At this point, neither the HTC Touch Diamond nor the Samsung i900 Omnia need any introduction, but we're happy to announce that these two have stepped into the squared circle and faced off in an epic nine-page battle. Reviewers manhandled both phones for an extended time and broke down the UI, hardware, features and overall usability, so if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, cover your face and head on down to the read link. We're warning you though, it gets ugly.

[Thanks, Chavdar]

Though the Sprint version is the most well-scooped CDMA variant thus far, Telus is actually becoming the first carrier 'round these parts to announce the Touch Diamond imbued with a little EV-DO for your data-consumption pleasure. The phone will run $149.99 CAD (which is just about a wash in US dollars) on a three-year contract, accompanied by data plans ranging from $15 for email and instant messaging to $30 for email, IM, and web browsing. Sprint, Verizon, we anxiously await your press releases.

Right, so it's not like we didn't know a CDMA version of HTC's hotly anticipated Touch Diamond was headed to Sprint, but who can honestly argue with in the wild photos proving that said assumption is true? What we have here is a bona fide Diamond in Sprint garb, although eagle-eyed readers will likely notice the mildly tweaked TouchFLO interface (which reeks of Bold there at the bottom, no?). At any rate, you can peek one more (blurry, of course) image of this bugger in the read link.

Sluggish Touch Diamond performance got you down? We can think of at least a few Americans that wish they had to worry about it, but HTC's infinite wisdom in leaving out GSM 850 and HSDPA 850 / 1900 leaves that crowd with bigger problems on its hands. The rest of you, though, might want to have a look at one of the latest fruits to fall out of the xda-developer tree -- the "Elite 1.0" ROM image for the Touch Diamond, featuring a handful of tweaks to streamline things (Welcome Center gets the boot, for instance), enabled HSUPA, and a newer version of the .NET Compact Framework that allegedly all but solves the crappy performance some owners and reviewers have been complaining about. This is about as unofficial as it gets, of course, so proceed with your own risk.

Separately, it seems that Touch Diamonds now hitting shops should be loaded with a slightly newer official ROM than the build passed around on the first batch of review units, and Coolsmartphone reports that it's faster. Not quite as streamlined as the Elite ROM seems to be, but hey, if you prefer to roll on the straight and narrow, it sounds like HTC has you covered.

[Thanks, Aaron K.]

Read - Elite ROM thread on xda-developers
Read - Newer official ROM?

Oh, snap. Just the other day we were bemoaning the fact that the Touch Diamond sent to us courtesy of HTC lacked both HSDPA 850 / 1900 and GSM 850, but according to the product page at CompUSA, the version it's selling has all of those. Yep, a purported quad-band Touch Diamond is seemingly in stock right now for Americans willing to part with $779.99, but remember, all those bills nets you a 2.8-inch VGA display, HSDPA 7.2, Windows Mobile 6.1 and oodles of sexy. Go on, help HTC get one closer to two million this year.

[Thanks, Tom]

Update: Hey look, UKers can get in too. Just £463.99 including VAT. Thanks Leigh!

Update 2: For shame! HTC just pinged us and said this thing is the same as every other Touch Diamond, meaning that North American 3G is not supported.

Sure, we may have run the HTC Touch Diamond into the ground in recent memory, but seeing as we're not remorseful bunch, here's a bit more. Vodafone's business shop has dropped the Touch Diamond on its pages, tangible proof that a real carrier launch is just around the corner. While still slated as coming soon, we now know it will be priced from £free and they're even throwing in a free Bluetooth car kit. Good on ya Vodafone, now hurry up already, we're awful tired of waiting.

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

We thought you'd like to see how the new iPhone 3G stacks up against the ol' EDGE-based iPhone, Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1, and HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro handsets. To QWERTY or not to QWERTY, that is the QWEstion.

The good folks at HTC left this little gem (pun totally intended) on our doorstep today, but as cool as it sounds to have one of the world's great Windows Mobile torchbearers just drop off its hottest new handset to us like it's an extra large pepperoni and mushroom, it's a bittersweet gift at best. Why? The Touch Diamond lacks both HSDPA 850 / 1900 and GSM 850 in its current incarnation, leaving it to cling to what 1900MHz EDGE towers it can find. That makes it an untouchable product for all but the hardest-core North Americans who are willing to throw both high-speed data and maximum signal coverage out of the window just to be able to put the pinnacle of WinMo 6.1 engineering in their pocket.

The HTC Touch Diamond is hitting shores world-round, and this store in Malaysia is making a big deal of things with a full selection of accessories, alluring attendants, and what appears to be a permanent address. If the touchscreen and Opera browser don't get you, the shiny displays certainly will. Follow the read link for more pictures of the new store.

[Thanks, freedomzaft11]

For those of you who absolutely, positively can't wait to see more of the Touch Diamond in action, the folks over at pocketnow are giving you a taste of what it's like to hold one in your hands. Apparently, when you boot up the phone you're greeted with a helpful video showing you how to navigate the heavily-skinned version of Windows Mobile (AKA Touch Flo 3D) that it sports. Needless to say, it's smoother than a baby's bottom. Not that we'd know. Video after the break in its full 640 x 480 resolution.

DigiTimes has it that HTC has already shipped its first batch of over 10,000 Touch Diamond mobiles to Hong Kong CSL, which has consequently sent our saliva glands into overdrive. The report continues on to say that deliveries to European / Asia-Pacific operators should get going in June, though no further details were mentioned. Meanwhile, North Americans are left to weep softly to keep from embarrassment.

[Via SlashPhone]

Would you look at that: a thick slab of iPhone meat in a Sony Ericsson and HTC sandwich. The iPhone's big screen is nice and all but the device is starting to look a bit portly given that the Xperia X1 sports a QWERTY with chewy HSDPA data, the latter shared with the Raphael Touch Diamond. Tasty, regardless.

Update: Er, that's not the HTC Raphael, it's their Touch Diamond.

[Thanks, Al]

We know the wait's hard, guys, but look at it this way: one wait is actually ending -- the wait for an official waiting list -- while another is beginning. T-Mobile Netherlands customers are now welcome to put their name down to express interest in the lovely MDA Compact IV, T-Mobile's branded version of the HTC Touch Diamond WinMo superphone. There doesn't seem to be any indication here as to exactly when the retail floodgates are going to open up over there in Amsterdam, but it's a start.

[Thanks, Yoeri]

HTC's leaving no stone unturned in making sure that its Touch Diamond reaches a global audience, and Bharti Airtel is all lined up to be the exclusive provider of the hottest thing going for Windows Mobile 6.1 (for the moment, anyway) in India. HTC chief Peter Chou himself was on hand for the announcement, saying that he'd like to sell 50,000 Touch Diamonds in India this year -- a reasonable goal, perhaps, though our excitement's tempered a bit by the fact that the local flavor of the device will apparently lack any sort of 3G radio. Pricing comes in at 27,500 rupees (about $642), so if you can bear the tortoise-like browsing on the road, this should end up being one of the best VGA values on the market.

[Via Cellpassion]

It's been about two weeks since we first got our hands on HTC's hot little Touch Diamond, set to displace the vanilla Touch as the sexiest Windows Mobile device in the States. Since then, other than a look in the box and some bold predictions of success, we haven't seen much of the thing. Meanwhile Russian gadget site mobile-review certainly has, posting a thorough hands-on with a pre-release. The size is apparently good, slightly smaller but noticeably better than the already svelte Touch, and the 2.8-inch VGA screen impressive. However, the reviewer seems a bit worried about the magnetic stylus falling out on its own accord, and indicated battery life will fall short of HTC's other models (without mentioning any specifics). That's unfortunate, but given the 528MHz CPU is twice the speed of the chip in the earlier Touch and the battery within the thing's faceted back is smaller, shouldn't come as a surprise.

[Thanks, Marios]