[CELL PHONES] Samsung Instinct or HTC Touch Diamond

[dave39]

Well here is my dilemma folks:
I am in need of a new cell phone and I am looking at the Samsung Instinct and the HTC Touch Diamond. Both phones are touch screen. When I get the new phone (at some point this month) I will be using it for photos, music, texting, GPS, web browsing [full HTML], and of course talking.
I love to take my phone to the gym for my workouts because I have both my music and my phone in one and don't have to worry about missing either.
I have read up on both phones and they both seem like the best phones that TELUS currently has to offer (as far as what I need).

The Samsung Instinct is not considered a "smart phone" so I wouldn't really have to worry about a data plan and could just purchase the web browser feature. The HTC Touch Diamond is considered a smart phone and I would have to pay a minimum of $30/month extra for the data plan that included the web browsing. The Instinct does not have T9 texting but has a full qwerty keyboard.

The HTC Touch Diamond appears to take better photos than the samsung but I am not sure if it would really be a noticeable difference or if it is just me looking at the megapixels. The Samsung Instinct has a 2 megapixel camera where the HTC Touch Diamond has a 3.2 megapixel camera. The Diamond also has T9 texting as well as full qwerty keyboard, on screen.

I am sort of stuck in the middle here and can't really decide which phone to go with. There are pros and cons to both (price of data plan being the main con to the Diamond). Anyone have any experience with either or both of the phones yet?

I will be on a 3 year contract either way. The instinct allows for some wiggle room where I do not get locked into a data plan but TELUS advised me that I would only have to be in a contract including a data plan for a year and can then cancel and get normal web browsing [no email or instant messaging] following that year.

I am just looking for some help in deciding which phone is my best option.
Opinions?

[dave39]

??? _____Anyone_____ ???

[immts007]

Uhm. Yeah... Get an iPhone.

[MunkeyGolfer]

Uhm. Yeah... Get an iPhone.

I thought iPhone was AT&T; only? So if that is true than the iPhone idea really wouldn't work now would it?

I'm not a Smart phone kind of person so automatically my choice would sway away from the smart phone. And I don't like the idea of having to pay extra for data plans.

[immts007]

I thought iPhone was AT&T; only? So if that is true than the iPhone idea really wouldn't work now would it?

He's talking about signing a new 3 year contract is Telus the only game in Canadia?

Besides, sounds like they are thinking of going gsm and iphone: http://www.electronista.com/articles....shift.to.gsm/ http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/te...phone-friendly And besides, I was only fufilling the role of the inevitable and unavoidable apple fanboy Carry on, lovers of lesser-technology and poorer-product-engineering

[pjsnyc]

I would opt for the Diamond (I'm waiting on that one for Sprint - apparently rumored to launch Sep 2nd). I would double check to see if the Diamond version your carrier is getting has a slide out keyboard (I believe Sprint's version will be that, but I'm not sure). Also, the Instinct barely has any internal memory compared to the Diamond (4GB rumored). It ain't no iPhone, but WM def has a huuuuuuge amt of apps out there and it can multitask unlike most other phones (I believe even the iPhone doesn't really do multitasking, except for its core functions). Also - it's got Wifi

Edit - just to add - on ppcgeeks.com, someone got Google's Android to work on some HTC smartphones (still kinda buggy but cool nonetheless).

[Surefire]

I have the original HTC touch. Its ok, but I'm on my third replacement as the touch screen keeps failing. I would check HTC have improved this before getting one. Othe rthan that its not abd, although I only have a few months left to run then I will be changing it.

You guys have 3 year contracts in Canada? Thats obscene I thought the 18 month ones that they have started to do here were long!

[juanjohn]

I would double check to see if the Diamond version your carrier is getting has a slide out keyboard (I believe Sprint's version will be that, but I'm not sure).

The HTC Touch Diamond will not have the full slide out keyboard but Sprint will be getting the HTC Touch Raphael(codename, I think it will be called Touch Pro).

To answer the OP, I would definitely go for the HTC Diamond. I've been reading up on both phones you mentioned and it seems the Instinct has been suffering from slow processor speed(that could have just been the phones pre-released to the press so don't quote me) and a not so great camera. As a phone though the instinct has great clarity and reception (I guess that's what phones are for?). The Touch Diamond to me, just seems like a more complete package; great phone, camera, opera browser, internal memory like pjsnyc mentioned and instant messenger capable. Either way though I don't think you can go wrong since the instinct is priced very aggressively.

[pjsnyc]

...Either way though I don't think you can go wrong since the instinct is priced very aggressively.

True that...also forgot to mention the instinct has pretty good GPS capabilities. Another BIG selling point (diamond doesnt, though you could still get an external gps)

[juanjohn]

Yeah GPS is a good thing to point out. I'm pretty sure though that the Touch Diamond is GPS ready and has google maps already preloaded. Basically what the iphone has. Not sure if that's good or bad.

[pjsnyc]

Yeah GPS is a good thing to point out. I'm pretty sure though that the Touch Diamond is GPS ready and has google maps already preloaded. Basically what the iphone has. Not sure if that's good or bad.

The built in GPS on the diamond is A-GPS i believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Which is basically location guesstimation based on the cell towers - not gps satellites.

[iacas]

The built in GPS on the diamond is A-GPS i believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Which is basically location guesstimation based on the cell towers - not gps satellites.

That's not quite right. It is assisted GPS. Normal GPS can take a few minutes to get a signal - A-GPS can provide an approximate location more quickly until GPS kicks in and gives you a "within three meters" measurement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGPS

[pjsnyc]

That's not quite right. It is assisted GPS. Normal GPS can take a few minutes to get a signal - A-GPS can provide an approximate location more quickly until GPS kicks in and gives you a "within three meters" measurement.

But not all phones have actual 'Normal GPS' in it right? So they can only do A-GPS...once again - please correct me if I'm wrong. The wiki link didn't really address what I said in the previous sentence.

[iacas]

But not all phones have actual 'Normal GPS' in it right? So they can only do A-GPS...once again - please correct me if I'm wrong. The wiki link didn't really address what I said in the previous sentence.

You said that A-GPS was lame (to paraphrase). It is if it's the only GPS on the phone, but if it's used in conjunction with GPS, it's the opposite of lame and actually works quite nicely.

The iPhone, for example, has both, and I'm under the impression that virtually everything with A-GPS has GPS too, including the HTC Diamond, which is listed to have both .

[pjsnyc]

You said that A-GPS was lame (to paraphrase). It is if it's the only GPS on the phone, but if it's used in conjunction with GPS, it's the opposite of lame and actually works quite nicely.

HMPF - learned something new today - I wasn't aware the iPhone had actual GPS (thought it only had A-GPS...hooray for the iPhone 3G i guess). In any case, I understand the niftiness of the phone using a combination of all of the above.

But to get back on topic about the instinct's gps - from what I've read, its pretty good compared to other phones with GPS. Also has turn by turn navigation much like a standard gps device you see in cars (loud voice prompts, etc). Here's a review for the sprint model http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2317478,00.asp As for the CDMA flavor of the diamond, I haven't seen a review of it yet...so it's hard to really say if it will indeed come crammed with an actual GPS chip inside. Sometimes the manufacturer's product page will kinda be fuzzy about its capabilities (GPS and A-GPS ready? is that like HDTV ready? lol)

[GolferWolf]

Id say more that the Touch Pro is on par, as the Diamond doesnt have a Qwerty. I myself am getting the TyTN II, but im with AT&T; so *shrug*.

From what i read, the Diamond is more like an iPhone that it is a Smartphone (aka windows mobile) but not 100% sure if thats true.