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Friday, May 9, 2008

U.S. Has To Wait For HTC Touch Diamond

HTC's second-generation Touch, dubbed the Diamond, will make its debut in Europe next month, the Middle East and Asia a month or so later. Touchy U.S. consumers will have to wait until later this summer or fall.

Both the Touch's interface and the aesthetics have been upgraded in the Diamond from the Touch currently available through Sprint. The Diamond is a GSM version that'll work on 7.2 HSPA networks, so we're guessing we'll see it from AT&T Wireless when it makes its way to the U.S. Rather than the grip-friendly rubberized casing on the Sprint Touch, the Diamond appropriately looks shinier and sleeker. And instead of the single action button on the current model, the Diamond features a number of direct application keys below the screen which will make getting around the phone features much easier.

The company claims the Touch Diamond's software interface has been approved, which is a relief since interacting with the current Touch pales in comparison to the larger iPhone, with which it is often compared. One early user reports that Windows Mobile 6.1 is nicely disguised within the Diamond's GUI and HTC's TouchFLO 3D provides a flip-though experience for browsing music, contact and other entries similar to Apple's Cover Flow. HTC also touts a new Web browser that optimizes pages to fit its 2.8-inch touchscreen display and, like the iPhone, allows users to zoom in on pages, which automatically re-orient themselves when the phone is turned from portrait to landscape.

PCWorld reports that HTC has built in some other neat features. For instance, if you don't want to answer a call, laying the phone face down silences the ringer. Taking out the stylus during a call automatically boots the notepad application. Flashing LCD lights on the touchpad below the display screen will indicate missed calls, emails, text messages, etc. Only slightly less glitzy bells and whistles include b/g WiFi, a 3.2 MP camera, a music player, 4 GB of internal storage, push email and stereo Bluetooth.

We'll just have to wait a few months before we can play with it ourselves.

Labels: cellphones