HTC Touch Cruise 2

[Guest Thumper Net]

Still being a device freek i went out and bought a simlock free version of the new HTC Touch Cruise 2 , mainly because i liked the wheel that featured on the original Cruise , but i sold that one because of the very bad reception problem it had.

First the specs of the phone are good for a budget phone and they are ...

Processor: Qualcomm MSM7225 528MHz

Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional

Memory: 512 MB flash ROM, 256 MB RAM

Dimensions: 102 x 53.5 x 14.5mm

Weight: 103 grams

Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 240 (QVGA) resolution

Network: WCDMA/HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps

Device Control: HTC TouchFLO, 4-Way navigation wheel with Enter and HTC Footprints buttons

GPS: GPS/A-GPS

Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11b/g, Mobile WiMAX: IEEE 802.16e, HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus

Audio: Built-in 3.5 mm audio jack, microphone, speaker, and FM radio, Ring tone formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, 40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI

Expansion Slot: microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible), USB: 2.0 client, 480Mbit/s, mini-USB

Battery: Li-Pol, 1100 mAh, Talk time: GSM: up to 400 minutes; Standby time: GSM: up to two weeks

AC Adapter: Voltage range/frequency: 100 240V AC, 50/60 Hz, DC output: 5V and 1A

New on the htc homescreen is footprints , where you can geo tag your photos using the gps thats built in.

So what do you get in the boxes ..

The box you get is larger than the usual htc boxes we get these days but that is due to the phone coming with a free car kit , this has a htc car charger and a special holder which turns the phone into a navigator phone , this new screen can be turned off if you do not want to use the navigation and hands free calling.

You get two small boxes one with the phone and leads which you would expect with a htc phone and the 2nd box contains the car kit

The phone comes with a 3.2 mega pixal camera but this sadly does not come with a flash , which is needed on this phone as photos taken inside in the evening gives a reddish tint or a blue tint to your photos even if the lights are turned up to the max, tests beween the iphone 3g and the cruise show how bad the camera is as the iphone manages to take a far better picture than the cruise with good colours and tones in the pictures , even though the iphones photos are slightly grainy the overall photo is better because of the colour tones.

The version of the touch cruise 2 i have is the Dutch version which comes with a full version of the latest version of tomtom with a full version of the benelux map , there seem though to be different verions of the cruise 2 out there as some come without tomtom built in and these phones are about 40 pounds cheaper , if tomtom is important to you then it is best to check with your retailer that it comes with the full version of tomtom included.

The homescreen looks very simular to the touch 3g with the blue screen and analoge clock , not having a touch 3g i cannot comment on the other tabs that are the same as this phone , but the tabs are start , contacts , messages , mail , footprints , internet , photos and videos , music , weather , google search , settings and programmes .

The footprint application uses the devices gps and google location services to add the location to your photos , it is a strange app as the camera screen is a smaller box and is square with the gps signal on the bottom left hand corner. you get 2 options on the right menu button for adjusting the tone and lighting settings before you take a photo , the camera though does feel alittle bit slower than the normal camera app.

The phone is far quicker than both the htc diamond and touch pro ( both of which i still own ) and this version of the touch cruise does have something the original version did not have and that is the reception of the phone is better .

The back cover on the new version is very cheap and does not slide off like the diamond does , its a click on cover which does fall off if you drop the phone ( which i did on day 2 )

The wheel is usefull as well apart from scrolling the menus it is used for volume and zooming in opera and word documents.

The overall feel of the phone is nice but is has a very plastic feel to it , compared to the older version , and the built in speaker is a bit tinny in sound , if you use a case you might also miss your phone calls as the ringtone volume is much lower than other devices out there .

So far the phone is running very well so far apart from a small problem with the wifi connection , which seems to loose the wifi network when switched on again , this could be down to the router i have but all the other htc phone i own do not suffer this problems.

If you liked the original version of the touch cruise then the latest version will appeal to you as well , the phone is mainly aimed at the owners who want a navigation phone but in general it is a good phone and the battery life seems to be good as well , giving me nearly 3 days battery life which seems to be better than the touch pro which gave me 2 days .

Overall its a good device , but if you compare the phone against the touch 3g which is in the same price group it could come down to the usage you want from the phone to which version you buy with the touch cruise having more memory than the touch 3g could be one point to think about before you sign on the dotted line ..

Edited February 21, 2009 by Thumper Net

[Guest Thumper Net]

After 2 weeks with this device i have managed to sort out the wifi problem , it seems the phone has problems with certain routers , if i wait and switch off the notification about other wifi networks then it works .

battery life seems to be also very good as well .

certain softwares are a pain to use as well , yahoo go 3 freezes while you are trying to log in for the first time and can crash , as soon as it has been loaded the app works well , facebook does not work as it reqires a .net which turns out to be older than the version supplied on the phone.

I have managed to drop the phone twice , not a good thing as it seems to land face down , but its a tough phone and so far has not got any scratches , which can be down to the screen cover.

The phone itself is also very light which is very nice and fits well in the hand as well.

the screen seems better than my other htc phones in sunlight , its very readable , maybe a newer type of screen is used , this seems to be very nice , mainly with tomtom as standard it would be a poor phone if you could not see the screen.

Overal iam very happy with the phone it does what it says on the box :(