HTC Touch Diamond2 review: Director’s cut

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 TouchFLO skinned Calendar daily and monthly views • viewing and editing a task

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.

The Office Mobile allows viewing and editing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files

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.

Opening PDF documents with Adobe Reader LE

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.

The Diamond2 task manager is available on the TouchFLO homescreen

The RSS Hub app is an RSS reader for staying up-to-date with the latest news and content at your favorite web places. The Streaming Media manager allows access to custom sources of streaming audio and video.

The RSS Hub reader • the Streaming Media manager

Another thing that has become a part of the HTC experience is the well-known Teeter game. The game is simple - by tilting the phone, you must guide a ball to an end point avoiding holes along the way. The graphics are polished and accurate vibrations each time your ball hits the walls of the maze make it very fun to play.

The Teeter game is highly amusing and life-like

The YouTube application is here again. It offers a fluid, excellent looking interface - shinier than even the iPhone's.

The Diamond2 YouTube client • video quality settings

Developers have had plenty of time to adapt their applications to WVGA resolution thanks to the Touch HD.

Another application is the rather handy Search software, capable of searching throughout applications and the whole file system. You have the option to set filters so that the application searches only in the places you need.

The system-wide Search application