore you now how to use Symbian phones SO
how about baying n96 or N95 8GB it has everything you want
N96
1-big screen
2-wifi
3-16 GB internal memory and micro SD slot
4-a lot of game and apps
5-and of cours your favorites OS
so the best choice for you is n96
hope i help you out
im a Windows moblie os fan
and sorry for my english

As I live in the UK the concept of actually buying a mobile phone is quite alien to me as you can get pretty much any phone for free with any monthy contract above £20 per month!! I certainly wouldn't pay the prices that the TD is sold for £400+.
Having said that, smartphones are far more flexible and usable than the 'dumb' phones from the likes of se, Nokia, Motorla etc. From my experience Symbian and WM are both showing their age and are a little unstable but WM easily beats Symbian and with the TD Touchflo 3D interface it looks good too.
The only real problems with the TD are the camera (good resolution but very poor in low light conditions) and the battery life (great for low usage but will drain really quick if used for music, web etc.
The phone is far smaller than a N95/N96 and the majority of other smartphones so when you consider this the battery life is actually not bad.
If you do get the TD make sure you upgrade the ROM. Lots of XDA members will recommend using a cooked (custom) ROM, but for a beginner using the official 1.93 version will result in a fantastic user experience and you can always use a cooked ROM when you become more experienced.
Forgot to mention that ROM 1.93 also resolves the issue of excessive heat coming from the battery compartment.

I`m not really a Nokia or Symbian fan, but those are the ones I had in the last couple of years As long as it works ok, I don`t really care if it`s WM, Symbian, or something else.
The N95 or the N96 are not in my taste, as far as design goes.
Yes levellerbob, in a lot of countries, there is a very nice policy regarding cost of cell phones on contract from operators, but as I`m not that lucky, I need to know a lot of things before I pay Still, thanks for all the advices.
If I decide on the Diamond, I`ll be on this forum all day everyday

monty99 said:
I`m not really a Nokia or Symbian fan, but those are the ones I had in the last couple of years As long as it works ok, I don`t really care if it`s WM, Symbian, or something else.
The N95 or the N96 are not in my taste, as far as design goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if that so go for the diamond
ah and dont forget to see the diamond pro maybe you will like it

Related

If you think youre Diamond is perfect, post here!

Having discussed the Diamond with my mate Mark, (he got his from inkino on Friday) I realised that theres no thread by/for people who think its perfect, so I has gotten the impression that it was not that good from all the bad threads (wifi is crap, no gps connection, sms problems etc.).
So, if you think the Diamond is great, please post here, so all us guys without them can get a balanced opinion. And say if youre using a cooked rom, or have applied tweaks or something.
Rory
I got it on Thursday, not Friday.
I just haven't experienced any of the problems that others are reporting apart from the battery heating up when charging off a computer. The battery life is fine (I haven't got below 71%, despite taking it on several day-long adventures), the GPS is good, and TouchFLO 3D is at least twice as fast as TouchFLO. The screen is also more responsive and the detail on it is simply amazing. Wifi seems fine, the accelerometer is really handy, and I have far more RAM and storage space than I need.
There are other great hidden extras too, like the good startup speed. Nobody seems to mention that.
I was worried like you as well because of all the threads .
Battery
Took off charger this morning at 8am its now 20:37 and Im at 60% .. Have had several calls and text messages , have used wifi and GPS with TomTom without charger -- short journey.. Pretty much your average day really.
This is the 3rd charge and each time there is in an improvement.
The size is excellent , not too small and not to big. The screen is second to non . Excellent in and outdoors.
The speed is great . The lag on the menu system I personally think is ment to be there as it fades your last screen out but its like 1 second !! I can live with that
memory is a bit disapointing but I have installed all my apps on the HDD and all run very quickly etc.
Battery does get warm under charge but then most batteries do as they peak ..
Hmm not sure what else to right so will leave it there
batery life is really su*. i thought atom life shuld be a worst. but great diamond got 1st place.
What's up with your battery? I've never used more than 29% of mine, despite subjecting the device to reasonable use for an entire day between each charge. Maybe your battery is dodgy.
Mine's Great
Battery life - came off charge at 04:00 a.m. - taken/ made about 20 mins of calls,
Calls are crisp and clear both ends
Speaker is a bit tinny but passable on something this small
Camera is passable
push email on all day,
Took 3 contact photos
about 1 hour of wifi (50/50 you tube and browsing net, note that I had wifi on the best performance setting).
TF3D is responsive and easy to use
GPS (I only use google earth) is quick and accurate
Device is incredibly light and thin considering what is packed inside it
Only slight negative is some memory leakage (about 10Mb over 24 hrs after which it seems to stabilise) although I should stress that this has never resulted in any noticeable slow down.
I have ROM 1.35 no tweaks
The last phone that impresed me this much was my very first WM device - the imate Jam
IMHO - nothing comes close to the Diamond -
but then, one man's meat............
Oops forgot to mention
ref previous post, battery on 40% at 09:29 p.m 17 hours after last charge
only got it for about a week.
Development of ROMS seems to be going fast like hell
1.37 rom is great
tflo3d very fast, no hangs, no bugs, fantastic usage of phone
gmailaccount in mail nice downloading every 15 min
work:
synching exchange via vpn twice a day
oggsyncing google calendar with device calendar twice a day, so all calenders are synched. Contacts are in exchange too, usefull.
GPS works like a charm, opera rocks, I really like the 'zoom' function.
Phonekeyboard goes perfect when smssing.
Battery is quite perfect, holds on more than a day with 1 hour of calltime, 20 min of gps and fiddling around a lot.
And well, like I had with all WM phones, they work great with my Parrot.
In fact, I got everything that I need in this device.
And, as mentioned at first: development is going way fast, so it can only get BETTER
rorydaredkign said:
Having discussed the Diamond with my mate Mark, (he got his from inkino on Friday) I realised that theres no thread by/for people who think its perfect, so I has gotten the impression that it was not that good from all the bad threads (wifi is crap, no gps connection, sms problems etc.).
So, if you think the Diamond is great, please post here, so all us guys without them can get a balanced opinion. And say if youre using a cooked rom, or have applied tweaks or something.
Rory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must be kidding, right? The HTC Touch Diamond ist very likely the best WM6.1 device made by HTC so far BUT it is by far away from being perfect, not even close to it.
Yes, I like using it (ROM 1.37.707.1) but Touchflo3D sucks performance-wise(or is it the crappy touchdisplay implementation compared to the iPhone) but it looks very very nice, so does the Touch Diamond itself.
Reception isn't too good too, pretty weak in fact, especially HSDPA reception.
Call reception(voice on the other end) is very good though.
I have very mixed feelings about the Touch Diamond. While it may be one(if not THE) best WM device on the market(the Samsung i780 is more powerful), it is NOT the best (smart)phone on the market. It looks beautiful, nicer than an iPhone for example and it is well built but again, this isn't everything which is important for a good phone.
So if you want to run a thread with glorifying the Touch Diamond, do so. Don't expect however people like me who are using a good dozend of new phones at the same time to agree with your opinion(proposal).
The Touch Diamond is a nice phone, no doubt about it. Perfect? NO WAY, not even close, sorry to disappoint you.
P996 said:
You must be kidding, right? The HTC Touch Diamond ist very likely the best WM6.1 device made by HTC so far BUT it is by far away from being perfect, not even close to it.
Yes, I like using it (ROM 1.37.707.1) but Touchflo3D sucks performance-wise(or is it the crappy touchdisplay implementation compared to the iPhone) but it looks very very nice, so does the Touch Diamond itself.
Reception isn't too good too, pretty weak in fact, especially HSDPA reception.
Call reception(voice on the other end) is very good though.
I have very mixed feelings about the Touch Diamond. While it may be one(if not THE) best WM device on the market(the Samsung i780 is more powerful), it is NOT the best (smart)phone on the market. It looks beautiful, nicer than an iPhone for example and it is well built but again, this isn't everything which is important for a good phone.
So if you want to run a thread with glorifying the Touch Diamond, do so. Don't expect however people like me who are using a good dozend of new phones at the same time to agree with your opinion(proposal).
The Touch Diamond is a nice phone, no doubt about it. Perfect? NO WAY, not even close, sorry to disappoint you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ofcourse is not perfect (yet, i might add) but i am also fed up with post bearing the title "this" or "that" sucks! look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2315506#post2315506
and here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=401182
as i said it before, less than a week ago:
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
now, we allready have 7-8 ROMs to choose from.
its just a phone, dont take it to heart.
nothing is perfect!
jasjamming said:
its just a phone, dont take it to heart.
nothing is perfect!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
true, but for me it´s the best phone available as of today.
Hamudi2000 said:
true, but for me it´s the best phone available as of today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best Windows Mobile phone? Maybe. Best phone? I highly doubt it.
Best 4 Me
I have tried Iphone, Nokia N95 Sony Ericcson, LG KU990. For me, none of them are a patch on the WM phones and of those, the Diamond is the best I have had so far. It comes down to a matter of personal preference at the end of the day.
Some will love a given device, others will find it "so-so" others will hate it. Take the iphone for example: I have a friend who swears by his, myself who thinks it is OK but prefers WM and another friend who sent hers back after a week because she couldn't get on with it (problem with fingernails not working on the touch screen!)
dude....
quote of the day.....
We come to love not by finding a perfect pda, but by learning to see an imperfect pda perfectly
crash74 said:
dude....
quote of the day.....
We come to love not by finding a perfect pda, but by learning to see an imperfect pda perfectly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro.....that is so true
Right heres my opinion on the Diamond...
Ive had mine since Sat...didnt have much of a chance to play around with it thanks to the battery dying out...my fault really as i didnt charge it fully but nevermind and i also blame my gf who was desperate to see me so i left the usb cable at home...so the battery drained and i couldnt use it till yesterday when i got home and put it on charge.
Anyways my first impressions were that its a bloody nice phone, small and thin...in fact even my bro was impressed with it. But i wasnt that impressed with the performance Touchflo3d was slow and laggy...remember ive got the official uk diamond which runs 1.37 rom stock. So i wasnt that impressed with the performance etc but after doing some of the tweaks in the tweak thread...OMG!!!! this device really started to shine...it was much more snappier and responsive, well alot more than without the tweaks...still wouldnt say its perfect though but given time im pretty sure the guys in here can sort out alot of the minor issues.
I like the phone, the more i use it the more i fall in love with it so originally i was thinking of sending it back today for a refund but to be honest??...nope im keeping it...its a brilliant device if you can live with the niggles/quirks it has. Im coming from a symbian phone, nokia n95 8gb and this phone is as good as that one although ill be honest...there are a few things that i miss from that phone but the way i see it is that its a learning curve for me.
The only major issue i have with the phone is the battery, it far too weak for this sort of device...god only knows why HTC didnt pack a higher capacity battery...yes yes i know there will be soon extended batts for the Diamond but really it should have come with a higher capacity battery. The thing is that this device is quite powerful so HTC really dont have an excuse other than to make more money.
Really other than that im liking the phone alot...i think it has alot to offer..its just a case of HTC tweaking their roms or the devs in here doing their thing with the roms available. I never thought id be saying all that above about a WM device...i did have a WM5 device a few yrs ago but god almighty that was just simply rubbish...at least WM6.1 has come a long way since 5 in my opinion.
Hi all,
This is my first post on xda-developers. I've also come from an S60 background and in fact have modded/helped build the community at n95users<dot>com for over a year. This is my first WM device since the IPAQ 5550, back when we only dreamed of our PDA's being able to make phone calls, even when HP put that little SIM card slot that did not work in the back of the 5550 - as if it were a taste of things to come. But anyway, enough nostalgia - Symbian is behind me now, at least for a while. Here is what I think about the diamond.
For those that might be considering the purchase, I don't think you will be disappointed. This device does pack a pretty serious punch, but it also lacks in a few areas. Let's not try and flog a dead horse, but yes the battery is sub-par and not suitable for this device. After owning an N95 I feel as if I can't get the device I want without having to compromise on the damn battery. That aside the Diamond does indeed shine and probably sparkles in the right light. The screen is nothing short of blowing me away every time I look at it, the GPS is super sensitive (I'm locking on to 12 satellites in about 15-20 seconds, and TomTom 7 runs amazingly), and the touchFLO 3D interface is nice but is also functional. It can be jerky at times but unless I'm mistakened, I do believe this can be fixed with some software optimisations and some registry tweaks I'm going to try once I finish writing this. I start a new job shortly and we'll be using Exchange (bye bye Lotus Notes ) so I'm looking forward to testing push email functionality and other productivity features. The web browsing experience is GREAT, and the readability of web pages on the 640x480 screen seriously blows me away. In fact I'd have to say so far I guess the screen has impressed me most - I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at it, and I will NEVER own anything from here on in that has anything less in that department. There really is no going back. Running a remote desktop session at 640x480 in my hand is a real treat!! If only it would support the accelerometer and let me flip it to landscape mode... The YouTube client is great (bit slow though? - or is that the memory leak I wonder) and the scrolling little menus and being able to do most things with the swipe of my thumb is something that is growing on me very fast. All in all I wouldn't hesitate recommending this device to anyone who uses it in a similar fashion to me, and I'm doing new things with it everyday!
Here are some things I would have liked to sweeten the deal:
- A flash for the camera.
- 3.5mm headphone jack, or at least an adapter in the box!
- More powerful battery...
Unless any of the above is a deal breaker for you, and all but the flash can be worked around, or fixed, then I would not hesitate in getting the diamond if you are that close to a decision, but don't expect it to be perfect, because nothing is!!!!
Thanks for recommending, I've order mine geting it tommorow.
Am coming from N95 8GIG. For my next smartphone i just couldn't be bother with N96 with same old QVGA.
Looking forward to my new toy.
salada2k said:
Hi all,
This is my first post on xda-developers. I've also come from an S60 background and in fact have modded/helped build the community at n95users<dot>com for over a year. This is my first WM device since the IPAQ 5550, back when we only dreamed of our PDA's being able to make phone calls, even when HP put that little SIM card slot that did not work in the back of the 5550 - as if it were a taste of things to come.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhhh, that brings back memories! I remember selling my h3970 and paying an arm and a leg for the h5550. It sure was a glimpse of things to come.

your Diamond experience requested.

Hi guys,
im an orange customer and I'm for a an upgrade next Thursday. I was hoping to get a Touch Pro, but they dont seem to be bringing that out just yet on Orange so my alternative is the diamond.
I have heard lots of horror stories on it being very laggy and un-responsive due the the lower hardware specs. this with the un-ability to use any MMC Cards was one of the reasons i was routing for the pro.
They have now released a new rom and this has improved things a lot i hear but of-course there is not upgrade for the orange rom other than using a cooked one i assume as the HTC official will not work.
my question... If I go for the Diamond, am I downgrading to much... should I just be patient and wait ? would you say its a worthwhile phone ?
Thanks for you replies in advance, and this is an opinion thread, no flaming someone for their opinion necessary. my spelling well thats another matter ....
While the TouchPro is definitely more powerful than Diamond, I have bought Diamond recently and don't have any performance or usability issues so far. I am using the ROM that came from Telstra and am quite happy with it but I suppose over time, I would still go to try out some cooked ROMs as I have been addicted to flashing with my Hermes for the last 2 years.
To be short: If you don't need a qwerty keyboard and if you don't need more than 4GB storage, buy the Diamond. Nothing else comes close.
All the negative things you've heard about like slowness and such can be solved by installing a custom ROM like SwiftBL 6.0. My Diamond is not only fast, it almost flies.
The screen is the best on the market, the interface is great, GPS is excellent etc. etc. etc.
The Diamond is the PDA better than I ever try to date ...
I abandoned my P3600 move to this concentration of technology and style and I have not yet repented ...
The battery does not last much, but on the site HTC sell at a price not excessive plus the battery.
I had heard about the slowness in response and fluidity of TF3D, but even without resorting to custom ROM, just act with a registry editor on the registry, change some value and that's it ... now is my finger that is not behind the TF3D.
If I may advise, order!
I'm sorry to ruin, but the device is slow.
Before the diamond I had an i-mate jam running windows mobile 2003SE, which should be slower than the diamond, it has
an 400MHz Xscale cpu but the OS / phone way more responsive.
In the diamond it takes me few clicks to answer a phone call, also few seconds to disconnect one also the random freezes.. oh the freezes.. jezz
this driving me crazy when I hit the START button and it takes ~2 seconds to understand..
(And yes, I use dutty's cooked rom V1.7 1.93 which is considered the fastest)
There are good things of course, like the screen which is perfect, the built in GPS which works flawlessly and the TF3D interface
which I hope some time will work faster..
Meanwhile, I still hope I would be able to install Android when it comes out.
Btw, the screen might be perfect but I've also had an iphone, and its a different touch
experience, the multi touch points on the screen and no pen needed to work around are great.
One more annoying thing is the mini-usb.. very pointless, why not to use the regular standard usb port :\
Overall, I'm not too happy mainly due to the performance issues.
WM6.1 is too heavy for this phone, imo.
I had the same issues, but with 1.37 ROM. I was quite disappointed until I upgraded to 1.93 ROM. Those just can't compare, everything is silky smooth and runs really really fast. Now I'm soo glad i bought the phone, it works flawlessly-TF3D and WM6.1...of course thanks to this brilliant forum!
Bottom line: With minor tweaks and some patience you will be more than satisfied with the device. I was sold to the design, now I am to the WM too...
Even if I remove the TF3D interface its still less responsive than needed so I dont know what are you talking
about and I'm also running 1.93 dutty's ROM v1.7.
The whole thing feels like VISTA vs XP in performance terms..
It depend if you are luky or not, my father has a diamond too and had problems with 1.37 and now with the 1.93 he has a lot more problems. For me that was realy good with the Rom 1.37 and now impossible to use GPS updates with the 1.93; two phones and two diffrent experience. Impossible to use Skype in phone to phone over IP but great with PC to phone. Now there is a lot of tweaks realy usefull and this phone is great with a long battery life (if you use what you need when you need). I hope that will help you.
@Delusionz
I really feel sorry to hear that, mate. I am now on the official WWE 1.93 and it's just another world compared to the previous. Everything seems the way i like, which is also great thing with WM, cause lots of things are customizable(+all those performance tweaks which are great). For instance, if i click Start button, it opens down immediately...no lags whatsoever. On 1.37 it was only question of time...Did you try any other ROMs too?
@dge
I had this quick gps problem too...but on 1.37...now it's all fine...i guess we mean the same thing...but long battery life is not its plus...with some tweaking 2 days...maybe 2 and 1/2 days...of course with medium to low usage...
this is not a chat room
every week somebody starts a thread like this...every week.
there is plenty of reviews on the net (try google) and plenty of threads on this subject.
here you have a small collection of related threads. i searched using the word opinion and i got: personal opinions, comparisons with iPhone, comparisons with omnia, problems, why some ppl love their diamond, why some hate it....lots and lots of info!!
try and search the info you need. read! read! this is not a chat room!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=419563&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=415151&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=408477&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=414619&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411682&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=402458&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=398786&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411791&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411830&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=400304&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=411478&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=402321&highlight=opinion
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=409022&highlight=opinion
no its not a chat room but....
a forum to discuss
chill out.....go have a cup of tea or something
Some of the alleged "slowness" is inherent to all Windows Mobile devices. 4 years ago, WM phones took 2 seconds to open startmenu-programs. Now, after all this improvement, they still take 2 seconds to open startmenu-programs. This is not Diamond's fault, but rather Microsoft's.
Where Diamond shines is in comparison to other WM phones on the market, not iPhone. If you want extreme speed, buy iPhone. If you want business features with extreme speed and don't need touchscreen, buy BlackBerry Bold. If you want Windows Mobile, but the Diamond. Simple as that...
thanks everyone for there opinions and advice if. Its one of the reasons i like this forum as "most" people are friendly and happy to give advice.
Im not an Iphone man, this will be my 4th HTC and 5th WM device so i understand all to well the slowness of WM and if the mutterings i heard were just concerning that and not the device hardware then i think im sold.
I think i will miss-out the SD Card Slot and TV-Out of the Pro but hey its free! I cant argue to much.
Thanks Again,
Check this out:
Plenty of happy owners.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=415852
IMO best phone out there by far, and it does not stop there since the phone is new, everyday brings new tweaks and apps that make it even better.

Diamond ... To Buy or not to Buy :-)

Being a user of HTC touch that just died... :-( I am looking for my next Phone.
I have 24 hours to decide if I shall buy the Diamond or not. You are the best people to suggest as you are the current users...
I had a look at the diamond Pro but just too large and heavy for my needs
Your Suggestions will be highly apreciated. Also If you can recommend a good trusted online supplier in Europe that would be great too!!!
George the Greek
well if you liked Touch....you will definitely love Diamond (if u don't need hardware keyboard )
if u can afford it, get a Touch HD
If Touch Pro is too big for you, Touch HD is even bigger.
When it comes to size, you can't go worng with Touch Diamond. It is the size of a pager. I have bought a slim case for Diamond that I can wear on my belt. Loving it.
get a diamond
flash with a cooked rom...and your good to go
look here...just brought a item from them..ultra fast and great company
here is a start point for a diamond for you
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/16495.htm
if you take a diamond you MUST cook a newer rom, the original one could be a bit outdated & so... disappointing
Thanks but they seem to send only in UK .... I am currently in Malta.
:-(
liamhere said:
flash with a cooked rom...and your good to go
look here...just brought a item from them..ultra fast and great company
here is a start point for a diamond for you
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/16495.htm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dont' worry bro... you can buy trought a good (direct) italian importer:
http://www.italianaimportazione.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=76
now they sell the diamond at 398€
bye,
davide
I bought the diamond 2 days ago...
If you want to install tools and go online with it... forget it! it's really slow!!
I prefer my old N81... much better!
And Windows Mobile... slow slow slow and windows-like (had to make 2 hard resets so far)
I'm thinking to give it bake and buy a N96...
not possible... with a light & recent rom you can reach the same performance as an iphone (I have a fellow with it)
for the navigation speed, if you go online only with umts, you have to increase some parameters in your registry, because they have a middle level values to work also with gprs connections
I saw the n96 the past weekend in a shop, I played a bit... very annoying, with a windows mobile even if it isn't perfect possibilities are undefined
Anymore feedback....??
Sounds like a 50 % Yes and 50% No so far... :-(
baisically, You do want to get a Diamond, as long as you dont ming playing with it to get it setup right.
If you havent had a windows mobile phone before, you wont notice the difference, its only people that have had a more baisic windows mobile phone before, with less feastures/graphics that say it is slow. because, comparatively it is.
Buy one, stick with standard for a while, then Flash a new ROM radio once you know your way around it and are comfortable with Hard SPL etc.
Thanks mugglesquop! I am pretty confident with upgrading Roms, SPLS etc ... you see being an owner of HTC touch had to do plenty of these upgrades
thanks once more.
WOuld you reccomend any decent europena online shop at good prices?
Handtec are pretty good, thats where i got mine.
I even managed to return it after it developed some problems...
these things do require work to get the best out of them but once that's done, boy do they shine . i have had mine for just over a month and am still on a stock ROM but i have tweaked it so much and can't stop touching it .
Best phone i ever had.
I bought htc and I sold it after a week, i thought that is slow etc etc, when i checked another pones didn't liked none of them so i decided to buy again HTC Diamond, when u get familiar with it after a month nobody will change it with any another phon just to remember you should not install to many applications because than will work slow like windows xp or similar.
regards
usually, as long as you install to Internal Storage (as opposed to memory) and you remember to properly shut programs (not minimise), you can have loads installed, i have! still runs very quick.
The device can do nearly anything you wish (as you are aware) and is nice and compact...you can even carry it in a shirt pocket
Of course you have to update your ROM (which you said you can and will do...) which is a must
However,...there is a cost of course to having such a light-weight device...power!!
If your prepared tocharge your device on a daily basis your good to go! You will also find the GPS frustrating...it works, but quite often you have put it in a circle of candles and pray for connections
All in all, I would recommend purchase.....however I'm looking forward to the "NEW" Diamond II when its dreamt up.....you know.... bug free
never had a problem with GPS...

Few questions before Im buying a diamond

Hello,
I realy dont know if this is the right forum to ask those questions
but I would appriciate if someone will help me
1) I couldnt understand how the contacts works. I realize there is
a special favorites section wich looks amzing. but what about
all the other contacts? Do you go back to the old and ugly WM screen?
and if so, is it finger friendly or you have to use the stylus? and if so,
are there any programs I can install so it will be finger friendly?
same for calendar sms and mails?
2) Is it realy that slow as the critics says??
thank you all and Im sorry for my bad English
My personal experience is great. Here's my thoughts regarding your questions:
1 - Yes, when you click on a contact, it does use the windows mobile contact screen..but I find it completely usable. Very finger friendly.
2 - Slow? Mine isn't slow at all, unless I have a ton of programs open. Whoever says its slow must not have ever used a Windows Mobile phone before. I haven't seen a Touch HD or Pro yet, but I believe this is the best WinMo phone currently. As far as the Diamond vs iphone vs android..they all have strengths and weaknesses.
I love my Diamond, and would recommend it to anyone. Although I would also recommend the touch HD and pro also (for people who either need a bigger device or a keyboard). For me, I wanted the Diamond for it's size, but the HD looks nice!
thank you for your answer
HD is far to big for me, altough it is amazing
Pro is far to thick for me, and i dont need the keyboard.
is there any porgram that makes a better interface to the
calendar and the contacts list? iPhone's interface much better then
the diamond's.
i am sure i have seen a program called iCotact or something like it
i'd suggest u wait for the g1.....it has a larger capacitive touchscreen, digital compass, etc.... and I'm sure someone would port WM on to G1 incase if you are worried about android being short of 3rd party apps.
thank you for your answer
but it is not answering my questions.
im preety locked about the diamond.
i do consider the iPhone insted - but it is to big.
I couldnt find cool games and apps for the diamond like there
are for the iPhone. WM programs are less designed.
okay , how about if you could have an iphone that runs on both WM & MAC ?
check this out
personally i'd suggest(again) you wait for the G1 , the android UI is almost as slick & soft as iphone's.
Try Funcontacts
http://solsie.com/2008/01/funcontacts-20-released/
Had it on my Artemis but don't 'need' it on the Diamond
I'd also recommend that you buy a second battery though as the battery life stinks on this phone. Good phone BUT ....
don't waste your money on an htc product until they stop using qualcomm chips
i would say contacts are really finger friendly, of course you could always just hit send and start typing the name/phone number and winmo will auto search it. keep in mind as well ANYTHING in winmo is customizable so of course you could get iphone like contacts (just google a theme).
battery is crap- but you can get extended batteries (including an official one) or just keep a car charger/spare around . phone itself varies in speed depending on the software, the original release software that the phone came with when it was reviewed by everyone was PAINFULLY slow. later updates (especially the 1.83 WWE roms) are MUCH better, and of course cooked roms might improve battery a bit.
its hard not to love the phone, its one of the best looking out there, REALLY nice feel/form factor and just packed with EVERYTHING. Best Phone thus far In my opinion
personally the way i look at it is
- You buy an iPhone if you like apple and have a mac computer/ you don't know any better/ your going to buy an ipod anyway
- You buy a Blackberry because its linux- it will never die/crash but it doesn't look good and its not meant for media (exception being the Bold)
- You buy windows mobile because its windows, it has its flaws,shortcomings and glitches, but it does ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and its customizable

I might be getting a Diamond

Well basically I may be getting a HTC diamond, but would like to know some things from people who actually own them.
My mum has the HTC and has got it replaced so now its a brand new phone. She has offered to switch for my Nokia N95 but Im unsure. I am trying it this weekend to get better used to it and see if I want to switch.
All I hear from people that don't own WM is WM sucks I hate it blah blah blah. Which I pretty much know is complete bollocks.
I just really want to know how easy it is to live with day to day.
I am only 15 and do text a lot and am quite concerned about the screen size and no physical keys.
And what sort of customization is there?
Haha sorry for being all over the place but answers are appreciated!
Thanks, Ben.
there are software keyboards like phonepad which does t9
if I were you I would try it out and see if I liked it
thanks, I will give that a try.
I have a few more questions though:
Where can I get a 3.5mm jack for it? (UK) I bought a cheap one off ebay that failed.
Also, Whats all the ROM thing about? Is there an Easy F.A.Q about it all?
Thanks, Ben
for a 15yo who texts a lot, I'd recommend getting the touch pro or something else with a physical keyboard. I don't think the Diamond is for casual users because it's very finnicky and a lot of customization is needed if you really want to enjoy the phone. This is not a knock on the Diamond at all because I LOVE mine, but I'm giving you advice that you might not be enjoying it as much because at 15yo, I wouldnt like flashing ROMs or installing cabs anyway. But hey, who knows, it might be different in your case =)
Well I do love technology so learning is all good for me when flashing ROM's I'm always interested in that kind of thing.
As for custumisation I love that sort of things and can spend hours and hours just fiddling with tech.
Its just really the SMS which Im worried about. But I suppose when I break it down I only send 20/30 texts a day so maybe I could live.
Ahh I dont know. I guess living with it this weekend will help. The device is insured anyway so even if I brick it a new one will be sent right away
what is WinMo 6.5 all about? Its not even released yet? Is it worth upgrading or not?
khsbenny said:
Well basically I may be getting a HTC diamond, but would like to know some things from people who actually own them.
My mum has the HTC and has got it replaced so now its a brand new phone. She has offered to switch for my Nokia N95 but Im unsure. I am trying it this weekend to get better used to it and see if I want to switch.
All I hear from people that don't own WM is WM sucks I hate it blah blah blah. Which I pretty much know is complete bollocks.
I just really want to know how easy it is to live with day to day.
I am only 15 and do text a lot and am quite concerned about the screen size and no physical keys.
And what sort of customization is there?
Haha sorry for being all over the place but answers are appreciated!
Thanks, Ben.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, i'm a "new" windows mobile user (3 months), before that i had a n95, so here's what i think: The diamond screen is bigger and has double the definition than the n95 one. The Diamond screen keyboard (EzInput) is incredible, at first you feel strange, but after about a week you get used and is really easy to type (even with my fat fingers ), since it's a "full keyboard".
The factory Rom for the diamond is a little slower than the symbiam (n95 OS), but with some modifications from this forum it becomes much faster, but still crashes one or other time, and you have to turn it off/on (about once a week, when i'm doing too much stuff at the same time and there's no more free memory. nothing to worry about).
The N95 is much better for music (with the stereo speakers and dedicated keys) and photos (flash, higher resolution), but for all the other things you can't even compare it. On the diamond, the web navigation and the GPS are much better, using to edit documents on the office is really easier with the touch screen, seeing your e-mails is faster and the "phone" functions are really simple.
Now the best thing about WinMo are the apps you can download. You have great programs to do quite about anything. Like a PC remote controller, a torrent downloader, a podcast and RSS reader, and games like a emulator of Snes and Playstation 1, quake 3 arena, Call of Duty 2, etc.
As for customisation, it's praticcaly infinite. you can use and write different today plugins and screens, and make it look like anything, from your Pc desktop to an Iphone, just take a look at some posts here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=428463 and here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=508429
Just for you to be sure i don't work for microsoft , don't be fooled: out of factory the diamond is slow, doesn't has so many good Apps and has an unstable system. The cutomization and tweaks are the things that make all the difference! Good luck with your choice.
Oh, and i'm 22 and i don't work with my mobile or with computers, so i just use Winmo cause it's a lot of fun.
Well day 1 and Im loving it. Looks like I'll be keeping this
.
just look arround on this forum and you will find allot of interresting programs and addons for your phone
all things makes live a little easyer
I switched from a Samsung Jack ("Blackjack II" in the states) to this phone because the Samsung wasn't compatible with a lot of the WM apps I wanted to use. The Diamond does a hell of a lot more and does it a lot better. I will say, though, that texting is much more of a pain when compared to a phone with a full hardware keyboard. I mess up a lot unless I'm using a stylus. Maybe it's just me.

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