Dude, you’ve got a Diamond
It’s kind of interesting wandering around WWDC as every so often I pull out my HTC Diamond from my hip holster to jot down notes or email addresses. Usually the first reaction is “dude, it’s not an iPhone” as almost every man, woman and pet dog, cat and rat has one here (not surprising, given it’s WWDC). The next reaction is almost an instantaneous justification as to why having an iPhone is the evidence that you’re a superior human being to anyone who doesn’t have one (ignoring the fact I now own 2 iPod Touches).
About this point I rattle off some of the superior reasons I like to use my Diamond over the iPhone in no particular order:
1) It has a superior camera. 3.2 megapixels gives good output with daylight and is on par with my 5+ year old Canon w/o flash.
2) I have wi-fi, BlueTooth, GSM, EDGE and HSDPA access. Many devices only have 3.5G or lower here in USA.
3) I have multitasking. I can switch from one app to another fairly trivially. So I can run Skype, IM, Notes and Opera simultaneously.
4) I have a forward facing VGA camera for video conferencing.
5) I have a nice, crisp high res VGA screen. Bit hard to read sometimes but works exceptionally well regardless.
6) Android. Android is in development for the Diamond. Still getting there however.
7) I can pay and download apps w/o the blessing of Microsoft or another 3rd party collecting revenue.
I can tether without some monopolistic mobile company restricting me from doing so.
9) I also can get and send MMS.
About this point rabid Kool-Aid quaffing iPhone fan will start muttering about how great iPhone OS 3.0 will be when it’s released later in June, about this point I mention I got all of these features late 2008 when I first purchased the Diamond where they feebly claim their iPhone OS 3.0 beta was all cool and stuff. Admittedly the Diamond is slow, has some pretty low battery life at times (though, one of my co-workers mentioned they had to charge their iPhone daily, which is not great vs my 3-4 day life on the Diamond) and some annoying usability issues (resolved with additional apps) however I think it’s a good phone overall.
At the moment only Sprint has the Diamond equivalent (with larger battery & missing the VGA front camera) so I’m not too sore over the smaller battery which leaves my Diamond thinner and lighter than most on the market. Most people get over it and when they realise it’s a superior device for what I need to do, maybe it’s “Dude, why did I buy an iPhone?” after the shafting over AT&T is giving all the US customers for non-existent tethering and RSN MMS capabilities with the release of the iPhone 3GS.