Touchscreens touchscreens touchscreens… unfortunately for those around us, this is all we’ve been muttering the last couple of days as we ponder the big question, the major topic, the massive, most important things that the world’s greatest minds are surely pondering all around the globe: are touchscreen phones really all that?

And what made us start scratching our noggins and muttering so bizarrely? The O2 XDA Ignito. Or the HTC Touch Diamond, as you’ll probably know it better as (o2 have done one of their pointless re-naming things again). As this O2 XDA Ignito review shows, the ignito is a pretty decent phone. One of the best touchscreens on the market at the moment, in fact. But that’s not to say it’s perfect, of course. It likes some of the sheer oozing class of the iPhone. It struggles a little with Windows Mobile (which, like all Windows programs, tends to crash quite a bit). And we’ve also had a bit of trouble getting used to the on-screen keyboard.

That’s not to say HTC haven’t done a decent job. You can choose between landscape or portrait QWERTY. And you can even change to an alphanumeric keypad if you want that old-school phone feel. But that’s kind of the point for us… why should a phone keypad be considered old school? Why, indeed, should HTC feel the need to include one? Well, the answer is that the QWERTY keyboard feels kind of weird (no resistive feedback doesn’t help) and unless you have weird pointy fingers, you’ll probably want to use the included stylus. Which, call us daft, kind of ruins the point of a touchscreen, right? Most people become so in tune with their physical keypads that they can unlock, navigate a menu, type and send a message all while barely even looking at their phone. Not so with a touchscreen though, given that there’s no physical ridges / buttons for you thumbs or fingers to navigate by. So, has the O2 Ignito made us realise that the end of the touchscreen phone is nigh? Not quite… but we think that the bubble might be about to burst ever so slightly some time very soon. In the meantime, check out O2’s official page, or even the slightly inane video below.