April 21st, 2009
Clash of the Touch Titans: iPhone 3.0 3G vs HTC Touch Diamond2
This is the final article in my Clash of the Touch Titans articles after taking a look at the iPhone 3G 3.0 and the Palm Pre, HTC Magic, BlackBerry Storm, and Samsung OmniaHD. The iPhone, Pre, Magic, Storm, and OmniaHD all have capacitive touch screens while this last contender, the HTC Touch Diamond2, has a resistive touch display. As I wrote before, I laid out what we know of the iPhone 3G with 3.0 OS operating system in my first article so I won’t repost all of that content here. I will run through each section for the HTC Touch Diamond2 and then offer my personal thoughts on how it compares to the iPhone 3G with 3.0 OS update on the last page of this feature. Next Monday I will post a wrap-up post that includes a spreadsheet comparing all five of these devices in simple to view format.
I began using Microsoft-powered mobile devices back in early 2001 with the Jornada 548 and have used many since then and have seen the operating system and hardware get better and better. HTC has emerged as the clear leader in touchscreen Windows Mobile devices. With Windows Mobile as the base OS, HTC innovates and adds functionality far beyond the default WM experience. I checked out the HTC Touch Diamond last year and am still amazed by all that HTC was able to pack into such a small package. I then had the chance to spend some time with the upcoming HTC Touch Diamond2 at CTIA a couple weeks ago. I plan to buy the HTC Touch Pro2 myself because I really do prefer to have a physical keyboard option and the keyboard on that device is absolutely fantastic.
The HTC Touch Diamond2 should be out on different carriers very soon and the folks over at 4WinMobile.com were lucky enough to get one in their hands and start posting their thoughts on using it on a daily basis.
Operating System - Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional: The Touch Diamond2 comes loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which has been out now for just about a year. However, the Diamond2 is one device that has been confirmed by HTC to receive the WM 6.5 update when it is available later in 2009. I am not sure how this will work with carriers though since some are more hesitant than others to allow upgrades and hopefully HTC was able to make this a requirement for carrying the Diamond2.
To prepare for the WM 6.5 upgrade, HTC has changed the action that occurs when you press on the Start button. On current WM 6.1, and earlier, devices pressing the Start button brings up the Start menu in the upper left. On the Diamond2, pressing this button takes you to an application launcher page similar to the Programs tab seen on TouchFLO 3D devices today. This is designed to give the user a consistent experience when they upgrade to 6.5 because with 6.5 pressing the Start button takes the user to the “honeycomb” layout Home page. I was pleased to see HTC thinking about the end user in this case and think this was the right move.
If you are an Exchange user then you cannot find a better mobile Exchange experience then what is available on a Windows Mobile device. You can create meetings with attendees, search the server, smart filter email by typing characters, file emails in folders, and perform most any function you want on your device that you can with Outlook on your PC. As an Exchange user myself, I always have a Windows Mobile device on hand for unlimited access and functionality with my work account.
You have a plethora of input options with the Touch Diamond2, including some optimized keyboards provided by HTC themselves. One benefit of the resistive touchscreen displays is that you can use the default Windows Mobile Transcriber handwriting recognition program or go for the even more powerful Calligrapher handwriting recognition program. The handwriting recognition technology is an input method often overlooked on Windows Mobile, but it actually is amazingly powerful and functional.
Other input options include a large character keyboard provided by HTC, the small full QWERTY keyboard provided by Microsoft, compact QWERTY (similar to a SureType keyboard), phone keypad with T9 support, Block Recognizer (similar to the old Palm Grafitti input method), and Letter Recognizer. In addition, you can install any number of your favorite text input applications. I personally like both Fitaly and MessagEase. As you can see there is an input method available to fit anyone’s particular needs and this is one aspect of how powerful the Windows Mobile OS can be for users.
Another great aspect of the Windows Mobile OS is that you get full control over where applications are installed so you can download and install all the apps you want to the external storage card or internal memory. This is a major limitation on BlackBerry and Google Android devices that keep you a bit limited on the number of applications you can install.
Multitasking is fully supported in Windows Mobile so you run multiple applications at once and as the integrated memory (RAM) is ample you shouldn’t have to worry about having too many open at one time. The OS dynamically manages your applications and HTC gives you an integrated task manager so you can even manage running applications yourself if you desire. Flexibility and user control is provided throughout the operating system.
Cut, copy, and paste are fully supported in Windows Mobile Professional and always have been so there are no limitations there. Microsoft even provides you with a full Office suite as part of the operating system so you can work with documents sent as attachments or loaded on your device or memory card. The Windows Mobile operating system actually has several integrated applications and utilities that provide most users with everything they need so 3rd party apps are often not even loaded on WM devices. HTC provides some utilities as well to make the experience even better.
One of the newest HTC “special sauces” added to the Touch Diamond2 that make it very compelling for me is their People utility. With this utility, you can now think and work with all of your various conversations from a contact point of view rather than from a multiple application point of view. You can select a person and then through a simple tab interface view their contact info, call history, email/text message history, Facebook status updates for that person, and quick links to interact with that person via email, text, or IM. I personally think this utility alone may be worth the upgrade because you no longer have to go into your email and then conduct a search to find that person’s email history, but can quickly access it with minimal effort on your part. HTC is making the device and OS work for you to provide you with an optimal experience and that is how these mobile devices should be working.
Another HTC feature is their TouchFLO 3D interface. The first Touch Diamond may have seemed a bit laggy at times, but after trying out the Diamond2 at CTIA I can say that the TouchFLO 3D interface is very zippy and you won’t find any lag in this latest device. You can actually live within this interface without even having to dive into the inner workings of Windows Mobile and it looks like it will only be the power users diving into the details of the OS. I personally like having the flexibility to live in a simpler interface or diving into the details because I am a mobile geek and like to see what is under the hood.
Let’s check out the Hardware ยป
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 04/21/09
