Sunday, March 02, 2008

iPhone? no HTC Touch Cruise

A few weeks ago I went for a new smartphone. I had a look at the iPhone, but that wasn't an option. In Belgium you're not allowed (due to the law) to bundle the physical device and the mobile contract itself. So there're no official iPhones in Belgium yet. Some people have a "hacked" version, but I didn't want to go for that.

The main features I want in my smartphone are:
  • Mobile phone (surprisingly)
  • Agenda
  • Contacts
  • GPS Navigation
  • Wifi
  • Easy synchronization with my MacBook Pro
At the end of 2006 I bought an HTC P3300 and I really liked it (see blog post). I could have kept that one, but I decided to have a look which new devices HTC had available. In a years time a lot should have changed. I saw some good reviews of the HTC Touch Cruise (P3650), the follow-up of the HTC P3300, so I decided to give it a try.

I bought it and I really like it. I had some problems with it in the beginning, finally called support and they told me I had to go for a new one. Went to the store, got a new one (excellent service!) and it had the same problem. The big clock (HTC Home plugin for the Today screen) wasn't showing although it was installed. HTC Support told me to do a hard reset, but that didn't help. Finally I found it myself; if you install that HTC Home plugin manually again, it works flawlessly. I guess the first device would have worked too ;-)

Even if the iPhone was available in Belgium, I think I would still go for the HTC Touch Cruise as I prefer to have a navigation system (gps) in my mobile phone. I was really impressed with the iPhones touch screen, but HTC has something similar, it's called the TouchFLO, so I can navigate with my fingers now too. The HTC Touch Cruise has a nice big screen and also supports 3G. The full spec you find on the htc website.

To synchronize my contacts and calendar with my MacBook Pro I use Missing Sync for Windows Mobile. It works really well. My iCal, Address book and Tasks get nicely synchronized.

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10 comments:

  1. Borkur Steingrimsson3/02/2008 2:12 PM

    Dimitri,

    I am starting to look around for a new phone myself, as my SonyEricssson P900 was new in 2003, it only seems to attract the attention of archaeologists today :)

    I walked past a Sony store near Place Meiser in Brussels and saw that they had an iPhone for sale there for 699Euro ... presumably this means that the phone is unlocked legally. I must say I am tempted to go for it :)

    cheers
    Borkur

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  2. Anonymous3/02/2008 2:18 PM

    Dimitri,

    Can you tell me what the real battery time is for this device?
    How are your experiences with it as a phone? Would you say you need an ear plug for comfort?

    Currently I'm (still) using a Nokia 6310i and one of its benefits is the battery time.

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  3. Mathias3/02/2008 4:41 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Mathias3/02/2008 4:43 PM

    Dimitri,

    Had a typo in the link in the previous post.

    I'm considering the iphone, and I thought it's version of the gps may be enough. Did you look at it and if so, what issues did you experience? (this seems to be the main reason you wouldn't want an iphone)

    http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#map

    Mathias

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  5. Mathias3/02/2008 4:45 PM

    I give up. Google eats the p in map in the link (or at least it looks like it does in my browser.

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  6. Dimitri Gielis3/02/2008 5:22 PM

    Hi Borkur,

    You can buy an iPhone, but when I looked for it, there was no subscription (Mobistar, Proximus, Base, ...) to call for it... They told me it would becoma available in 2008, but when? I didn't want to wait anymore ;-)

    Dimitri

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  7. Dimitri Gielis3/02/2008 5:25 PM

    Hi Freek,

    The battery life depends what you do with your phone. Have a look at this review: http://www.mobiletechreview.com/phones/HTC-Touch.htm

    For me the battery life is very good.

    The quality of the sound I like very much too.

    I think both point are better with the Touch Cruise then the P3300 I had before.

    Dimitri

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  8. Dimitri Gielis3/02/2008 5:27 PM

    Hi Mathias,

    I prefer to work with TomTom which comes with the HTC.
    I thought the iPhone just had Google Maps? But I prefer to go from point 1 to point 2, which is very easy with TomTom.

    Thanks,
    Dimitri

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  9. Anonymous3/03/2008 3:51 AM

    I actually just bought the Touch Cruise, it really is an amazing device. Its packed with more features than the iToy, and it imo looks better too (it certainly is smaller), trust me when I say the pics online don't due to device justice and get the colors all wrong. I took some much better pics, look here... pic1 and pic2

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  10. Ronald Korporaal12/17/2008 11:21 PM

    Hi Dimitri,

    I have never used a smartphone myself, so maybe it's a stupid question.

    I'm wondering if Apex can run on smartphones? How does it look? Are there any special development requirements, like smaller screens, navigation, etc..
    Or maybe other issues you have to cope with?

    Or.... it doesn't work at all?

    Depending on your answer I will buy a smartphone and start experimenting with Apex on it.

    Thanks for your reply.

    Regards,
    Ronald

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