Early HTC Touch Diamond Units Do Not Have the Final ROM

[Ed Hardy]

Some reviews of the Touch Diamond have been published, and these typically complain about the slow speed of the TouchFLO 3D interface. I also have a review unit, and I can confirm that it's a bit sluggish.

However, I've talked to HTC about this, and there's an updated version of the ROM coming that my rep promises me will greatly improve the performance of TouchFLO 3D.

At this point, my review is on hold. I'm putting the finishing touches on it, but I won't publish it until I get the new ROM, which is supposed to be out later today. This means my review will (hopefully) be published on Monday, after I've had some time to put the new ROM though its paces.

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[Antoine Wright]

That headline is a bugger (especially for project managers on that one). I would argue that it was a final ROM, but maybe there was something noticed that was pretty much a dealbreaker and caught before an additional shipment of units got out there.

I know that other companies tend to do this as well, just not as close to device introduction. Hopefully, this fixed ROM, as well as subsequent updates, can be better communicated for HTC's benefit (instead of looking like a breakdown in the QA/QC side of their development and sales processes).

[Ed Hardy]

From what I can tell, the units that are hitting stores have the newer ROM, it's the ones that were sent to reviewers that have the out-of-date one.

So if you read any reviews before mine comes out, skim over the part about TouchFLO 3G being a slug.
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[Adama D. Brown]

Hmm, sending buggy versions to reviewers? The phrase "dim-witted idio-moronism" comes to mind.

I'm all for the use of pre-production units, since it speeds up reviews, but it behooves the company to make sure it's CLEAR when and if they're not retail units, and to elaborate on what is going to change in the final version.

[Ed Hardy]

I got my hands on the latest ROM over the weekend, and the device performs noticeably better. TouchFLO 3D is still a large app running on Windows mobile, so it's not lightning fast, but it's not sluggish like it used to be.
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