US Versions of Diamond and Touch Pro: mid-August?

So the CompUSA sale of the HTC Diamond turned out, as we expected, to just be the European/Asian version and not a true Quad-Band version. Bummer, but not a huge bummer--Full disclosure: we bought one anyway so we could give you a full hands-on and comparison (before we return it, natch). It won't be right away, though, since early ROMs were a little slow and not indicative of the true user experience. Got questions? Post 'em in the comments.

Anyway, all that got our juices flowing, though, and we started wondering -- when will the Quad Band version actually be available? When it was announced, the most that HTC would say is “later this year,” which isn't exactly helpful.

Well if you're interested, there are a couple of sites claiming that they know the date and will let you pre-order the Quad-Band version of the Diamond and the Touch Pro now. On The Go Solutions has the Diamond for $869.99 and listed for “mid-August” and the Touch Pro for the same price and at the same time. Mobilecity Online is a little gentler on the price for the Diamond at $699 and a little harsher on the availability date, Sept. 2nd. Both dates qualify as “later this year,” obviously, but since we haven't heard peep from HTC we're going to hang on to our credit cards just a stitch longer.

After using the European version for all of 10 minutes we can tell you in no uncertain terms: you're going to want one of these when they're available.

Thanks to Joel from the Store for the Tip!