Customer Reviews

HTC Touch Diamond P3700

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased the European version of the Diamond for use in the US on ATT. I have not had any problems so far with voice service. Data service is slower than I had on my Blackjack, but I knew that would happen. The Diamond has Wifi and it has been easy to connect to my home network and to hot spots to get broadband internet service.

The Diamond was designed to be a one hand device. It really is possible to do everything with one hand, even use the camera. (I recommend using two hands when using any camera for better stability.) The 3.2 megapixel camera isn't bad for a mobile phone, certainly better than many I've used before- when there is sufficient light. There is no flash, so your indoor photography will be disappointing.

The Touch Flo interface which seemed almost like frosting on top of plain old Windows Mobile in other HTC touch devices, is very much a fully intergrated part of the system on the Diamond. It runs very well and is every bit as intuitive as other touch oriented devices. You can turn Touch Flo off, but I don't know why you'd want to.

Diamond's good looks demonstrate that Windows Mobile devices can be great looking as well as powerful. The phone is attractive off or on, but it also great to look at when you're working on it because of the VGA screen. After several days, it still startles me how much clearer text and graphics are on this phone.

Thanks HTC for including the Opera browser. You can still browse the web using pages for mobile units if you'd like with IE, but you will want to step up to the real internet with Opera. Scroll, pan, zoom if you need to, but with that VGA screen, you may not even need to do so.

Battery life on the Diamond is as advertised unless you make heavy use of Wifi or the music player or camera. These will significantly diminish your time between charges.

A few final points: yes, the phone collects fingerprints. So do all touch devices. Sound quality on calls has been good in my experience. Sound quality on the music player is not as good as on a dedicated MP3 device. The FM radio is a great feature. I hadn't come close to filling a 2Gb micro SD card on my Blackjack so the 4Gb internal storage on the Diamond should be sufficient. Will you master every touch move immediately? No. Within a day or so? Yes.

If you live in Europe or Asia or live in the US but don't need 3G service, the Diamond is a great phone. It's pretty darn close to great even with its present US limitation.

The Good: Full features - e-mail, internet, GPS, photos, all the connections you will need (tri-band, wi-fi, 3G, GPRS, Edge). Looks great, can carry in a pocket without knowing it's there. It avoids many problems of the i-Phone (i.e. you can replace your own battery, and sound on calls is good.)

The Bad: Problems with almost every feature that I expect will be worked out in superior phones in the next year or two.

The Big Problems: Battery life is very short. With even moderate e-mail or internet use, one charge will not last a full day. And recharging takes longer than any other phone I've had.

The screen is too small. I would be happy to carry a slightly bigger phone to get another 1/2 inch larger screen. Anyone who's shortsighted or has big thumbs will have problems using many applications and commands on the small screen.

Other Problems: Using your thumb on the screen to scroll takes quite a bit of practice, and in many applications, it's VERY difficult to avoid selecting an item when you're trying to scroll. For example, try adding a new city in the weather application - it's nearly impossible to scroll through the list of countries and cities without selecting unintentionally, and selecting the wrong item means you have to start all over again.

Windows Mobile 6.1 is billed by Microsoft as simplified access to applications compared to 6.0, but I find this software more complicated, requiring more button taps than the Windows 6.0 on my Dopod C500. Finding various settings can be extremely difficult, since many settings appear in different places and don't always seem logical: want to change the settings on your e-mail? The one you're looking for could be hidden in 3 or 4 different places.

Entry Device: The "letter recognizer," using the stylus on the screen, is much faster than a QWERTY keyboard, and is great for composing a long e-mail or text message. But to send a quick text message, using a phone pad with dictionary is still much easier and requires only one hand. The Diamond has an on-screen phone pad available (no hardware phone pad), but changing from one entry method to another (from stylus entry to phone pad entry) with one hand is very difficult. Unless they make changes to allow access to the phone pad faster and easier, it would be better to have a slide out hardware pad. One of the great features on my Dopod C500 was easy switching between the phone keypad and the QWERTY keyboard. HTC needs to work on this with the Diamond.

The internal-only storage (4 gig) is large, but my guess is a changeable storage card would be better. Also, the Diamond has only one port for charger, USB connection, or hands-free headphones, and changing the SIM card requires removal of the battery. The camera, though advertised as 3.2 mp, is practically useless. All the photos come out blurry, and unless taken outdoors in daylight are too dark.

Finally, I use the phone in Thailand, where 3G is not available. Using the internet with GPRS is normally very slow, and getting the internet to work when roaming in other countries is difficult. The application to download my Hotmail rarely works, and nobody can tell me if the problem is with the phone or with the Windows Live servers. I have to check my hotmail through the internet browser instead, which is very slow. I have a feeling that 2 or 3 years from now, we'll have far superior download speeds on mobile phones.

This phone is a very good effort, but HTC needs to work out the problems to have a really superior product.

There is not much I can really add to these early reviews. The phone is pretty good. My reception is clear and the phone feels sturdy in your hands. I have to agree with the disappointment in the battery life - although the manual does say it may take a few charging to get the battery to specifications but my phone is dead at the end of the day.

I have had about three resets since owning it now for about five days and a sync with my Vista Dell yielded some pretty strange messages that have since disappeared. The screen is gorgeous and the touch is good but no where near the iTouch or I assume the iPhone. It took about a half day to get the hang of what kind of touch was required.

Yes the screen gets tacky with touching but so do all the other products. Textured protectors will help and hopefully better ones, than the one it ships with, will come out as time goes on.

Cost was a big factor in choosing this phone over the iPhone which is ridiculously expensive in Canada with limited carriers. Will I stay with it? I will give it two weeks to improve the battery life - if it doesn't improve I will turn it back in on my 30 day DOA clause. Could I live with it for my three year contract? I really don't think that it is that durable but I might be wrong. In the end - even though I don't like the OS - I will probably be forced to go with the Blackberry.

I hope the battery thing resolves.

I recommend caution when purchasing this phone and be aware of these early problems.

Update:
My first phone experienced software issues that resulted in daily restarts after about six months. The weather would never update without something going wrong. The software issues were acknowledged by my providers Tech Support. (I thought updates would be pushed to me - nope) It was replaced with a refurbished unit.

On the first refurb unit bottom panel buttons went n/s after 3 months. No drop. No hard use. Just didn't work one day. However the software issues that plagued my first unit seemed to be resolved. Got another refurb unit (my second).

The second refurb had again serious software issues and increased restarts of two to three a day. Again software issues acknowledged by provider. Again no fix.

Finally I spoke with my provider and it agreed to give me a credit toward any of the smartphones in their line. I chose the Palm Pro. See review.

In light of my HTC experience over the course of a year I really can't recommend this phone. And I would have serious reservation about any of its other products.

People complaining about the phone being slow should install the latest ROM (or one from xda developers). It will also improve battery life.

If you want a regular phone, just get a nokia and get out of here... If you want a PDA that is also a phone, get the diamond and have some fun! This is a device for those freaks like me who like to install lots os third-party apps and mess around with the system.

Battery life, btw, is ok to me, just don't leave wifi, 3g, and etc on all the time (anyway, what's the point of having them on if you are not using??). Or just get an extended battery and your problems are solved (There is one very nice from HTC - 1350mAh, but cost around $70 - others exist, even with 2200 mAh, but they ruin phone appearance!!).

Sorry for the bad english...

A splendid phone with a plethora of features that put many other devices to shame.

Pros:
- HTC have done a good job customizing the default Windows Mobile experience. The device is thumb friendly almost 95% of the time.
- VGA screen is really beautiful.
- GPS reception is great. I managed to get a fix indoors sometimes.
- Very fast and responsive (mine shipped with rom version 1.93, however, some people reported horrible performance using earlier roms).
- Performs well as a music/video player. Sound quality in the included earphones is nothing spectacular. However, bluetooth stereo audio performance is wonderful.
- A whole array of sensors make using the phone very easy (accelerometer automatically rotates the screen in certain applications, touch sensitive front panel helps in camera, browser and some other applications; some 3rd party applications required to fully unleash the potential)

Cons:
- Questionable battery life. The 900 mAh battery sometimes borders on the unusable. Adjusting to the battery drain/recharge cycle required.
- Fingerprint magnet. Sometime I imagine government authorities using it to take criminals' fingerprints. :)
- Gets fairly hot under stress (try using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS simultaneously).
- Mine shipped without the case/pouch. I now live in constant fear of putting the device in my pocket.

All-in-all it's a good phone, well worth its price. However, if you're looking to consolidate your other devices (phone, music player, GPS navigator, etc.) into this one device, then consider investing in a larger capacity battery, carry around an extra battery, or try a car-kit for charging when necessary. Using all the features available in the phone will leave you scrambling for a power outlet very quickly.

I bought this phone because I do not want to fall into the craze of iPhone and paid almost $700.00 for it but it was a disappointment. First it was supposed to be a touch phone but sometimes 4 out 10, it does not work with the touch. You will need to do the touching over and over again before it responds. Sometimes it just start performing various functions on its own without control, like dialing on its own and choosing any of your contact number without you doing the calling. Secondly the battery saving mode does not make sense. If you have a voicemail and needed to respond by choosing options like "for English please press 1". The battery saving mode sometimes refuses to light and you may miss out the opportunity at that time to receive or answers the call. Thirdly, I have never seen a phone that has the shortest battery usage as this phone. If you are to use all the functions - Internet, Bluetooth etc, expect to have a charger within 2 hours or the phone will be dead. I had to buy like 2 batteries as "stand-by". Lastly, the Internet most of the time just "hang" and you may need to remove the battery and start all over again. Moreover, the Internet is the slowest I ever saw in any phone. I am planning on returning the phone and getting another type of phone. So disappointing

I really enjoy the features that this phone has and that I don't have to carry a phone and a PDA (like I used to) to get more connectivity than I used to. I didn't get along with my phone for the first 2 weeks but now I understand it alot more and am able to get what I want off of it quickly. The battery life is a major problem but one of the other reviews mentioned getting a larger battery. I got this phone from sprint for about $250 after all the rebates and deals so I won't have a problem spending $70 for a better battery.

PROS:
-Looks awesome
-Great Features (calendar, tasks, windows media/word/excel/ppt, opera browser, GPS)
-Navigating around the different features is cool (but has a learning curve to it)
-Lots of settings to personalize the device to your liking
-Works with Rhapsody so you can download unlimited music to your device (legally with subscription)
-Internet is lightening fast when even not on WI-FI (which is broadband capable)
-Camera looks great and works well (again with a small learning curve)
-Sound quality is ok (some cracks and pops sometimes)

CONS:
-Battery life short (I have to make sure I give it a mid-day charge
-Some of calls to the device don't go through (I was standing right next to the guy who was calling me and his phone was ringing) (not sure what to think of this one because my last phone did that also just not as frequently)
-The learning curve

OVERALL:
You are wondering, "should I buy this phone?" I can only answer with another question...how logical are you at troubleshooting problems? If you expect the phone to work out of the box, look for another phone but if you think you can do battle with some rather frustrating problems and win...this is the phone to get. Most of what I learned about the phone came from the problems that I had because it is a very technical program. As a phone, it functions well (with a few calls that just don't through but that could also be a result of a bad signal) and plays well with your contact list (which is also very detailed and cool). As a PDA, it functions just as I would expect. As a device, it behaves just like windows device so if you can accept the fact that it needs to be restarted for about 90% of the problems that arise you will never regret purchasing it.

I've heard about this handset for months before I really went for it. Two weeks ago I bought it from Telus with special data plan promotion (C$15 per month for unlimited emails and web browsing). After 7 days I returned it to the vendor and replaced with a Blackberry Curve.

Telus' Diamond Touch is a sister model of the "real" Diamond. It was called "Victor" in Asia. Most of the hardware and softwares are the same but "Victor" doesn't have a diamond back, which is the reason why it is called Diamond.

I've been a Blackberry user for two years. I also own an Apple iPod Touch (1st generation) for a year. They are good comparison to the Diamond.

After receiving this tiny sexy Diamond Touch, I couldn't stop playing with it for the whole night. However, the touch screen was far from good as the iPod Touch, which is identical to my colleague's iPhone. The touch screen of Diamond was annoying to control. The web browser virtually didn't work. I touched the links of webpage but it couldn't go through, no matter I used my finger tip or the stylus. I read the user manuel to find out if I've done anything wrong. No, it just doesn't work. iPod Touch is much better in web browsing experience.

The email function is okay, and of course far as good as the Blackberry. The Contact and Calendar are also hard to use. I should blame Windows Mobile for it, not HTC.

Eventually, I hit the trigger to return this handset. It's input stuck on number mode. I couldn't make it back to ABC mode, until doing a hard reset and gave up all my data.

I have gotten the Blackberry Curve for 4 days and very happy with it. If you want a fancy toy with powerful multimedia and web browing, get the iphone. If you use your handset a lot to talk and receive/reply emails, get a Blackberry.

I have owned this device for one week and I finally put it on ebay. This is the most beautiful phone I have ever seen, but it is also the slowest one. The touchflow interface is not very reactive, it is not uncommon to have to wait for the scrolling to happen; sometimes the slow speed causes unwanted selections to be made.
Loading any decent size application takes forever (e.g., flexmail).
I had serious problems connecting to the local EDGE network (T-mobile) - it would just hang forever (my T-mobile dash zips on EDGE in comparison).
A very nicely designed device but with serious problems.

I got this phone for Christmas and it's exactly what I wanted. A small cool looking phone that has a touchscreen, syncs with Outlook and has a fast processor.

Overall this phone has been fantastic and does everything I need. It is seamless with Outlook and it's certainly easy to see everything on screen. It's a bright screen with clear photos, text and wonderful features. The interface is very cool looking (sad but cool was a plus for me) and it's so tiny that you can keep it in your pocket without knowing it's there. It's also surprisingly sturdy as I've dropped it several times and it is working just fine.

The downside for me is that the Touchflo interface while being very cool doesn't really seem to have much customization. It's not as responsive an overlay as I'd hoped. Someone else wrote that you should tweak it etc. which I have done and the Touchflo setup just feels slow and clunky regardless of my settings. I have changed settings with very little noticeable difference. The battery is indeed small and you don't want to leave Wifi on or it'll drain faster than you could imagine. I don't care to get a battery that adds bulk...the size was a selling point to me.

With all of that I still love my Touch Diamond and would love longer battery life but couldn't go back to my old phone because the screen on this is beautiful. Images are crystal clear and it is just a fun cool phone that is seamless with outlook. I have problems with my meetings going off an hour even though Outlook has it right.. we don't change times in Arizona but I had to set it to California time and will have to change settings when the time changes again. That's clearly a flaw and I spent lots of time trying to fix it, finally being told by HTC that I could just set it to California time. It's a smartphone.. I shouldn't have to do that, but I did. Windows Mobile6 is the only true weakpoint of this phone and there isn't another option.

This phone does what it is supposed to do and I can't blame it for WinMob6. It's a real stunning winner of a phone and for the few issues it's still a winner for me. I don't have any desire to get an iPhone and this little gem is the best WinMob Smartphone I've had my hands on.

Look past the few small issues and this phone will truly shine.