INBOX:EVEN AS the iPhone 3G goes on sale this week, other handset makers are poised to begin their attempts to mug the iPhone of its hype. The latest is the HTC Diamond. Slightly smaller dimensions and lighter in the hand, the Diamond is a Windows Mobile handset which is probably the peak of form and platform for a Windows device.
Running Windows Mobile Professional 6.1, the Diamond (€579.27 Sim-free from Expansys.ie) sports very fast HSDPA 3G download speeds, tri- band GSM, Wi-Fi, 4GB of onboard storage, a GPS sat nav, an RDS FM radio and a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera. To compare with the iPhone, it only has a 2 megapixel camera, no HSDPA, no radio - although it does go up to 16GB memory.
You have volume keys on the left and an on/off switch at the top. The only other buttons are answer, end a call, home and go back. You navigate through menus via a circular pressure pad and use a stylus (which increasingly feels outdated) for the rest.
The Diamond is oddly limited in not having a Micro SD slot, which hobbles its GPS capability to add maps and will eat up memory in the end. At least the 2.8in screen is pretty clear, displaying the TouchFlo 3D control interface, which provides a much easier sheen for the normally stark Windows system.
A home page and nine other screens can be "swiped" between contacts, texts, e-mail, web browser, pictures and videos, music, weather, settings and programs. Most subsidiary menus can be pecked at with a finger, until you drill down to the point where you need the stylus to navigate further.
The phone has some quirks such as a weather screen featuring a virtual windscreen wiper, but it also has many useful features.
The contacts page can feature your most regularly called contacts and the music page will feature album cover art in 3D. Incoming SMS messages show up in full on the messages home page and are displayed as threaded chats.
Where the Diamond can start to match the iPhone is web browsing. The Opera 9.5 browser is excellent and features the double-tap zooming in and out and panning around with a finger swipe. It also comes with in-built YouTube software.
Like the iPhone, it has an accelerometer to flip between portrait and landscape for video, photos and web browsing.
Video and audio playback is excellent, making the Diamond an all-round video and MP3 player. The GPS system also works satisfyingly fast. The Diamond will even - shock horror - run for a full day making calls over 3G.
Some niggles remains. There is almost no ability to personalise the user interface, other than changing the wallpaper behind the main home page, and the weather page won't display the local time. The 3.2Mp autofocus camera is nothing to write home about, but beats the iPhone's 2MP effort. One thing it does have in common with the iPhone though - lack of a memory card slot.
Overall, this is a very capable smartphone. Although you will have to pay through the nose for a Sim-free version, at least you can use it on any network. Unlike the iPhone . . .
