HTC debuts Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2

It's pretty safe to say that GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 isn't lacking in action or excitement. Already, a number of handset manufacturers have revealed details of upcoming product launches, including Sony Ericsson and Garmin-Asus, and now you can add HTC to the mix.

With the show officially underway, HTC added two new models to its Touch series of smartphones: the HTC Touch Diamond2 and the HTC Touch Pro2. While the names lack imagination, the handsets get some spiffy makeovers and incorporate new features that bring a "people-centric approach to mobile communication."

The two smartphones share some features between them, including the new single-view contact integration. This brings your complete conversation history, whether it be text, voice, or e-mail, onto a single contact card and can also be viewed on the in-call screen. In addition, the Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2 are the first devices to employ HTC's new Push Internet Technology to help speed up downloads and rendering of Web pages on your smartphone. Finally, both devices use HTC's latest TouchFlo 3D interface, which brings more relevant information to the forefront and includes enlarged touch focus areas to make them more touch-finger friendly.

Now, the differences. Obviously, form factor is one thing. The Touch Diamond2 is the next evolution of the HTC Touch Diamond, sporting a thinner design (4.25 inches high by 2.09 inches wide by 0.54 inch thick) and larger 3.2-inch, VGA touch screen with a gravity sensor. There's a new touch-sensitive zoom bar that makes it easier and faster to zoom in on Web pages, e-mails, text messages, photos, and documents.

The Windows Mobile 6.1 device claims to have 50 percent better battery life and also includes a 5-megapixel camera, 512 MB ROM/288 MB RAM with expandable memory, and a 528MHz processor.

Moving onto the HTC Touch Pro2, the HTC Touch Pro is still very much a business-centric smartphone and adds HTC's Straight Talk technology, which claims to improve the speakerphone quality using asymmetric speakers and advanced noise suppression with full duplex acoustics. The speakerphone will also automatically activate when you turn the phone over and place it facedown on a flat service.

Like the Diamond2, the Touch Pro2 gets a boost in screen size. The smartphone is equipped with a 3.6-inch WVGA (480x800) touch screen with a proximity sensor and the aforementioned zoom bar. It also boasts a sleeker design and keeps the slide-out full QWERTY keyboard for all the messaging nuts.

As far as availability, the HTC Touch Diamond2 is expected to ship in Europe and Asia during Q2 of 2009, while it will reach the rest of the world (read: the United States) later this year. The HTC Touch Pro2 is slated to ship worldwide this summer, but pricing for both phones was not revealed at this time.