HTC TOUCH DIAMOND BLog

[chanbri]

---

GUYS, I Finally gave up my Kaiser. It was hard to let go of it. It was a really good two weeks. Was finally getting superfast in using the keyboard.

TytnII vs Diamond side by side (not mine as i forgot to take one last pic before letting it go)

the TytnII's titanic size is really felt when placed beside the Diamond.

Now, i got the Diamond. My first impression was that it was a bit laggy. maybe i was expecting it to be fast. but after a hard reset and using the tweaks. wow. and the vga screen is just awesomeness (from kungfu panda). hehehe.

Anyhow the build is very sturdy. Im stil getting used to the interface as the new touchflo 3D is abit new.
it;s like haing spbshell built in.

one thing i miss from the tytnII is the hardware keys and the wonderful jogwheel.

The diamond has only the volume up and volume down buttons on the left. and nothing on the right.
It has a Naviwheel sort of type for a d-pad. much like the new N78. plus four other keys- HOME, BACK, Call Start, and Call End.

The Home button just brings you to the Today screen. i miss having the start key, the 2 softkeys and the ok button from the tytnii already.

As for the camera, they have this new cool feature where the new naviwheel works. if you wheel it CW or CCW, then it will work as a Zoom in/out. then when your finger touches the center key, it will act like you are halfpressing the camera button. the amount of pressure you put to the center button will make the cam start its focusing. then click! there goes your photo.


Messaging
Maybe its a WM6.1 thingy, but the messaging function now is threaded like palm(almost like my previous treo 650) or the iphone(havent tried it yet, but they say its threaded sms)
the virtual keyboards are fantastic. you get the diamond full qwerty, the half qwert(like the sony uiq phones where one button got two letters), the thumbpad (just like a regular phone), and the full keyboard, which i like since its now a tiny bit bigger than the previous built in keyboard from wm6 and older.
The full keyboard is what i like to use since its small enuf not to cover what im typing and big enuf to just use my long nails.

Screen
Well the screen is now in full vga mode. at long last. its pretty awesome. having 4 times the resolution is awesome as the pictures are more crips. only problem is that some old apps i'm using somehow their icons get distorted when showing up on the programs list. maybe this could be a GUI problem than can be solved later by a patch. Screen brightness is also powerful. I have it set less than 50% and its already pretty bright enuf for me. at least it will save some batt life not having to bring the brightness so high.

[chanbri]

I will try to post some unboxing pics later on since i was too excited and also i didnt have enough lighting in my room to really get some good shots from my less than stellar w910i 2mp cam. i will try to borrow a nice camera to get some good pics.








will take more pics later.

[chanbri]

I will post later on the performance review like video playback and video recording. I hope it performs with less skips/lag.
I believe the camera is the same as that of the tytnII since they are both 3.12mp and no flash.

Somehow i find the loud speaker pretty weak. I cant even hear my ringtone play on a noisy street. but vibrate feature is pretty good. I have tried to install SRS WOW Surround but it seems not to be supported. I used this app before with my previous ppcphones (touch enhanced,lg ks20, and tytnii) and it really boost the speaker to get good sounds. Now its saying cant find XR drivers or somethind. so maybe i'll check what other equalizer function i can use. and also i need a louder ringtone. coz im using the same mp3 file and even the small speakers of the SE w910 is ABLAST! when it rings.

[chanbri]

Battery Life
This is a main concern among users as the Diamond is only sporting a 900mah batt.
i guess shaving off a few millimeter really have to sacrifice some juice.

Size Comparison

Side by Side with my w910i

[chanbri]

Screen and Back are really Finger-print magnets.
I placed Martin Fields Overlay Screen protector. This is one of the best there is. Cost alot as well.
I wanted to use Invisible Shield which is a bit cheaper and covers the whole phone already but the model for the Diamond isn't locally available yet.
It didnt came with came with a leather pouch so i'm using a custom made iLappy pouch which i previously used for my N82.


Even the charger is a fingerprint magnet.

Here I detached the charger head as I used the cable to sync to my laptop. Hope to get a desktop cradle.

[poloy6200]

whoa nice phone. im drooling....

[chanbri]

thanks,bro.

i'm going to do some tweaking now based on what other diamond users have posted on xda-dev

[UPDATED 10/06] HTC Diamond Tweak List - xda-developers


This is a summary of the proven tweaks taken from the Diamond Tweaks thread. Let's keep the comments in the Diamond Tweaks thread and keep this one as a list of the actual tweaks only to be an easily accessible summary. Thanks to all who discovered the Tweaks

1. Boost TFL3D Performance --> Using Advanced Config, change File system cache to 8mb and file system filter cache to 131072

2. Boost TFL3D Performance --> HKLM\System\Storagemanager\Fatfs and change key Cachesize from 16384 to 32768

3. Wake Up on New SMS --> HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\RIL : DisableSMSWakeUpEvent <-- set to "1" by default. Change value to "0"

4. Switch Mute Call on phone flipped face down: HKLM\Software\HTC\PHONE : FaceDownMuteRing: change value to "0"

5. Change CallWaiting Tone --> HKLM\Software\HTC\PHONE : by default set to \windows\waitingtone.wav by default. change to anything else

6. Boost TFL3D Scrolling Speed --> - HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit = 16384 or 32768 (DWORD decimal)
- To change it back to the default: - HKLM\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE\limit = 8192 (DWORD decimal)

7. In case of emergency, to do a Hard Reset, with the phone ON, hold down the Volume Down and Enter (round navigation) keys and press soft reset while they are pressed

8. Prevent screen switching off during phone call --> HKEY_Local_Machine\Drivers\BuiltIn\RIL\EnableFastD ormantDisplayDuringCall to 0

9. Downlod original CONTENT folder (Wallpaper, VIDEO, MUSIC) here http://rapidshare.com/files/12127104...orage.rar.html

10. Set HTC Album X button to close not minimize: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\HTC\HTCAlbum : ok_minimize change value to 0

11. Disable Enlarged Title bar (when you click on a notification) to the default WM behavior: HKLM->Software->HTC->EnlargeTitleBar - and change "Enable" from 1 to 0.

12. Turn off startup aninmation and sound: HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\HTC\HTCAnimation\ -> rename both "StartupGif" and "StartupWav" to other names

[chanbri]

Now who was it who said Diamonds are girl's best friend? Guys love them too!
I just love the Touch Diamond. it has the size and form factor that i like plus the powerful wm6.1 platform.
I loved the LG KS20 form factor but i found it stil lacking in some ways. Now having the diamond is definitely what i was looking for. My only gripe now is the speaker volume. I hope this can be tweaked.

[chanbri]

The rest button is a bit hidden. you have to take out the stylus as the reset button is hidden near the opening of the stylus holder. One thing about the stylus is that it is magnetically pulled back to the phone. i dont know what the mechanism is but when you slide the stylus in you will feel it slide smoothly in as if being pulled back in. its unlike any other pda i have tried.

[meteorbites]

whats the current market price for the touch diamond?