Here's the deal with the contrast in the HTC review and the iPhone reviews Jason. The iPhone is not perfect. It's absolutely true. It has flaws, just as every phone does. Even through those flaws, however, the USER EXPERIENCE comes off very good. This is something Microsoft is still working on and, quite frankly, something HTC will NEVER get.
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I was about to comment on Jason's criticism of the lack of consistency with reviews like this, and you took the words right out of my mouth. It's absolutely true, Apple has proven that user experience matters. The slick and quick interface always gives you a warm fuzzy and leaves you impressed with the device. It makes the negative points much easier to swallow. On the other hand, a device that's sluggish becomes quickly annoying and taints your overall view of it.
Now, you could certainly argue that a professional (?) reviewer should take the emotion out of it and purely review based on objective things, but again - the subjective stuff matters and I think that's why we see "unfair" reviews like this.
As a current HTC Touch owner, I'm fed up with the sluggishness of this device and I'm really disappointed to here that the Diamond is also slow. Despite generally liking WM, I'm starting to wonder if it's time to jump ship - at least until WM7 is out. The lure of Android, iPhone 3G and the hopefully upcoming Palm Gen2 OS is getting too tempting.
Here's the deal with the contrast in the HTC review and the iPhone reviews Jason. The iPhone is not perfect. It's absolutely true. It has flaws, just as every phone does. Even through those flaws, however, the USER EXPERIENCE comes off very good. This is something Microsoft is still working on and, quite frankly, something HTC will NEVER get.
And you think that's all there is to it? User experience or not, I find it hard to believe that you don't see any difference in the coverage of the iPhone versus other phones on the market - I agree fully that the user experience on the Touch Diamond doesn't match that of the iPhone, but that review was still extremely biased. There's absolutely no way that the Touch Diamond is a 2 out of 6 phone - that's a grossly unfair rating.
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The slick and quick interface always gives you a warm fuzzy and leaves you impressed with the device. It makes the negative points much easier to swallow. On the other hand, a device that's sluggish becomes quickly annoying and taints your overall view of it.
Slick interfaces and warm fuzzies last for the first few days - any reviewer worth his salt looks past that and looks at the deeper issues, like does the device perform well at the tasks it was designed for. I'm not knocking the iPhone, but the Touch Diamond is a much better device than this reviewer makes it out to be.
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I have been using the Diamond for awhile and would easily call it the best WM device I've used, without a keyboard. Is it perfect no, neither is the iPhone or any other device on the market.
For those that will say... Yes, the iPhone may not be perfect, but it is the best phone available.
The iPhone is bigger than the Diamond, which matters to me and many others
The iPhone battery hasn't lasted as long as my Diamond (yes, I have one)
I can edit MS files on the Diamond if necessary, not yet available on iPhone
The screen is better on the Diamond than the iPhone 3G, it is smaller because the phone is smaller.
Security on my WM device is way beyond the iPhone, especially when used with System Centre Mobile Device Manager. For example: Mobile VPN with Dual Factor Authenticated Access (device and user)
I can see as a consumer device the iPhone has a lot of appeal to many people. But for those who use their device for work (Enterprise) and have to manage devices in a work environment the iPhone (all models) just doesn't cut it.
I have been using the Diamond for awhile and would easily call it the best WM device I've used, without a keyboard. Is it perfect no, neither is the iPhone or any other device on the market.
But is it sluggish? If it's as slow as most WM devices (or worse?) as the reviewer seemed to imply then I don't really care how many great features it has.
Slick interfaces and warm fuzzies last for the first few days - any reviewer worth his salt looks past that and looks at the deeper issues, like does the device perform well at the tasks it was designed for. I'm not knocking the iPhone, but the Touch Diamond is a much better device than this reviewer makes it out to be.
Jason, I agree that the reviewer needs to look past this, but it seemed as though the sluggishness was so bad that it almost didn't matter what the rest of the device had to offer. (he almost admitted as much too)
So in my mind the question is, "was the slowness as bad as he made it out to be?" Maybe it wasn't - maybe there is some truth to the idea that newer versions/ROM's have improved it. Or, maybe he had an agenda. Who knows. But if his experience was accurate, then I would have shredded it too - there's just no excuse anymore for that kind of sloppy design. (and unfortunately this has become a pattern of behavior from HTC) On the other hand, if you're a reviewer and you're used to reviewing iPhone's, Blackberrys, Treos, etc, then you're probably going to find most WM devices to be slow. So maybe we WM geeks wouldn't notice much, but to everyone else it seems far worse?
Whatever the case, I refuse to believe that WM devices can't be snappy and quick. Palm managed to do a pretty good job on their first try with the 700wx and 750. Why can't HTC figure it out?
Whatever the case, I refuse to believe that WM devices can't be snappy and quick. Palm managed to do a pretty good job on their first try with the 700wx and 750. Why can't HTC figure it out?
I had a whole paragraph on how HTC basically got owned by Palm on Palm's first WM attempt, even with all the "experience" HTC has. You're absolutely right, this is pattern behavior for HTC. Maybe that's what the reviewer is fed up with.
It's like if Tina just kept going back to Ike and getting bitch slapped over and over again. Eventually you'll just get fed up with it.
The problem with trying to dissect his review is that you want your opinion to be his opinion. It's your opinion that the iPhone sucks and isn't as flexible as the Diamond. That's fine, but that's why it's called an opinion. After all, even a professional review is just an opinion.
Bottom line: If you like being slapped by the Wizard/Apache and then you went back and liked being bitch slapped by the TyTn series, and then you came back again to get knocked out by the Vogue, you're going to LOVE the Touch Diamond/Pro.
It's your opinion that the iPhone sucks and isn't as flexible as the Diamond.
It's a fact, not an opinion.
And if you deny that fact you just count yourself to the big masses who has absolutely no clue at all what they are talking about.
(Even my 3-years-old Qtek 2020i aka HTC Alpine owns the current iphone, the next iphone and it will surely also own the next couple generations of the iphone overall. "Surely" because we all know how apple works.
Before the Alpine my 4-years-old HTC BlueAngel was more flexible than the iphone.
And I know even older WM devices which were way more flexible than the iphone overall.
You cannot deny that, these are *experienced* facts. If you deny that you never *experienced* mobile devices before the apple ones.)
I don't have the Diamond or the iPhone and don't plan on getting either of them. I have a TyTN and a TyTNII, both branded by At&t, and like others here I won't go back to HTC until they pull their head out of a very dark place and start making pocket PCs that live up to the hype, and actually take full advantage of the hardware they are using.
It's absolutely true, Apple has proven that user experience matters. The slick and quick interface always gives you a warm fuzzy and leaves you impressed with the device. It makes the negative points much easier to swallow. On the other hand, a device that's sluggish becomes quickly annoying and taints your overall view of it. 
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