IntroThe Touch Diamond 2 (TD2) is one of HTC's most recent Windows Mobile (WM) "smartphones". In enthusiast circles it's also known as "Topaz" (HTC's own internal name for it) and there are variants made for the major mobile networks each with a different name and slightly different appearance. Confusing? Maybe, but it's all part of how HTC operates; you get used to it!
It's one of a family of 3 models which include the Touch Pro2 and the Touch HD, and it supersedes the original Touch Diamond, although looking nothing like it. All 3 models are quite similar internally; they have almost identical processor specs (they are similarly powerful) and have the same screen resolution, although differ in screen size, the TD2's screen being the smallest at 3.2". The HD has the biggest screen (and overall size), the Pro2 has a proper slide keyboard and is aimed more at business users.
The TD2 is the smallest, cutest, of the 3, and its size and weight makes it nicely pocketable. It feels like a phone when in use rather than a mobile computer, if you see what I mean. It's a very satisfying size. It's well made, the metal reinforced frame giving it a feeling of being strong, though the plastic back (necessary to allow signals through) sometimes creaks.
I like the shiny finish of the back, it gives some "grip", though I know from forums I frequent that some users would prefer a matt rubberised back. At least the back is flat, unlike its predecessor which apparently had a diamond faceted back, so wouldn't lay down properly. I think HTC got the message from their customer base about that!
The Screen
is one of the highlights of the TD2, and also one of its weaknesses - more on this later. The contrast and vivid colour are both excellent. Pictures and videos are a joy to look at, also helped by the stunning 480 by 800 resolution. This is a far better screen in all respects than that on the iPhone, for example, and far better also than found on most digital cameras. The only slight downside is a so-so viewing angle. I've seen better, and also much worse. Brightness is adequate (and automatic) rather than exceptional; direct sunlight can be a problem.
The superb resolution makes web browsing, for example, very pleasant, but don't expect miracles, as the huge resolution combined with small size means only users with 20/20 vision will be able to use it properly - the pixel pitch outstrips my rather poor vision! Luckily, HTC have incorporated a "zoom bar", a touch panel just beneath the screen. Just swipe your finger along it, and you can zoom in smoothly at will. It works very well, but only for applications which accommodate it, currently only the Opera web browser and HTC's photo viewer. Luckily both these apps are very good in all respects, zooming with the bar and general finger scrolling are pretty effortless. Only occasionally do you get jerkiness when the processor briefly "takes its eye of the ball". The Apple iPhone and Touch are both a bit smoother, having closely optimised software and hardware in a way non Apple products haven't, but the HTC isn't far behind.
The TD2 has a resistive touchscreen, so it's just as happy with a finger or a stylus. Sensitivity is OK and can be improved further with some unofficial tweaking. Once you're used to it, there are no issues bar the occasional hiccup when it thinks you've double tapped when you haven't, which causes zooming in Opera and the photo viewer. Another double tap restores it, but not necessarily to the same zoom level you were originally, which is annoying. It's not a big issue, but I still wish there was a way to disable the double tap zooming, especially as you have the excellent zoom bar for that purpose.
As I hinted earlier, there is a "fly in the ointment" with this otherwise superb screen. Quite a few users have reported failures, the symptoms of which are an oily film appearing under the surface and extreme lack of touch sensitivity, usually both at the same time, necessitating screen replacement. One can usually judge whether a fault reported in user forums is random, caused by user maltreatment, or a genuine component weakness. The frequency and numbers of TD2 screen failure reports unfortunately seems to indicate a weakness in the design. I would guess the screen needs a little more respect than usual; this is definitely not a phone to put unprotected in your pocket. I've been lucky so far, as I suspect have the majority of users (forums inevitably attract users with problems), but it's worth bearing in mind.
The User Interface
is HTC's own "TouchFlo 3D" (TF3D), an app which runs on top of WM6.1. HTC have been busy evolving TouchFlo for several years, and it's reached a point where it almost hides WM completely. You only see the underlying operating system when you need to change an advanced setting. Most of the time you'll be dealing with TF's clean minimal interface designed (as the name suggests) for finger use. In my opinion it's superb and works quickly and smoothly most of the time, and looks modern and minimal, you'd be proud to show it off to your friends. It has to be said, a good part of the appearance does remind one of Apple's iPhone and Touch, but there's nothing wrong with that!
WM's usual "Today" screen has been replaced with TF's "Home" screen, from where, with the aid of a semi transparent slider bar, you can access contacts, photo viewer, weather, stock prices, common settings etc etc. You rarely encounter hesitation, it's all nicely fluid. Just once in a while it'll "stick" briefly. I'm told even the iPhone / Touch do this too, so it's no sin. The price you pay for this TF3D "goodness" is a heavy chunk of RAM memory used right from the start. Luckily, the TD2's not short of memory and it's not a problem unless you like to run masses of apps at the same time.
A few users have disabled TF3D, preferring to have more RAM free, and use the standard WM interface instead. I personally don't understand this, TF is so much nicer to look at than WM, but to each their own. At least you can, if you wish, make major changes to the way a WM phone works. I am an unapologetic fan of WM. You get a hugely powerful, mature mobile operating system, and the opportunity to customise it any which way you choose, including hiding it from view almost completely. The best of both worlds. I don't think Apple or Nokia users get anywhere near this much freedom, you're stuck with what you get.
It is true, that to heavily customise WM (and indeed TF3D) you either have to install one of the many (free) customisation apps, or be competent at tweaking the WM registry yourself, and then run the possible risk of a "cock up". The worst that can happen if things go wrong is having to "hard reset" (restore to new, losing all your installed apps). Most of the time, though, things go without a hitch. I've had 3 WM phones now, and never needed to hard reset.
Web
Surfing using the installed Opera browser is great. I admit I don't tend to visit sites which require flash, like YouTube. It's disappointing that flash isn't supported as standard, although PIE (Pocket Internet Explorer), buried deep in the Start Menu, does, although it's nowhere near as nice as Opera in other respects. If you're reasonably technical, though, instructions and downloads are out there to persuade Opera to support Flash.
Opera does seem to support most common scripting, a huge improvement over previous generations of mobile browsers, so you should have no difficulty using banking or file sharing sites, for example. And, using wi-fi (or 3G if your contract allows it), you can download large files, even exceeding 100MB, which is again an improvement over previous generations. You can do most things with Opera that you can with a desktop browser, though complex page rendering is a bit hesitant at times. It never chokes completely, though! As mentioned earlier, the scroll and zoom functions work well, only occasionally getting sluggish. Only 2 tabs are possible at any one time, but a bit of ".ini" file tweaking will enable as many as you like; I find 4 a useful number.
The Camerais one of the features I use a lot. It's a huge improvement over previous generations of HTC cameras, which have always lagged behind Nokia's, for example. It is now 5Mp, and has slow but effective autofocus, which goes down to just a few cms from the lens. I've included the picture to show how discreet the camera is on the TD2 - if it weren't for the triangular metal insert, you'd hardly see it, unlike the ugly circular "wart" on the back of most camera phones (other versions from the mobile operators look slightly different). This would be great for "candids" if you're so inclined.
The lens is recessed behind the back cover of the phone. There is no protective window, just a hole in the case. This is good, as there's nothing to scratch or smear with fingerprints, yet it offers protection for the lens. The only maintenance needed is occasional blowing away of dust from under the cover.
Performance: let's get the bad out of the way first. Forget action pics, it's far to sluggish. By the time it takes the pic, the ball will be down the other end of the pitch, or the match even over come to that! And forget indoor or night shots, as there's no flash and the higher ISO sensitivity settings aren't that good (they're intermittently marred by strange horizontal interference lines, though random noise isn't actually too bad). The 640x480 VGA video facility is also not that good, being only useable in good light, and even then marred by inadequate frame rate (between 14 - 19fps at best) and very high compression giving blocky artifacts during movement and in shadow areas. You also get the CMOS "rolling shutter" effect in poorer light, a sort of fluid wobbling which is disconcerting. In good light, without much movement, videos aren't too bad.
But, and it's a big but, in good light, especially sunny conditions, I really like the camera. Colours are beautiful, being warm, subtle, and vivid, but not "overcooked". It brings to mind Pentax cameras, their colours are similar to my eye. Contrast is a bit abrupt, but OK. The biggest surprise is the lens, which is tiny, but nicely sharp both in the middle and into the corners. There's a bit of chromatic halo effect sometimes nearer the corners, but not much. It doesn't like being pointed at the sun, though, the image can wash out - shade it with your hand if possible.
Although I find the camera excellent in daylight, and even reach for it in preference to a proper pocket camera sometimes, there are idiosyncracies. This is not a camera for the point-and-shooter, it's actually quite difficult to get the best out of. The exposure is way out by default, I leave it set on "-1" compensation (whatever "-1" means, I'm not sure it's EV) and even then have to experiment with some shots. I have "sharpness" set at minimum, as I do with most cams, and the HTC camera app respects this and doesn't oversharpen (an effect I find very ugly). I haven't experimented with the "contrast" or "saturation" adjustments yet. At least these are available, and have several levels, more than you get with a lot of dedicated cameras. JPEG quality settings are, naturally, set at "best", and this results in around 1MB files on average.
When you have mastered the camera, set the ISO at minimum (100), and taken control over the exposure as described above, more often than not you can produce really nice pictures, the equal of any 5-8M pixel pocket camera, which print out to A4 with ease. You wouldn't know it's a phone picture, that's how good it can get. But, boy, you have to work for it. Maybe HTC will improve their camera app, but until then it'll remain an enthusiast's camera, the point and shooters just won't get the results!
Music and Video
With that quality screen, video seems a natural use for the device. As usual, WM Player (and the HTC media player) will only play a very limited range of files, specifically mp4 and wmv (which they do well, even up to D1 (DVD) resolution and higher, due to video acceleration features built into the chipset). But this isn't really good enough. If you're like me and have a collection of divx and xvid movies, and don't want to transcode them, you'll need to instal a third party player. I recommend paying for Coreplayer - it plays virtually anything.
But then you find there really isn't enough power to smoothly play most divx or xvid
So, it's great for videos, but be prepared to transcode, which is time consuming. Or buy Coreplayer and stick to the smaller size, lower bitrate, divx or xvid avis, which will work fine. For information, for those who download BBC videos with "get_iplayer", the iPod orientated mp4/aac mov files will just about play in Coreplayer, with the odd frame dropped here and there. It's quite watchable.
I believe HTC's next generation of phones will have full video acceleration available, using quite a different chipset, not the Qualcomm used in this generation. There's nothing, by the way, wrong with the Qualcomm chipset in the TD2. Apparently, it's just (according to some sources) that an ongoing dispute between them and HTC is preventing the full potential of the chips being realised. Very sad, it's the consumer who suffers, as usual.
Music playing, of course, is good. I use this every day to and from work, it's extremely important to me. Most people don't use WM player, they grab any one of a large number of free players which look better and have more facilities. The joy of Windows Mobile again! Sound quality out of the HTC "extUSB" socket at the bottom of the phone is OK but nothing special. I'm talking third party earphones, of course, I would never use those which come included in the box. You need an extUSB to 3.5mm adaptor too (not supplied but easily available), which doesn't help sound quality either.
However, a chance purchase of a secondhand Sony HBH DS-200 Bluetooth adaptor (a discreet little stick with 3.5mm socket at one end) led to me trying this method of playing music on the move. Wow, it's great! I should mention I've tried Bluetooth audio at various times in the past, and been disgusted by the sound quality. I do like decent sound, and Bluetooth just didn't cut it.
But, with the little Sony, my Sennheiser buds, and tweaked settings on the TD2 (very important, as the standard WM defaults are crap for music) the sound is brilliant. OK, if you're really picky, it occasionally lacks a bit of "air" and a tiny bit of subtlety goes as well, but by and large, it rocks!
This, in my opinion, is the way to use the TD2 for music. I stress again, it must be tweaked first, either by getting your hands dirty in the registry, or using one of the configuration apps, and you must turn up the quality until "the pips sqeak" (or rather the stream stutters!), and then back it off slightly. All instructions are available on the web, link at the end of the review. The actual hardware implementation of the Bluetooth A2DP (stereo audio) channel within the TD2 is luckily superb, unlike certain HTCs in the past where, no matter how you tweaked, it still sounded crap.
In fact, Bluetooth as a whole works seamlessly on the TD2. I leave it enabled all the time, it doesn't impact standby battery life too much. When you turn on a previously paired headset, it connects, even when the phone's still in standby. That's it, nothing more to do. This simplicity, by the way, only works for some devices. I also have a Parrot Party Bluetooth speaker, and this won't connect automatically, it takes a few button pushes first. Range is OK, at a few feet, consistency good (a minor drop-out, say, every 15 minutes) and, of course, if the phone rings, well, you know the rest, but that's the boring bit!
Anything Else?
Er, the GPS, once you get it working, works well together with Google Maps. The hesitation is because sometimes, especially from a "cold start" when it hasn't been used for a while, the GPS just doesn't want to "fire up". I had this problem right from when I unboxed the TD2, and it keeps coming back, randomly, to haunt me. It sits there "getting a fix" and nothing happens. Eventually you always get it working; it's never actually failed, but it's erratic. I know I'm not alone with this problem, the forums confirm it. Apparently upgrading the "Radio ROM" improves matters a lot, I haven't tried it yet. Once it's working, it's sensitive and accurate, and can even be used indoors, as well as on the train or bus. Beware battery life using GPS+Google Maps though, it's more for "emergency use" rather than a whole day out in the countryside. And, of course, you need a 3G signal, or no maps, unless you install (expensive) mapping software.
The phone side of things seems to work well enough, it's loud enough and sounds good. But see the note on signal reception below.
Charging is fuss free with the TD2 on standby, it takes about 2 hours or so. Because of the HTC extUSB socket, any standard USB charger, or a computer, can be used, although it will take longer to charge when less current is available. Some users have reported problems when charging with the TD2 active, rather than in standby mode - you get a false indication of when fully charged, or not etc. I always charge in standby only, and I've never had a problem.
The FM radio works OK in strong FM signal areas. It needs an earphone connected as an antenna, or it won't even start up.
Where else will you find a picture like this, eh? You can't actually see it from this angle, but on the left, near the top, is the microSDHC slot. You can insert or remove it without touching the battery. You can even "hot swap" it with the phone on. Hurrah! Not really recommended, though, safer to turn it off first. At last you can get access to the card as a removeable drive through the phone's USB socket, an obvious feature that's long overdue on WM phones. The hardware implementation on the TD2 is good, it's pretty quick, not too much slower than a normal card reader. Up to 16 GB cards have been tested OK, but check the brand recommendations on the xda-developers forum first, though.The real reason for the picture is to give you an idea of the "Antenna Map" for the TD2. At the top, either side of the camera window, are the Bluetooth and GPS antennae. Fair enough. I don't know where the Wifi antenna is. Wifi, before I forget, is not that good on the TD2. It lacks range, something generally agreed on in the forums, so it's not just me.
Occupying the bottom, below the battery, are the 2G/3G phone antennae. That's right, exactly where you normally hold the phone. I know HTC had to put them somewhere, but bearing in mind the sensitivity, specially on 3G, isn't that amazing anyway, the presence of your hand makes it at least 1-2 bars worse. You learn to hold the phone by the top half if you're making a call or surfing the web. And, if you're using GPS and Google Maps, you really should hold it in the middle, to leave both GPS (top)and 3G (bottom) antennae unobstructed. You get used to it, but I'm sure the acrobatics will cause me to drop it one day!
The less than stellar reception isn't surprising bearing in mind the complexity of the TD2, and it's certainly not alone, I've read similar about the Sony Experia X1 and the original 3G iPhone, and others too. But it does mean it mightn't be the ideal choice of phone if you live in the countryside, or anywhere the signal strength of your network is low, something the xda-developers forum confirms. As with the GPS, a Radio ROM upgrade might help a bit, but don't expect miracles.
OK, we'll leave the boring grey expanse of the naked back now, and end with something that's hard to find information about.
Can you do lots of things at once with the TD2? Is there enough processor power and RAM? Yes! I've been surprised at what's possible without too much slowing down. Like using Google Maps with GPS and suddenly deciding to take a picture and view it, before returning to the map. And, listening to music via (tweaked, processor intensive) Bluetooth whilst surfing the web. And even copying and pasting from a webpage to a note at the same time. I've also streamed internet radio over 3G, again via a Bluetooth link, whilst surfing. Internet Radio, since I mentioned it, is best whilst stationary. Sometimes it works whilst you're on the move between network cells. Mostly, it'll fail, you have to keep reconnecting. I suspect this has more to do with my network here in the UK; you might have better luck.
Conclusion
An excellent pocket computer/phone, with a stable mature operating system. It looks nice (a preference for "retro" helps) and feels tough. There are several reports of dropped units at the xda-dev forum, some extreme, and mostly the TD2 survived. I'm very pleased with mine after several months - as an all-in-one "swiss army knife" device, it serves me very well. The screen quality is class leading.
However, if you're into video on the move, and don't like converting formats (transcoding), you might be better waiting for the next generation from HTC, or indeed others. I think there will be substantial improvements in this particular area.
If you are a country dweller, or live anywhere your network has a weak signal, you may be better avoiding the TD2. In fairness, this applies to a number of competing phones too. The word seems to be that certain Nokia models are the best for fringe reception areas.
And, that "class leading" screen is also, apparently, a weakness. Even users who (say they) have been very careful have experienced the dreaded screen failure symptoms. To put it into perspective, though, most people haven't had problems.
For all you need to know about the TD2, or it's different network variants, the xda-dev forums are a friendly mine of information: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=478
