HTC Touch Diamond2 review

The depth of the TouchFLO skin has been extended. Where before you'd have to reach for the stylus as soon as you wanted to add or edit a contact, or view the calendar screen, you're now shielded from the ugliness of Windows Mobile at (almost) every turn. Even the calculator and clock/alarm screens have been given a lick of gloss. There's also "push" internet, which lets you set web pages that are cached in the phone's memory and updated regularly, meaning they're available offline. Its four-page limit restricts its usefulness.

Most of the changes are welcome, though, and they go far enough that most users will rarely see the underlying operating system - the sort of overhaul that Windows Mobile has been crying out for years now.

There's still the odd hole here and there - if you want to add a new appointment, back you go to fiddly old Windows Mobile - but they're few and far between for day-to-day use.

The on-screen numeric keypad has also been improved, with a much more sensible selection of context-sensitive configurations and layouts. The @ character is available at a single tap now, for instance, while the space bar is replaced with .com and / buttons in the appropriate fields.

However, the Qwerty keyboard which appears in landscape mode is fiddly at this screen size and the two-letter-per key BlackBerry Pearl-style layout has mysteriously disappeared; if easy, quick texting is your priority, there are better phones around, notably the iPhone and HTC's own Touch Pro and Touch HD models.

HTC's efforts are, however, enough to turn what was a disappointing phone into a much more usable one. Better battery life makes it more practical than before and the improvements to TouchFLO 3D coupled with that excellent screen make it much more pleasant to use.

Despite the slightly more fiddly text entry, it's more pocketable than the Touch HD and this means it just about replaces it in our affections. But with HTC's second Android phone just around the corner, and a new iPhone too, we're not sure how much longer we're going to be able to recommend Windows Mobile phones like this for.

Author: Jonathan Bray