HTC Touch Cruise
Preview by Bibhas Basumatary
I got to see and feel once sample unit of HTC Touch Cruise (Courtesy Chris Rae of SourceIT). Here is my brief preview on the specs and looks.
In order to take the Touch Flow Screen technology to an all new high level to the mobile consumer HTC has added a new member in its trademark “TouchFLO” family of Windows Mobile devices. The earlier frowns that original Touch did not have 3.5G and Touch Dual lacked Wi-Fi has been transformed into beams as this latest offering from HTC is packed with all connectivity options of Wi-Fi, 3.5G, Bluetooth, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and GPS. This is the high point of HTC Touch Cruise which takes a giant leap in PDA Mobile and TouchFLO technology.
The Original Touch has been a hit with the masses and Touch Dual was a flop (mainly due to high price and without Wi-Fi) but the Touch Cruise is all set to be a hit among both masses and the classes. It has already been launched with major operators in Europe and is set to make a debut in Asia including Middle East in February 2008.
(Though this photo here has a grey and black casing the actual Asia (including Middle East) version will have a complete black casing)
In order to take the Touch Flow Screen technology to an all new high level to the mobile consumer HTC has added a new member in its trademark “TouchFLO” family of Windows Mobile devices. The earlier frowns that original Touch did not have 3.5G and Touch Dual lacked Wi-Fi has been transformed into beams as this latest offering from HTC is packed with all connectivity options of Wi-Fi, 3.5G, Bluetooth, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and GPS. This is the high point of HTC Touch Cruise which takes a giant leap in PDA Mobile and TouchFLO technology.
The Original Touch has been a hit with the masses and Touch Dual was a flop (mainly due to high price and without Wi-Fi) but the Touch Cruise is all set to be a hit among both masses and the classes. It has already been launched with major operators in Europe and is set to make a debut in Asia including Middle East in February 2008.
(Though this photo here has a grey and black casing the actual Asia (including Middle East) version will have a complete black casing)
The Hard parts
As we stated HTC Touch Cruise doesn’t leave out any connectivity features currently available in the mobile market. It has Wi-Fi, 3.5G, Bluetooth, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and as well as built-in GPS. This puts almost at par with the HTC TyTN II in terms of tech specs as they both use the 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor.
On first view it looks almost similar to HTC’s earlier GPS model the P3300. HTC has taken the P3300 ID and made some minor changes in the shape and is also 1.3mm thinner. The major difference in form factor from P3300 and in technology-wise from TyTN II is that the LCD is evened out smoothly on the front side of the device to allow the TouchFLO functions like the original Touch or iPhone.
The only protrusion on the front side of the device is the 4-Way Navigation Wheel with Enter button. There are four functional buttons for call and call canceling and for Windows Start and “OK” which are around the Navigation Wheel for quick operations. Unlike Touch and Touch Dual the casing is made of a hard plastic which grips quite well and also feels secure in hands. A silver metallic strip runs around in the centre of the two sides only and doesn’t run on top and bottom of the device’s sides like in the Touch. This strip includes few more buttons like volume control, camera shutter and the power button.
The standout features in this version of Touch would be the FM Radio and the 3.0 Megapixels camera.
The Soft parts
It is expected to have all the improvements which is seen in the HTC Touch Dual (review link). Many of you who have not gone for the Touch Dual due to smaller screen size and lack of Wi-Fi would not want to miss out on the HTC’s marked improvements in its Interface and software applications. The enhancements from the original touch and the original windows mobile interface could be found in Touch Cruise in the following manner:
The right-hand top part of the screen has a better functionality sensitive drop down menu with “X” button for closing applications and free up memory space quicker. Similarly finger tapping on the top status bar one can perform tasks like checking the battery power and changing the volume with enlarged icons.
In the “Start” menu the icons and text are larger than in the original which allows for one hand finger operation easily. One of the first perceptible improvements is the iPhone feature rip-off on the flipping of images with finger slide motion and zoom in and zoom out with the circular finger / stylus actions.
Scrolling long list of contacts has also been made easier by including a vertical alphabet bar on the right side. For example, to get to a contact that starts with “P”, you only have to touch the letter “P”. If you miss it on finger touch, scroll up or down and the letter will appear in the centre of the screen to tell you where your finger is. Then you can stop and get to the contacts starting with alphabet “P” in this case. Actually this is rip-off from a freelance application called PocketCM and similar to iPhone also. Now once can swipe the messages left and right to move between messages
Call hang up button have special functions. The device can be set to show a Quick Tasks menu when the slider is pushed up, giving immediate access to common tasks like composing a new message etc. While pressing and holding the Call hang up button one can bring up a Quick Lists menu which changes key settings like turning on key lock and setting to silent mode.
In the Today screen one more menu tab has been added to the HTC Today screen application which allows you to switch between sound modes and to quickly access the ringtone selector menu.
Besides the normal virtual keyboard HTC has added its own Touch Keypad and Touch Keyboard for QWERTY inputs and faster XT9 Dictionary inputs with a finger touch.
All of the above enhanced interface with more features is expected in the HTC Touch Cruise. It is the most advanced PDA Mobile with TouchFLO technology and is expected to be priced around US$ 800.
Final Analysis and Beyond
The images found here and in most websites currently displaying the Touch Cruise show that it is silver and black in color, but the version that will be sold in Middle East region may be completely black instead.
One would expect from such a high specs device to have a VGA screen and a TV / VGA Out feature. However, HTC Touch Cruise is an offering to keep ahead of iPhone in terms of functional features like GPS and 3.5G. Though it is slimmer and quite compact than many of the competitors’ devices it is not as sleek looking as the Touch or Touch Dual. One is not sure where is HTC trying to position this device at. Business users will still prefer the TyTN II due to the slide-out QWERTY Keyboard. If HTC is trying to target the multimedia segment then they should have added bigger internal memory like iPhone or O2 Atom Life. If priced attractively or offered with 6GB microSD (currently available and 12GB expected by the end of this year) it will surely be a hit among masses and change the PDA and Touch technology market.
As we stated HTC Touch Cruise doesn’t leave out any connectivity features currently available in the mobile market. It has Wi-Fi, 3.5G, Bluetooth, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and as well as built-in GPS. This puts almost at par with the HTC TyTN II in terms of tech specs as they both use the 400MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor.
On first view it looks almost similar to HTC’s earlier GPS model the P3300. HTC has taken the P3300 ID and made some minor changes in the shape and is also 1.3mm thinner. The major difference in form factor from P3300 and in technology-wise from TyTN II is that the LCD is evened out smoothly on the front side of the device to allow the TouchFLO functions like the original Touch or iPhone.
The only protrusion on the front side of the device is the 4-Way Navigation Wheel with Enter button. There are four functional buttons for call and call canceling and for Windows Start and “OK” which are around the Navigation Wheel for quick operations. Unlike Touch and Touch Dual the casing is made of a hard plastic which grips quite well and also feels secure in hands. A silver metallic strip runs around in the centre of the two sides only and doesn’t run on top and bottom of the device’s sides like in the Touch. This strip includes few more buttons like volume control, camera shutter and the power button.
The standout features in this version of Touch would be the FM Radio and the 3.0 Megapixels camera.
The Soft parts
It is expected to have all the improvements which is seen in the HTC Touch Dual (review link). Many of you who have not gone for the Touch Dual due to smaller screen size and lack of Wi-Fi would not want to miss out on the HTC’s marked improvements in its Interface and software applications. The enhancements from the original touch and the original windows mobile interface could be found in Touch Cruise in the following manner:
The right-hand top part of the screen has a better functionality sensitive drop down menu with “X” button for closing applications and free up memory space quicker. Similarly finger tapping on the top status bar one can perform tasks like checking the battery power and changing the volume with enlarged icons.
In the “Start” menu the icons and text are larger than in the original which allows for one hand finger operation easily. One of the first perceptible improvements is the iPhone feature rip-off on the flipping of images with finger slide motion and zoom in and zoom out with the circular finger / stylus actions.
Scrolling long list of contacts has also been made easier by including a vertical alphabet bar on the right side. For example, to get to a contact that starts with “P”, you only have to touch the letter “P”. If you miss it on finger touch, scroll up or down and the letter will appear in the centre of the screen to tell you where your finger is. Then you can stop and get to the contacts starting with alphabet “P” in this case. Actually this is rip-off from a freelance application called PocketCM and similar to iPhone also. Now once can swipe the messages left and right to move between messages
Call hang up button have special functions. The device can be set to show a Quick Tasks menu when the slider is pushed up, giving immediate access to common tasks like composing a new message etc. While pressing and holding the Call hang up button one can bring up a Quick Lists menu which changes key settings like turning on key lock and setting to silent mode.
In the Today screen one more menu tab has been added to the HTC Today screen application which allows you to switch between sound modes and to quickly access the ringtone selector menu.
Besides the normal virtual keyboard HTC has added its own Touch Keypad and Touch Keyboard for QWERTY inputs and faster XT9 Dictionary inputs with a finger touch.
All of the above enhanced interface with more features is expected in the HTC Touch Cruise. It is the most advanced PDA Mobile with TouchFLO technology and is expected to be priced around US$ 800.
Final Analysis and Beyond
The images found here and in most websites currently displaying the Touch Cruise show that it is silver and black in color, but the version that will be sold in Middle East region may be completely black instead.
One would expect from such a high specs device to have a VGA screen and a TV / VGA Out feature. However, HTC Touch Cruise is an offering to keep ahead of iPhone in terms of functional features like GPS and 3.5G. Though it is slimmer and quite compact than many of the competitors’ devices it is not as sleek looking as the Touch or Touch Dual. One is not sure where is HTC trying to position this device at. Business users will still prefer the TyTN II due to the slide-out QWERTY Keyboard. If HTC is trying to target the multimedia segment then they should have added bigger internal memory like iPhone or O2 Atom Life. If priced attractively or offered with 6GB microSD (currently available and 12GB expected by the end of this year) it will surely be a hit among masses and change the PDA and Touch technology market.