With all the hoopla over the 3G iPhone, we thought it was about time to start trying out some of the competitors. Taiwan-based HTC is a major player among the iPhone wannabe crowd, so we tried to get our hands on the sleek HTC Touch Diamond – dubbed the iPhone killer. None available, said HTC. It did, however, manage to come up with a Touch Cruise. In the spirit of getting the most out of the phone, we handed it over to a friendly 17-year old who took it for a spin. Here is her report:

 

 

The HTC Touch Cruise is one of the most stylish looking phones you’re

likely to see in the shops these days. With it’s 2.8 inch LCD

mirror-like screen complete with a camera on both the front and back of

the phone, it’s almost too pretty to use. However, that huge screen is

actually meant, as the name implies, to be touched. HTC’s TouchFLO

touchscreen technology is pretty exciting, and is also surprisingly easy

to use, whether by stylus or simply with your fingers. There is also a

circular control at the base of the screen which allows you to navigate

which is slightly reminiscent of an Ipod, a device with which most of us

are fairly familiar, thus making the phone even easier to use.

 

The phone is seriously connected. It offers 3G/3.5G connectivity and

HSDPQ, (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) as well as WiFi connectivity,

which is probably what I enjoyed using the most. The phone also comes

with TomTom, a GPS device which means that wherever you are, the phone

can show you your exact location on a map, and is also capable of giving

you directions to any desired location you wish to get to.

 

Microsoft Windows is included with the phone, which was endlessly useful

as you can write actual word documents on the go, and then transfer them

to a computer. The phone offers Word, Excel and Powerpoint, all of which

seemed to work well on the small screen. It is possible to save anything

you create as the phone has a 256MB memory, which you can increase with

a TransFlash/microSD card. This large memory space is useful as the

phone is also an MP3 player and is capable of playing movies, so you can

upload as much of your own music as you like.

 

The camera works well, and is capable of recording videos, but I would

advise that this is not the phone for those that are after a high

quality camera, as you can’t really capture moving subjects (i.e.

people) and the quality is generally not that great. Having said that,

the fact that the phone has two cameras, one on the back for general

use, and one on the front for video calls, really impressed me. The idea

of making a video call on a mobile phone is very exciting, but I must

admit I didn’t try it out, simply because I don’t know anyone else with

a phone that has this kind of technology.

 

 We don’t either. But given this kind of enthusiasm for a non-iPhone phone, our reviewer shouldn’t have long to wait.