Related
..it was snappy to the point that for a moment I thought that these store demo units are rigged with an intel 2.6 ghz dual-core processor sitting in the back room.
Can someone explain why then the "Tilt" that has exactly the same processor/memory combo but just even the basic navigation of tapping menus, bring up programs, settings etc. was with probably 1 nanosecond delay on the Sprint Touch. Serious!
Infact, it was almost ironical when I activated the famous "touchflo" feature and found that to be quite less responsive compared to the other stuff. Still was lot faster than my Tilt in general.
I have Duttythroy's BIG STORAGE Rom which more or less is quite stable but man, for someone like me who literally uses my phone's various features etc. every 2 minutes or so in an entire day, I could surely use the overall operating system snappyness.. (if there is such a word)
Why.. Why??? Why my Tilt??! Why can't you run like your little brother!!
AJ
because it didnt have anything installed on it.
Put a stripped down rom on your tilt. it will be fast and snappy too.
a corvette is fast and snappy. throw 4000 lbs of potatoes in it and tell me how fast and snappy it is
still not convinced..
I agree with what you say totally. However, in this case I'm still thinking that after my additions to the Tilt and with the Touch "stripped-down", it can't/shouldn't be that much difference.
Come to think of it, even though the Touch may not have lot of programs installed it still did have full Set of Sprint bloatware in it. I played with SprintTV which was essentially mobi tv and other stuff was there as well.. so you can't say that the Touch had a major advantage in installed app dept.
I'll just get over it soon though... especially when I get to type 2-3 back 2 back near 160 char txt msgs and then turn on my TomTom mid way and see it lock on to GPS sats in like 20 secs or so... Touch!! naaah!!
AJ
now if we can just get some video drivers, we can have our cake and eat it too
Ha, go get the Touch then and load your programs on it, use it for a couple of weeks, and see how snappy it is then. Its not just programs, its configuration, messages, alarms, etc...
I don't really know what you're complaining about. My Tilt is quite snappy/responsive. Menus/programs load almost instantly. It's quite a bit faster than my PPC6700. It has several problems that I wish it didn't have...but I can't complain about the responsiveness of the unit itself. It's quite good.
So...the biggest question here is probably: "what today screen programs are you running?" If you're running some flashy today screen software I'd bet that's your problem. I'm a fan of the "clean" look so I don't use anything but HTC Home and the owner/calendar plugins.
I know that it might sound like a mindless rant, but hear me out on this one please.
There is a thread in the TyTN I section and there are entries in the wiki which suggest that different series of Herms had different problems. There also seem to be different Kaisers out there that have different hardware and have more or less lag. Unwired4 is trying to link that to the VSBenchmark score, while I hope that it can be linked to the series number.
The serial number seems to be in format of HTnnn??nnnnn XTnn where ?? are letters and n's are numbers. The wiki entry only uses the HTnnn part, and I believe that the XTnn part is probably the country or area or factory or something, but could be useful if included.
As for definitions of what is laggy and not laggy performance, which is hard to define, the following videos will be good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz1J6h4rq1U
Not laggy switching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=recxf0f4twY
Laggy switching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1rzCAmpt9s
Not laggy TomTom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIJWAu6IRe4
Laggy TomTom (also not laggy TomTom on a Magician)
If you do not use TomTom, please state that. I am not sure if CoPilot has the same problems or not.
Also, please note that the issue discussed in this thread is not the lack of drivers or slow video playback. And please compare your Kaiser to the ones in videos, as it is crucial that we use some standards of measuring "lag", as it is basically measured by the rule of the thumb to build some statistics and possibly find out which series are affected by the issue. We are not trying to link the "level of happiness" to the serial number like some peopl pointed out in the "gruesome" thread, as it involves too many factors such as expectancies, value, money paid, comparison, and specific usage of the phone. Also, if you had the motherboard replaced and your device performs better now, but still has the old SN, please state the way it performed before the fix.
The SN is written under the battery, and it might also be a good idea not to show the last 5 digits of the main section of it.
I will start with the branding, my own SN, country of origin, date of purchase, presence of lag.
Updates (ordered by series number):
HT735GB
Laggy switching, laggy TomTom - HTC TyTN II (Russia, Dec07)
HT735
Possible laggy switching, non-laggy TomTom - (UK?)
HTC736GB
Laggy switching, laggy TomTom - (Netherlands, Aug07)
HT748GB
Non-laggy switching, non-laggy TomTom - o2 XDA Stellar (UK, Dec 07)
HT802
Possible laggy switching, non-laggy Garmin - o2 XDA Stellar (UK?)
Laggy switching and TomTom
HTC736GB (Netherlands) august '07
I have the switching lag, but TomTom seems to run perfectly.
Full res DivX are great too playing in the latest Coreplayer.
bluchrome said:
I have the switching lag, but TomTom seems to run perfectly.
Full res DivX are great too playing in the latest Coreplayer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which series code do you have, Bluchrome?
Yeah, I gotta get myself that latest CorePlayer too.
Mikeer said:
I know that it might sound like a mindless rant, but hear me out on this one please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mikeer said:
Well, the device I have was purchased in early December, but that was in a small city in eastern Russia, so it is most probably from some early series.
I remember your thread about the fact that your Kaiser performs fine when it comes to GUI, and it was probably the first time I realised that there are some series that are just plain slow and the ones that are more or less fast. DO you use TomTom? If you do, does it perform like the Magician, or like the Kaiser in the famous video?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Figured I would reply to you on your own thread, and keep the topics focused!
o2 XDA Stellar
HT748GB (UK, Dec 07)
No lag on either
FWIW, I made a video of my phones performance in responce to yours. Sorry about the poor quality, but you can see the performance difference!
Mine performs more like the Magician and if you watch the thing thorugh, you can see my screen switch rate is substantially faster than yours. Hopefully from that video you can see why until I saw yours I was thinking that people were moaning over nothing and asking the question "How much quicker do you want it?!"
I'm certainly with you in thinking there is something to the build version and the fact that o2 UK held back on launching their Kaiser varient for a couple of months!
Steve-C said:
Figured I would reply to you on your own thread, and keep the topics focused!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the input
And your Stellar really does does work better than my TyTN, so far we can assume that 735 and 736 series are faulty and 748 should be ok
A bit too early to draw conclusions though
I picked up a tytn II (kaiser) today. I charged for about 5 hours. picked up my location with seconds with tomtom. but updating is real slow!
Mikeer said:
Thanks for the input
And your Stellar really does does work better than my TyTN, so far we can assume that 735 and 736 series are faulty and 748 should be ok
A bit too early to draw conclusions though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HT735
Up to 1 second to orientate screen.
Tomtom no sign of the lag.
However the above is variable. Regardless of running programs, the screen rotate can vary from virtually instant to 3 seconds.
Tomtom on a rare occassion will appear to completely freeze and then jump. But I think that's likely more to do with dropping a satellite or two. Otherwise I have not had the slow re-draw or laggy behaviour (per the utube videos)
So yes, a bit too early, but worth gathering more data. Perhaps it's not the serial that's the key but qualcomm batch numbers. Then again we are talking dozens of variables here.
Mike
Tomtom on a rare occassion will appear to completely freeze and then jump. But I think that's likely more to do with dropping a satellite or two.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its unlikely this is the problem, I had a nokia running tom tom and no such problems. The Kaiser has a very good GPS chipset and Tom tom should cope.
I do think all the HTC plugins and and all the gimmick touch flo stuff is a large part of the problem. It looks like on mike processor usage is very high.
mikechannon said:
HT735
Up to 1 second to orientate screen.
Tomtom no sign of the lag.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, now it seems that even the same devices within a series perform differently.
That is an interesting observation =)
My switching isn't as slow as some videos, but no where near as fast as the one you provided (running stock AT&T rom).
I haven't fully tested GPS Nav yet. I got Destinator on the way (I heard it's a pain to use, but it apparently has the best and most updated maps of Mexico )
But in general video playback, NES and SNES Emulators has its ups and downs. Sometimes running smoother and others running choppy compared to my old PXA255 / 64 RAM ipaq wm5 ppc which still lies around.
HT802
mikechannon said:
Up to 1 second to orientate screen.
However the above is variable. Regardless of running programs, the screen rotate can vary from virtually instant to 3 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto, although I have Garmin rather than TomTom :s
mikechannon said:
HT735
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mike, I notice you say your on the o2 network. Do you have the Stellar or an unbranded Kaiser?
Maybe you blew the HT735 theory out of the water, but the one about the Stellar being better could still be valid....
I have an O2 XDA Stellar and I've been doing a few quick tests this morning and I've come up with this.
If there are programs running in the background, the portrait-landscape switch takes about a second. Switching back to portrait takes just a bit longer (going back to portrait always seems to take longer)
However, if I close all programs beforehand, the switching from portrait to landscape is practically instant with only a slight delay switching back. It is worth noting at this point that I have the sound disabled for the screen switching.
Tomtom is smooth in both Portrait and landscape modes and a video compressed in MP4 format at 320x240 plays perfectly.
BUT, I have also noticed the intermittent audio lag problem while playing music on it (regardless of player used) and a very definite stutter in either ringtones or text/email alerts. This makes me think that perhaps that when the audio hardware is initializing to playback, it may be hogging the cpu slowing the rest of the device down which could be contributory to some of the issues noted in this forum.
I'm not suggesting that the audio bug is responsible for all of the Tytn II's issues but, in my case, it certainly looks like it's playing a part in it.
Anyone else come across this?
Slow Rendering TomTom
I think it is worth pointing out that TomTom is a lot quicker & smoother if you remove all of the POIs.
I realised this when installing it on a friends symbian phone & wondered why it was so much faster than my "powerful Windows Mobile device". I didn't put the POIs on because the MMC I was working with only had enough room for the Speed Cams.
Now I keep all of my POIs on my MicroSD in a seperate folder close to the map folder so, before I plan a journey, if I need a POI I will just copy the 2 required files into the Map folder before starting up TomTom. The difference is quite massive if you ask me.
Maybe you are already aware of this, and I apologise if this is old news, but it seems people are still having problems with lagging & I don't, so thought this might help. Granted, having all of the POIs on (or as many as it will allow you to use at any one time) is useful if you're in a hurry, but IMO you pay a high price for that convenience in lagging video rendering.
I have tried it without the Speed Cams too & it's even better, but I cant do without those warnings on there, so I can deal with a slight loss in performance for the sake of them.
Give it a go and see what you think. If this was unknown until now, I think you will be pleasantly surprised!
NOW LETS GET THESE VIDEO DRIVERS SORTED!
really really really laggy switching.
Tomtom is somewhere in between the two videos.
Mine's a UK O2 XDA Stellar with stock ROM.
HT743G0 USA AT&T Tilt
Early November 07
mild lag switching, no lag on Tomtom.
The lag is contributed to the ROM you have and how many software you've installed. The original AT&T ROM lags BIG TIME like in this video. I was pissed. Then I flashed the ROM to Alex's clean multimedia. After I flashed the ROM I was so amazed at how fast it switches. It switches the screen just as fast as this video After the flash, I started to install tons of software. So far I've intsalled about 116mb of software into the phone with 36mb free. Now the switching takes about 1-2 seconds each way. I can live with that but not no 3-5 second lag.
As for TomTom (version 6.010 US and Canada map) I dont have the lag. But when it's turning I get tearing once in a while, the same tearing during video playback.
HTC737GB
T-Mobile Vario III
Lags in everything, today, switching, TomTom (You've all seen my video!)
Today it's taking 7 seconds to rotate! :S
How long have you had your Diamond for and do you wish you had opted for something else? I'm just trying to gauge opinions of people who have owned the phone for a few months. Thanks.
I've owned mine for just 3 days so I'm still getting used to it....I think it's a terrible 'out of the box' product but it seems to improve with various add-ons. So far I've downloaded Diamond Tweak and IContacts.
My latest problem with it is that I'm encountering the notorious TomTom 'no maps found' error (Grrrr....this was never an issue on my old HTC device)
The Diamond is my first HTC or WinMo phone, I've owned it for 7 months and I don't regret it.
It's pretty slow at doing things and the battery life if terrible if you actually use the device, rather than leaving it in suspend mode with 3G coverage switched off. However, charge it at least once daily and it's livable with.
TF3D is crap too, get rid of that and it gets much better!
I have just sold my Diamond. I used it for about 6 months and could never get used to it's very slow speeds. Especially out of the box it was a huge dissapointment, although with a custom rom things did improve.
But still, the thing is just too slow in my opinion. Probably all due to the lovely Qualcomm chipset that's inside it. When you look at the specs (memory, mhz etc) it should fly, be awesome. But it just isn't.
I always compare to my old mda compact (qtek s100). When I used to run TomTom on that one it was smooth with good fps. Even on a device like the Diamond, years later, it runs like crap. And that is a bit dissapointing ofcourse.
Don't get me wrong, you get a lot in return. Nicer UI, VGA screen, much better touchscreen and a much much better looking phone. But in the speed department all of my HTC phones have been dissapointing.
(Yet still I buy them, they are too much fun. qtek s100, qtek s200, htc touch, touch cruise, diamond).
But for now, HTC will have to do without me .
I love my Fuze, I hate my Fuze
This article sums my feelings up very well:
http://www.mytodayscreen.com/i-hate-my-fuze-i-love-my-fuze/
I've never had so much fun hacking a device before, but at one and the same time I resent having to hack it into a proper phone in the first place.
I'm not getting rid of my Fuze any time soon, but with anyone shopping for a new phone I steer them away from it. I'm completely up front with them, and admit to them I've spent dozens of hours scouring message boards and web sites for hacks to get the phone to behave in a way in which I'm happy with.
Users should not have to hack a registry to change ANY of the settings I've wanted to tweak!!!
That felt good to get off my chest.
I love my Diamond and the small sleek form factor more htan the Toch HD I had for a week or so.
I do not go anywhere without my trusty diamond in my pocket, I have tried so many other phones/PDA's and this is the best, the smallest for what it can do.
Its also perfect for a walking GPS device with memory map.
Its a running GPS log, my music device, organiser, camera for meetings and quick memories, reading book, comic book, games, even acts as a spirit level, does practically everything I need, oh yes and its a phone too.
Choose the right ROM and the thing is so quick and responsive.
TF3D is brilliant, I am so used to it now I can't get on with anything else.
Simple answer no it just keeps getting better and better.
I regret not!
But it seems like software is always ahead of the hardware. Before I had my branded Diamond I had the GloFiish X500+, so in comparison to that I'm very happy with my MDAIV.
But WinMo does helps to keep me using PPC's, it's a great platform to work with.
no!
and a comparative with old devices is like ... ach no need any words.
dont forgett, the devices are all at first a phone. all other functions wasnt the premiere function. something was good something cant be good.
i.e. old device open a webside with more speed than a new device.
but how you go to internet? by cable or by gms ($).
and if you are finished with scrolling left-to-right and back you have to scroll up and down. the new device uses wlan to go internet or umts and your scroll-action is minimizing by overview the complete internet-side.
but asking other people for feeling if buy or not buy ... hmmm, be carefull, that are only feelings and oppinnions.
i can say, that all devices (htc, nokia, apple) have good and not-good thinks. my buddy have apple. with standars he have no problems, after installation some progs the apple will be slowly and he do resets his devicxe many time like me. YOUR GUT FEELING IS NEEDED!!!
No regrets at all. Like stated above with the right custom rom, tweaks and apps this is everything I need in a phone/ppc.
And whats fun about getting a phone right out of the box that does everything you want? Heck, modding it to your likings is most the fun.
after 2 years of using WinMob my diamond is the first one that people is asking "What is this?". I mean that has the greatest software (WinMob) and the best design.
What do you want more?
Hate it, but use it!
I have had a Diamond for about 6 months now, and only use it because of the size.
I prefer my TyTN II but it is just too bulky
I hate a touch screen keyboard and prefer the slide out of the TyTN II.
I also find the Diamond's volume very soft as compared to the TyTN II
But in any case this will be my last M$ Windows based device, until M$ issues a decent OS.
PS: The motherboard has already been replaced.
i just love my Diamond....
Hi !
I bot love and hate it equally... After six happy months, new ROMs etc... I am forced to send it back, since from the start, when I stay in H or 3G (I am 30 meters away from a big antenna), I don't get any call... One bar of H or 3G in my home... The phone displays bars, one or two, but is totally disconnected from network, and I miss ALL my phonecalls. Sometimes, two days after, I get messages notifications: twenty voicemails, 50 SMS... all sent two days ago but not received by the phone...
If you have any suggestion... I have tried everything, but I'm forced to leave it on "G" only (GSM/GPRS) which is a serious drawback as I'm always using it to surf the web, mail, TV on phone etc... with my all inclusive plan (French network SFR).
When I go to downtown (one km from my home, so I am downtown!) I have none of the issues stated above.
This phone is probably the worst receiver in the history of mobile phones... All y previous phones gave me five constant bars of H or 3G, this one only one or less... All my friends with cheaper devices have five bars in my place...
I really love my Diamond. Being my first WinMo phone I have to say sites like this here really help improve the phone. Coming from the iPhone I miss the multi-touch and easy surfing on Safari (but I found that Iris is an awesome browser.)
I love the size of my phone, that is what I did not like about the iPhone (too big for me)
In case you are wondering I have had it since it first launched in Canada (Dec 4, 2008)
i wont say that i regret buying my diamond but i am for sure going to buy the new touch pro2 as soon as it comes to denmark. the diamond is good but it aint the best... ive always have a lot of problem with the speed of the diamiond jsut like everyone else but after getting rid of tf3d it has improved a bit. but all in all im not disappointed with the phone.
Cornwall are you sure its because of the device? i dont know anyone who ever had that problem. it might not be the phone but the provider of the net. if that isnt the problem i sure would go to the place i bought the phone and demand to get a new one cause it might be that single phone that is screwed up.
I like the Diamond especially for its size. I have a clip-on pouch that is designed especially for Diamond. I don't like the ROM that came with my operator Telstra but I have since then upgraded to CT6.4 HD Lite ROM. It is fast, lite and stable and good battery. I also like the onscreen keyboard where I can hold the key and it types numbers instead of letters. Very handy.
One feature I wish it had was the TV-OUT capability, like that in Touch Pro.
Anyway, for the keyboardless phone, Diamond is the best for me so far. For phone with keyboard, I think Touch Pro 2 is the one to beat.
My Diamond is now 8 months old and the more I use it, the more I love it. But, I surely have plans to upgrade to TOUCH HD. Reason? I want a bigger screen to actually use those pixels. Cramming VGA display into a 2.8" does not bring any huge practical advantage as only Opera Mobile uses those pixels effectively.
Touch Diamond-2 has bigger screen, but it is 3.2" and crams WVGA resolution. Scene won't change much for me. I do not want a hardware keyboard and that rules out TP-2
I've just bought a Nokia E51 to replace my Diamond. The Diamond was my second HTC phone, the Touch was my first. I thought that the diamond would be a massive step up and for the first six months it was. The screen is much better, the touch sensitivity was better and it was loads quicker. However, once the honeymoon period is over the overall usability of the phone starts to show and for me it wasn't good.
The main negative is the battery life. You have to consciously manage the Diamond to make the battery last. Why cant I just put it in my pocket and have one less worry on life! After normal usage I could unplug the Diamond from the wall charger at 07:30 and by 18:00 it was showing critical battery level warnings. By comparison, with the same usage I unplugged my Nokia E51 over 24 hours ago and the battery is still almost full. One less worry!
Travelling abroad quite a lot I use Skype often, with the diamond I had to ensure I carried my handsfree kit with me so I could make a private call and not through the speaker phone. On top of that I had to keep pressing a button on the phone to stop it going into standby so the wifi doesn't go to sleep - A pain in the ass at best. With the E51 I can access the same wifi hotspot, load up fring and instantly use skype (or MSN) to phone home with the luxury of holding the handset to my ear - what a novelty! also knowing that the battery can cope.
Another big thing was the bluetooth integration to my car stereo. I have a Kenwood stereo and granted I could get into my car and turn the stereo on and that was it, I was connected to the handsfree. However it took 3 minutes or so do download the address book and when I finished a call it would disconnect forcing me to turn off the stereo and turn it back on again to initiate a handshake. The E51 establishes automatically, downloads the phone book in about 15 seconds and never disconnects, pretty much everything you would expect (oh, also it connects the audio automatically so I can play music from the phone through the car with no further faffing about)!
I've come to realise that the Diamond and Windows Mobile is a complete pain in the ass taking up far to much of my time to do things that should just happen. I cant believe how good the nokia E51 is in comparison. It does everything better according to my usual usage of a mobile phone.
It's going to be a few years before I go back to windows mobile, probably after WM 7 has been well established. Untill then I've got my Diamond in a draw as my spare phone.
I have owned my Diamond since June 2008.
The greatest thing about it is it's small size. I like my phones small, and would never consider a phone with a 3.5 inch screen.
I leave the Diamond in 2G mode, and only switch to 3G when I want to use data. My battery life easily lasts more than one day - usually 2 days, although I tend to recharge it every day anyway, so that I don't have to worry about the battery life.
I still use the stock ROM. Best thing you can do, is disable TouchFlo 3D and install the finger friendly SPB Mobile Shell. It is just so much faster, and above all, so much more practical to use, than TouchFlo 3D. I have introduced 3 colleagues with Diamonds to Mobile Shell, and each have promptly switched to Mobile Shell and haven't looked back.
No regrets about getting the Diamond. It was (and still is) really special when it first came out. Now however, I would recommend waiting for the Diamond 2 rather than the Diamond. The microSD card slot will come in handy. It is slightly larger than the Diamond, but not too big, with a bigger screen.
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
I have tried several different ROMs, some better than others, but none is truly 'fast' or feels fast enough for daily use. Flicking through tabs can sometime take a considerable time (up to a second on ocassion) to register, and the movement through tabs (using Sense) is never truly 'smooth'.
Moving on, I tried Android 2.2 (v1.6) and the phone is much worse. Android feels like an alpha at this point, and the phone takes several moments to respond, flicking through pages is abysmal and checking through settings and programs is very slow too. And that is with SETCPU set to max speed and performance. Installing LauncherPro seems to help the phone get slightly faster, but never truly up to par with other Android phones that run on the same CPU and Memory combination.
In general, I never was able to get my Diamond to work the way I thought it should. It has always been slow to respond to my commands (whether tap) and I found the touch buttons and the wheel to be fairly inaccurate too (I would press right and instead it would register as the back key, etc).
What is my best option for a Sense ROM that feels actually fast? I do not care for eye candy that much (although the ability to add a black theme is an advantage), but I do care for speed, responsiveness and battery life (free memory is always nice, but a second priority).
Is XANDROID 2.2 still in development? Will it ever reach the point where the phone runs in comparative similarity to other Android phones with the same CPU?
I'm using the MEMO Rom now, it's good but not 'perfectly' smooth... It also uses CHT2 with extra quicklinks and stuff, so it doesn't always have enough RAM left at all times.
My best experience with a "lighter" rom was Revolution rom by Michael Banszel (from Poland I think), but it was end of 2009...
Here's the original thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=563245&highlight=revolution
There's a few other light sense-roms out there...
Well android want really designed for a native windows mobile device, so you can't expect it to work better than windows mobile.also I think android takes more resourcss up.
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