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HTC Touch Diamond2 is the successor of HTC Touch Diamond, which had big success and was highly appreciated by its users. Even if Windows Mobile did not come with major improvements in recent years, HTC has created TouchFLO 3D user interface, which allowed them to make phones that are easier to use. Diamond 2 offers enhancements over HTC Diamond original, but so far, it did not manage to impose a lot. Let us see from this HTC Touch Diamond2 review what this phone can do.

HTC Touch Diamond2's dimensions are within the normal limits for a smartphone. The phone has a length of 108 mm, a width of 53 mm, 13.7 mm thick and it weights 118 grams. HTC Touch Diamond2 is available only in black.

HTC Touch Diamond2 has a larger screen than HTC Touch Diamond. The bottom side was reduced in order to highlight the screen. The materials are of high quality, but are not protected against fingerprints. The back cover is the biggest magnet for fingerprints. On the screen, the fingerprints are not visible. There is another cover that can be purchased separately, which is made of a material resistant to fingerprints.

Under the large 3.2 inch screen, we have four hardware buttons, and a touch sensitive bar, used to zoom. The ambient light sensor is located above the screen. On the top side of the phone, I only found the on / off button. The bottom side is hosting the microUSB port in which you can connect the data cable, the charger and the headphones. Also, here we find the stylus and the microphone. On the right side, HTC Touch Diamond2 only has the speaker. On the left side, we have the volume control key. We did not find a special key for the camera, because you control it with the touch screen. On its backside, the phone has a 5-megapixel camera. It has no flash, which eliminates the possibility of taking pictures in low light conditions. The Li-Ion battery has 1100 mAh, with 200 mAh more than HTC Touch Diamond. It is a good value for a smartphone, although some users want 1500 mAh. According to the manufacturer's specification, the battery should hold up to 500 hours in standby mode and up to 5 hours in talk time. The MicroSD card is behind the battery, so it is not easy to get it out. I like the fact that the back is smooth. Although it keeps the Touch Diamond specific design, it is easier to make it stay on a desk

If you have used any HTC phones recently, you are probably familiar with the TouchFLO 3D technology. It is one of the most successful user interfaces, so it is a pleasure to get in each of the menus they offer. The TouchFLO 3D Standby screen offers you various possibilities of personalization. You can add shortcuts to your favorite applications and you can easily navigate between tabs, exactly as you would turn a page. The second tab of TouchFLO 3D is called People. Here you find contacts, and you can associate a lot of information and even a photo. The third tab is called Messages. It is not hard to guess that from here you can send SMS and MMS. The email has a dedicated tab with a successful graphic. The messages are in an envelope on the screen and you can easily navigate among them.

The 3.2 inch screen has a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The image quality is very good, but in strong sun, it is difficult to read it. It tends to remain with some fingerprints, but it is not very disturbing.

Continuing the tradition that Touch Diamond started, HTC Touch Diamond2 has very good multimedia features. It has only 512 MB of internal memory, but you can extend it with a microSD card to make room for movies, songs and others.

The camera has 5 megapixels. The user interface is very intuitive. Unfortunately, it does not have a dedicated key for capturing photo / video, so pictures are made by touching the screen. Although I think a dedicated button for those who often take pictures with the phone would have been better, using the touch screen has an advantage: the focus is made where you put your finger. The camera does not have a flash, making it impossible to take pictures in low light conditions. The images have a medium quality, with many details. The colors really come alive.

The image gallery is very well set. It is a pleasure to go through photos, especially because the screen is big. The bar below the display does its job well and it is easy to use it if you want enlarge or shrink the pictures. Moving from one picture to another can be done like turning a page.

The music player is also well done. Unfortunately, Touch Diamond2 hardly invites you to listen to music, because the 3.5 mm audio jack is missing. You can use the headphones found in the package box, which are of medium quality, but you cannot use other headphones. You can sort songs by album, artist, genre, name and composer.
The FM radio has RDS and is very good for situations when you get bored of your own music. The radio only works if you connect the headphones, because they serve as an antenna. You can store up to 20 radio stations.

The video player is Windows Media Player. It supports movies in MP4 and 3GP. There are no DivX / Xvid codecs, but there are other video players for Windows Mobile, that know how to open movies in this format. Videos can be viewed both in portrait mode, and in landscape mode. The screen resolution is very good, so the movies look very good in landscape mode. The phone comes with a preinstalled YouTube client, so you can watch videos on this site very easy. HTC Touch Diamond2 knows how to record videos at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The recording is made only with 15 fps, and movies are saved in MPEG4 format.

The phone offers excellent functions for internet connections. The phone has WiFi, so you just need to find hotspot areas. If you want to use the operator network, HTC Touch Diamond2 supports GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA 7.2 Mbps. The phone can be used without problems as a modem. The Bluetooth supports A2DP, so you can connect wireless stereo headphones. The microUSB port is used for data transfers, and to connect standard headphones from HTC.

HTC Touch Diamond2 comes with two preinstalled browsers, Internet Explorer and Opera Mobile 9.5. Opera is configured as the default browser, because it works better than Internet Explorer. Pages load faster and the application is optimized for finger touching. The zoom bar under the screen can be used to zoom in or out.

Microsoft Office Mobile is already installed on the phone. You can view or modify Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files. It even has an PDF reader.

HTC Touch Diamond2 has GPS and comes with Google Maps preinstalled. The GPS works very well, it quickly locates the satellites without delays. If the Google Maps application does not please you, you can find more complex GPS navigation software for Windows Mobile.

HTC has released lately only quality phones. Touch Diamond2 is no exception, the TouchFLO 3D interface makes its use very pleasant and eliminates some of the shortcomings of Windows Mobile. If you ask me why Touch Diamond2 did not have its deserved success, I think this is due to the agglomeration of smartphones released in 2009.

I hope that, after reading this HTC Touch Diamond2 review, you will be able to make a decision if you want to buy this phone.