Diamond in hand

sovalon · #1 (**permalink**) 07-11-2008, 12:06 AM

I received the HTC Diamond a few days ago. Visually, the phone is amazing. There are faults though. Below I will list pros and cons with the phone.

Pros:
Screen 640x480 resolution
TouchFlo 3D interface
Screen rotation for pics and web surfing
Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS
3G
Call quailty
Call volume

Cons:
Battery Life - haven't had a full day of a charge yet
Camera - taking a picture on the highest settings takes about 3 seconds and all pics I have taken have had a yellow tint and blurry
Video and Music quailty through speakerphone - very tinny sound comes from the speaker always
Fingerprints
Screen easily scratches
Storage card isn't an option

All in all, my experience has been a decent one. I personally was expecting more from this phone. Especially out of the camera and speaker volume for music and video sound. The call quality was a lot better than I have heard about from pre-release versions. I have not had a lot of time to play with it yet but I will update once I do more testing. It also came loaded with TomTom Navigator 7. It takes around 2-3 minutes to fix a GPS signal everytime I use it. Kind of weird.

gorelow · #2 (**permalink**) 07-11-2008, 12:08 AM

does it have a carrier yet?

sovalon · #3 (**permalink**) 07-11-2008, 10:21 AM

No, the one that I have is strictly an HTC branded phone. From what I read, the CDMA networks will get it first, namely Verizon, then Sprint, then GSM carriers.

Zyphlin · #4 (**permalink**) 07-17-2008, 12:44 PM

Easily scratchable screen is badddd for a touch screen phone. My HTC Touch has held up pretty well there

**weedahoe** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-20-2008, 07:48 PM

But if you can get an unlocked version on GSM then you could essentially use it now on a GSM carrier. I have been on the phone wit an CSR in the presidential executive offce asking about then they are going to drop the Diamond for VZW and they act (or maybe really dont know) when it is going to be released. Actually she knew nothing of a Diamond at all as a device. So who knows?

vxspiritxv · #6 (**permalink**) 07-20-2008, 11:34 PM

Does the phone come with the Modem Link app? (Internet sharing app doesn't work with cisco vpn software, or at least I have yet to get it to work) Done any bandwidth benchmarks?

**jethro_static** · #7 (**permalink**) 07-20-2008, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by weedahoe

But if you can get an unlocked version on GSM then you could essentially use it now on a GSM carrier. I have been on the phone wit an CSR in the presidential executive offce asking about then they are going to drop the Diamond for VZW and they act (or maybe really dont know) when it is going to be released. Actually she knew nothing of a Diamond at all as a device. So who knows?

Unlocked GSM version will not work with any carrieres in the U.S. out of the box. The 850mhz network is disabled.U have to hack it because it does not support the 850mhz that U.S. carriers has. But there is a catch, when U do the hack. It will not support 3G. They discover this by accident. U can go to XDA for more info.

**weedahoe** · #8 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 09:04 AM

Im reading about it over on XDA now because I bought an unlocked Diamond last night. I dont use or care for 3G anyway (WiFi only baby) so thats a fine trade off for me anyway. However, I think I would rather have the Touch Pro (Raphael) due to the bigger ROM and physical keyboard.

badchad · #9 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 09:10 AM

Damn. I would have sold you mine.

If anyone wants one, I have (what I think is) a Hong Kong Diamond. I just haven't gotten to posting in the bargain section.

**jethro_static** · #10 (**permalink**) 07-21-2008, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badchad

Damn. I would have sold you mine.

If anyone wants one, I have (what I think is) a Hong Kong Diamond. I just haven't gotten to posting in the bargain section.

Is that the clone or genuine diamond? The clone looks exactly the same but hardware is not (obviously). And the clone does not run WM.