HTC Touch Cruise review: Happy cruising

Pocket PCs have been keeping us busy these days. Just as we gave you LG KS20, it's time for our one-on-one with the HTC Touch Cruise. And hey, are those workhorses getting sexier or what. As one of our readers sharply observed, those devices just don't have to yell corporate or geek any more. One of the best looking Pocket PCs around, the HTC Touch Cruise will surely turn heads. Besides, its feature set is on par with the attire, which explains our eagerness to put it through its paces. Wi-Fi, HSDPA, 2.8" Touchscreen display and a 3 megapixel camera surely make it one of the most loaded devices around. And, not least, we just couldn't wait to rev up the new TouchFLO.

   
HTC Touch Cruise official photos
Key features
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
3G with HSDPA
400MHz Qualcomm processor
128MB of RAM
2.8" 65K color touchscreen TFT display with QVGA resolution
Integrated Qualcomm GPS receiver 
TomTom satnav software pre-bundled, one free map included
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
3 megapixel camera with autofocus
Sleek design
Enhanced HTC TouchFLO interface
Jog-wheel D-pad
Great picture gallery
Retail package is rich in content
Good battery life
Main disadvantages
No hardware keypad
Inadequate video playback capabilities
Paint starts to peel off very quickly
Display image quality is a bit disappointing and is practically illegible under direct sunlight
Photo processing issues

HTC Touch Cruise is surely one of the most interesting Windows Mobile Pro devices to hit the shelves recently. It features the new version of HTC's TouchFLO interface and one of the heaviest feature sets in the PocketPC class. It is very close in terms of specifications to the omnipresent HTC TyTN II, except for the hardware QWERTY keyboard. However the Cruise is incomparably lighter and thinner and - as we see it - much better looking. Not that looks are the first thing about a PocketPC.