Alltel has just become the latest U.S. carrier to pick up the HTC Touch Pro and Touch Diamond smartphones. The country's fifth largest operator (in the process of merging with Verizon Wireless) is selling the former for $280 and the latter for $250—when purchased with a two-year contract and after a mail-in rebate

Both of these Touch models run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with an enhanced edition of HTC's touch screen interface running on top. Called TouchFLO 3D, the interface is animated to provide quicker and easier access services and features.

The Touch Diamond is designed to fit in the hand and is composed of black geometric facets and metal. It includes an Opera-based web browser and a version of YouTube, as well as an edition of Google Maps that integrates with the HTC Touch Diamond' integrated GPS.

Turn the HTC Touch Diamond horizontal from vertical and, like the iPhone, the browser will do the same.

It sports a higher-resolution, 2.8-inch VGA (640 x 320 pixel) resolution touch display over the original Touch model and ups the camera to 3.2 megapixels from mere two. The smartphone also integrates EV-DO Rev. A to support Alltel's 3G data network, Bluetooth 2.0 with support wireless stereo headsets, A-GPS, and Wi-Fi.

There's 4GB of Internal Storage, 256 MB of flash memory, and 192 MB RAM.

The HTC Touch Pro is very similar to the Touch Diamond, expect it adds a number of business-focused enhancements, including a five-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, expandable storage capabilities with a microSD card slot (1 GB card included) and a business card scanner application.

The HTC Touch Pro's built-in camera also features a flash.