14 DAY TRIAL // If you're in the US and want to buy an HTC Touch Diamond but don't actually like Sprint (the carrier that will be offering the handset in the near future), Best Buy has the solution for you. The North American retailer is getting ready to sell the Touch Diamond in an unlocked GSM version.
Being unlocked (hence free of any contract agreement), Best Buy's Touch Diamond will be more expensive than Sprint's. More exactly, you will get to pay $699 for the pleasure of having a Diamond that can be used on any GSM network you like.
For the moment, the fashionable handset can only be pre-ordered, at this address. Best Buy says the Diamond will be available at the end of September / the beginning of October, so there's plenty of time for customers to decide if they want to buy one or not.
The features of HTC Touch Diamond, in case they're not known, are as follows: GSM and HSDPA connectivity, a 2.8 inch TFT display with a VGA resolution (480 x 640 pixels), handwriting recognition and 65K colors, Windows Mobile 6.1, TouchFLO 3D interface, accelerometer, internal GPS and A-GPS, Pocket Office, Wi-Fi, full HTML browser, email and Instant Messaging, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Music and Video players, stereo FM radio with RDS, 4GB of internal memory and so on. An auto focus 3.2 Megapixel camera is also packed into the Touch Diamond, coming with video recording (but no flash unfortunately).
The handset weighs 3.88 ounces (110 grams), measures 4 x 2 x 0.45 inches (102 x 51 x 11.5 millimeters) and, as presented by Best Buy, its battery should last up to 7.5 hours in talk-time mode or up to 17 days in stand-by mode.
Those interested in reading an in-depth analysis of Touch Diamond's capabilities can read its Softpedia review, found at this address.
Best Buy has recently started selling iPhone 3Gs (but not unlocked), so it will be interesting to see how (and if) the commercialization of HTC's Touch Diamond will negatively impact the sales of Apple's handset.