Gartenberg on the HTC Touch Diamond: 9 out of 10 ain’t bad so far
It’s too bad that the HTC Touch Diamond doesn’t yet support 3G in the U.S. as Matt Miller noted. From the sounds of it, the device looks to be pretty solid. How much? Turns out that Jupiter Research Analyst and all-around nice guy Michael Gartenberg offered up his first ten thoughts on the Diamond. I see only one negative, hence my post title, but in fairness, this is just his preliminary opinion. Oh, that one negative? The CPU and graphics engine might not be quite up to the task with HTC’s custom TouchFlo UI: "Every so often, the unit lags a half second or so behind me. It’s not horrible but it is annoying." Check out his list for the other nine, positive thoughts.
I think one of the keys to HTC’s growing success in this space was realizing that Windows Mobile is a platform, which is not the same as a UI. By building a more intuitive and dare I say "sexy" UI on top of the WinMo engine, they’re showing that such a handset doesn’t have to look like a Windows desktop.
Yeah, that screen. It’s small. So what happens when some madman (paging Matt Miller!) throws a util on there to make it show *real* VGA? Jeweler’s loupe, anybody?
And which version of Opera is that? The one Kendrick taunted me with?
When, oh when, will we see this honey in Canada under the Telus carrier (CDMA)? My understanding is that the Diamond and TouchPro will replace the HTC Touch and P4000 (aka Titan/Mogul) respectively, or is this just the rumor mill grinding?
I think we need to re-title it 6 out of 9 ain’t bad, since he mentions the screen twice, and “caress-able” also leads to fingerprint magnet. Also, one of the points is “It isn’t upgradable.” Maybe 6.5, with half a point for caress-able…
Regardless, as an HTC Touch owner, I know about underpowered processors not keeping up, and I’m not sure I can give that the same weight as You Tube works well. I need it first and foremost to be a phone, then an organizer, and if the processor can’t handle those (as is the case at times with the Touch), that is far more of an issue than whether or not I can view Lego Star Wars Cantina on the road.
I’m hoping the Xperia X1 is a bit better at holding its own.
Mike, it is a special version of Opera Mobile 9.5 that HTC developed direct with Opera to be tweaked specifically for the Diamond.
Interesting review. However, I have a review by David Ciccone of Mobility Today that identifies some serious problems with the Touch Flo 3D.
http://mobilitytoday.com/articles/touch_diamond_review.html
Shawn, I haven’t read the review you’re referring to, but I’m sure that you can find differing reviews of nearly any device if you look hard enough.
Shawn, I watched all of the videos that Matt Miller shot of the Diamond and they speak for themselves. Maybe Ciccone has a bad ROM or something.
There are VERY FEW of these devices available and in the hands of reviewers right now and the full shipping/production ROM is not on all of them yet so you will see differences in performance at this time so take reviews with a grain of salt until production models with final ROMs are out there for evaluation.
From the sound of it, Michael and I were lucky enough to get devices to try with a later ROM than others are showing to have since I am NOT experiencing those problems with TouchFLO 3D, as shown in my videos.
I plan to post a couple more videos and my 1 week thoughts on Friday so stay tuned for that.
Mike, the display is brilliant and sharp as a tack (actually, like Michael said it is probably the most amazing thing about the device hardware) so I have no plans to try out RealVGA at this time. If I do, I would definitely need a magnifying glass to see anything on the display. You should see Opera Mobile 9.5 with a full web page though in person. Even zoomed out all the way the fonts are tiny, but super crisp and readable. AMAZING!
I just finished loading up about 25 3rd party apps as I try to make this my primary device and see how it performs.
Thank you Kevin and James for the quick responses.
To go on Matt’s comments I have confirmed the ROM I have is the latest as per HTC. HTC confirmed they are aware of some laggyness but feel it is at an acceptable level. There are some registry hacks that improve speed levels which many users are doing currently..
I’m sorry, but my experience a couple of years back with the HTC Wizard (aka iMate K-jam), and the godawful Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, has sworn me off these devices for life.