Slim, smart and light in hand

THE extraordinary hype surrounding Apple's iPhone 3G, and to a lesser extent Research in Motion's BlackBerry Bold, has absorbed all the oxygen in the 3G smartphone market of late.

But the so-called "Jesus phone" and the Bold (the Buddha phone perhaps?) are not the only worthy gadgets in smartphone land.

There's a plethora of devices running the Windows Mobile operating system for a start, such as the touchscreen HTC Cruise, which we had a quick look at back in June but have put back on trial this month for closer scrutiny.

The Cruise faces off against the Nokia E71, one of the slimmest smartphones on the market equipped with a Qwerty keyboard.

Nokia E71

PUTTING the E71 next to the BlackBerry Bold is a bit like pitting a sports car against a station wagon.

Despite packing a full Qwerty keyboard, the Nokia is one sleek phone.

It measures 114 by 57 by 10mm, weighs just 127g and is eminently pocketable.

Compared with previous Nokia smartphones it's a looker as well, with its business grey facia accented by classy chrome trim and a grippy backing plate that makes it easier to hang on to than the slippery iPhone.

The E71 has trim dimensions packs plenty of features despite its trim dimensions.

There's a 3.2-megapixel, autofocus, video-capable, flash-equipped camera and another VGA camera around the front for video calls.

There's WiFi for sidestepping stiff 3G data charges, Bluetooth for wireless device connection and cell network assisted GPS with Nokia Maps for finding your way around.

Internal RAM is 128MB but a Micro SD slot on the side means you can cheaply upgrade memory to match your multimedia needs.

Listening comes by way of the MP3 player and the AM radio receiver, although the 2.5mm audiovisual jack restricts headphone choices.

The 2.4in, 320 by 240 resolution screen is small but bright and clear enough for still and video viewing and reading text, but compared with the stunningly sharp screens on the Bold and the iPhone, it's a generation or two behind.

The phone uses the S60 Platform user interface sitting on Symbian's operating system 9.2, and comes with a useful stack of preloaded applications, including the very handy Quickoffice, which can open and edit Microsoft Office documents so long as they are pre-Office 2007 format.

Business software credentials include a comprehensive suite of personal information management tools and neat stuff like a wireless keyboard connection tool and a decent voice recorder.

It can latch on to enterprise email servers and virtual private networks.

Despite being much narrower than the Bold, the E71's keyboard was similarly easy to type on and streets ahead of the hit and miss iPhone touch-style keypad.
- Stuart Kennedy

SPECIFICATIONS
Features: Qwerty keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G HSDPA, 3.2 megapixel, autofocus, flash-enabled camera and video call camera, assisted GPS
Price: $599
Rating: 8/10
More at: www.nokia.com.au

HTC Touch Cruise

THIS 3G multimedia-rich keypad-less PDA smartphone is packed full of business-ready applications.

With its mix of matte black rubber, stainless steel trimmings and mirrored chrome front, the Cruise is an excellently designed and eye-appealing smartphone.

It's a great fit in either the hand or the pocket, measuring 110 by 58mm with a thickness of 15mm.

Although the Cruise has been on the market longer than both the BlackBerry Bold and the iPhone, the device's rich array of multimedia applications keeps it relevant for apps-hungry users.

Featuring inbuilt GPS from Co-Pilot Live, a 3 megapixel camera, a video camera, a media player, Adobe Reader, an RSS Reader, the Opera Mobile web browser, plus a couple of games thrown into the mix, there's enough apps on the Cruise to keep you from rushing back to your PC for a long time.

A bevy of connectivity options are also covered with HSDPA, WiFi and Bluetooth all included. All the apps run on top of Windows Mobile 6, but with only a 400MHz Qualcomm processor and 128MB RAM, we were left wondering if the rich selection of apps resulted in the device's sometimes sluggish load times.

One of the most striking features of the Cruise - or in this case absence of - is the decision to do away with a mechanical keypad.

Unlike many of its smartphone competitors, the HTC Touch Cruise opts instead for a 2.8in touch display.

As can be expected, the Cruise's absence of a physical keypad means a range of input methods such as handwriting recognition and a touchscreen Qwerty keyboard are used instead. Be warned that the unit's durable glass overlay means the screen may not be as responsive as you are accustomed to.

Below the display is a basic panel of function keys, including answer, disconnect, GPS and internet launcher, as well as a scrollwheel for quick navigation around the interface.

Although some will find that the scrollwheel moves too easily, we found it a nice departure from the BlackBerry's pearl scroll-ball, which often jumps across x and y axes too quickly.

The Cruise, like many of HTC's touch-based devices, includes TouchFLO, which is essentially a gesture-driven interface.

Much like the iPhone, you can intuitively navigate the Cruise's interface with a series of jabs, swipes and slides. When the TouchFLO feature is working properly you won't have to use the stylus as much as you're used to.
- Mitchell Bingemann

SPECIFICATIONS
Features: 2.8in touch-sensitive screen, WiFi, Bluetooth 3G HSDPA, 3.0 megapixel autofocus camera and video call camera, GPS, Windows Mobile 6
Price: $899
Rating: 7.5/10
More at: www.htc.com

CONCLUSION

THOSE who like or need Microsoft's Mobile 6 operating system on their phone will be well served by the HTC Cruise, and we liked its combination of touchscreen and scrollwheel navigation, although it could use more grunt. The Nokia E71 packs almost everything a mobile professional could want in a business smartphone into a neat, sleek package, let down only by an average screen. It's close, but the Nokia wins this shootout.