Pocketnow Throwback: HTC Touch Diamond

Remember the HTC Touch Diamond? Sure you do! It was a very important device not only for HTC and Microsoft, but for the smartphone industry in general. Released in the early summer of 2008, a full year after the iPhone hit store shelves, the Touch Diamond represented an industry-wide shift from styli-centric interface design to finger-friendly usability. TouchFLO 3D from HTC made it easy to operate a Windows Mobile device with just a finger. Not only that, but it brought information out of programs and onto your main screen, so that you could easily check the weather, play music, call a contact, and more.
The Touch Diamond ran with a Qualcomm 528MHz CPU with 192MB of RAM. Certainly, this looks a bit weak in comparison do devices like the Atrix 4G, which pack two 1GHz CPU cores and 1GB of RAM. The Touch Diamond was indeed a bit slow, and the resistive touchscreen lacked the responsiveness of the iPhone's capacitive screen, but it brought so many innovations to the table in a nice petite size, that it was easy to forget the minor inconveniences like low memory errors or the lack of pinch-to-zoom.
Do you own a Touch Diamond? What about the phone impressed you?
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Pocketnow Throwback: HTC Touch Diamond
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[@LebbaiGani]

Watching this video in 2020.. I can still remember the amazing teeter game ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@The21Quest]

Watching it in 2024 and I remember a version of that on early Android. I laughed so hard when he compared the keyboard to the "4.3 inch displays of today"!

[@atvega7]

Watching this on my Fold 2. I loved the Touch Diamond! I had the unlocked European version with US T Mobile. I had the slowest connection, lol. So many great cab files over at the good folks at XDA. So many memories. Cheers🍻

[@gagatai]

i still remember when this phone release it was like the biggest thing in town, advertisement everywhere (in Hong Kong), tv ad, billboard ad, girls handing out flyer, HTC shops, everyone talking about it. The coolest feature i remember was the weather app, it animate

[@a_dhaysh]

Oooh back then phones needed an adapter to put your 3.5mm jack headphones thank god we are in 2016

[@GlaciatorGaming]

lol

[@JaesadaSrisuk]

Anthony Honciano That's the joke lol.

[@ZartruS]

We need a adapter again in 2018 ! ☹️

[@aminezerouali950]

@@ZartruS also in 2019 :/ btw, i came from the futur

[@cadenchurchill4296]

Hard to believe that back when this throwback video was released the current iPhone was the iPhone 4! So much has changed since that model!

[@qook1543]

I miss my HTC Diamond 😭

[@TheVybo]

I had the GSM one. It was the half thickness of this Verzion piece and to this day, I think it was probably the best phone I have ever had. I owned Android, iphone and Lumia and still, I had the most fun with the Diamond.

[@madgreenb]

I won this phone in a raffle when I was a kid.... I remember learning how to root (or whatever it's called for windows mobile) so I could get android, and custom ui's. ahh memories

[@plzdonhack]

had one of these. Threw this in the water not lesser than 100 times. Still works and I decided to submerge it in the water for the whole night. Salute to HTC

[@mannydmammoth]

wow, htc did do a great job... i remember my friend had it so i would play with it all the time

[@ethanmasmr4681]

I remember when this was one of the most elegant smart phones at the time!

[@steffiano360]

I love that the battery is lasting so long and that it is fast with titanium rom installed.I think that my next phone is a diamond again :)

[@qook1543]

Did you ever get it?

[@Whooooper]

i had this phone and when i got the hd2 i was completely blown away by the huge screen (: good times

[@Browningate]

The review was really off in a lot of areas and they managed to review the funky/nonstandard Verizon model instead of the regular one. They also missed the main weakness of the device too, which was the buggy "hands free activation" program that would eventually bring down any Diamond running the stock Rom to an unusable crawl, rendering the phone useless.

[@toonygamer2004]

HTC should renovate, of course, and bring back this touch diamond and that cool design on the back to an Android held phone. A 4", thinner version with a metal diamond design backing with Android 2.3, and HTC's newest Sense UI meant to come out when 2.3 is standard on all of HTC's newest phones. I liked this flash back video.

[@DAVIDSDIEGO]

I had this phone back in the day and it wasn't completely horrible. I had email notifications, from the lock screen, back in 2008.

[@xirxes]

Its really interesting to see this old version of touch flo in use. I actually used Sense on my touch pro 2 from the day I got it. I will say that htc's youtube app got a lot of use on that device for sure. It was really good at what it did.

[@3y4tdf3y4rt]

It remembers me of the good old days of TouchFlo 3D on my HTC Touch HD :)

[@sonrocker]

This was my baby back then!

[@sdwpaul]

i think the original HTC Touch, with the "cube interface" aka Touch Flow 3D was the one to bring finger friendly UI to smartphones. But the display on the diamond and pro was awesome for the day. also, the new htc home screen was pretty cool.

[@tjex1]

We are talking about 2008 as if it was the dark ages. How technology has evolved!

[@Jabid21]

To be honest, HTC does really well in designing user interface compared to other manufacturers or OS vendors (IMO) despite the fact that HTC sense hogs all your resources, especially on android.

[@DeeDee-rx3cb]

my first android experience was an xda rom loaded on this. blew my mind.

[@tannyunique]

HTC Touch Pro 2 was my last Windows Mobile device

[@eggaweb]

To the people of the past, hi. A retro video of a retro phone...

[@kopie14]

This wasn't before soft-touch...the Sprint version came out before the Verizon one, and it had soft-touch back

[@NoahKuzel]

I didn't have the Touch Diamond, but I did have the Touch Pro. Forbwhat it was, it was a great device and a breath of fresh air from BlackBerry and the problems that were associated with the pearl. Palm was also lacking and Symbian was not available on US markets. If it was I would have went with the N71

[@VW19900]

TC Touch Diamond?

[@MythicSuns]

+Volkswagen1990 it's Top Cats phone

[@VW19900]

+Ben Knight (KnightVision) Ah that would explain it. I was going to say maybe he was saying HTC but the audio got cut. But Top Cat seems much more believable.

[@MythicSuns]

***** i know right?

[@AdrianMC2002]

I actually miss having that thing

[@SRASC]

Should do a Throwback to the original iPhone to celebrate its 5 years.

[@Pocketnow]

@ManuelDr haha. good catch!

[@gee7201]

I had the HTC Touch Pro, loved it!

[@spasmado]

htc touch hd! i still use it today

[@jonny95ls1]

Great video!! You should try to get a Samsung SGH-T509 and do a throwback video on it. It was a motorola slvr competitor, and was a pretty cool phone back in the day (2007). Thanks!

[@linkeddevices]

Do the HTC Athena. It was designed with a magnetic keyboard that can be removed which basically made it the first Samsung note. They called it the power pad at the time. It was nothing but a huge 5 inch screen and everything was touch friendly

[@myonlyvideo2010]

This video came out in 2011..so I love how he mocks this phone like it's crap..While praising an iPhone 4 😂 I love these throwback videos..because it shows how far the smartphone world has come..we have gone from pocket PC's that didn't work all that well, to the Galaxy Note 3, and Moto X, I phone 4s, galaxy s5...With fingerprint scanners, and heart rate monitors...crazy...

[@supermario3310]

Teeter я видел на htc sensation радует, что у этого бренда такая крепкая приемственность интерфейсов и базовых программ.

[@ravenravenPL]

Cool series! I'm really looking forward to see more!

[@TrainInMyButt]

You're talking about 2008, like it was a hundred years ago. :)

[@mario19815]

no touch diamond but i had a touch pro and sold it when i got my evo and i regret selling my touch pro it was such a nice looking phone!

[@dglenn247]

i had a touch pro. I miss it. The camera quality on it was really good. My android is cheap and crappy camera.

[@Tubleros]

I had that before my htc Desire :D It was actually very good!

[@o0julek0o]

Ugh. I wish HTC continued with the awesome diamond design. I was actually deciding between this and the iPhone 3G... I went with the iPhone, because it had some amazing multitouch features... Sorta outran everything on the market at the time.

[@CyberDemonVZ]

"Remember"?? I'm still using it! Using it for navigation, mail, remote desktop, web, youtube, skype, movies... Ofcourse, it's overclocked, and has custom ROM :) I love it's size! Sometimes I even cannot find it in my pocekt :)))

[@AngadAnand1]

This wasn't the first to have the thumb scrolling element... You should do a throw back for the htc touch! That was genesis the flo cube! Was epic at its time

[@DannySilvester]

If you could get hold of an original iPhone 2G that's never been updated. That would make a great throwback video. Would be interesting to see how much has changed since Apple introduced the app store

[@froidesprit]

More than 5 years later, we have the Pixel. Can we still get the old PN intro song?

[@martyhog01]

I was using the touch pro version of this phone until just 2 weeks ago...lol... Have an Atrix 4g now...talk about a step up!!! :)

[@HikikomoriDev]

Loved Windows Mobile.

[@realvivifromloona]

Same. I still love it though.

[@AleksandarMitrevski]

I still use my HTC Touch Diamond it is nice phone i like it :)

[@ytxstream]

i still used my touch diamond till recently when i got my desire hd (however with a newer rom with that it is actually still a quite usefull device)

[@LIT0187]

That phone was awesome in is time.

[@abualmsa]

i still use this phone XD, need to upgrade !!

[@sdFreerey]

06:45 - "The iPhone wasn't even doing really cool, fancy graphic stuff like this." Well, I guess you've never heard of cover-flow ;)

[@Adrianair747]

Cover flow was very buggy an was not available on all songs. So you just swipe through blank squares...:) Your point is invalid

[@sayanmalakar8438]

Funny how history repeats itself.

[@VazDraeStudios]

Well, you can actually have multi-touch on resistive touch screens. This one just doesnt have it.

[@vvan222]

What did they put inside the phone, made it so thick like that??!

[@YYBLT]

yea X1 should have throwback it was great phone and its still so good and nice device i am so luck that i have one thumbs up if you guys want a throwback of the X1

[@foxxstain]

i still own this

[@skitzthegemini]

HELL YEAH BRANDON! Windows Phone 7 will never be as popular as Windows Mobile was in its hay day!

[@alexderpyracc4053]

Mine got a selfie cam and things for some reason is the American version different?

[@dllndvs]

@TrainInMyButt i think a lot of people weren't as interested in smartphones before the introduction of android and widespread iphoneness so many people don't know about this phone

[@MelvinSF]

I had this phone (and its successor), and it was a nice pretty little device. Then it got damaged... Then I attempted to repair it... And then it never worked again. *ahem* But it was the European version, a lot less ugly than the Verizon version. Thinner, unthemed TouchFLO 3D, and without the colored call send/end keys.

[@DigitalGamma]

The XPERIA X1 had an amazing PPI. 300 and something.

[@DavidAltreiter]

i would be interested in a video about the first phone with touchscreen dont which phone that is!

[@Mouthmusician]

HTC has been keep up with smart phones, not sure I could say the same with the rest of them smart phone players.

[@MeatloafBomb]

Make a throwback to the Droid Eris :P

[@ManuelDr]

Please do a Throwback of the Dash 3G/Maple! PLEASY-PLEASE!

[@series333]

remember the moto razer, thats when it all started

[@Starkiller935]

my friend actually still uses one of those... not a super nostalgic video, shoul've tried older ones like the TyTN...

[@DJPsyq]

I come from the future where 6GB of RAM is now normal on phones.

[@bryantai00]

Ahah! the way he says sucks. it sort of SUCK it in. :D

[@appletime20]

CORRECTION, you CAN in fact have multi-touch on a resistive screen

[@Reuterli]

It was a great phone, no doubt.

[@The8800GTX]

Wasn't the GSM version thinner ?

[@MrPenriquez]

Even now the magnetic stylus is cool

[@salx101]

Throw back to the original motor razr

[@AdamiXko]

6:27 with Touch PRO 2, and only when u slide out the keyboard. Not HD ;) I was using it :)

[@ifzwischendurch]

Better design than Android Lollipop or iOS 9.

[@taseenkhan5204]

+DerKanal ....

[@meagen1342]

not at all

[@JoRosieQueen68]

Wished htc would of remained on this design,I like how material design looks but not on htc devices,even samsung moved with the s8 to a new estetic,a new iconography,yet we see htc with it's lacking interface,it's a mere shell of what it was back then.

[@realvivifromloona]

Too bad nobody gives a damn about Windows Mobile so there's no new apps for it (as long as I know), and even MS ended support for all of the versions, but still it's a great OS.

[@MK040]

I have it and can say you, that it is only the start page that looks good. The rest just looks awful.

[@AngadAnand1]

I owned one of these!:D

[@RichColours]

@TrainInMyButt Yeah he does! People still own this phone!

[@angel2901]

@TrainInMyButt it is when it comes to Tech

[@elmarinsh4804]

waching on htc 10

[@callmemarc]

Wow that thing is thick

[@GeorgeWalkerS2000]

4:25 hahaha so interesting Note 3 has 3gb of ram now, funny how much changes over time.

[@Wonderouz]

Lol now we're on note 10

[@kaleidoscopeon]

@danilomnis hell yeah, best phone ever made!

[@moweh]

@TrainInMyButt In terms of technology it is a 100 years ago

[@lightness1990]

It's not even that old of a device? :(

[@rushpittsburgh4]

I see a few things still in use on sense 4+ on my droid dna

[@yourilohuis]

TC touch diamond?

[@MR.DRAWWWW7]

que android ni nada esto es el futuro que deveria volver

[@8Beet]

I still use HTC touch pro! (number 1) am I a caveman? :(

[@TrainInMyButt]

@CrisRowlands he-he.

[@itay2424]

Wow Brandon you need an anti-dandruff shampoo :)

[@Uberlight2]

EXPERIA X1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@gurungbibu]

HTC TOUCH HD, HTC HD 2 Compared to HTC HD 7 Pleaseeeee :)

[@PiratePhD]

haha my uncle still uses this phone

[@sammygoris]

My old phone!

[@JoRosieQueen68]

Mine was one of Motorola's Razer devices,then the htc magic,then allview v1 viper 16gb edition,then the GS Note 4,than v2 viper xe.

[@ManuelDr]

Airborne saliva at 4:06 lulz.

[@nazlim09]

X1 please.....!