HTC, the Taiwanese handset manufacturer, has laid down the gauntlet to Apple with a slender new phone that aims to dislodge the iPhone from its position as the pre-eminent touch-screen device.

HTC said that its new handset - called the Touch Diamond - was just 11.3mm thick, giving it a 0.3mm edge on the iPhone, and had a more responsive screen, meaning that typing - traditionally the bugbear of touch-screen phones - was much easier.

It also had several unique features, HTC said, such as the ability of the phone's internet browser to re-arrange text on web pages to fit the mobile screen. Navigation also looks more three-dimensional, although it is not possible to zoom in and out by stroking the screen with two fingers - one of the highlights of the iPhone.

Analysts said the device was a "big step forward" for HTC in its attempts to muscle in as a consumer handset brand alongside Nokia and Sony Ericsson, and that some elements of the device were even an improvement on the iPhone.

The Diamond will for instance allow owners to choose between three different keyboards on the touch screen - the traditional 12-key phone keypad, which has about three letters per key, a 'hybrid QWERTY' - which will be familiar from some BlackBerry devices - and a full keyboard.

It also has other features which outclass existing models of the iPhone, including the ability to operate on the fastest 3G networks, a 3.2 megapixel camera - a big advance on the iPhone's 2 megapixels - and GPS, which will be able to accommodate the next generation of so-called 'location-based services' for phones.

The screen, however, is still dwarfed by the iPhone's, being 2.8 inches across the diagonal rather than 3.5.

"The Diamond takes HTC's phones to a much higher and much richer level, and enables direct comparisons with the iPhone," Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight, said. "They have done a lot of work on top of the platform to make the user experience more enjoyable, and other phones will start to look very disappointing by comparison."

HTC said the phone would be out on Orange and other European carriers in June, with a release in Asia and the Middle East later in the quarter, and North America towards the end of the year.

"We wanted to create a device that would allow people to walk, chew gum and get content from the internet all at the same time," said Horace Luke, the chief innovations officer at HTC, adding that the phone had been designed to be used wholly with one hand - an indication of the bid to appeal to the consumer market.

HTC has traditionally sold devices to operators - including Orange - who have then rebranded them as their own, but last year it launched itself as consumer brand with its first touch-screen phone. The release of the Diamond suggests that it will take further steps in that direction.

The Touch, which was billed as an 'iPhone killer' when it was released in June last year, has now sold more than three million units in more than 50 countries. Like the Touch, the Diamond is based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, though HTC has made several changes to the interface.

Analysts said that the wide support HTC enjoyed with operators meant that the phone was likely to be "very competitively" priced when it went on sale next month. Orange was not immediately available to respond to a request about pricing.

Explore Tech & Web News

• Personal Tech

• The Web

• Gadgets & Gaming

Times recommends

• Billion-pixel panoramas — from your own camera
• One gadget to rule them all
• The future of social networking: mobile phones