Reviews and tests / HTC Touch Diamond vs. Apple iPhone and others

SMAPE  Reviews and tests  HTC  HTC Touch Diamond vs. Apple iPhone and others

Touch Diamond is a key product not only to HTC but to Microsoft as well, for it is going to become the best selling device based on the Windows Mobile platform, boasting highest sales in history among all WM PDAs issued to date. The expected sales volume revolves around four million copies, outreaching even the last year's Touch (3 million copies sold worldwide).

As we have already mentioned in the earlier articles about out initial experiences of getting along with Diamond, this device is not a regular step in the evolution of HTC products but rather the company's breakthrough to a totally new level of work. The device is remarkable for a brand new hardware platform and an updated software package to match. The latter is especially important since it contains certain elements mimicking the features of iPhone.

If in the earlier days Apple's brainchild was called upon as a universal standard for comparisons with anything sporting the touch capability, now, after the iPhone fever has subsided, it becomes clear that the device owes much of its success to the impressiveness and efficiency of the user interface, not just to the stylish look of the handset itself.

On par with the 6.1 update to the WM platform, the brand new TouchFLO 3D interface supported by a dedicated graphics chip makes a great contribution to Diamond's stock of merits and advantages. The interface is truly amazing both from the point of view of usability and looks. Preserving the traditional functionality of Windows Mobile and being a 'mere' plugin, TouchFLO 3D is still a revolution in interface design.

The powerful graphics chip coupled with a 528 Mhz CPU and 182 Mb of RAM all provide for a very high level of performance. Further combined with a VGA display and a vast pack of connectivity features (including even an FM tuner), it makes the most powerful WM-oriented hardware platform to date. By turning from evolution to revolution (which apparently succeeded), HTC leaves their less technologically advanced competitors to lag even farther behind.

We have already published a number of articles touching on the different aspects of Touch Diamond, including a first impressions report and a quick preview of the main features of the revolutionary TouchFLO 3D interface. Now the time has come to draw a comparison between Diamond and the rest of well-known devices, of course not omitting Apple iPhone. The latter is much less expensive and doesn't make a direct competitor to Diamond, still it's quite interesting to see the one against the other.

HTC Touch Diamond Announcement Live Reportage
HTC Touch Diamond Preview
HTC TouchFLO 3D Preview
Microsoft and Orange on HTC Touch Diamond Announcement

For the time being, the new HTC flagship has no close analogs. Diamond is a truly unique offer, not only in the bracket of the WM platform but also on the whole telecom scale. All the associations voiced below are mere theory mixed with fancy than actual attempts at posing certain products as competitive to Diamond. The article spotlights Diamond placed against the background of a few established bestsellers and latest hot products which popped up in their manufacturers' portfolios but a few weeks ago.

Besides HTC Touch Diamond itself, we took into comparison such products as the legacy Touch and Touch Cruise handsets, Toshiba's newest G810 candy bar, the famed Apple iPhone as well as Nokia N95 and Gigabyte GSmart MS800. We have already published a comparison between HTC Touch Diamond and Nokia 8800 Sirocco.

Let check it out once again that we aren't viewing MS800 (let alone N95/8800) and Diamond as possible competitors. This text shouldn't be regarded as anything more than just a reference article desribing the product environment by which the new handset is surrounded, only for vivid comparison.

As you see, Touch Diamond is a very compact product, comparable in this aspect to Nokia N95 in the folded state - at that, mind the availability of a 2.8" touchscreen! The handset is only 11.33 mm thick, making it today's thinnest WM PDA, in spite of the intense stuffing.

When opposed by the direct sunlight, the screen does worse than the Nokia and Apple devices. Indoors, however, it looks above and beyond appraisals. The screen of Diamond takes full advantage over the view angles of iPhone's screen. The interface functionality is comparable for the both devices; both are prominent for the large screen size.

At the first glance, iPhone seems to be in a way more logically designed and set to provide maximum comfort. Over a long period of testing, Diamond nevertheless proved to be handier in a number departments including text input. The weather forecast application is sheerly unmatched. The diversity of 3D graphics effects looks more impressive than anything that iPhone can offer. All in all, no clear leader can be identified - while iPhone seems to retain a higher overall level of comfort, Diamond leads in a few essential positions which by no means can be neglected.

The multi-touch technology support is one of the biggest achievements of iPhone, significantly boosting the ergonomics in the gallery and similar applications. The software platform functions faster and smoother. However, Diamond is not yet finalized and brings forth well-grounded claims for serious competition (yet waiting a proper implementation in the final version of the product).

In their new product HTC didn't go anywhere further than Touch Cruise did, though statements were made about Diamond's higher photo quality due to a better implementation of the auto-focus feature. Against the whole market background the actual quality seems to stay on a very average level and can be taken for an achievement only in the framework of the Windows Mobile platform. That's why we decided not to include any other platform based products in the comparison.

HTC Touch Diamond / Toshiba G810

As you see, Diamond is leading, yet it would never be able to pose any considerable challenge to the modern 5 Mp cameraphones, regardless of all the statements by HTC representatives claiming that measuring quality in megapixels makes no sense. The real fact is that WM products are still lagging behind the rest of the market in the camera department. If you are really looking for a PDA with a powerful camera, we advise you to shift your attention to Symbian-based products by Nokia.

Photos taken with HTC Touch Diamond at maximum quality settings

Finally we are going to say a few words about the battery life results. The most successfully optimized samples out of all the ones available demonstrate very sound results. Diamonds is today's fastest VGA PDA, excelling anything produced by E-TEN including V900 (QVGA TCPMP test - 306% as fast, VGA test - 101% as fast). The average battery life revolves around 1,5-2 days, a continuous video playback cycle with maximum screen brightness lasted for 3 hours 36 minutes. A very decent score for a 900 mAh battery unit, especially in a such function-reach device equipped with a very bright, high-definition screen. Still these were but test samples, so we may expect an even longer battery life in the commercial version.

We would like to suspend our final judgement on HTC's current achivement, since there's a period as large as on month for the company to launch their premium device on a number of leading markets yet not covered by the Diamond campaign. At the same time, the available pre-test samples prove the high level of the company's achievements. The OS launcher and its hardware support are perfectly synchnronized, as a result we get a very balanced solution that would satisfy even the most picky fans of the platform.

Despite a number of obvious concessions, Touch Diamond can be justifiedly called a revolution of the WM platform. The company has set a brand new standard hardly reachable by the rest of market players (E-TEN, ASUS, Gigabyte, Toshiba, etc.) in the foreseeable future.

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Author: Dmitry Ryabinin, dm@smape.com

SMAPE.com

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