HTC Touch Diamond on sale already- no it’s not quad band
One of the first things I saw today that surprised me was the news that HTC’s new sexy Touch Diamond phone was on sale online in the US at CompUSA. This surprised me because CompUSA is detailing the phone they are selling is US-friendly quad band and the information I’ve received from HTC is that this initial model is just tri-band for Europe. This means it will work in the US but not at 3G as those bands are not yet implemented by HTC. Later today I then saw that Amazon is also now offering a "quad-band" Touch Diamond. So what’s the deal? I don’t think HTC would be telling me it’s tri-band if it wasn’t. Engadget was wondering the same thing too and have confirmed with HTC that this is indeed just a tri-band phone so if anyone drops more than $700 expecting it to be 3G in the US, well, expect some unhappy customers. Note that CompUSA is now correctly identifying this model as a tri-band phone.
James, the Touch Pro sibling (Diamond with slide out QWERTY keyboard) is the same: Available in Europe/Middle East/Asia first, North America later. When later comes, so will the 3G bands, but it will be later. These devices will support Touch Flo 3D, which the Touch Cruise reportedly doesn’t handle well even with the xda-developers tweaks. But I don’t think either has an SD slot.
Not only no US 3G, but EDGE only in areas where att uses the 1900 band.
is it really worth the money?
You can pick this device up for $650 at Phone Source-USA and I have purchased several devices from them successfully.
However, I recommend you wait for the North American versions of these device to launch later in 2008 since this is only tri-band and works with T-Mobile’s EDGE network. It will work with AT&T, but the coverage is very spotty. I will be buying a US 3G version myself as soon as they are available because I find it to be that compelling of a device and I am only testing the European version with an older ROM.
Confused!
I would expect the quad band rating to cover the voice side of the device as it is after all a phone.
So is the voice side of things quad band or is that tri band too?