Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon Wireless has unveiled its version of the HTC Touch Diamond, which will be available in stores and direct from Verizon’s Web site beginning tomorrow. As with other versions, the Touch Diamond features a 2.8-inch touch screen with full VGA (480-by-640-pixel) resolution, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, and HTC’s TouchFLO interface overlay for Windows Mobile Professional 6.1.

The handset also includes visual voice mail, a VZ-Navigator-capable GPS chip, mobile instant messaging clients, and just plain looks cool. Unfortunately, looks aren’t everything. We’ve reviewed TouchFLO many times before, including unlocked and Sprint versions of the Touch Diamond. Suffice to say that it’s a powerful but flawed handheld, with a sluggish, uneven interface but plenty of high-tech features. I also reviewed Verizon’s version of the HTC Touch Pro, which adds a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to the design.

As is typical for Verizon, the carrier is pricing the Touch Diamond on the high side at $299.99 with a two-year customer agreement. Actually, it’s even higher–that price includes a $70 mail-in rebate, which will come in the form of a debit card, so it’s actually $369.99 up front.