I’ve been desperately trying to like the HTC Touch Diamond, forcing myself to use it for the past six months, but fate has intervened. Or, more specifically, the Diamond getting soaked in water intervened – though I did my best to let all its parts dry out, it developed a nasty habit of switching on and off randomly. Not great behaviour for a mobile phone.

Digging through my drawers, what did I unearth? None other than my old HTC Touch, and I have to admit to falling in love with it all over again. Because, unlike the Diamond, it’s not incredibly annoying!

Why? First of all, and more important than anything else on a phone, the interface is simpler and more effective. No fancy flow effects might mean it’s less beautiful to behold than the Diamond (and its physical design is certainly more mundane), but it’s so much quicker to get to a favourite application – two presses rather than making a succession of gestures that look great on demos but are a pain in the arse in real life.

And I’m really not missing 3G (if I did, the HTC Touch 3G is now available). Admittedly, I don’t spend much of my time on the internet when using a phone, but when I do head over to BBC Sport or Facebook Mobile I find them no slower on the Touch than I did on the Diamond.

Likewise I’ve never really found a use for fancy features the Diamond includes over the original Touch, such as GPS, and frankly – for me at least – a lower-res screen of 240 x 320 is perfectly acceptable in return for slightly longer battery life.

I do realise that phones are a matter of personal preference, and I’d love to hear from anyone who actually likes the Diamond. Somehow, though, I don’t expect to get much response.