[Touch Diamond, MDA Compact IV General] Baronic:
First impression

, EXTREMELY bad fingerprint magnet. I was expecting it to be like D810's fingerprint problem, but its much muh worse. However, the back cover seems to be a different kinda plastic glossy coating than D810, so i expect no peeling problems here.

Start up screen

, after it install all necessary sys cabs, there's actually a short demo (video) on how to use the Touch interface. The old Touch didnt have that, justin writing in a manual..

The glass screen feels....like got some static attraction, so its totally not fun to scroll around with the finger. Well see how it is after putting on the screen protector

EDITED: Added Screenprotector

, Touch feel is now MUCH better. Screenprotector is also of high quality. (thick and solid)

UPDATE on ICONS

: Some games i insalled like Hexic and Warcraft 2, the icons in the start menu is totally screwed up, like, can see the shape of the icon, but not wat the icon is. It looks black and has strange lines. But not all games like this. Only some. I'm trying to figure out why. They're all meant for VGA. Hmm

Running the game once and performing a soft reset solves this problem.

UPDATE on TOUCH FLO 3D LAG

: I've tried to mess around with Touch FLo 3D, see how much stress it can take. Handling it normally, placing my thumb at the bottom and moving it left to right, selecting what it want, and returning to the home screen, no problem at all. Now as you know besides sliding your thumb around, u can just CLICK it and what you want will appear. Example you're at TODAY screen, i click messages instead of susah go slide from TODAY to MESSAGES. Slight lag occurs when i do this (a tenth of a second? Probably loading time not really a "lag"). Now i tried ABUSING the system = Click on on messages, before messages load, i click Today, click Music, click Programs, click Internet, Click click click click. Basically i'm not letting ANYTHING load, just spamming clicks. A definite lag before what i last clicked finally appears on my screen (about 1- 1.5 seconds). Which is impressive, considering how i abused it like crazy. LOL. I honestly expected it to hang.

UPDATE ON MAPKING 2007:

I have just tested it, and Mapking users will be glad to know that it supports the VGA screen on HTC Diamond, and GPS works flawlessly, despite worries that eGPS since its new, may not be recognized by Mapking

UPDATE ON CALL OF DUTY

: Works absolutely awesome, NOT using minimal settings, i was able to play pretty well. NOTE: Tytn2 and Touch Cruise was NOT able to play due to heavy lag even with minimal settings. Game was perfectly fine, with except with just a small little, not lag, but looks like the rendering was a bit slow as i looked around, when i used hardkeys and stylus at the same time. NOTE: ALL pdas lag in gaming when using hardkeys and joystick at the same time. However, it was minimal, and call of duty was enjoyable to say the least. SO yes, it DOES have graphic accelerators. Proper benchmarks will be done when i have proper time.

UPDATE. SPB benchmark seems to hang. cant run it. hangs at testing word document.

UPDATE on Touch Flo 3D

part 2: Download http://xdaforums.com/attachment...42&d=1202399126, thanks to schap, and customize File system cache to 8mb and file system filter cache to 131072. This gives drastic improvements in Touch Flo 3D.

UPDATE ON BATTERY REVIEW

: I did this test, based on what a student (like me) would probably use. More sms than calls. Here's a rough estimate.

TOTAL HOURS BEFORE KONKING OUT TOTALLY = approximately 9 hours, give or take

TOTAL SMS-ES = 120

TOTAL TALK TIME = approximately 15-20 mins

TOTAL LIGHT GAMING TIME (Hexic) = 45 mins.

Its actually pretty impressive.

My verdict is that with backlight on "auto adjust" and with the dimlight dimming within seconds after not being used, there is a HUGE amount of power saving from running the VGA screen. Also, it could be possible that with its graphic accelerators, gaming also consumed less power than usual.

My Touch Cruise same amount of usage above lasted 11-12 hours

IMPORTANT UPDATE (regarding black icons)

: It appears that the cause of our ugly black icons is not our VGA screen, but Touch Flo 3D itself. Looks like its a bit buggy. So we'll have to wait for a proper rom update regarding it (or perhaps someone can come up with a registry fix). Don't believe me? switch off your Touch Flo 3D, and soft reset your PDA. All icons should turn back to normal. Also, with Touch Flo 3D off, you can expect better battery life, as well as a significant increase in speed for your pda.

UPDATE HTC Touch FLO 3D

, another bug: There appears to be memory leak issues with Touch Flo 3D. The longer u use the less ram u'll appear to have. Will have to wait for rom update to fix all these bugs

My Blog : http://heretical-rantings.blogspot.com/2008/06/htc-touch-diamond-user-review.html

IMPORTANT UPDATE (bluetooth stack problem)

: It appears that after using Bluetooth A2dp, your pda will have "vibration non stop" as well as phone totally mute problems. This is reported by other members in XDA. I'll run a check up on the latest 1.37 rom and see if this is fixed, as well as other issues. Stay tuned.

UPDATE ON ROM 1.37.707.1

Rom 1.37.707.1

BLACK ICONS PROBLEM: Unresolved <------- WTF MAN HTC!!:mad::mad:

Bluetooth stack/mute problem : Pending testing

Memory Leak Issues: APPEARS SOLVED (doesnt go above 57% here, last time 70+%)

random problem where sms tone does not ring, but only rings when u wake up your phone, despite receiving it long before SOLVED. But device is still set not to wake up at incoming sms by default.

gimme 24 hours to test bluetooth stack/ sudden mute problem and memory leak issues