There’s no denying that HTC’s Touch Diamond is going to be a real fingerprint-magnet, but the company doesn’t expect us all to wear white cotton gloves when we carry the smartphone.  Instead they’re surprisingly proud of the Touch Diamond’s slip-case.  It’s lined with a microfibre-style material that they claim will clean both sides of the handset whenever it’s put in and taken out. 

For a bundled slip-case, it’s not bad.  Thankfully HTC have resisted the urge to over-brand it, and the leather is sturdy and feels pretty scratch resistant.  The Touch Diamond is also a good, snug fit inside, because the last thing you want is your expensive new smartphone dropping out!

To recap, the Touch Diamond is HTC’s flagship handset of 2008.  With a VGA touchscreen, 7.2Mbps HSDPA/HSUPA, WiFi, GPS and 4GB of user memory, HTC are taking on the iPhone and hoping that the flexibility of Windows Mobile 6.1 will give them an edge.  However they’ve also drafted in Opera 9 for web browsing, and their new TouchFLO 3D interface, which banishes the comparatively dull WM6.1 GUI behind slick animations and transitions.