14 replies to this topic

[Chimpanzee]

Following my previous post, I have decided that I'm going to return to WM after a year of Symbian and it's going to be with one of the new HTC devices. However, I'm a little confused by what features each of them will have/will not have.

As I understand it, the Diamond is very good and is to be released next month, it's only drawback for me being it's lack of a microSD slot. The Touch Pro will be released later in the year and will be identical to the Diamond (in terms of spec and form factor) but will also feature a TV out port and will also NOT feature an expansion slot. It seems like the best one (based on rumours) is going to be the Touch Dual Pro which will again be the same as the first two but also have a microSD and a sliding keypad. But this won't be out for some time.

The Touch Pro's TV out wouldn't be very useful to me so I'm considering getting the Diamond. I'm just worried that I've missed something and I'm going to end up buying the device, then a few months later the Touch Pro will be released with additional features that I didn't know about and I'll be disappointed.

I've had a look around the web and can't really find a reliable source to compare them. Some sites are even saying that the Diamond DOES have a microSD slot!

As far as I know, nothing official has been said on either the Pro or the Dual Pro but I thought you lot might know more? I think it's just the lack of microSD that's holding me back from ordering a Diamond.

Is my summary above correct? Am I missing something? Is the Dual Pro expected to be released sooner than I think it will?

Cheers in advance!

[trevormuk]

Although the Diamond does not ahve a microSD slot, am I correct in thinking it has 8Gb of built in memory?
Cheers

[Chimpanzee]

trevormuk, on May 16 2008, 11:09, said:

Although the Diamond does not ahve a microSD slot, am I correct in thinking it has 8Gb of built in memory?
Cheers

Only 4GB unfortunately. If it was 8 I wouldn't be bothered about the lack of the expansion slot.

I think it's so weird that they'd make a device without one nowadays. You just expect it to be a standard feature on any phone.

[trevormuk]

Chimpanzee, on May 16 2008, 12:56, said:

Only 4GB unfortunately. If it was 8 I wouldn't be bothered about the lack of the expansion slot.

I think it's so weird that they'd make a device without one nowadays. You just expect it to be a standard feature on any phone.

Cheers ... it is slightly odd that they don't include some form of expansion. Even at 4Gb this will be more than adequate for me..
I am now reviewing my option of changing to Symbian when the new Sony Ericsson G900 is launched ... the Diamond looks very attractive.
CHeers
T

[shootydogthing]

Sorry, you seem to have the wrong end of the stick

AFAIK, and believe me, I've done a hell of a lot of research online into this, there are three models

Touch  (Diamond)
Touch Diamond Pro (Raphael)
Touch Diamond Dual (Titanium)

(the names might be slightly off, but that is what seems most likely)


The Touch Diamond is as you say. The Touch Diamond Pro is the Raphael, it shares the Kaiser's form factor, it's like the Diamond but with a horizontally sliding 5-row QWERTY keyboard and TV out, and a MicroSDHC slot. The Touch Diamond Dual has a vertically sliding Numeric or SureType keypad, and a MicroSDHC slot, and POSSIBLY a TV-out.

So nothing with the Diamond's form factor and a MicroSDHC slot. ALTHOUGH, i have said myself that HTC should make a version that's slightly thicker than the Diamond but with a MicroSDHC slot and larger battery, and give people the choice. However I have no idea if they will or not.

That's the situation.

SO, it depends on your choice. if you don't want any form of keypad (they do make it slightly thicker) then go for the Diamond

[shootydogthing]

Chimpanzee, on May 16 2008, 11:56, said:

Only 4GB unfortunately. If it was 8 I wouldn't be bothered about the lack of the expansion slot.

I think it's so weird that they'd make a device without one nowadays. You just expect it to be a standard feature on any phone.

iPhone

[Chimpanzee]

shootydogthing, on May 16 2008, 14:38, said:

Sorry, you seem to have the wrong end of the stick

AFAIK, and believe me, I've done a hell of a lot of research online into this, there are three models

Touch  (Diamond)
Touch Diamond Pro (Raphael)
Touch Diamond Dual (Titanium)

(the names might be slightly off, but that is what seems most likely)
The Touch Diamond is as you say. The Touch Diamond Pro is the Raphael, it shares the Kaiser's form factor, it's like the Diamond but with a horizontally sliding 5-row QWERTY keyboard and TV out, and a MicroSDHC slot. The Touch Diamond Dual has a vertically sliding Numeric or SureType keypad, and a MicroSDHC slot, and POSSIBLY a TV-out.

So nothing with the Diamond's form factor and a MicroSDHC slot. ALTHOUGH, i have said myself that HTC should make a version that's slightly thicker than the Diamond but with a MicroSDHC slot and larger battery, and give people the choice. However I have no idea if they will or not.

That's the situation.

SO, it depends on your choice. if you don't want any form of keypad (they do make it slightly thicker) then go for the Diamond

Pretty sure the names I gave are correct. I think they've been confirmed by HTC now. Paul reported it in his podcast last week after the product launch.

I might have been mistaken about the form factors then. I was under the impression that they all looked pretty much the same except the later ones would have additional features. That's a shame. Ideally, I would like a Diamond with an expansion slot. As I said, I'm not too bothered about the keypad or the tv out.

On the news page there's something about the accessories planned for the Diamond. A higher capacity (and thicker) battery is one of them which I might get if the battery life turns out to be bad.

shootydogthing, on May 16 2008, 14:39, said:

iPhone

lol. No thanks!

Edited by Chimpanzee, 16 May 2008 - 02:15 PM.

[shootydogthing]

Chimpanzee, on May 16 2008, 14:15, said:

Pretty sure the names I gave are correct. I think they've been confirmed by HTC now. Paul reported it in his podcast last week after the product launch.

I might have been mistaken about the form factors then. I was under the impression that they all looked pretty much the same except the later ones would have additional features. That's a shame. Ideally, I would like a Diamond with an expansion slot. As I said, I'm not too bothered about the keypad or the tv out.

On the news page there's something about the accessories planned for the Diamond. A higher capacity (and thicker) battery is one of them which I might get if the battery life turns out to be bad.

Hmm. i still find them odd. Quite frankly if they called them anything other than what I suggested above then they were on something at the time. Whatever it was, I want some

To call something the Touch Pro suggests it's a successor to the Touch, which the Raphael definately is not. It's the successer to the Kaiser, with TouchFLO 3D.

Touch Dual Pro I can understand more, but I would suspect they're doing a similar thing to what they did with the Touch, i.e. Touch, Touch Dual, Touch Cruise.

hence Touch Diamond, Touch Diamond Dual and Touch Diamond Pro.


The form factors I gave are almost certainly correct. The spyshot that is in a thread somewhere shows 3 devices, two that are almost the same but one has a slightly different colour around the screen (could be the light, possibly due to it being thicker) and the other the same but with a 5-row QWERTY.
And other sources have stated there is a replacement for the Dual.

But, i could be wrong. But those names seem more logical to me.


Oh, and the iPhone comment was that it's a very expensive phone with no expandability. As much as I hate the iPhone myself, I have to admit it has changed the market and made a big impact on the kind of devices being made by other companies.

As far as the Chinese market goes, a lot more than Apple would want. The Meizu M8 and the HiPhone etc. I've even seen one advertised as "the iPhone, but with Windows Mobile" as if it was an official apple product. If I remember rightly that model had TouchFLO on it, and the copy of WinMo was almost certainly unlicensed.

But I digress. the iPhone has changed the market, and it has changed the features that people want, or rather that people THINK they want.

Edited by shootydogthing, 16 May 2008 - 02:47 PM.

[xzces]

Main features Diamond vs Pro:

RAM 192MB vs 288MB
ROM 256MB vs 512MB
Storage: 4GB internal vs SDHC external (practically goes up to 32GB I guess)
Tv-out: NO vs YES
QWERTY keyboard: NO vs YES
Battery: 900 mAh vs 1340 mAh
Camera: 3.2m w/o flash vs 3.1m with flash
Dimensions: about 12mm vs 18mm

The negative aspects colored red. Overall I think the Pro will be a far more usefull and stable phone. HTC was about to put 128mb ram in the touch but afterward decided to upgrade that to 192. 192 sounds great compared to todays smartphones (like my 64mb touch) but with all the programs, touchflo 3d etc I think there will be little left for user spec progs. And then there's the powerissue. I highly doubt that wm6.1's energy efficiency is that much that I'll get the same hours out of the 528mhz proc (+900 mAh bat) as my 200mhz (+1100mAh bat) touch. Sure call times etc should be according to estimates, but it's the other stuff that drains the battery.

Also, the Pro will be out by the end of the summer, about the same time sony will release the X1. I do think the Pro will beat it though.

I will keep you guys posted though as I receive the Diamond next week. Can't wait to try tomtom and some other apps on it.

[Metoo]

xzces, on Jun 5 2008, 02:04, said:

The negative aspects colored red. Overall I think the Pro will be a far more usefull and stable phone. HTC was about to put 128mb ram in the touch but afterward decided to upgrade that to 192. 192 sounds great compared to todays smartphones (like my 64mb touch) but with all the programs, touchflo 3d etc I think there will be little left for user spec progs. And then there's the powerissue. I highly doubt that wm6.1's energy efficiency is that much that I'll get the same hours out of the 528mhz proc (+900 mAh bat) as my 200mhz (+1100mAh bat) touch. Sure call times etc should be according to estimates, but it's the other stuff that drains the battery.

Constantly refreshing all that extra RAM drains the battery too - and unlike the Backlight/GPS/WiFi/Blueooth etc, that's something you can't turn off.

Edited by Metoo, 07 June 2008 - 12:41 PM.

[LeiChat]

I currently have the Wizard (K-Jam/o2 XDA MiniS) as I loved the whole slide out keyboard thing.

I was going to wait for the Pro, but having watched this video I think I'll go with the Diamond.

The dimensions are identical aside from depth, saving just under 7mm by losing the keyboard.

The only other thing I think I'll be sad to lose out on is the camera flash, but as I don't have that on my current phone I won't know what I'm really missing. ;-)

Images were from Engadget, in case they need crediting, or removing (apologies)

Attached Files

•  htc_touch_pro_official_05.jpg   73.96K   54 downloads
•  htc_td_004_1_.jpg   34.46K   51 downloads

Edited by LeiChat, 10 June 2008 - 10:42 PM.

[xzces]

bleh, many people are screaming for camera flash but believe me, besides the se cybershot series (with xenon) you really can't take that good pictures with a led flash camera phone in the dark anyways . It only has effect up to 1 meter or so. Furthermore the diamonds cam takes great pictures in bright light, but even indoors with standard artificial lighting the noise increases dramatically. I don't think a led flash would make that much of a difference.

The touch is a great phone and the onscreen keyboard works really well. As I said earlier, unless you really have a lot of typing to do on the road, or you want to have lots of ram hungry apps, the diamond will do just fine. I personally find the smaller size much more convenient.

[Mr_Gee]

I have a Kaiser, but i find myself using the onscreen keyboard more often than the slide out keyboard
Mainly because I need to wait untill the screen has been rotated..

With all those different SIP's now a hardware KB is no longer a requirement for me..
- Touchpal
- PCMKeyboard (free) link
- Zoomboard
- Spb Full Screen Keyboard
- Phraze-It Keyboard
- PDA Keyboard v.1.0 Light Edition (free) link

I think i'm going for the Diamond

[PaulOBrien]

I'm definitely leaning towards the Samsung i900 atm I think!

P

[LeiChat]

xzces, on Jun 17 2008, 14:10, said:

Furthermore the diamonds cam takes great pictures in bright light...

This guy reports the camera isn't so great, hopefully it was user error...