The HTC Touch Cruise is a bit of an enigma. It’s feature heavy, and with a distinctive design, but here at Mobile Choice we just don’t think it has the ‘wow’ factor to really sit at the top of our list of ‘most desirable’ Windows Mobile smartphones.
Touch Cruise Touch-screen
The Touch Cruise’s 240x320-pixel screen is sharp, bright and clear, and is flush to its surroundings. This is unusual for Windows Mobile devices, which more usually have recessed screens.
Visually, the flush screen is stunning, but, as we find so often with this design, it doesn’t respond as well as we would like when tapping the screen. It isn’t a huge issue, but you do need to take extra care, especially if you use a fingertip rather than the more accurate stylus. You may also find that the screen is prone to scratching. A screen protector may be in order, which rather mars the good looks of the flush design.
Navigating the Touch Cruise
We are, however, big fans of the fabulous navigation button. As
well as its usual up, down, left and right options, you can rotate the button under a finger. This scrolls you through the contents of the screen, highlighting options, and when you get to what you want, you press the central button to select.
Built-in GPS smartphone
It seems that built-in GPS is becoming a pretty common feature in smartphones. You can use the Touch Dual in wide-screen format for navigation, which helps it resemble stand-alone navigation systems.
There is Wi-Fi and HSDPA on-board the device, so your data communications should be fast and furious. And a front-facing camera is in a prime position for video calling.
Meanwhile, the main camera shoots stills at halfway decent three megapixels. HTC has come up with a user interface that makes it really easy to get around the various settings. You can even flick straight into the camera album at the tap of an on-screen button.
Touch Cruise verdict
The main problem with the HTC Touch Cruise is its less than perfect touch-screen. But that on its own is not enough to account for our relative ambivalence. We’re just going to have to put that down to personality. Or rather the Cruise’s lack of it.