HTC Touch Diamond 2

HTC Touch Diamond2 is next on our roll call of MWC debuts but this time it's less about the brand spanking novelty and more about balanced and sensible upgrades. People tend to have second thoughts about sequels but this one here is signed by HTC and may as well be the director's cut of a blockbuster.

It is only recently that Windows Mobile fans are receiving the treatment they deserve after years of undeserved exile. The WinMo devices are no longer stigmatized as ugly bricks with awkward handling and HTC are one of the main agents of this change. The HTC Touch Diamond was one of the most complete devices and its stand-out styling earned it well deserved popularity.

Key features: 3.2" 65K-color WVGA display Latest TouchFLO 3D Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz CPU and 288 MB RAM Dedicated graphics chip (64MB RAM reserved for graphics) Quad-band GSM support 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver Stereo FM radio with RDS 5 MP auto focus camera with excellent image quality microSD card slot Touch-sensitive zoom bar MS Office Mobile document editor Opera 9.5 web browser Standard miniUSB slot and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP Teeter game Great audio quality YouTube client Excellent video playback

While the original Diamond had only the Samsung i900 Omnia to tackle, the HTC Touch Diamond2 faces a tougher battle. With a few new arrivals on the touchscreen market (Symbian S60, Android and BlackBerry OS have all jumped in) the Diamond2 will need spotless performance to match its predecessor's success.

Design and construction In terms of design, the Diamond2 is really hard to call a sequel. So much has changed from the original diamond. The front panel controls have been reduced in size to accommodate the larger screen, while the gem patterns at the back were also removed.

Those changes certainly have a positive impact on usability as the uneven back of the original Touch Diamond made it wobble on a flat surface. However this exact styling of the rear was what gave the original Diamond some of its character (and its name?). The consensus on our team is that the Diamond2 plain back isn't as attractive and looks a lot simpler.

Unfortunately the panels of the HTC Touch Diamond2 are just as easily ruined by fingerprints as its predecessor's. It takes so little for the handset to get all greasy and miserably looking.

The good news is HTC have released an alternative back panel for the Diamond2 that is supposedly more smudge-resistant. Unfortunately one doesn't come in the retail package, but is only available as an additional accessory at about 35 US dollars.

The front panel is dominated by the 3.2" screen of the exciting WVGA resolution. Riding on the immense pixel-to-inch ratio, the Diamond2 offers remarkable picture quality.

The Diamond2 has 22% more screen area than the first Diamond but it has 25% more pixels so the sharp and vibrant picture is even better than the original.

It seems PocketPCs are no longer a synonym for poor display and that is most certainly good news. Instead, they are now comparable to some of the excellent screens on the market. The usual 65K-color dispute is quite ungrounded considering the great final result.

Probably the worst part of the HTC Diamond2 display is sunlight legibility. Customary for a PocketPC, it hardly is the best device to work with in the bright sun. It's about the same as its predecessor which barely broke the average mark.

We do hope the problem of the original Diamond getting its display easily scratched is sorted. The HTC Touch Diamond screen used to get starched by its own stylus and that is nothing short of ridiculous.

Above the display we find the earpiece, the ambient light sensor and the secondary video-call camera plus the LED status light.

Then at the bottom, we find four hardware keys and the touch-sensitive zoom bar. The regular keys are the same as on the original Diamond only this time they are a whole lot smaller, and definitely look better.

The back key is a nice addition to recent HTC devices getting you one screen back wherever you are in the Diamond interface. Simple though it might sound it's a definite boost to user-friendliness.

The zoom bar has basically the same functionality as the touch-sensitive overlay of the original Diamond's scroll wheell. It can be used on images, web pages, messages, and doubles as a music control. We are delighted with the response of the zoom bar, which works like a charm in the image gallery.

On the top of the Diamond there is only the power key, which is also used for toggling the standby mode.

The right side of the handset features the loudspeaker grill and no controls whatsoever. A dedicated shutter key would've been welcome. Instead, the HTC R&D team chose to go with the on-screen virtual shutter key that took quite some criticism on the Apple iPhone - go figure!

On the left side of the Diamond2 we find the volume rocker, which is long enough but a bit to slim for our taste. Still it renders no obstacles to usability.

The bottom features the miniUSB port for connecting the data cable, charger and the headphones. The other thing to note here is the stylus compartment, which unfortunately isn't magnetic this time.

The stylus of the Diamond2 however is still active so it will wake the phone up automatically when pulled out. And if you do so during a call it will launch the Notes applications, so you can quickly put down a phone number for example.

The backside of the Diamond2, as we mentioned, is a lot plainer than the original Diamond. Considering that WinMo-fans are mostly into functionality, sacrificing some of the appeal in favor of practicality may be considered a good trade.

The even surface at least eliminates the risk of getting prematurely worn out as was the case with the first Diamond. The edges that stuck out were way more vulnerable than the rest of the rear getting worn and battered quickly, which had a devastating effect on the looks of the handset.

The only thing to see at the back of the Diamond2 is the 5 megapixel camera lens. There is no flash whatsoever, so low-light shooting with this handset is pretty much out of the question.

Opening the battery cover reveals the upgraded 1100 mAh Li-ion battery that powers the HTC Touch Diamond2. 200 mAh more capacity has are supposed to cover the larger and higher-res screen but as one might imagine it hardly does wonders.

It managed about 15 minutes of telephony, an hour of using the other phones features plus three days on standby, which is passable. When put under heavy pressure it can last for a day tops, but considering how things go with recent phones, that's perhaps OK.

We are wondering if HTC will release an extended battery pack for the Diamond2, like they did for the original featuring the far more reasonable 1350 mAh. Some users were gladly accepting the added thickness and weight back then and the case might not be too different here.

The other thing of interest under the hood is the microSD card slot, which is at the right hand side of the handset next to the stylus. While you will need to remove the cover every time you change the card, the hot-swap support is all there.

At least at first sight the build quality of the HTC Touch Diamond2 is better than that of the original Diamond. But then, beating the first Diamond in terms of sturdiness is no great feat. We do hope however that all the wear and tear issues we've seen on the front panel are now solved and the Diamond2 adopters will be able to enjoy its looks for a long time.

Upgraded TouchFLO 3D - it gets better and better If you are fan of Windows Mobile devices, you'll certainly be familiar with the HTC's TouchFLO interface. There are some slightly different implementations of it in all current HTC WinMo smartphones, but in essence it's the same.

The original HTC Touch Diamond was first to offer the TouchFLO 3D. It was fluid and modern. Of course the resistive screen was a slight drawback, but that hasn't prevented the phone from selling very well.

The absence of a capacitive touchscreen on the HTC Touch Diamond2 is barely noticeable. The new TouchFLO is so touch-optimized that even the slightest presses are detected and respond appropriately. Of course, when you eventually hit the underlying Windows Mobile, you'll meet the same distinctly touch-unfriendly interface. Only this time, you'll have to dig deeper

The TouchFLO 3D Home screen offers a choice of full screen tabs, decked out with some impressive graphics. You can move through the tabs with a single finger sweep, or by scrolling the tab thumbnails at the bottom of the screen until you hit the one you need. It's the familiar list from before but with a few new additions and includes the home screen (with a large clock), favorite contacts, text messages, email, Internet, calendar, stock, photos and video, music, weather, and settings.

Now, let's have a closer look at those tabs. A nice thing is that each tab comes with its own set of context keys, but the downside is that those are not customizable to suit your needs. With the TouchFLO 3D at hand however, you rarely have to resort to using the Windows built-in interface.

Other than showing the clock, the Home tab gives you access to the HTC Call log, the revamped calendar, world clock and alarm. The context keys give you access to the dialpad and the camera.

Later on in the review, we'll take a look at the call log and the new calendar.

The second TouchFLO tab is called People and it's also an old one. There you can set favorite contacts with an assigned image or, in the absence of that, a generic one provided by the software.

Scrolling between them is done with a finger sweep and is more fluid than ever. As it was on the original Diamond, a tap on the photo will give you the contact's details, while a tap on the number below the image will automatically dial it.

There is a thumbnail bar on the right side where you can scroll faster between your favorite contacts. The context keys give you access to an upgraded contact list with a new eye-catching interface or several settings for managing favorite contacts, such as removing or changing picture.

The Messages tab shows your latest SMS/MMS, and a single finger sweep will take you to your next message. A small shortcut in the top right corner will automatically start a new SMS/MMS with the default Windows message editor. The context keys will give you access to the Windows Mobile SMS/MMS inbox.

The Email tab shows your emails as a rather pleasing letter poking out of an envelope and, again, you can flip through them one by one.

The number of unread emails appears on the right and there is a dedicated shortcut to start a new email. Under it you can find other shortcuts for previously configured email boxes.

The context keys give you access to the Windows Mobile Email inbox, as well as several commands such as Send/Receive or Email Account management.

The Internet tab launches the Opera 9.5 web browser or the slick preinstalled YouTube video client. You can also scroll your bookmarks and launch a webpage directly from there.

The first context key displays all of your bookmarks but this time within the browser, while the second one gives you access to some data settings. It would have been nice if in this tab we could find a shortcut to the preinstalled RSS reader and streaming media player, but HTC didn't seem to hear this request back in our Diamond review.

Similarly, there's no option for changing the default Opera browser. In the previous Diamond we complained that there was no way to type a URL directly on the Home screen and open it in the browser. It seems that HTC took some of that on board and have put in a quick search bar which opens Google when you type something. This is definitely some progress, but it would have been much nicer to have a quick address bar. Perhaps next time HTC will take these comments to heart and implement a full address bar on the home screen.

The next tab is a new one and takes you to the completely updated calendar. It's nicely touch-optimized and packed with new functionality. You can change the month by sweeping your finger up or down, while selecting a particular day will open the appointment view.

If your choice is a day from the next five upcoming days then you'll also get the weather forecast for it (of course that's available only if you set and updated the weather in the Weather tab).

The two context keys allow quick access to today's appointment view and adding a new task.

The Stock tab is a well known tab from the HTC Touch HD. It allows you to add stocks and track their changes. There is only one context button and it's for adding/editing/removing stocks.

The Photos and Video tab is the same as before. It gives you access to your images and video files, which you can scroll with finger sweeps. Two additional shortcuts allow you to start the camera or camcorder directly from here. The context keys give you access to the Album application, which is used for viewing all your images and video.

The Music tab has no changes too. It displays albums with their covers and you can flip through them much like you would on the iPhone with its famous Cover Flow. The context keys let you access the music player options and the music player library where you can sort your music based on other filters besides album.

The Weather tab still amazes with its beautiful graphics. You can check the weather in up to 7 locations and you can flip through them with a finger sweep. You can also get a 5-day forecast for these locations via the first context key. The second context key allows you to manage the locations for which weather data will be retrieved.

The next tab is Settings and it lets you control various system options and replaces the old and confusing Windows Mobile Settings page. There are some new additions too, including customizing tabs, contact card, mail setup and finally, accelerometer options and calibration.

The two context buttons give you further settings - that is to say those innumerable confusing WinMo options - and the Advanced page lets you select wireless or Bluetooth devices.

First of all, the Settings tab allows you to set the ringing profile, volume level and ringtone all from one central place, which is really handy. Even pressing the volume rocker brings up a fancy custom-made fullscreen slider instead of the usual WinMo mini-sliders.

HTC have replaced the System status screen too. When you touch the icons on the top of the Home screen, you'll bring up the notifications area where you can check missed events, operator messages, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections and more. This idea is most probably borrowed from the Android notifications, which do the same.

The new way to start things - revamped Start menu The first time we pressed the Start button, we thought we'd done something wrong because it opened something similar to the old customizable application launcher. But it turns out we weren't wrong at all. Forget the old not particularly user-friendly menu; instead you now get a slightly upgraded app launcher with more icons, some of which are configured by default.

Windows Mobile 6.1 lurks behind the TouchFLO interface Once you get past the Home screen with all the fancy finger sweeps and animations, you are still left with the rather clunky and touch-unfriendly Microsoft OS. We are not against Windows Mobile by any means; however, having to poke around your device with a little stylus is so 1990s.

HTC, however, have made some efforts to tweak the core Windows usability too. Some of the most commonly used system settings, contacts management, and the messaging department have all benefited, likewise image and web browsing.

HTC may have left in some of the old WinMo layout, but they did at least do something about the context menus. They are completely redesigned and you'll never have to meet the old ones. They are now with bigger sections and fonts, rounded edges, pretty backgrounds and most important - touch-optimized.

The new contact manager is a winner Contact management is usually considered one of the strongest points of Windows Mobile. You have unlimited contacts list, unlimited info fields for each contact and brilliant synchronization options. Shame it was so damn ugly.

But that's no more. HTC have added a new interface here which uses a small thumb icon for a person's picture, set against a gray background with nice font. You can pick a letter of the alphabet by using the letter column placed on the right.

Excellent call management as usual Making calls is always a priority for any cell phone - that still holds true for smartphones such as the HTC Touch Diamond2.

The Phone application offers Smart dialing, so you hardly ever need to go to the Contacts list in order to dial a number.

The built-in accelerometer gives the HTC Touch Diamond2 a familiar cool feature: you can mute the ringer by simply turning the phone face down on the table. If you turn the handset back up, the ringing won't resume by itself.

Don't worry, it's unlikely your calls will get muted accidentally in your pocket - the feature is set up in such a way that it's more likely to not engage at all rather than engage for no particular reason.

One point of note though is that if the Diamond2 is already face down when a call comes in, the feature won't be available.

The HTC Touch Diamond2 boasts two other user-friendly features that make call management even better. First of all, pulling out the active stylus during a call will automatically turn the display on and launch the Notes application. It even puts down the call details (the caller's name and the time of call) on the note for you.

And secondly, the HTC Diamond2 comes with a feature that's available on many feature phones - reject call with SMS. When you reject a call, the handset automatically sends the rejected caller a preset text message.

We've never found that particularly useful since you may have a dozen different reasons for rejecting a call and there's hardly a universal message text that can cater for them all.

Anyway, with the HTC Touch Diamond2, the SMS is not sent automatically. Instead you are prompted to review and possibly edit the template before dispatch.

Great messaging The HTC Touch Diamond2 supports SMS, MMS and email. SMS and MMS share an inbox and a message editor and thanks to TouchFLO, you can enjoy thumb scrolling in the inboxes and through longer messages.

The Message tab offers a great interface for managing messages. With the nice interface and touch-optimization it's highly unlikely you will ever switch back to the standard Windows SMS inbox.

Threaded SMS is also available on the Touch Diamond2, just as it is across Windows 6.1.

The email inbox is also available as a homescreen tab with an eye-catching view. The email editor will hold no surprises for experienced WinMo users as it has not changed at all.

Setting up your email is easy as it is on most of the latest mid or high range phones. You type your email and password and all the other fiddly options are configured automatically.

Perhaps now is a good time to mention input options on the Touch Diamond2. HTC have equipped the device with a set of home-grown thumbable virtual keyboards. It's a commendable feature since the default Windows Mobile keyboards are fit for stylus use only.

The first keyboard is a regular 9-key multi-tap keypad, the second one is a brand new full QWERTY and the third one is a regular WinMo not-so handy QWERTY optimized for use with a stylus.

The new QWERTY differs from the previous one in the button architecture and a five-row design that gives you all four navigation arrows in the final row. In landscape mode you get the typical three-row full QWERTY with nav-keys on the right.

In applications where screen auto-rotation is enabled, you also get larger landscape versions of those keyboards. The HTC Touch Diamond2 can rotate its screen almost anywhere and use the new and improved landscape QWERTY keyboard. It seems that HTC have taken user feedback on board.

Multimedia management The HTC Touch Diamond2 offers a small amount of storage - about 300MB. This is barely sufficient and you'll definitely find yourself needing a higher-capacity microSD card.

That's an excellent image gallery The Touch Diamond2 offers a nice thumbnail browser straight from the Photos and Videos tab on the Home screen. There's another thumbnail browser in the Album app available from the context menu on the Home screen or from the Programs menu.

The image is opened automatically in landscape mode and there is no option to rotate it to portrait view. Still that's not a bad thing because it means the photos you take with the camera are always properly displayed. Once the image is opened, you can zoom in or out using the new touch-zoom bar or continue to the previous/next by sweeping a finger on the current one.

The old circular gesture is also available, but in most cases doesn't work properly or completely and we think it found its place in the final software by accident. Anyway, if you try hard enough you might manage to make it zoom that way, but we think it's a feature that should be removed in any future firmware updates.

It's got to be said that the Touch Diamond2 has a certain advantage over competing devices when it comes to image browsing since this is one of the applications where WVGA really makes a difference - the images look stunning on the high resolution screen.

And also zooming in and out is extra fast.

iPod-style music player is also onboard Just like the previous Diamond, the Touch Diamond2 has a good music player that makes excellent use of Album art. The music player is accessible straight from the TouchFLO home screen with a cool Apple-like Cover Flow animation for you to pick an album from.

Top notch audio quality The audio quality of the HTC Touch Diamond2 has improved greatly over its predecessor. It now sports a much better frequency response, which keeps within the +-1db level throughout the audible range.

The noise level, dynamic range and stereo crosstalk readings haven't changed too much but this is only because they were pretty good on the original Diamond already.

The total harmonic and intermodulation distortion readings are also improved although we have to admit that they have still remained only average.

The FM radio does the job perfectly The Diamond2 built-in FM radio naturally requires the headset to be plugged-in. As we already told you however, you would be better off using a third-party headset with some sort of 3.5mm audio adapter as the bundled ones are not well suited for listening to music.

Nevertheless, the Touch Diamond2 FM radio has an excellent interface much like the rest of the multimedia players on board and offers memory for some 20 radio stations.

Unlimited video options The Diamond2 comes with the standard - and sadly underperforming - Windows Media Player. It only manages mp4 and 3gp and for DivX/XviD support you will need a third party application.

The Windows Media player doesn't do too well in the music playing department either since the interface is still stylus-oriented. Tracks and videos are handled much like in the desktop version.

The HTC Touch Diamond2 has a nice independent video player but it only supports the video/audio codecs available to Windows Mobile in the first place. To enjoy a wider range of video options on the Diamond (DiVX or XViD for example), you will probably need to purchase a dedicated video player with additional codec support.

The HTC Diamond2 is pretty good at full-screen video playback - we played an XviD-encoded DVD rip for PC playback and, luckily, there were no skipped frames. But we can't say the same thing for the DivX ones. Those clips at VGA resolution and 30 fps dropped nearly half the frames, while those at 24fps played just fine. It seems that the Diamond2 can't handle DivX correctly, but as XviD encoding is more popular anyway, it's not a big deal.

We tried exactly the same video samples on the previous Diamond, where the screen resolution is 30% smaller. The results were a mixed-bag - the Touch Diamond2 did 10% better at the the XviD benchmark, but another 10% worse on the DivX. As we said, DivX doesn't seem to be its favorite type of encoding.

Fact or fiction - HTC with a great camera? The HTC Touch Diamond2 has a 5 megapixel auto focus camera producing photos with a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. The camera offers an intuitive user interface and shoots in landscape mode.

It lacks a dedicated camera key AGAIN so, in order to pre-focus before you snap a picture with the Diamond, you simply touch the screen. Once focus is locked, you can take the picture by pressing the virtual capture button. OR you can just touch the virtual key, the camera focuses on the frame center and takes the shot automatically.

The Diamond camera also lacks a LED flash, but our team is not super keen on LED flashes anyway so we don't count this as a serious flaw.

Interface and features

The Diamond viewfinder is free of any overlaying controls by default but you can display those by touching the dedicated key under the "capture" button.

In terms of camera features, the HTC Touch Diamond has the usual and offers the standard self-timer, white balance presets, ISO settings (up to ISO800), color effects and a viewfinder gridline. You can shoot images with the front-facing video-call camera too and there's some nice custom resolution settings for contacts' images.

Probably the biggest letdown with the camera is the lack of geotagging, and it's beyond us why they left that out much like with the HTC Touch HD.

With the Touch Diamond2 you can shoot macro images easily without needing to change modes. However focusing in close-up is rather hard and is somewhat hit-or-miss - sometimes the Touch Diamond focuses correctly, while other times it's way off.

There is also a panorama mode that offers on-screen framing guidance. After all the individual shots for the panorama are taken, the Diamond2 stitches the images together automatically.

The downside here is that in Panorama mode each individual image is shot at roughly 480 x 480 pixels and the images are quite badly stitched together. Obviously the Panorama mode is only ok if you intend to show your images on the handset display exclusively (which is exactly 480 pixels wide) with no further zooming.

Image quality

In the past, if there was a camera on an HTC phone, the chances were that it was mediocre. There was always something - the lens, the plastic cover, the noise reduction, poor detail or unpleasant colors. But for the first time, an exception comes along - in this case it's called the HTC Touch Diamond2.

The picture quality is surprisingly good with excellent detail, natural colors and little over-sharpening. Even foliage came out well and didn't suffer any loss of detail. In fact, everything is just fine and subjectively, the camera on the Diamond2 fares even a notch above the one on the LG KM900 Arena.

Poor video recording

The Touch Diamond2 video capturing capabilities are not impressive at all - VGA recording at 15 fps. Given the video capabilities of many modern phones and bearing in mind the powerful Diamond2 CPU, we really expected more. The video quality is almost decent though the colors are dull, the detail levels seem normal, but they really should be better. The biggest problem of course is the low frame rate, and it's really not what we've come to expect in such a high-end device.

The interface of the camcorder resembles the one of the still camera. You can only adjust the white balance, the resolution, brightness and finally add some color effects.

Finally, the MPEG4 recording in VGA resolution at 15fps - the maximum that the device offers - can be changed to CIF@15fps on all three types of encoding - H.263, H.264, MPEG4. Yes, the frame rate is fixed to 15 on all types of video recording and that's a great shame.

Speed-lane connectivity When it comes to connectivity the HTC Diamond2 has it all - HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps, Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth + EDR. It hasn't added 802.11n but that is still in the drafting stages.

The Diamond2 has quad-band GSM support and dual-band 3G - 900 and 2100 MHz bands are supported (that is Europe and the like). You can check out our Worldwide Network Bands distribution database.

USB 2.0 is supported as well through a miniUSB adaptor. Actually it's extUSB, but miniUSB cables fit just fine, and the port also serves audio input and output. When connected to a computer, the Diamond2 prompts you to select among ActiveSync, Mass Storage or Modem modes.

In Mass Storage mode, the memory card is handled as a removable drive on the computer for faster file transfers. The only downside is in this mode you have no access to the memory card from the handset itself - the card is simply invisible to the file manager.

We always say that a card slot is often the fastest way to transfer huge amounts of data to and from your handset. Here's how the Diamond2 stacks up against the first Diamond and the Touch HD in terms of USB data transfers.

The handset was connected to a Windows XP computer through the USB cable in Mass Storage mode.

It managed to outperform the first Diamond but the HD's PC to handset speed was unreachable. The Diamond2 gave a well-balanced performance overall.

HTC Diamond2 copy/paste performance:

PC to handset -> 4.0 MB/s Handset to PC -> 6.5 MB/s HTC Touch HD copy/paste performance:

PC to handset -> 10.0 MB/s Handset to PC -> 1.4 MB/s HTC Touch Diamond copy/paste performance:

PC to handset -> 2 MB/s Handset to PC -> 5.9 MB/s With a card reader we got about 12.8 MB/s from the card to the computer and 9.7 MB/s the other way round. As we said - that's the fastest way to transfer stuff to the phone.

Excellent web browsing The HTC Diamond2 comes with the Opera v9.5 browser. There's IE Mobile if you really want it, but the default browser launched from the homescreen is Opera. And with good reason, since it puts IE Mobile to shame.

The Opera browser is extensively touch-optimized and draws inspiration from the iPhone's Safari. The browser has matured since its inclusion in the Touch HD and now exhibits no rendering bugs.

The browser is heavily optimized towards vertical scrolling - it zooms through complex pages without missing a beat. Panning sideways is a little slower - a checkerboard pattern appears for a moment before the content is drawn, but this lasts for no more than a second so it's no big issue.

Zooming in and out is also very fast. Here the Zoom bar can be used or you could opt for the regular double-tap zoom. Double tapping is more accurate as it zooms in to where you tapped, eliminating the need for much panning. On the other hand, the Zoom bar gives you finer control over the zoom level.

The WVGA resolution of the display helps navigation a great deal - at the minimum zoom level text is readable enough for you to find the section of the text you're interested in and double tapping takes you straight there.

In landscape mode, the minimum zoom fits most pages, while strangely in portrait mode you can zoom out even more, but then the text becomes unreadable. The orientation is changed automatically of course, thanks to the built-in accelerometer.

And a few words about the Opera 9.5 interface. By default web pages are opened fullscreen free of any overlaying controls. A tap on the bottom right corner, however, brings up the available controls. When entering a URL there's a special '.com' button on the keypad, saving a few presses.

First, you've got the address bar at the very top. At the bottom of the screen there is a row of icons that can take you back, take you to bookmarks, bring up the tab switcher (you can open up to two tabs), the home page or the browser settings.

Opera 9.5 has a handy download manager which tracks the progress of the files you're downloading.

Getting yourself up to speed is easy Windows Mobile offers several time-management features and all of them are easily syncable with Outlook. In the Diamond2 the standard interface is kept under wraps - the only times you catch a glimpse of it are when creating or viewing an appointment. The homescreen only shows the basics - time and subject.

The Calendar offers daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly views, although the TouchFLO 3D interface shows only daily and monthly views. If you want the others you'll have to do without the pretty TouchFLO skin.

When viewing tasks, you can also see weather information for that particular day if available. The TouchFLO 3D preloads the weather forecast for up to 5 days ahead of the last update.

The To-Do list allows you to add tasks and assign them priority. The Notes also come in handy, as you can either type or directly write the text down on the screen. The Voice recorder and Calculator need no explanation.

The Alarm clock has three alarm slots. Each Alarm can have its own repeat pattern. Unfortunately, due to the limited customization options in the default Alarms application, we suggest you check out some free third-party alternatives.

Document editor is readily available Among the other WM core applications is the Office Mobile package featuring support for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. With the latest version of Office Mobile, you also have the OneNote application.

Once again, the WVGA display of the Diamond2 proves superior in fitting as much of the documents contents on the screen as possible - especially in portrait mode.

Thanks to Adobe Reader LE, there is also support for viewing PDF documents. We are pleased with the performance of the Diamond2 in this area, as opening and handling PDF documents is usually rather slow on handhelds.

Apps and stuff The HTC Touch Diamond2 comes with plenty of preloaded applications - the essentials are already installed, which means you can start using it straight away. There's the regular stuff such as an RSS Reader, a YouTube application and a Streaming Media manager. The MP3 trimmer app from the previous Diamond is missing however.

As we've come to expect from HTC, their admirable Task Manager comes preinstalled. It blends in with the TouchFLO 3D interface seamlessly and is convenient for switching between open apps or stopping them (not that there's any shortage of RAM, but still).

The Task Manager is available, as always in the top right corner of the homescreen. You can also access it through the settings menu, which comes in handy since an application's close button replaces the Task Switcher button. This does hamper its task-switching ability a little and we'd have liked to see a more elegant solution to the problem.

Embedded GPS, but only Google Maps preinstalled The HTC Touch Diamond2 features a built-in GPS receiver - it's the Qualcomm gpsOne chipset, which comes along with the Qualcomm 7200A platform.

The Diamond2 supports the Assisted-GPS technology, commonly known as A-GPS. It means you can download current satellite data over Wi-Fi or the 2G/3G network for a much faster satellite lock.

The Diamond2 comes with Google Maps. With a more advanced GPS app installed, the handset can easily replace your dedicated GPS navigation unit thanks to the large screen. Given the huge pixel count, a lot more of the map gets displayed on screen at the same zoom level.

Chipset sensitivity of the HTC Touch Diamond2 seems to be on the faster side when it comes to getting an initial satellite lock. Overall, we're pretty happy with the sensitivity of the gpsOne chipset.

Tweaks & Modding And we've finally reach the real fun part of this review - at least for us, that is. PocketPCs have long been the target of custom modding, patching and tweaking. HTC for one have an especially active fan base that seem to be constantly poking and prodding to optimize the usability of their device.

So, the HTC Touch Diamond2 review would not be complete without mentioning some of the achievements on the user customization and modding scene.

Most tweaks require modifying the Windows Mobile registry. However, in case you feel anxious about messing with the system registry, you can find most of the currently available tweaks among the options of the third-party Advanced Configuration Tool (or simply the Advanced Config).

The Advanced Configuration Tool is a tweaking app, now compatible with Diamond2, just as it was with the Touch HD or the original diamond. It allows for fine-tuning a lot of options.