The cult icon of the modern era, iPhone has spurred a host of competitors, and look-alikes. China has been the breeding ground for many iPhone clones, but when it comes to actual competition, HTC has been the market leader with the best offerings.
Price wise, nothing can even come close to the iPhone. The 3G iPhone can be purchased for less than one fourth the price of a high-end PDA. But the hardcore PDA market still remains intact. And HTC has continued to be at the forefront. And this is one model that has been on the shelves for a while – the HTC Touch Diamond.
It's a Quad-band phone with high speed HSDPA capabilities, and has Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g WiFi connectivity. The screen is a vertically oriented 480x640 pixel touch sensitive deal. PC hook-up is provided via a miniUSB port.
Following the traditions of all modern day HTC devices, this has TouchFlo. The eye-candy shell for Windows Mobile that has us drooling every time we see it.
This time it's coupled with an accelerometer to make feedback more effective and realistic, and more importantly the shell itself has 3D flip stlye navigation. Very sexy.
Adding to the grooviness is the GPS capability of the phone. Third party software can use this, coupled with the 3.15MP camera to Geo-tag your photos. Provided software includes Microsoft Pocket office for on the move document usage, but that proven platform means the world is your sand pit.
Usability wise, the phone packs 4GB if internal storage space, and 192MD DDR RAM for the OS to run on, but sadly doesn't have an expansion slot to shove cards into.
iPhone has the advantage when it comes to price. But when you consider how expensive the iPhone can be on the long run, and the "legal" availability over here, then the Touch Diamond deserves more than a second look. |
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