First official HTC Touch Diamond ROM with GSM 850 support released

by Chris Ziegler posted Jul 24th 2008 at 10:51AM

Not a huge fan of cooked WinMo ROMs, but desperately want in on that 850MHz action for your Touch Diamond? Well, first of all, anyone who isn't a fan of cooked ROMs is just a little loony as far as we're concerned (but we still love you); secondly, HTC's made it possible to have your cake and eat it too with a new firmware update posted to its Asian site that proclaims the addition of GSM 850 support among several other changes and fixes -- some ten in total. After working through some confusion over the appearance (or lack thereof) of 850 in the band selection screen after updating, it looks like this does actually work for a variety of Touch Diamonds floating around out there, so let us know how you fare if you decide to give it a shot.

[Via xda-developers, thanks Dayne]

Filed under: Software, HTC, Windows Mobile

Tags: 850, firmware, gsm 850, Gsm850, htc, rom, touch, touch diamond, TouchDiamond

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

champ22 @ Jul 24th 2008 11:48AM

sorry but can we get that again ....in english please lol

Neutral

G Willikers @ Jul 24th 2008 12:50PM

Umm yeah..
Does this mean it gets 3G in the US yet or what?

Neutral

retro77 @ Jul 24th 2008 2:05PM

3G..no.

Here is a list of US GSM carriers and what they carry:
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_us.shtml

Looks like Alltel and AT&T....still a nty for me.

Neutral

daynewatkins @ Jul 24th 2008 12:06PM

You're welcome Engadget, keep up the good work. I almost peed myself when I saw the 850mHz unlocked.....makes you wonder what else that thing can do.......Now I wonder if they have an HSDPA 850mHz radio somewhere in those files.....

Neutral

Tim @ Jul 24th 2008 12:41PM

If only a major GSM carrier with a pink logo here in the US had the Diamond, so I could need these fixes. :(

Neutral

Mweb @ Aug 3rd 2008 5:48PM

What I don't get is why HTC didn't release this in the begining. I'm sure having it not be quadband hurt the sales a bit.

Low Ranked

SuperSexyErik (^_^) @ Jul 24th 2008 1:23PM

very slick design !
but had software. sorry htc

Neutral

daynewatkins @ Jul 24th 2008 1:27PM

@mweb that's the million dollar question. I have no idea, and I don't think anyone else does either. You'd think they woud want US HSDPA support much LESS EDGE support for 850mHz. They are saying it will be released "later in the year" but that could be next year for all we know. Now if they come out with the HTC Diamond Pro and it doesn't have 850 HSDPA support, HTC might need to start rethinking their business model. With their last debacle and the video drivers you would think they'd be trying to push the Diamond on the entire US. And if the rumor is true about the HTC Touch Pro being released CDMA here in the states before GSM, well that's just idiotic......

Neutral

Blad3 @ Jul 24th 2008 4:44PM

yes because I'm sure sprint + verizon wont carry a larger amount of customers over gsm in the US. -_- gg thinkings skills

Neutral

zephxiii @ Jul 24th 2008 1:59PM

The lack of 850 at launch was probably due to it not being ready for prime time. It was probably one of many things they still needed to work out.

Neutral

PSouz7 @ Jul 24th 2008 2:17PM

Does anyone know if the Touch Pro is coming to Verizon for sure?
If so when is it going to come out?

Neutral

beej @ Jul 24th 2008 4:58PM

daynewatkins:

I would say that the Touch Pro will be released in CDMA before GSM. It has already passed the FCC in CDMA form and likely Telus from Canada, who seem to constantly lay claim to 'first in North America with the HTC...' will keep up the tradition with this phone, and they are a CDMA carrier...

Neutral

PSouz7 @ Jul 30th 2008 11:58AM

Does anyone know if the Touch Pro is coming to Verizon for sure?
If so when is it going to come out?

Neutral

daynewatkins @ Jul 24th 2008 3:13PM

@zephxiii, that doesn't make any sense. It's a radio frequency in the chip, there is nothing that 850 does that 900 doesn't, it's just a different channel/frequency.

Neutral

zephxiii @ Jul 24th 2008 3:23PM

If that were the case, then why don't all phones that have 900 have 850? Because that isn't the case. If I remember correctly, I've seen devices where the 850 parts were separate from the 900/1800/1900 ones. Same reasons why some phones may perform better (RF) on certain bands than on others...

Why would you assume that just because it was fine on 900, means it would be on 850, or any other band? Problems show up in all forms and shapes.

Neutral

Michael S @ Jul 31st 2008 4:48PM

I prefer my ROMs baked at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown on the outside.

Neutral

Jim @ Jul 24th 2008 5:26PM

If I wasn't with Sprint (and preferred CDMA over GSM), I'd happily be doing an import job on the Diamond. I can't wait for this one to land on Sprint (though I hope the Diamond and Pro would come out at the same time).

Neutral

patersonward @ Jul 24th 2008 9:18PM

HTC just released an official Diamond Rom for my Hong Kong Asia handset dated 23/07/08 and its damn quick and adds official support for 850. Looks like HTC have pushed the turbo button with this ROM as its so damn quick!

Should be just a matter of days before all other countries are 850 supported.

I'm running my Diamond on Telstra NextG on 850 just fine too.

Cheers