14 DAY TRIAL // HTC officially unveiled its HTC Touch Diamond high-end handset during the "May 6 HTC Event" held in London and ended a few hours ago. As expected and as seen in several leaked images appeared yesterday, the new device is slim and compact, having a very nice overall aspect. The rumored diamond-like pattern on the phone's back case is real, providing quite a unique look.
Since the handset's presentation took place in London, HTC said that the new Diamond will be available via the five important carriers in the UK, hence O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Hutchison's 3 will all get the chance to offer "mobile diamonds" to their subscribers. The UK, Europe and Asia will get the Touch Diamond starting June (which is next month), while the other markets (the US included) have to wait a bit longer, probably until the end of the summer.
HTC Touch Diamond's official dimensions are: 102 x 51 x 11,5 millimeters, at a weight of 110 grams. In this slim case, HTC managed to gather enough advanced features to attract about any user who wants to have the latest technology in a handset.
The Touch Diamond runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and comes with a 2.8 inch TFT display with VGA (640 x 480) resolution, TouchFlo 3D user interface with one-touch navigation (enabling you to play music, access YouTube or dial phone numbers with just the touch of a finger), tri-band GSM connectivity, plus dual-band HSDPA/WCDMA for data transfer speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps. The version for Europe and Asia works on the 900 / 1800 / 1900 GSM and 900 / 2100 HSDPA frequencies, while the version for the Americas is compatible with the 850 / 1800 / 1900 GSM and 850 / 1900 WCDMA ones.
Other features that the new HTC brings include 4GB of built-in memory, GPS and A-GPS, Wi-Fi, full Web browser (Opera and not IE, although it's a Windows Mobile device), Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, USB 2.0, Music player, FM radio with RDS, a 3.2 Megapixel with auto focus (but no flash) and a secondary video-call camera. The phone includes a 900 mAh battery said to provide up to 270 minutes of talk-time on WCDMA networks and up to 330 minutes on GSM networks and up to 386 hours of stand-by WCDMA time or up to 285 hours of GSM stand-by time.
The price of HTC Diamond was not set yet but the retail one will surely be pretty high. Anyway, the price of a phone generally depends on country, operator and/or data plan, so the Diamond will probably have lots of price tags when launched. All we can do now is wait until June.
