"Better late than never," so they say. Perhaps -- but with Sprint's version of this in the rear view mirror
for half a year now, just how relevant is a
Touch Diamond on Verizon these days? Odds are we'll find out next month -- or, at least, that's where the
latest rumors have it lined up for launch -- but in the meantime, we've got one floating around in the wilds looking pretty much like any other Touch Diamond you've seen in the past. Like
its Touch Pro, it seems Verizon went ahead and nerfed the Diamond's memory down to 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM (why is anybody's guess), which only serves to reinforce our concerns that this thing is being launched months too late. We love you
HTC, seriously -- but with the
Omnia at $99 on contract right now, we're not exactly seeing the line starting to form at 8PM the night before release, if you know what we're saying.
posted Mar 8th 2009 3:54AM
i wish somebody at Verizon could tell me why they constantly cripple their phones? i just can't seem to figure out why they think it's such a good idea to do this. i can understand them locking built in GPS to nickel and dime us but crippling the specs just makes no sense. all they do is make the phones more buggy and slow. maybe it's to make people come back and buy another one before their contract is up or something. it's just baffling to me that they repeatedly do this.
Verizon is coming out with the Treo 600 in a few more months too. It took them awhile to figure out how to cripple the memory.
I think the reason is just simple cash. They want to save money. I'm glad I'm on sprint (as long as they don't go bankrupt). I can't wait for the pro2 and diamond2 to come out and I wouldn't doubt that they'll keep the same specs. The only think dropped with the originals on sprint was the foward VGA camera. I say that stays this time.
Ok Engadget, if you say something, make sure you tell it ALL. This one has a Micro SD slot, the others don't. Which is why HTC droped it too 128. And stop the crap about GPS. GROW UP. If you knew anything SoCoolCurt you would find out Verizon has unlocked GPS on all PDA/BlackBerrys.
Not yet they haven't. I have an Omnia with a locked GPS.
It would have been better if they left the internal memory alone and then added the MicroSD. That would have made for a very nice device.
Before you start flaming, you should do a little research yourself. First, the Micro SD isn't going to make the phone faster. But hey, try putting a 200 gig Cutting the RAM is the main issue as Verizon is making it harder for the phone to run multiple apps (or just run the big ones smoothly). Just having an 8gig expansion or up doesn't solve the low flash memory. The programs have to run off the phone's flash memory, not the card memory. That was the issue with the VZW Pearl; with almost no flash memory, everything non-essential had to be erased or you'd start losing call logs and texts.
As far as the GPS issue goes, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I've never seen an unlocked smartphone GPS option on VZW. I've yet to hear about anyone breaking it, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if someone found a way. But I do know that they don't ship with unlocked GPS.
I'm not trying to start a flame war, I'm just a little disappointed that someone so opinionated would be so uneducated.
He's right? read xda-developer's forum - all new Verizon smartphones (blackberry + WinMo) have their GPS chips unlocked.
me, only the RIM and some HTC have unlocked GPS
GPS is open on the Storm and a s/w download is available for the Pearl and Curve.
As for "crippling".... Carriers order phone to certain specs. A 3.2 mp camera costs much more than a 1.3. So start adding things up. Camera, internal memory, LCD etc. How do you think they sell an Omnia fror $99?!! It's a loss on the front end and agents can't stock 5-10 phones at +$400 a piece. And retail stores have 6-7 times that sitting on shelves. Yes, I know thaat Sprint has some devices that are more "robust", but they are also in financial trouble. Do you see the connection?
The GPS is going to be launched in software patches for the HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Omnia and Samsung I770 (Saga). This was announced months ago. To that end, I'm willing to bet the GPS is unlocked on the Diamond.
I believe that all their smartphones will have GPS unlocked going forward, but only the ones Steve mentioned have been announced as of yet for having theirs retroactively unlocked. Verizon has already unlocked the GPS on the Blackberry Pearl and Curve and an update to Google Maps on the Storm allows it to access the GPS. A quick search on Engadget Mobile will tell you as such(except my own prediction that all smartphones will have GPS unlocked going forward).
Isnt the RAM the same? it just swaps out the 4gb of internal storage for a micro SD slot (which is better IMO)
can someone post exact specs of the two?