My Beef with the Diamond, and What I like about it.

[cbutters]

I have owned Several pocketpcs,
Starting with the BE-300 back in 2001-2002, (I was the first person to hack epods on to the device)
I then used an Axim X30,
briefly had an X50 (VGA)
Then I got the PPC-6700
Upgraded to Mogul (PPC-6800)
and now I finally have the Diamond, it arrived last night.

I like the diamond a lot a lot, the touchflo really brings the scattered windows mobile interface together very well, the form factor and vga screen are things I have been waiting for, for a long time.
Coming from a mogul, the diamond's extra program memory is awesome, and I am not really missing the slide out keyboard (since I dont text much)

Here is my biggest beef with the Diamond.
I do like the appearance and form factor of the "Full QWERTY" Keyboard, it makes it easy to type (iphone style). However, it is making me want to strangle whoever developed it.
First of all... It has numbers and symbols that can be held down to press numbers instead of letters, or you can hit the '.,123' button and switch to a symbol pad, but why do the characters change locations on the keypad? If you want to hit the '@' symbol, you hold 'S', but if you switch to the character screen, you would hit the button where 'B' used to be. Why does it change it's scheme and move the characters after you get used to where they are on the first screen.

But the biggest flaw of all with this keyboard... Where is the flipping tab button? I mean, I know I can just go back to the regular keyboard, but it isnt as large and easy to press. Maybe I am missing something, but the 'Full QWERTY' keyboard has no way to enter a tab. It has 9 pages of obscure characters, but no tab button....... seriously.... are you serious.

(start sarcasm)Yes HTC, good call, it is much more useful to type the character "Ω" than it is to be able to tab down to the next field.(end sarcasm)

So now when I am entering in a contacts information, or user name/password on a website, I cant just hit tab to go to the next field, I have to close out of the keyboard (which is usually blocking the next field) then click the field, and wait for the keypad to be popping up and down while you are doing this. Why, why, why isn't there a tab button.

Anyways, other than that, and maybe the battery life (haven't had it long enough to have a good feel of it yet) I really like this device.

[rainfreak]

Instead of use of the non-existent Tab button, just hit down on the D-pad.

[bridic]

If the keyboard is your biggest complaint, then you have a great phone.

Take a look at TouchPal from CooTek.

[cbutters]

Originally Posted by rainfreak

Instead of use of the non-existent Tab button, just hit down on the D-pad.

Thanks for the tip! This is useful when making contacts, and a few other applications, however on webpages and other programs it doesn't do the trick. But this will definitely help me out a lot. Thanks sent.

[cbutters]

Originally Posted by bridic

If the keyboard is your biggest complaint, then you have a great phone.

Agreed.

[ajm144k]

Originally Posted by bridic

If the keyboard is your biggest complaint, then you have a great phone.

Take a look at TouchPal from CooTek.

agreed. i have a 6800 and i still find myself using touchpal equally as much as the hardware keyboard. has a little learning curve, but to me its worth it (my hardware keyboard is buggy).

[brodee]

Originally Posted by cbutters

Thanks for the tip! This is useful when making contacts, and a few other applications, however on webpages and other programs it doesn't do the trick. But this will definitely help me out a lot. Thanks sent.

I don't have a Diamond yet, still using the touch, but the keyboard is basically the same. I really like the onscreen keyboard and would challenge anyone with a Mogul to keep up with me. The combination of the keyboard and d-pad can be very fast once you get used to them. As for the tab, I can move through forms all over with the d-pad, wonder what is different with the Diamond?