HTC has announced it will release an updated version of its popular HTC Touch Diamond smartphone, imaginatively called the Touch Diamond2.

The announcement was made at the GSM Mobile World Congress 2009 overnight, with the Touch Diamond2 tentatively scheduled to ship locally around the middle of this year.

There appears to be some significant upgrades with the Touch Diamond2. For starters, the screen has been upgraded to a 3.2-inch LCD touchscreen. The camera has also undergone an upgrade (up to 5-megapixels) and there is also a second camera (VGA CMOS colour). In terms of the more technical specifications, battery life has been improved and there is more RAM and ROM (288MB and 512MB respectively).

As on the HTC Touch Diamond, the TouchFlo 3D interface has also been included. Although this isn’t a new feature, it’s worth mentioning simply because it’s still an outstanding user interface.

Another nice inclusion of the Touch Diamond2 is Push Internet. This lets you set your favourite websites and the phone will automatically download and store the information, so when you go to visit these pre-defined sites they will load quickly.

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By Caroline Warnes