HTC Touch Diamond 2

This phone i great. apart form the not having a lot of choice for apps, this smartphone can do whatever the iphone can do and do it a little better. It already comes with sat nav, google maps, and microsoft office. you can even put skype on it to make free internet calls.

I bought my phone from Handtec in May. The screen is fantastic and I rarely have to reset it - a big improvement over older phones. Video streaming works a treat and the built in YouTube app is great. Sound quality is fine and it is handy to be able to pull the micro SD storage card in and out without resetting the phone. So far, I haven't had a problem with software running off the storage card locking up after the phone has been in standby mode - a big irritation with WM5.

A few gripes and 1 major ISSUE:

- Touch Flo looks great but irritates as it takes more steps to get to all the detail of a contact, diary, etc. I end up working around Touch Flo rather than using it much

- The HTC browser looks great but doesn't seem to work that well. Big delays and oversensitive zoom slider. I end up using Internet Explorer - much better than earlier versions but still nothing like as good as iphone browser

- Touchflo has a nice feature on contacts where commonly used contacts can be selected and listed on the top Contacts screen. Unfortunately the PC sync software regularly loses its mind and does a complete re-sync, overwriting these selections on the phone. Looks nice but I have lost patience reinstating them every couple of weeks and now just ignore it.

- Typing with the stylus is quite slow as you need quite a lot of pressure to get the phone to register your key presses

- The camera is very slow and the lack of flash makes it pretty useless indoors

- The headphone socket is combined with the mini USB sync/charge socket is a HTC variation of the mini USB plug. You need to use HTC headphones or buy an adapter - cheap on Ebay but a little annoying

- The casing and screen are very sensitive to finger prints - I end up wiping it constantly. The screen is pretty useless in sunlight.

- MAJOR WATCHOUT: The reset button is under the back cover. Right next to this is a recessed casing screw with an anti-tamper 'void' sticker. It is very easy to stick the stylus into the screw instead of the button by mistake. I found out the very expensive consequence (£70) when the touch screen developed a fault after only a few weeks. I then spend many more weeks arguing with Handtec and HTC to no avail - I had to pay up. HTC even emailed a photo of the damaged 'void' sticker which had pretty clearly never had a screwdriver in it. There is very little clearance inside the casing to put tape over the screw hole and if you block the hole with something you would again risk damaging the sticker in some way. All this would be avoided if the 'void' sticker were simply put on a different screw. If I were cynical I might think this was deliberate to avoid paying out for warranty claims!

- The phone Handtec provided is apparently an Eastern European model. I found this out when I tried to download the Win 6.5 upgrade and was refused. A support call to HTC clarified why. Apparently the E European version will be released later in Nov.

A surprisingly nice upgrade to the previous diamond. HTC have done a brilliant job of customising the usually horrible Windows Mobile.

Nice browser zoom functionality and touch flow works very well.

I am very pleased with the phone.

Hi, I have purchased a HTC Touch Diamond2 after reading a review of it and I am really pleased with the phone and it lives up to its billing. Brilliant, didn't want an iphone, everyone has got one and it's boring. The hero is the best HTC phone I have seen and I would recommend it to anyone.

I got this phone as an upgrade on T-Mobile where its called the "Compact V".

I've used the T-Mobile MDA and Varios now for quite a while (started with a Compact III, then went to the Vario (aka HTC TYTNII)) so I'm used to the brand.

I was given the phone as an upgrade from a Nokia E71 (to be honest the E71 changed my opinion of Nokias from toys to serious business phone).

I've had the Diamond 2/Compact V for a couple of days now so the "new toy" shine is beginning to fade, I'll be honest I'm pretty hard on phones so this review is going to be "warts and all".

Undoing the T-Mobile box you get a screen protector which is a bit more solid than previously given but I would suggest lining it up along the long side when you fit it as the screen is flush mounted so it's easy to put it on crooked. There is a spare stylus and a clever little case which you can slide the phone into from either end but a little piece of ribbon stops it from falling out the other end but no belt loop so it just stops the phone from getting scraped in your pocket.

The plus points are that HTC have improved the front end - so the windows element is hidden, good in some ways but not in others (told you I was awkward!). It is almost as smooth as the iPhone there is a little lagginess but it is only very slight, it gets worse if you have a couple of applications open but still serviceable. I have found the on-screen keyboard a bit awkward as the keys at the extreme edges don't always get pressed so I have resorted to using the stylus to press some keys (although the transcriber is very good if you're going to use the stylus). I like the fact that customising the start menu is very easy although if you're walking and not thinking it is easy to accidentally delete an item from the start menu (just as easy to put it back though).

Legibility in sunlight is very good on a par with or possibly better than the E71 (yes the sun has been shining - I've got a new phone so everything is right in the world!)

Ringtone volume however is poor, if it's in a trouser pocket in its case you won't hear it as you walk down the high road - so make sure you have it vibrate as well and/or keep it in a shirt pocket. I am going to tinker with some customised ringtones to see if that makes it any better.

Call quality is the important bit - I can hear others perfectly although I have had a couple of people complain about it "echoing" but that could be a reception/network issue, the internet also plays up occasionally, but this could be the same problem. The speaker isn't as loud as the E71 so I have to press it against my ear, although HTC haven't got the Samsung problem of disconnecting when it touches you (I've written a review of the F480 Tocco). Cleverly though the HTC turns the screen on when you take it away from your face so putting in a PIN number for phone banking is easy - guess they improved that after the TYTN2 got a lot of criticism.

On the down side I do use my phone in the car (and before you start tutting - it's with a hands free Jabra) - the problem is the E71 had a very good voice dialling feature, my old Sony Ericsson did too, and the TYTN2 let you assign "voice tags" in a way similar to the first Nokia phones - unfortunately the Diamond2 doesn't seem to have this feature so I now have to get a cradle and finger dial - but fortunately you can set "favourite contacts" on a carousel type feature so you just have to press the top button and scroll down (a way round this is to have it plugged into the car charger and set it so that it doesn't "sleep" when on external power).

The problem of it being a finger print magnet is the same with all touchscreen phones - the T-Mobile verson has a nice matt back rather than the polished steel of the E71 which also attracted fingerprints and grot which got caught into the etching.

The big downside is that the battery life is poor - although it is slowly improving, it is possible that this is one of those batteries which works better after a few charges - time will tell - on the plus side when you connect it to a PC to sync with the USB cable it will charge as well (the E71 didn't).

The headphones use the silly mini USB connector - so time to dig out the adapter as the supplied phones aren't brilliant (they don't block out the noise of the train or the half-wits wittering on about last nights TV). That mini USB connector is also used for charging so if you've got an old Motorola charger you'll be fine.

The camera seems faster than the Nokia N96 (my wife has one of these) and is a big improvement over the previous HTC phones but there isn't a flash and it isn't a replacement for a real camera but its good for those unexpected shots, just ensure that you put the camera feature onto the start menu to make it nice and easy to find. The shutter is fired by touching the screen button which takes a little getting used to and touching the screen/viewfinder means you can change the point of focus so a pic of the kids next to a landmark means you can focus on them and not have the camera blur them and focus on the scenery instead.

The T-Mobile ad promises "free" sat-nav - not so - its only if you've got a "Combi" package and I've got a "FlexT" - if you call T-Mobile they give you the phone number of ALK (the makers of Co-Pilot) who will sell you an upgrade package- erm thanks but I'll just keep using my old TomTom in the car as it's louder and erm free! if I use the sat nav on a phone its only for walking to a visit or back to the station - download Google Maps instead - its free and fast. The satnav on the phone is remarkable - finds the satellite faster than my old TomTom, but the speaker is too quiet to make it a viable replacement, so it's only useful for walking and cycling.

If the speaker was better, the battery life improved, and voice dialling was present it'd be a lot better