On the other hand I have owned 4 Windows based mobile phones from iMate models to a Samsung Blackjack phone to the Motorola Q. All have been fine phones. The iMate was the worst of the bunch with their touch screen technology being far too slow and hardware very clunky.
So when it came to comparing the HTC Diamond and the new 3G iPhone I applied some basic ground rules such as readability of a screen, finger touch mobility and icons Vs scroll menu. I then compared the amount of information displayed to a screen Vs access to additional information in the folder being accessed.
And at the end of the day I let my emotion dictate which phone would I would prefer to own based on the features before me and the ease with which they could be accessed.
While the HTC Diamond is overall smaller than the iPhone the screen is significantly smaller resulting in all of the content being harder to read than on the iPhone. Looks wise the Diamond is up there with the iPhone. It is black slick and fits in the palm of one hand. But is that enough?
A big difference is the opening interface. The iPhone has big clear icons which can easily be scrolled back and forth whereas the Diamond gives you the choice between a Start menu and a Telstra menu. Most other icons are shaded out and one has to scroll along to access them.
Click to enlarge |
| Opening interface |
Both phones were running on the Telstra NextG Network however on the iPhone there were no Telstra icons or links to the likes of BigPond or Foxtel, whereas the HTC Diamond opening interface has been designed to favour Telstra services over other readily available services.
Another big difference is that the menu access and the turning on of the device is via one button on the bottom of the iPhone Vs a power on button on the top of the Diamond iPhone and then one has to scroll through to a menu item.
In the first big acid test we tested the ease with which one could access a Wifi network other than Telstra. On the iPhone the independent Wi Fi network was easily accessed in seconds by going to settings, Wi Fi and then accessing the network.
With the HTC Diamond we had to turn on LAN WiFi access and the interface for inserting the security code was not clear. Furthermore the keyboard was not as easy to use as the iPhone and on two occasions the keyboard froze as we tried to enter data via a QWERTY keyboard vs. a normal keypad on the iPhone.
