HTC Touch Cruise Review

HTC Touch Cruise Specifications:

• General:
  Announced:2007, November
  Status:Available. Released 2008, January
• Size:
  Dimensions:110 x 58 x 15.5 mm
  Weight:130 g
• Display:
  Type:TFT touchscreen, 65K colors
  Size:240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches
  - TouchFLO finger swipe navigation,- Handwriting recognition-, 4-way navigation wheel
• Ringtones:
  Type:Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3, AAC
  Customization:Download.
  Vibration:Yes
• Memory:
  Phonebook:In shared memory, Photo call
  Call records:Yes
  Card slot:microSD (TransFlash), SD 2.0 compatible.
  - 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM,- Qualcomm MSM7200, 400 MHz processor.
• Data:
  GPRS:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
  HSCSD:No
  EDGE:Yes
  3G:HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
  WLAN:Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
  Bluetooth:Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
  Infrared port:No
• USB;Yes, miniUSB
• Features:
  OS:Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional
  Messaging;SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
  Browser:WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (PocketIE)
  Games:Yes.
  Colors;Yes
  Camera:3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus, video; secondary VGA videocall camera
  - Built-in GPS receiver,- TomTom map,- Pocket Office(Word, Excel, Outlook, PDF viewer),- Java MIDP 2.0-, FM radio,- Voice memo, – MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA/WAV/AMR,-NBplayer,- Video/audio album,- Built-in handsfree
• Battery:Standard battery, Li-Ion 1350 mAh
  Stand-by:Up to 450 h
  Talk time:Up to 7 h.
• Introduction:Pocket PCs have been keeping us busy these days. Just as we gave you LG KS20, it’s time for our one-on-one with the HTC Touch Cruise. And hey, are those workhorses getting sexier or what. As one of our readers sharply observed, those devices just don’t have to yell corporate or geek any more. One of the best looking Pocket PCs around, the HTC Touch Cruise will surely turn heads. Besides, its feature set is on par with the attire, which explains our eagerness to put it through its paces. Wi-Fi, HSDPA, 2.8″ Touchscreen display and a 3 megapixel camera surely make it one of the most loaded devices around.
• Key features
  Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
  3G with HSDPA
  400MHz Qualcomm processor
  128MB of RAM
  2.8″ 65K color touchscreen TFT display with QVGA resolution
  Integrated Qualcomm GPS receiver
  TomTom satnav software pre-bundled, one free map included
  Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
  3 megapixel camera with autofocus
  Sleek design
  Enhanced HTC TouchFLO interface
  Jog-wheel D-pad
  Great picture gallery
  Retail package is rich in content
  Good battery life
• Main disadvantages
  No hardware keypad
  Inadequate video playback capabilities
  Paint starts to peel off very quickly
  Display image quality is a bit disappointing and is practically illegible under direct sunlight
  Photo processing issues
• Design and construction
  In terms of dimensions the HTC Touch Cruise is right among the compact PocketPCs on the market. It stands at 110 x 58 x 15.5 mm and weighs 130g, which is far not the smallest gadget around but it won’t tear a hole in your pocket either. Compared to the TyTN II, the Cruise earns points on both slimness and weight.
• Telephony:
  No need to remind you that HTC Touch Cruise is a mobile phone before anything else. Performance in calls is therefore extremely important. Luckily, it is completely up to the task. Calling is trouble-free as you would expect. The Phone application is in charge of all call-related features. Custom-made for HTC, it has large virtual keys that allow easy one-hand operation. In t

  he upper right corner there’s the Backspace key, below it is the Video call key and, finally, the Calls Log key.

• Audio and video players:The primary multimedia player of all Windows Mobile devices is the preinstalled Windows Media Player. Besides music, it allows watching video and streaming TV. HTC have additionally installed the Audio Manager music player. It is a strange name for a music player but it does allow you to manage your music files easily – you can sort tracks by artist, album, genre, or composer. You can create an unlimited number of custom playlists and the interface is optimized for finger operation.
  The Streaming Media application is another HTC touch to the software package of the Touch Cruise. It allows you to watch or listen to streaming content. It follows the same stylus-free design of the Audio Manager.
  To our greatest disappointment, the HTC Touch Cruise, much like the HTC TyTN II couldn’t play movies at near-VGA resolution smoothly. We were forced to convert those to near-QVGA in order to play them properly. This doesn’t speak highly of the 400MHz processor, as those kind of limitations used to apply to 200MHz PocketPCs such as the old but trustworthy Qtek 9100 (HTC Wizard).
  We installed a TCPMP player and the needed codecs to play DivX and XviD video files.
• Camera:
  PocketPC are probably bottom of the food chain when it comes to camera performance. And, believe us, it’s not about the megapixel count. At least, not only about it. It’s just that their photos hardly stand comparison to what other devices on the market deliver. HTC were obviously addressing this issue and have released a few devices with some serious photography power recently.
• The Touch Cruise camera can be operated as a regular digital camera – a half press on the shutter key locks the auto focus and exposure, while pressing the key all the way down takes the actual shot. On the other hand, there is a nice camera menu, which is easy to operate with your fingers only.
• Connectivity:
  Probably the feature that matters most with PocketPCs, connectivity is logically one of HTC Touch Cruise’s elements. Direct USB connectivity allows seamless PC synchronization of any kind (email, contacts etc.). Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi are also present to take care of the wireless communications. Speaking of wireless communication, we should mention there is no Infrared port but that is not really that big of an issue nowadays.
  For network data transfers you can rely on the UMTS and HSDPA support. There are also GPRS and EDGE, to give you a full package of connectivity options.
• Conclusion:HTC Touch Cruise will find quite a number of fans, offering a load of features matched by compact size and stand-out styling. Besides, the touchscreen experience is only second to Apple iPhone, which is a good enough premise for some serious market success. The well performing GPS receiver and the good battery life will also attract users who like to travel a lot. HTC Touch Cruise is probably one of the most pleasant to work with Windows Mobile devices ever. The enhanced TouchFLO does make a difference, the friendly feel and stylish exterior undoubted strong points too.