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Back at CTIA last month, I was able to take the Touch Diamond 2, the Snap, and even the Touch Pro 2 for a spin. I really love all 3 and the Diamond 2 is probably the least likely of the 3 to be my daily driver. That is mainly because of not having a keyboard. Well, I have one in hand now and since I don’t have the other 2 yet, it’s feeling quite nice. I love a new phone in the morning. I will have my video online this evening. I shot the 1st 2 parts, but need to get the software walkthrough in tonight. I ran out of time last night. So, look for it late this evening. While we wait, enjoy my photos from CTIA and my 1st impressions…

The unit I got is an unlocked, European version. No 3G for me, but I am used to EDGE in my parts anyway. I popped my sim card in and went to work. The 1st thing I did was navigate to the communications settings. HTC has a VERY SLICK setup for major carriers. Instead of having to poke around and type in all the server addresses and such, you get a drop down menu asking for your country. After selecting the United States, it gave me a choice of around 20 carriers in the US that includes AT&T and T-Mobile. I clicked AT&T and I was online, and it worked.

I have yet to dig too deep, but this phone has a 5 Megapixel camera like the Samsung Omnia. I had to test it out and I was truly impressed. It won’t replace my big camera, but for those quick shot, sure. The Diamond 2 also has a forward facing camera for video calls. This will surely be deleted on the US Carrier versions of the Diamond 2.

Performance wise, I couldn’t be happier. This is the snappiest Windows Mobile Phone I have used to date. That is no exaggeration either. It’s got a 528 mhz Qualcomm processor with 512 MB ROM and 288MB of RAM. Plenty of horsepower to make Touch Flo 3D fly. I have witnessed zero lag in any app so far. Well, I got some slow loads with EDGE, but you can expect that. My video tonight will show this. It’s swift.

Text Entry… Oh boy. I hate on screen keyboards with a passion. I’ve gotten used to the iPhone’s keyboard already, but I don’t like them still. HTC has a new keyboard included that is set as the default that is a full QWERTY with predictive text. The predictive text is annoying but you can get used to it easy enough. You also have the choice from all the standard Windows Mobile entry methods too. This new keyboard is about twice the size of the default keyboard that comes standard with WinMo.

So far, the only thing that has thrown me was something that some might find cool… This morning I was testing out the EDGE and decided to click on the bookmark for Facebook. Loaded quickly. Problem is, I was logged in and saw my timeline and “Chris Leckness” info. Where in the living hell did the phone get my credentials? I haven’t even sync’ed my exchange server yet.  When I plugged in to USB to charge last night, I just closed the Device Center windows and did NOT set up the device. Other than my own sim card, all is still out of the box.  Weird huh?

Anyhow, top notch so far. I’ll get the video out there tonight. I will shoot some new photos too.

Chris Leckness (3531 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.