There's no flash of any kind and there's at least a four-second delay between pressing the button and the shutter operating, so quick snaps are not its forte. There's not much in the way of editing facilities either, or a multi-shot option.

It does take decent enough pictures in good light however, and its slideshow is still a thing of beauty, fading from one pic to the next, and allowing you to zoom in or out by twirling your finger on the screen.

Video however has an alarming amount of movement smear, though it's still better than previous HTC cameras.

Built-in GPS

The Diamond also has GPS onboard and uses Google Maps to show your location in graphics and pictures.

The small screen means it's not the most useful tool for navigating while driving, but for finding your way on foot, it's perfectly fine.

Unfortunately, adding another sat-nav system such as TomTom (like you get on the Cruise) is made slightly more difficult by the lack of memory card slot (you'd need to download it from your PC) and it would take up a sizeable chunk of your 4GB onboard memory.

Limited battery life

For music, HTC's own player is more attractive than Windows Media Player, plus there's a graphic equaliser and also FM radio too. Sadly, HTC is sticking with its USB plug for the so-so headphones, so you won't be able to upgrade to a better pair without an adaptor, unless you use Bluetooth.

Compromises have been made to pack all of HTC's expertise into such a small package. It doesn't even pretend to have much in the way of battery life, promising just four hours of talktime. And sure enough, we found we got significantly short of two days' moderate use out of it.

It's also reverted to tri-band rather than quad-band like its predecessor the Cruise and possibly the most significant no-no is the lack of memory cards – 4GB isn't bad, but it will only take you so far. Oh, it also tends to run worryingly hot after a while.

A rival for the iPhone?

The iPhone may have the visual edge with its big screen. But if you want a smartphone that's eminently more pocketable, and can do everything that the iPhone can do and more, the Touch Diamond is the one to go for.

Looks: 8
Ease of use: 9
Features: 9
Call quality: 8
Value: 9

Network availability: Orange (others TBC)

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Update: since reviewing this phone, the successor, the HTC Touch Diamond2 has been releases. Read our review of the HTC Touch Diamond2.