Two of the new phones are updates for existing phones - the HTC Touch Diamond2 brings a new design and better battery life to the iconic Diamond range, and the HTC TouchPro2 has a natty slide-out keyboard . New to the HTC range is the Snap, a BlackBerry-style qwerty smartphone.
These three bring the total number of HTC models now available in Australia to 11, across a range of networks.
The new Touch and Diamond feature the latest TouchFLO 3D interface. Some of the improvements are impressive: HTC's 'people-centric' communication bring together details of phonecalls, messages and emails so that they're all accessible via the single contact view. You can see your entire conversational history, no matter what method of contact you've used, during a phone call, or from the contact card.
Another new touch with both the TouchPro2 and Diamond2 is ‘push' Internet. Once you have designated your favourite websites, you can specify how frequently you would like the content of those sites downloaded to your phone. It's the perfect way to always ensure that your preferred news site is up to date when you check it, even if you're offline. Despite the name, it's not true push internet, since it fetches sites at intervals you specify.
HTC says that the phones will come with Windows Mobile 6.1 installed, but that the TouchPro2 and Diamond2 will be upgradable to Windows Mobile 6.5 shortly after launch.
Right now, the only thing that hurts the appeal of these new phones is the lack of an App Store-equivalent for Windows Mobile-based devices. We're keeping an ear out for announcements about that, but in the meantime, we can only imagine how awesome these gadgets would be with Android installed.
HTC Touch Diamond2
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| HTC Touch Diamond2 sports a new design. |
Improvements from the previous incarnation of the Diamond include a new streamlined shape, larger 3.2in screen, and a new touch sensitive zoom bar, just underneath the screen. We tested this out yesterday and found it easy to use and incredibly useful for website viewing.
We lamented the original Diamond's sluggishness, but the update to TouchFLO 3D has also brought impressive speed improvements.
The Diamond2 also includes a 5-megapixel camera. It will be available through Optus networks.
HTC TouchPro2
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| HTC TouchPro2 with slide-out keyboard |
The TouchPro2's 3.6in widescreen is now supplemented by a 1500mAh battery - providing the kind of battery life that we saw in the Touch HD from our most recent smartphone test.
The improved battery life is a great development as far as we're concerned, but there's also improved sound according to HTC. As part of the promised better sound experience, the TouchPro2 turns into a speakerphone if you flip it over on its face, like a turtle. It's a good combination with the newer easier method of getting friends or work colleagues in on conference calls - from an email, you can just tap the contacts and go.
Another nice feature is the proximity sensor, which renders the number pad inactive when you have the phone up to your ear - no more ear-dialing!
The TouchPro2 will be available through Telstra.
HTC Snap
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| HTC Snap - competition for the BlackBerry? |
We got to play with the Snap for a decent length of time at the launch, and were pretty impressed with its intuitiveness. The trackball is used for most aspects of navigation, meaning that you don't need to move your fingers too far to get access to all the most useful commands, settings and applications.
The trackball navigation makes it incredibly user-friendly, but what HTC wants to shout about is the "Inner Circle" feature. A small green button on the bottom right of the phone lets you sort emails from your friends or important business colleagues so they're easier to locate. It's a feature that resembles the "sort by" function in BlackBerry's version 4.6 software, as we saw in the BlackBerry Curve 8900, but we didn't get a chance to put it through its paces to see how fully-featured the sorting capabilities are.
The Snap, like the TouchPro2, has a 1500mAh battery for longer talk time. HTC sales and marketing director Anthony Petts made the point that you can connect it up to an exchange server without needing any extra software, making it straightforward for business users.
The HTC Snap will be available through Optus.