HTC Touch Cruise

HTC released its latest Pocket PC ie. HTC Touch Cruise some time ago and it surely is a big improvement over HTC Touch that I reviewed on this blog some time ago. The Cruise also has better looks to go along with all the power that HTC has bestowed upon it! This one also has the revolutionary Touch-FLO interface but an improved version. It certainly will give other Pocket PCs a run for their money.

HTC Touch Cruise specifications:

• Dimensions : 110 x 58 x 15.5 mm
• Weight : 130 g
• Display : 2.8″ 65k color, 240 x 320
• 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
• GPRS, EDGE, 3G
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• 3.15 MP camera
• Built-in GPS receiver
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional
• Approx. Price: $700

Design and Display

The HTC Touch is one of the sleekest Pocket PCs in the market at just 15.5 mm. At 130 g it will hardly make your pocket heavier. The secondary camera is located on the top right side on the display and the earpiece has two LEDs attached to its edges which are used for giving the status of Bluetooth,WiFi and the battery. Below the big 2.8″ display are the regular Call and End keys along with the four navigation keys. HTC has also given preference to GPS and Internet Explorer by providing dedicated launch keys to them which are right below the Call/End keys.

The retail package is decent but it was surprising not to find a microSD card in it.It had all the regulars such as the charger, miniUSB cable, carrying pouch and the spare stylus which was pretty much expected. The screen protector and manuals complete the rest of package.

Coming to the display, the 2.8″ display is good but far from best. 65K colors is another deterrent along with the fingerprint prone screen. The visibility under sunlight is low. The display quality is good and brightness level is good. The display could have been better and HTC needs to look at it in its next device.

Camera and Media Player

The HTC Touch Cruise comes with a surprise : A 3.15 MP camera which is a rarity to be seen on Pocket PCs. But since they are becoming the norm HTC seems to have realised that and gone ahead and integrated one in the Cruise.It is a pleasure to use the camera coupled with a 2.8″ viewfinder and gives you the feel of a digital camera but sadly same is not the case with performance. The camera has autofocus and also a macro mode. The interface can be operated through your fingers itself. You get quite a few settings to customise yourself such as white balance,color effects,various modes etc. The camera also has a Panaroma mode but its ability is limited to VGA resolution.The picture quality is average most of the times and certainly not at par with other 3 MP cameras we have seen in Nokia or SE counterparts. The video quality is also average.

Customary to Windows Mobile devices, Windows Media Player is the default audio/video player on the device. It can also stream TV if you like. Media management isn’t an issue at all and your collection stays well organised all the time. Apart from WMP, HTC has also included a Audio Manager music player which I didn’t find any better than WMP. The video playback of VGA resolution movies results in a lot-of dropped frames. QVGA resolution movies played smoothly though. Looks like HTC needs to seriously look at tweaking hardware to gain maximum performance out of the processor.The audio quality is good enough for casual listening.

Windows Mobile OS and Web Browser

Windows Mobile 6 Professional is the OS on the HTC Touch Cruise and it has been in business for quite some time now.Nothing path-breaking but a simple and user-friendly interface is what you get with this OS.There are many pre-installed applications with the OS which are very useful. In the Cruise you also find that the Home tab has five separate tabs for five separate applications. The Home screen has the usual other parameters like the signal strength,battery level which are always on display. The OS is strong at multi-tasking and also offers support for third party applications.

Touch FLO gets improved in the Cruise and is more fun to work with.It makes navigation more easy and takes you away from using stylus all the time. The sensitivity has definitely improved and Cruise can detect commands more swiftly. Touch FLO is definitely one of the best features of the Cruise.

The Cruise has both the Internet Explorer and the Opera Mobile browsers installed which eliminates the need to install any other browser on the device. The display makes the browsing experience rich and when you have good browsers at your dispense it only gets better. Opera Mobile is faster at rendering pages and also has couple of more features up its sleeve.

Pros:

• Light and sleek
• 3 Megapixel camera
• WiFi and GPS support
• Enhanced Touch FLO
• Great browsing experience
• Good battery life

Cons:

• Display could have been better
• Video playback at VGA is choppy
• Average image quality

Final Thoughts

HTC Touch Cruise is definitely one of the best Pocket PCs in the market and is worth the money.Although there are some issues with it but that should matter to business users who will mostly be the ones using it.It is definitely a step-up from HTC Touch.

My Rating : 4/5