Database Develop

My first impressions

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,

[UPDATED 6 AUG 08] - Diamond - First Impressions of a Power User

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,,,

After I bought a Diamond, here's my point of view...

Hi,
I consider myself as a hardcore PPC user. I use my PPC for almost everything and if I ever lost my PPC, I have nothing... well.. but of course I have backup on my laptop.
Battery Life
I use a bluetooth earphone during work, meaning that the bluetooth is turned on on my PPC from 8am to 5pm (discovery off). Before going to work, I spend about 5 to 20 minutes reading internet news via WiFi. Normally when I reached home from work, I have about 10% power left. Without WiFi in the morning, I have about 20% to 25% power left. Well, this is when I was using O2 Xda II mini (HTC Magician) and O2 Atom Life. Believe it or not, when I gave my O2 Xda II mini to my wife, she only need to recharge it after 3 to 4 days of usage, and the same thing happen when I gave her my O2 Atom Life.
Getting my hand on HTC Diamond, well it is the same. It lasted as long as my previous 2 PPCs, except that the battery is smaller, meaning, it actually is better. Since it has built-in GPS, if it is used, of course the battery will die faster, but from my usage, the built-in GPS does not consume more power than the WiFi.
To make it short, the battery life on PPC is based on how long you turned it on (usage time, not standby mode). If it is stated in the specification as 3 hours talk-time, then it will last for 3 hours of usage. That is what people are forgetting. When using other handphone (which are not PPC), people only use it to talk, sms or some gaming. When they switch to PPC, there are so many things that you can do with it and people actually spend more time using it not awaring of the total time used (not standby mode). There is a good software, AE Button Plus, which can measure the uptime for us. It shows the usage time as well.
Volume
All of my PPC has decend volume level, which O2 Atom Life is the lowest. Not sure why because it has 2 speakers (stereo). It should be louder right? But Diamond actually is loader than it. But there seems to be a solution here. In O2 Atom Life, I used the Equalizer to increase the volume. There is none on Diamond but I believe you can find one in this forum.
GPS
I love the GPS, except sometimes the GPS software cannot seem to turn the GPS on (1 out of 10). Need to close the software and reopen. Previously I was using Garmin Mobile 10 (via bluetooth) and comparing with the built-in GPS, the lock-time is very very fast.
With Garmin Mobile 10, I turn it on, get in my car, start the car, then wait from 1 minutes to 3 minutes before it can get a lock. With Diamond's built-in GPS, I open the GPS software, get in my car, start the car and I already has a lock.
The problem now is the slow screen refresh (the time taken to redraw the screen). With my O2 Atom Life, the screen redraw is fast (when I make a turn or the map zoom in or out). With Diamond, when I make a turn, I can see the roads being redraw one by one. If I turn the auto-zoom on (Garmin Mobile XT), it will go black for 1 to 3 seconds before the screen reappear when it tries to zoom in or zoom out.
I believe this has something to do with the display resolution of Diamond, 640x480 compared to 320x240 (on my Atom Life). The higher the resolution, the lower the framerate. Further more Atom Life processor is faster. But comparing to Xda II mini, Xda II mini is a little bit faster (redrawing rate).
Please remember that Diamond has a built-in graphic processor (correct me if I'm wrong). When software make use of this graphic processor, I believe we would not have this problem anymore. Instead, we might get real 3D display.
Overall
Overall, I'm satisfied with my new Diamond but of course I always wanted a longer usage time... so I think I better start looking for HTC Touch Pro.

programatix said:
Hi,
Overall
Overall, I'm satisfied with my new Diamond but of course I always wanted a longer usage time... so I think I better start looking for HTC Touch Pro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...or get yourself the HTC Diamond extended battery BP E270. It has 1350 mAh instead of 900 and it adds only 4 mm thickness => Diamond + BP E270 = still slimmer and lighter than Pro. Unless of course, you want the keyboard.

programatix said:
There is a good software, AE Button Plus, which can measure the uptime for us. It shows the usage time as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's off topic, but can you explain that more please ?

My opinion...
I currently have two major issues with the Diamond. They aren't helped by the horrendous T-Mobile branding job! (Surely the execs that rubber-stamped those colours should be made to wear that horrible T-Mobile pink every day to work for a year to see how it feels).
In light of the above, I've obviously had to apply the original Diamond Black on top. Problem is, it eats Main Memory space for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I'm always struggling with space! Really annoying!
The second issue is probably because I'm a tad impatient and may be considered a power user by some. The thing is, when I'm doing things on my phone, I expect it to react, if not instantaneously, then at least in a split second. Often the Diamond lags considerably, which can be very frustrating and lead to incorrect actions. The most common of these is when ending a call. When I press the end call key, I expect the call to be ended now - not in 3 seconds' time!
OK, end of *****.

The CDMA (telus) phone already comes with the HTC Diamond extended battery BP E270!
.....But, still. There's always room for more. There's a 1800mAh battery floating around but apparently has a hideous replacement backing that just takes away from what the Diamond is all about - it's slim low profile.

Yodajr said:
It's off topic, but can you explain that more please ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it's a software which allows you to set 4 actions for a hardware button on a PPC. You can find it here (http://ae.inc.ru/aebplus.php).
It also comes with extra functions like displaying the uptime statistic, task manager, bluetooth toggle, wifi toggle and more.

belovedra said:
Problem is, it eats Main Memory space for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I'm always struggling with space! Really annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe it depends on what software you are running and believe me, most PPC users are struggling with that. Imagine with 64mb of main memory which only 24mb available on start up. With diamond, it's about 52mb free main memory on start up, right? Further more, most handphone (not PPC) has about only 64mb of main memory, for example, N95-1
belovedra said:
The second issue is probably because I'm a tad impatient and may be considered a power user by some. The thing is, when I'm doing things on my phone, I expect it to react, if not instantaneously, then at least in a split second. Often the Diamond lags considerably, which can be very frustrating and lead to incorrect actions. The most common of these is when ending a call. When I press the end call key, I expect the call to be ended now - not in 3 seconds' time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, this is an issue not only with Diamond. It exists in all PPC since PPC is able to multitask, sometimes it becomes slow because of the tasks running in background.
Another problem is related to some task managers which close running application when you tap 'X'. The next time you want to call that application up, the PPC need to reload the application which is slow. In another word, don't close the program when you tap 'X'. Comparing to normal handphone (other than PPC), you have limited software running which actually does not allow you to mod the phone. So, most critical applications stay in main memory, it is fast to call up the unclosed applications (like calender, phone and contacts).
Regarding ending call, the problem you mentioned also exists in other PPC, like my O2 Atom Life and O2 Xda II mini. Actually, when you press or tap the End Call button, it actually ended it but the screen refresh seems slow, so we tend to keep on tapping the end button, which sometimes end up in calling the person again.

losdrivare said:
...or get yourself the HTC Diamond extended battery BP E270. It has 1350 mAh instead of 900 and it adds only 4 mm thickness => Diamond + BP E270 = still slimmer and lighter than Pro. Unless of course, you want the keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a great news. Since I'm living in Malaysia, it's hard to find one. HTC Touch Pro has not been released yet here. But actually I wanted Touch Pro because of the size of the main memory. I've been living with 64MB (normally about 24MB available for user) of main memory for too long and I always wanted to load more applications at once (greedy eh?).
Further more, since my Atom Life has 1GB of ROM (795MB available for use), living with only 256MB of ROM (only 82MB available for use) on Diamond leaves me starving for more.
Regarding the keyboard... I don't think I'll be using it, but who knows? If I can type faster using it than TouchPal, I'll definately be using it.

programatix said:
Ok, this is an issue not only with Diamond. It exists in all PPC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aha! So, once again it's the big beast M$ that's to blame. Makes sense. They seem to be behind a lot of trouble I see in Windows software... One of the reasons why I changed to Mac OSX.
Thanks programatix! I thought perhaps it was just the Diamond, or even the HTC range.

belovedra said:
When I press the end call key, I expect the call to be ended now - not in 3 seconds' time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try downloading the Advanced Config software for the Diamond, and check the Phone->End call delay. Change that to 0. Problem solved.
There are many solutions for many of the problems you mention, even for performance issues. Apart from Advanced Config, try also getting Diamond Tweak.

Battery issue is a common problem of PPC. Just imagine you are using a PC which is an your palm size. Of course it is designed to be energy efficient, but it will not last you for long days. That's why car charger and USB cable exist for you to charge your gadget often

programatix said:
Overall, I'm satisfied with my new Diamond but of course I always wanted a longer usage time... so I think I better start looking for HTC Touch Pro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have ActiveSync with Exchange server, you can save battery by setting the update to manual.

If I could change something about my diamond....

just interested to see what people would choose.

sdhc slot.

have a longer battery life

Faster processor!
In htc album etc, the phone is a bit laggy. Iphone you can flick through photo's very fast, but diamond is much slower....

longer battery...
better speakers...like my old Nokia N95.

there isnt lag because of cpu the software isnt great(wm 6.1 is really slow)

I voted "longer battery life", but besides that, I have a bunch of things that would make my Diamond close to perfect for me:
- AWS-band 3G support for T-Mobile USA (this would easily be #1)
- slightly-rounded edge on the back battery cover and a flat back
- Easier-to-use buttons on the front panel. The panel is capacitive, why not take advantage of it?
- micro SD slot

well, voted for a bigger batery life. and #2 would be a microSD slot. then it would have been my ideal phone.
all things considered, after tweaking this device so much, you grow on it. but on second thought, if you have to do the tweaking first before you actually enjoy using it, then you may end up a bit dissapointed.

Tri-band UMTS.
SDHC slot.

jentech said:
longer battery...
better speakers...like my old Nokia N95.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah, how did you guys forget that speaker? It;s honestly the worst thing I have heard in years (specially loudspeaker through calls) - and I'm not exaggerating one bit

If they built the perfect phone - who would need to buy another one?
Theres loads of things I would change but I still love it.
I had to use my Kaiser the other day and it felt like I was using a BBC Micro!
Although I wonder what I will be saying when I get my hands on an HD

I wish it were as solid as the Touch. Battery cover comes off too easily.

better speaker is missing in the vote options

Have screen that says on during calls.

Vector-SS said:
Oh yeah, how did you guys forget that speaker? It;s honestly the worst thing I have heard in years (specially loudspeaker through calls) - and I'm not exaggerating one bit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really? i dont think its too bad - just a little to loud, when im in a call you can hear it in the room if its quiet :s. otherwise everyone thats used my phone has commented on my good call quality and most of my mates own blackberrys or nokia n-series handsets :s

i guess its official - battery life is the biggest thing to change loll

Id trade the dpad for a wide(tall)screen, and add another pair of buttons (matching the volume pair) on the other side for apps or shortcuts.
Mines a sprint, so battery life hasnt been an issue. Silly europeans and their super skinny paperweight once the battery runs out.
mSD slot would be nice, and better speaker(s) would be as well, but the screen size would be nicer.

- Music player sucks. When I add or delete new albums or songs it does not update itself.
- Some times TF3D does not respond.
- Birthdays doesn't appear on home screen.
- After 00:00 if I wake up the device it takes 10 seconds to display the time, because of the flipping effects.
- People (Quick dial) is stylish but is not really quick. Programs like quick dial would be much more usefull.
- E-Mail tab is useless.
- There is no CTRL key at the full QWERTY keyboard.
- I have to press add to add a word to my custom dictionary. With most of the PDA's it was automatic.
- I can't record phone calls.
- No built in answering machine.

wow someones really upset with there diamond loll

get rid of call history and calender tabs on home screen under the clock in tf3d cuz its nonsense

Opinions about diamond 2?

Hi, i am thinking of switching to diamond 2, however may i know is there any problems encountered with diamond 2? Like the parts spoils easily or software lag? Reviews from anyone here? Thank You.

i moved to d2 from polaris,
its huge upgrade specially the screen quality and it can run 3d apps and its faster + gsensor & light sensor are cool, but after the first week of excitement and getting used to new features, overall its pretty much the same...
i mean still the same windows, same games, same apps in much prettier package.
on the other hand when i hold it next to my polaris the polaris looks like a dinosaur i would never go back to that crappy qvga screen
the only disadvantage of d2 is the lack of d-pad its kinda missing cause not all apps & games made for only touch use.

An amazing device.
Last HTC phone I had was a Himalaya about 4 years ago, bought from eBay for a bargain price. That's still going, so I've no doubt that this device will keep me going for a good long while yet!
The only real benefits it has over other HTC devices are the camera (5MP with autofocus) and the general aesthetics... It's a very professional, very good looking phone. All of the other features are on all HTC WinMob devices, including the operating system. Ports are happening for the interface to adapt to different hardware across the range, but it's not big trouble.
In all, a very capable phone. Find one at a price you like and you will not be disappointed.

The current phone i had is Dream, however i met with keyboard problems. Thus no slider phone anymore for me, candybar is the obvious choice.
In the market i feel that TD2 is the most beautiful phone currently, but i am hoping i would never need to send it in to repair. Thank you for your reviews.

TD2
I agreed with BNM, the buttons & D-pad are essential to operate most games and programme mapping to. I also found that pocket player don't work very well with TD2. Going to try Pocket Music next.

where do you stand?
It all depends on your luck and what you want to do with your TD 2. For the former, it is all about receiving a version which doesn't present problems (I have this device for a month and going and still haven't had problems with it. Read here a lot about hardware failure, not charging to the maximum, lag in menu and so on); as for the latter, you must consider if your phone is a phone or is a testing device (a lot of problems arise when users try to make "fried eggs" with a phone - some of the users here are doing/did to their TD 2 some things just to test the device. I myself avoid changing the windows reg as it is how it is for a reason. Also I found it very dangerous to use programs to boost audio (consider that the levels are how they are because maybe, just maybe, that is the maximum of the speakers and more will fry them)). So you must decide where you stand

google g1 to d2
i just changed my g1 after using it for 6 months and bought d2.
what htc has done to windows is simply AMAZING.
i have never ever been so happy with a windows device.
i hardly feel im using the crappy windows interface but am able to enjoy all the usefulness of windows at the same time with a slick interface.
the only gripe i have is that htc should have put in a capactiive display.
the battery is cool...
wifi, 3g... everything is great
cheers HTC

I'm as happy now as when I purchased it 2+ months ago. Perhaps I've been lucky in not suffering some of the problems (screen and charging) some have.
Good points: TF3D is great. You get a really nice interface whilst retaining the power of WM underneath, the best of both worlds. Superb screen. Good Bluetooth sound quality. Excellent camera for stills. Styling is cool (if you like retro 70's, which I do!)
Bad: Wifi is weak, 3G sensitivity only average, camera poor for movies. Screen might be fragile.
The good points outweigh the bad, for me.

Happy with my D2 after 2 months of usage. I have not changed Rom or radio yet, I'll probably wait for official 6.5 upgrade before playing with hardspl and custom rom, but overall, the stock device is very nice. Battery life is what I expected (not great, but I have 2 days of moderate usage or 1 day of heavy usage ... it is ok. And it seems to get better with radio upgrade, and an extended battery in the 1300 mAh range may become available while keeping the same size...)
Screen is amazing, the resolution is so high that everything is very very crisp and ebook reading is almost as nice as e-ink. Only difference is that it is a transmissive technology, not reflective, so nice in shadow or in your bed, not nice in direct sunlight. touch sensitivity is ok, not as good as capacitive but not by much...and you have the stylus for old-style interface...and for handwriting recognition...and old keyboard...and making drawings. Best of both worlds, in the end i prefer this to a capacitive screen...
And the D2 size is perfect for me: not too big i never feel it is more anoying than a normal dumb phone...But still big enough to have a usable screen where WVGA is not overkill (it is not, but just barely: people which can not focus on nearby objects should beware that WVGA will be a disadvantage).
Whatever the technical evolutions in the future HTC models, or competing smartphones, I think the D2 has hit the perfect size: I would not change it at all, keep the overall size of the D3 or whatever exactly the same (but make its screen 3.4 inches maybe ;-) )
So to summarize, the screen, overall size and style of the phone makes it a winner for me, there is currently no other smartphone I would have instead. I expect this will change in 2010, but for me the D2 is the best choice in 2009...As a bonus, I have found the GPS very sensitive (even indoor) and accurate. It is a battery draw and it lags (not too much, but sometimes annoying), but it is more sensitive than my previous bluetooth GPS-only device!
Now for the drawbacks:
-lowlight performance of camera. It is not only the absence of flash, the camera is not sensitive enough, or the auto-iso is not correctly programmed. Low-end nokia phone are much much better at nightshots, and iphone 3GS is better too. They have less pixel, but imho a highly sensitive sensor with less pixels is better for a phone, for high def pictures I have a dedicated camera, the phone is there for the unplanned shots, and lowlight performance is much more important for those kinds of shots than megapixels...I hope this can be corrected by OS upgrade, the lens opening seems no worse than the iphone and better than the nokia...but maybe 5 megapixels CMOS sensor are inherently less sensitive than 2MP or 3MP ones...
- poor wifi sensitivity, D2 have much more trouble than a laptop with weak wifi signals...and more trouble than other handheld device. I hope radio upgrade may improve things a little, but I al not too optimistic, it may be a poor antenna...
- some slowdown of TF3D sometimes, or of the phone in general, and poor playback of movies...but here I am almost certain that playing with custom roms and using something else than windowsplayer should improve things a lot.
With xda-developers, I expect to keep enjoying the D2 for at least 3 years before getting tired of tuning my phone and buying the latest and greatest as replacement.

Had Diamond 1 now have TD2, first thought: not a big update and seemed bigger! missed scroll wheel, but now im used to it (after 1 week) glad i got it, much faster and more ram! as for wifi ok for me? did you try and go to settings/wifi/advanced/power mode and change to best performance????????

Yes I tried it, it does not make much difference. No problem at all when the signal is strong, but D2 can not catch signals as weak as my laptop can (normal), or even some not so weak that my older PDA can catch too (not normal)...

gkai said:
Yes I tried it, it does not make much difference. No problem at all when the signal is strong, but D2 can not catch signals as weak as my laptop can (normal), or even some not so weak that my older PDA can catch too (not normal)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am 3 meters away from my wireless access point and still struggle to connect with all settings correct that work with HTC Elf and Wizard with ease.
I still don't think we have reached the ease of use of an iPhone and I think the WVGA format may not be the best for phones (too skinny in portrait and too wide in landscape)
TouchFlo3D still isn't sufficiently clever or fully featured although it is gratifyingly pretty.
I come to the TD2 from an MDA touch (HTC Elf) and in a few ways it is a step backward:
- battery life is far better on the Touch
- WIFI is also far better
- rounded rubberised style is more solidly constructed and has a better feel
- TF2D home has quicker access to SMS, tasks, program launcher, weather, missed calls
- snooze control more varied (I think this is a WM6.0 thing)
- And very significantly the radio reception shows 4 bars pretty much all the time where the TD2 struggles to get even 2 bars.
In every other way the TD2 is better
Tony