New Touch Diamond Compete With 3G iPhone

Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under iPhone General, iPhone Reviews

High Tech Computer introduced the HTC Touch Diamond, a smartphone with the support of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro. The main advantage of it is a touch screen designed for one-handed use.

The new phone device is the next generation of HTC’s Touch smartphone, which boasts over 3 million units sold in 10 months since its debut. The Touch Diamond features advanced third generation mobile technology 3G, and so becomes the main rival to Apple’s future release of 3G.

Last year HTC had its first Touch handset a month before the iPhone’s debut. The story repeats. The Touch Diamond will be retailing in Europe from June, followed by Middle East and Asia. North and South America will be hit in the second half of the year. And within the next few months we expect the launch of 3G Apple iPhone.

The Touch Diamond works on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) networks with data rates up to 7.2Mb/second and the use of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) due to a Qualcomm chipset.

Peter Chou, HTC CEO, is so excited about the future release that he predicts an even bigger selling results than the original Touch. He calls it “the biggest product of my life”. Their intensions to compete with iPhone are serious. HTC focuses on advancing touch screen technology on the 2.8-inch display and 640 pixel by 480 pixel. TouchFlo software will give a 3D effect to screen images. Users can use touch screen to access photos, messages, -e-mails or music and more.

HTC also improved the Web browser, which is based on an engine from Opera Software, designed specifically for HTC. The browser’s dimensions fit the screen, so users can zoom and pan sites with one hand. If you turn the device someway, the view automatically rotates as well.

The HTC’s Touch Diamond has customized apps for YouTube videos watching and Google Maps using. The device has a GPS receiver as well. Video-calling is possible with the 3.2-megapixel auto-focus cam. Although screen size is big enough, Touch Diamond is quite small, just 102 mm by 51mm by 11.33 mm.

The handset also features Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g for wireless data transfer and Internet access. The battery is 4 hours long.

But the HTC’s Touch Diamond has only 4Gb of flash memory, while the iPhone has 8Gb or 16Gb.