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HTC has wowed us recently with top of the line offerings such as the Diamond and Touch HD, and smartphones are penetrating the consumer market at impressive rates. The reality is that not everyone can afford these high-end devices though, and HTC has the little guy in mind with its update to the Touch Cruise. It features many of the things we loved from the Diamond, including a small form factor, responsive touchscreen and a plethora of connectivity options. It may not be as pretty or polished, but with a focus on GPS services it holds its own where it matters: performance. Included in the box you’ll find: 
• HTC Touch Cruise
• AC power adapter with USB connector
• USB data/charging cable
• DC power adapter
• Suction cup window mount with cradle
• Stereo headphones
• 1GB microSD card
• Carrying pouch
• Screen protector
• Extra stylus Design The weight is the first thing you’ll notice when picking up the Touch Cruise. At only 3.63oz it shaves nearly a full ounce off of the original and even a quarter ounce off of the lightweight GSM Diamond, all while packing a higher capacity battery. While not quite as small as the Diamond, its dimensions are similar and the rounded backing gives it a better feel, arguably better than the CDMA Diamond that we proclaimed had the perfect feel. 
The basic layout of the phone follows the Touch family design style: there is a 2.8” touchscreen that dominates the front, and below that is a cluster of navigation controls. In this case you’ll find four flush buttons arranged around a navigational pad encircled by a navi-wheel. The keys are housed in silver and are, moving clockwise from top left: Navigation (Tom-Tom), Footprints (more on that later), End and Send. The navi-wheel moves incredibly smoothly and is coated in rubber for a better feel. It functions like the Diamond’s touch-sensitive d-pad, but being mechanical it produces much more consistent results. 
The left side of the Cruise has a single, slender key that runs along the top third which functions as the volume rocker. The only other key is the equally slender power key on the top. The top housing is slightly concave, allowing a finger to easily rest in it when pressing the button. HTC continues to impress us with subtle design elements such as this. The right side is totally bare, and the bottom houses the miniUSB charging/data/headset port found on most recent HTC devices. Most manufacturers have moved to the microUSB port by now, and it frustrates us that HTC has yet to follow suit. 
The back battery door is nondescript. The 3.2 megapixel camera sits at the top and is housed in elegant brushed aluminum housing, and there is a small speaker slit off to its right. The stylus is tucked at the top left, when looking at the back. The door is coated in the same bespeckled soft-touch finish found on the CDMA Diamond, this time in black with subtle silver flecks. 
If it weren’t for the display, the Touch Cruise would probably cannibalize sales from the Diamond. Unfortunately it is only a QVGA panel, and anyone who has used the higher VGA resolution would never go back. Compared to other 240x320 displays the Cruise is just fine; it’s plenty bright and we had no problems reading it in various lighting conditions, but the crispness and quality just doesn’t compare to its big brother. We’re sure it was a conscious decision on HTC’s part, but it’s a shame really because the Cruise has some features we’d have liked to see in the Diamond. 
Display We find the 2.8" 65K color TFT touchscreen of the HTC Touch Cruise acceptable. It's on par with most PocketPC screens out there, which unfortunately includes the usual low legibility under direct sunlight. It gets even worse when covered in fingerprints. Topped with the small system font of Windows Mobile, it doesn't even come close to providing adequate sunlight legibility. 
It seems the right place to make a necessary remark about the display colors. 262K-color support is not native to 32-bit processors, so manufacturers are limited to choosing between 65K or 16M colors. However, displaying 16 million colors would probably be too demanding on some systems, compromising performance and/or battery life. And even though some manufacturers claim that their PocketPCs have 262K color displays you can be sure that they still show the same 65K colors many are grumbling about. Still we don't really believe there will be much difference to the human eye between 65K and 262K color displays on most occasions. 
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 the upper right corner there's the Backspace key, below it is the Video call key and, finally, the Calls Log key. Interface The Touch Cruise runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional skinned with HTC’s TouchFLO 2D interface, first found on the Viva and Touch 3G. It’s not as polished as TouchFLO 3D, but functionality remains almost the same. The tabs found on TF2D are Home, People, Messages, Mail, Footprints, Internet, Photos and Videos, Music, Weather, Map Search, Settings and Programs. For a more in-depth look at the tabs check out our Diamond review, we’ll only examine the new ones- Footprints and Map Search- here. 
Footprints is a new feature by HTC that integrates geotagged photos into the device features. We’ll take a more in-depth look at it under the software section. Map Search is a pretty simple but incredibly handy integration with Google Maps. Its function is similar to the homescreen plugin found on the Treo 800w, but since it uses Google Maps it is more functional. We’re hoping the ROM chefs out there will find a way to add this to TF3D because we’re jealous that our phone doesn’t have it! 
Beyond these TF2D tabs there isn’t anything new to say about the interface. Windows is still Windows, and even those who are only familiar with TF3D will feel right at home on the Cruise. While the pretty animations may be gone, TF2D is incredibly snappy especially on the well-powered Cruise. 
Camera and Multimedia The 3.2 megapixel camera took respectable shots. They were a bit blurry, most likely due to the lack of auto-focus. The camera is very snappy, pictures were captured in under a second and the start time is under 3s. The interface and options are the same as other recent HTC devices, but there is now a GPS Photo option for geotagging photos. In this mode GPS has to initialize, which can take a few minutes. Video performance is more pedestrian but on par with the likes of the Diamond and Pro. 
Music player The HTC music player is integrated into TF2D and is basically the same as the TF3D player. Again, it is not as polished but functionality remains the same. HTC Album is the default picture and video viewer, and we prefer it over the stock Windows Mobile applications. Windows Media Player is also available for those who prefer it’s video or music playing capabilities, and indeed we like its library function better for music management. 
Software Like the original Cruise, the refresh has an emphasis on GPS applications. It comes preloaded with TomTom Navigator, and the user is given one city map at no cost. A very cool feature is the included car kit, which consists of a suction cup window mount, vehicle power adapter and custom mount holster. When the phone is placed in the holster it automatically goes into NaviPanel mode. This is a finger friendly menu with six large panels: Footprints, Phone, Go Home, Address, Recent Destination and Navigation. The last four all link to TomTom’s functions. Stand alone units beware, setups like this offer serious competition and allow the user to carry one less device. We’ve been using a similar setup with our Diamond for a few months now, but the NaviPanel makes it even more convenient. 
Footprints makes its debut on the new Touch Cruise. It goes beyond geotagging by using the embedded coordinates to map and navigate. For instance, you’re out for a night on the town in Boston and find a great little pub tucked away in the shadows. After a few pints and a cab ride home you can’t exactly remember where it was…Footprints to the rescue! Simply pull up one of the GPS photos you’ve taken in Footprints and you’ll be given all available details, such as the name, phone number, address and coordinates. You can add notes to help you remember, and then either map it using Google Maps or navigate there with TomTom. This feature will appeal to certain users more than others, but we definitely see it as an evolutionary step to bridging the gap between cool technology and it actually pertaining to our everyday lives. 
GPS navigation The HTC Touch Cruise gets its name from the built-in GPS and navigation software. It goes without saying that the handset also supports Assisted GPS. It uses the QuickGPS application that comes preinstalled to download initial positioning data, which the GPS receiver can later use for quicker acquisition of satellite lock. The integrated Qualcomm gpsOne chipset is not as efficient as the SIRFStar III-based receivers we've used, but it's still good enough and perfectly adequate to cope with the most common tasks. 
HSDPA makes map downloading a matter of only seconds, so there is no chance you will end up in uncharted territory. The Touch Cruise offers TomTom navigation software prebundled and one free map to go with it. Additional maps you will have to purchase separately. 
You can also choose alternative navigation software. We installed iGo and Google Maps and they both worked like a charm. In GPS mode, the battery of the HTC Touch Cruise lasted about 3.5 hours of continuous use. Organizer Windows Mobile offers several time-management features and, as we already mentioned, all easy to synchronize with MS Outlook. The Calendar is improved in comparison to the one used in Windows Mobile 5, as now it allows searching for events to come. It offers daily, weekly and monthly and yearly views and you can have the week start on either Monday or Sunday. You can also hide weekends form the Calendar if you use the device for business purposes only. 
The To-Do list allows you to add tasks and assign them priority. The Notes also come in handy, as you can either type or directly write the text down on the screen. There is also a voice recorder that can be easily started by pressing and holding the dedicated key. The Alarm clock has three alarm slots. Each Alarm can have its own repeat pattern. As a frequently used feature, Microsoft should have put more effort into making the alarm clock better. Instead, it's hardly accessible, buried deep down in the Settings menu and not very user friendly. As a whole, this is probably the department where we felt installing a third party application is a must. There really are some better solutions than the Microsoft offer. 
The other interesting applications that come with the HTC Touch Cruise are the Office Mobile, ZIP manager, the Windows Live service and the Search application. The Office Mobile features support for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint office files, while the ZIP manager adds support for archived files. The big absence here is the PDF reader, which you will need to install yourselves if you are to use it. 
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. The display issues and the photo imaging shortfalls are of course to be reckoned with, but they don't seem make-or-break in the Pocket PC niche. 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. The Touch Cruise joins the TyTN II as the HTC portfolio headliners and the two feature-packed performers basically raise a fundamental question: hardware keyboard or not. The slightly more expensive TyTN comes with full QWERTY keyboard and tri-band HSDPA. So basically it all boils down to picking your priorities. |
