Touch Diamond

image courtesy Engadget

Ran into an old friend in the elevator today. He had a new phone. T'was the HTC Touch Diamond (Sprint Version, though I hear there's an AT&T version to be released soon). Here are my initial impressions:

1. Holy crow!* Resistive-touch screen technology has come a very very very long way since the XV6700. This thing has a relatively smooth upper surface, no little dips at either end of the screen.
2. The phone UI, Touch Flo 3D I believe, is much more finger friendly. Unfortunately, the screen's the same size as my XV6700. It's much smaller than my XV6700, though, and oodles lighter.
3. Screen is relatively bright, but not quite as bright as the iPhone (you guys will get very tired of my constant comparisons, I'm sure, but the iPhone is still the state-of-the-art in a number of technologies)
4. Stylus is still necessary for navigating a lot of the sub menus (TouchFlo only goes so deep before you're back to the not so great Win Mo UI)
5. The HTC keyboard is definitely an improvement over the basic WinMo keyboard, but it's still just a software keyboard.
   

Didn't get to try the web or any games on it, but I'm sure it's the Windows Mobile standard. Decent smartphone, but without a tactile keyboard or any haptic response, it's not the most friendly for anyone who texts or emails often.

*(I just read Twilight, and found that to be the most amusing exclamation ever. Oh censorship.)