HTC Touch Cruise

The Touch Cruise’s 240x320-pixel screen is sharp, bright and clear, and is flush to its surroundings, isn't what you could call a small phone, measuring 110mm x 58mm x 15.5mm, nor is it particularly light at 130g, but considering all that's packed into its business-like exterior, it's quite remarkable. This is unusual for Windows Mobile devices, which more usually have recessed screens.

Messaging on the Touch Cruise was a bit of a mixed-bag. The messaging applications on the device were undoubtedly very powerful, but the touchscreen interface makes it difficult to type quickly and accurately. As expected, the usual SMS/MMS messaging services are supported, as well as POP/IMAP and push email services. Also included is a Windows Live Messenger application, which was very easy to use with my existing Windows Live account. There are a good selection of text input methods available, but they all share the same flaws. Unfortunately, touch screen text input is still too cumbersome and inaccurate to use extensively, and unlike it's older brother the Touch Dual, the Touch Cruise does not feature a hidden physical keypad. On-screen text input options include a QWERTY keyboard, a traditional 12 key phone keypad, a 20 key SureType style keypad, and various handwriting input methods. The messaging system itself was a typical affair for a Windows Mobile device, but with some nifty touchscreen gestures thrown in to allow quick scrolling through your messages and easy switching between messaging accounts.

Data connectivity is one of the Touch Cruise's main advantages over its predecessors, featuring both 3G HSDPA (2100MHz), quad-band GSM/EDGE, and WiFi. Data connections worked well during our tests, proving to be both quick and reliable. Managing the phone's many connections was a doddle with its 'Comm Manager' application, which allows easy control of all connections, including Bluetooth, WiFi, network data, and even push email. Annoyingly, when trying to 'beam' files across to my laptop via Bluetooth, I was forced to search each time for a new connection. This made the simple task of transferring a few photos into a time-consuming chore. Included in the Comm Manager was an 'airplane mode' which disables all wireless connections when activated, then re-enables them when deactivated. As with previous Touch devices, the Touch Cruise features native support for Microsoft Exchange servers, allowing over the air synchronization of email, contacts, calendar entries and tasks. Wireless connectivity isn't all the Touch Cruise has to offer though, and the usual 'HTC ExtUSB' port (miniUSB) is present and capable of USB 2.0 speeds. This port is also used to charge the device and connect its wired headset.