Diamond Questions

[Guest ~Rob]

Now a few (or most by the looks of it) have had the Diamond for a while what do you think? Is it responsive enough with TouchFlo 3D or have you stopped using it to speed up the device?

I've got a M3100 at the moment and I've learnt to deal with the way WM5 works and I'm hoping the diamond isn't the same with odd quirks that pop up like not being able to connect to GPRS and losing the SD card.

I was hoping for a July 1st release on the networks but that didn't happen and I think T-Mobile now recognise my face I've been in that often to try and get a release date. I notice Voda's said 13/14th of July and Orange said the middle of the month when I asked last week. That said, CPW don't have it in their new catalogue by the looks of things although it was "coming soon" in last months :?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I'm still using TF3D!

P

[Guest allydent]

Now a few (or most by the looks of it) have had the Diamond for a while what do you think? Is it responsive enough with TouchFlo 3D or have you stopped using it to speed up the device?

I've got a M3100 at the moment and I've learnt to deal with the way WM5 works and I'm hoping the diamond isn't the same with odd quirks that pop up like not being able to connect to GPRS and losing the SD card.

I was hoping for a July 1st release on the networks but that didn't happen and I think T-Mobile now recognise my face I've been in that often to try and get a release date. I notice Voda's said 13/14th of July and Orange said the middle of the month when I asked last week. That said, CPW don't have it in their new catalogue by the looks of things although it was "coming soon" in last months :?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

TF3D is excellent. It's not instantaneous, but it's quick enough not to annoy. Much, much better than having to get out the stylus.

Most of my personal issues from WM5 and even WM6.0 have gone. Data connection is solid and behaves in predictable ways, don't need to delete folders to re-sync WMP, etc. The only annoyance so far is that syncing with WMP doesn't include the folder.jpg file that the HTC music player needs to be able to display album art.

Usability-wise, I'm getting an issue with the phone muting my voice every now and again. Happens too often for my liking, but I'm trying to isolate the cause before I decide to send it back.

[Guest jimbouk]

flash your m3100 with a cooked rom...

[Guest ~Rob]

Thanks for the responses. My main worry was that touchflo would be too slow, but if it's usable then that's fine.

I could use a cooked rom, but I'd still have a brick

[Guest steve_smith]

Reading all this with interest.

I'm currently with T-Mobile and think I'm due a change... my last upgrade was to the original Vario (ie. Vario 1). I'm still happily using that handset with a cooked ROM, and haven't yet felt the need to upgrade. Especially when one of my colleagues got a Vario II and was moaning about all sorts of stuff.

One negative thing I read (in the comments section of the review on www.theregister.co.uk) was about battery life. I realise that its a slim device and has a small battery, but someone claimed that just sitting idle on a desk with Exchange push-email enabled, the battery needed charging after just 8 hours! My Vario still runs for 3 or 4 days (with push email enabled) if I don't use it much.

Can anyone who's been using the Diamond with push-email switched on comment on typical battery life? I don't mind charging my phone lots, but its sometimes inconvenient when you are not at home.

Then there's the question of whether to stay with T-Mobile (and wait for the Compact IV) or go back to Orange at get myself the Diamond on something like Racoon 35. Any comments on the Compact IV vs. the Orange version? Hardware wise I mean - I thought I read somewhere that the Compact IV was going to have less RAM, but I might be wrong?

I doubt T-Mobile are going to fall over themselves to do me an upgrade deal (although I use it for data quite a lot, and receive a lot of calls, I actually send very few texts and make very few calls...) - I'm only paying them about £16 a month at the moment, so I doubt I'm the kind of customer they want to keep! This means I'm probably going to have to take out a new contract with whoever I go with I guess.

The other option is I could give the iPhone 3G a try :D

Anyway, anyone have any comments or tips, they'd be greatfully received :(

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

I charge mine pretty much daily... I think if you buy a diamond you need to expect that (if you're using push mail).

P

[Guest steve_smith]

I charge mine pretty much daily... I think if you buy a diamond you need to expect that (if you're using push mail).

So the standy time of 12 days Orange quote on their website is a tad optimistic? Maybe they meant 12 hours :D

[Guest maclondon]

The other option is I could give the iPhone 3G a try :D

Anyway, anyone have any comments or tips, they'd be greatfully received :(

I've been using one for a couple of days now

and while i love the design of the hardware and general form factor

touchflo 3d is the worst thing I've ever endured on a mobile

its unintuitive and unresponsive. Always a second or 2 behind you.

maybe it needs to be removed and stick to standard windows mobile interface.

its really quite buggy two- it crashes every time I try to add a favourite to the contacts etc.

mine is going straight on ebay. the email integration between touch and standard windows mobile

is clunky and annoying.

I suspect if you tinker with it for a few days you may make it half usable - but having used

an iPhone for the last 10 months - this feels like picking up an old nokia n70.

I feel I may be going back to iPhone 3g - and I really wanted to love this phone.

on theplus side the screen is lovely

and the full qwerty is a joy - and easier to use than iphone thanks to the awesome t9 features.

plus i just tend to make less mistakes on it. maybe because I'm forced to work at diamond speeds.

oh and it get so hot its worrying

Edited July 10, 2008 by maclondon

[Guest blackhorse]

So the standy time of 12 days Orange quote on their website is a tad optimistic? Maybe they meant 12 hours :D

Standby times in these sort of cases are based on the handset sat in good signal at ALL times, the handset never been used in any shape or form, not to recieve a call a text, not to look at the time so the screen will come on.

Just left to sit.

Then, and only then would it last 12 days!

(edit knowing how the boffs work on these figures, maybe the handset needs to be in aircraft mode also, hell you wouldnt want to waste battery on getting a signal!!)

[Guest allydent]

I've been using one for a couple of days now

and while i love the design of the hardware and general form factor

touchflo 3d is the worst thing I've ever endured on a mobile

its unintuitive and unresponsive. Always a second or 2 behind you.

maybe it needs to be removed and stick to standard windows mobile interface.

its really quite buggy two- it crashes every time I try to add a favourite to the contacts etc.

mine is going straight on ebay. the email integration between touch and standard windows mobile

is clunky and annoying.

I suspect if you tinker with it for a few days you may make it half usable - but having used

an iPhone for the last 10 months - this feels like picking up an old nokia n70.

I feel I may be going back to iPhone 3g - and I really wanted to love this phone.

on theplus side the screen is lovely

and the full qwerty is a joy - and easier to use than iphone thanks to the awesome t9 features.

plus i just tend to make less mistakes on it. maybe because I'm forced to work at diamond speeds.

oh and it get so hot its worrying

I've found the exact opposite to you. The touch interface is intuitive to the way I want it to behave, I guess we're just opposite in what we want our phones to do.

I've not suffered any bugs or crashes. Nowhere near as many as when I was using WM2003 and WM5 anyway.

The email integration between touch and WM isn't perfect, but I don't think it's meant to be the main interface for mail. As a notifier it's fine, as a viewer it's less good.

And your plus side, the full qwerty. God no. The buttons are just too small for fingers and with a stylus to type? What is this, the HTC Magician? Give me compact qwerty every day.

As for heat, I came to this device from a Hermes, which was practically a stove. This is much less hot. Of course I'm not using Push email, so I'm sure I could make it hotter.

[Guest Monolithix]

I'm still concerned at people having issues with Touchflo3D. The time it takes to respond seems to be as it was designed, I tap an icon and it sweeps the old screen off and the new screen on. It can be sluggish now and then but it really isn't all that common, not enough to feel like i'm making a compromise by continuing to use it.

[Guest Neil5459]

When T3D works, it's great, but I've found huge inconsistency about when it works and when it doesn't. Even after a SR, the bottom Icon bar dragging can stall; other times it zips from left-right-left as it should.

When the icon bar does stall, the only way to navigate is to tap an icon, or to drag the main screen, which does work quite well.

I do also find the pressure needed to cause an action to be inconsistent- sometimes it neds really firm pressure; other times a lighter touch works better.

I'm sure these things will be ironed out, and maybe a few more tweaks introduced; for all its faults, the T3D interface is still genuinely useful for a small device with such a good screen.