Or is it an upgrade after all? I first thought that what I use now is already the top end of HTC, Dopod C720w, but here comes a later model, HTC Touch Diamond. Touch Diamond is actually the flagship phone of Taiwan’s smart handheld device maker, HTC, and offers some of the most common features like messaging, contacts, photos and video, music, Internet, e-mail, and weather scanning. What do HTC’s smart phones have? Well, they have these very stunning aesthetics and touch intuitive features that can rival that of iPhone’s. That’s why I jokingly call my Dopod C720w as iPhone 3g-like smart phone. HTC Touch Diamond is a Windows Mobile 6.1 device (mine is a version 5.0) that features the TouchFlo 3D, a plug-ins or touch customized interfaces that make the Windows Mobile OS touch sensitive. The applications also include Opera 9.5 browser, an MP3 Trimmer for ringtones and YouTube client. How truly hi-tech this phone really is that I do find it hard to use with this very limited technical know-how of mine! And as a 3.5G device with a Bluetooth 2.0 and a built-in GPS receiver, Touch Diamond offers mobile Internet with 7.2Mbps high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA).

Some more useful tools that this phone comes with are a 3-megapixel camera with auto focus and a 2.8-inch touch screen, as well as a Qualcomm processor with 528MHz speed, a 256MB ROM, and 192MB RAM underneath the device. These are aside from a dedicated on-board graphics chip and a 4GB internal storage. Lovely! I never realized in the beginning that I have got such a powerful tool with me for use in my daily routines. It’s good to explore further what this phone can offer us more — it wouldn’t take much time. But my only concern? The battery is not readily available in my location now (Nonthaburi, Thailand) that I still have to order it from HTC-Taiwan where it’ll cost me to get just 1 battery about half the price of the phone itself. A phone upgrade is not possible — change and get a new one instead — thus, calling for more investment! So, is it still worth to buy a replacement battery? I guess so. Sigh!