My only previous experience with any type of a smartphone was using a Palm Treo 680.  The Palm OS was okay, but after a few months I switched back to carrying a cell phone for calls and my Dell x51v with WM5 for everything else.  I don’t like carrying cell phone and a PDA, but I haven’t found a converged device I like.  It always seemed to me that I had to choose between having a good PDA and poor cell phone or good cell phone and poor PDA.  Now, at this point, you may be screaming at your monitor, “Where have you been, lately, Mason?  There have a number of really good converged devices released in the past 1-2 years!”  Okay, I admit I don’t visit the local phone store very often.  I have a good excuse, though - I am a Verizon customer.   Although Verizon offers good service coverage in my area, they are notorious for being one of the last service providers to offer the newest phones.  The good news is when I do go to the Verizon store there is little temptation to buy the latest and greatest phone so I can stay on the bleeding edge of technology.  The bad news is that by the time Verizon offers the current models of Windows Mobile phones, they will be one or two generations old!!

Okay, enough bashing of my service provider.  When I was offered the chance to review a current generation Windows Mobile device I jumped at the chance.  I received the HTC Mogul, with the Qwest branding.  It runs on the Alltel network in my area. 

Box Contents:

• HTC Mogul
• Manual and setup CD
• Leather Belt Case
• Charging Cradle (with room for extra battery)
• USB Splitter
• USB/2.5mm jack splitter
• USB cable
• Screen protector
• Extra stylus
• Specially made headphones with microphone

Design:

First impressions are everything.  I like the overall design of the Mogul.  It is made of a nice, smooth gunmetal gray plastic with a brushed-aluminum plate around the screen.  Right out of the box, I was struck by two observations:

Observation #1:  It’s not a brick!  Okay, maybe you knew that, but I was giddy at how compact this device actually was. 

HTC Mogul and iPod Video size comparison.

HTC Mogul and LG VX8300

 
 
HTC Mogul and Dell Axim x51v size comparison

Observation #2: “Wow!  Look at all of those buttons!”

Buckle up and I’ll give you a tour of the plethora of navigation/input options available on this beast.

Front View: There are no less than 9 different buttons on the face of the Mogul!  

 
Left Side View: 3-way, 360 degree jog wheel, OK button, Voice Command button and WLAN switch.

 
Right Side View: Stylus, Camera button, COMM manager button, and Power Button

Yep, if you counted 13 buttons on this bad boy, then you counted correctly.  That’s not including the 3-way jog wheel, the Keyboard, the 5-way directional pad, or the WLAN switch!  Believe me when I say that navigating the on Mogul is NOT an issue.  However, the one complaint I have with the button layout relates to the placement of the Power Button.  It’s high on the right hand side of the Mogul right where a thumb or index finger (depending on which hand I am holding it in) naturally rests.  As a result, I found it too easy to unintentionally turn the unit on/off.  It seems like the top of the device would be a more logical place to position the power button.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the rest of the device. 

 
Rear View: No buttons here to speak of, just a lay of the land overview.  The battery cover is a thin piece of plastic.  It has a textured finish that helps maintain a good grip on the Mogul.  However, although it is firmly latched to the battery compartment the battery cover is, by far, the most delicate component and the part I would worry the most about breaking.

Bottom View: To say the bottom of the Mogul was busy would be an understatement! 

 
Top view: In stark contrast to the bottom, look at the top of the Mogul.  I’m guessing the camera, earpiece and internal antenna made it difficult to add any external buttons in this area.

Features:

Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.0.  Microsoft’s newest OS boasts several enhancements over version 5, including HTML Email and better integration with Exchange Servers.  The upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition also touts a few improvements to the PIM functions, including a more full-featured Calendar application and integrated Windows Live.  The full Microsoft Office Mobile Suite allows you to create, view, and edit Word and Excel documents, and view PowerPoint files.  Also include is an Adobe Reader LE for opening PDFs.  

I had no trouble syncing the Mogul with Windows XP, running ActiveSync 4.5.   The Mogul’s organizer features are among the most robust found on any device on the market.  Windows Mobile Professional 6.0 is a solid OS, but I wish Microsoft would put some effort into updating the PIE browser.  It’s starting to look tired and old.  One more thing, can we please have a Close Program (”X”) button that actually closes a running program without having to rely on a third party application? 

Screen:  As my eyes age, the screen size and sharpness of a device is one of the most important features.  I am so accustomed to the Axim x51v’s gorgeous VGA screen that I was prepared not to like the Mogul’s display.  The Mogul’s screen, while smaller than that of the x51v, was actually sharper than I was expecting.  The Mogul’s screen wasn’t near as pixilated as other devices that I have owned.  It was not hard on my eyes at all.

Phone:  I had no issues with the sound of both outgoing and incoming calls.  The speakerphone, however, was average.  Voice dialing was easy to set up and utilize via the Voice Command button on the left side of the Mogul.  The Mogul features a speakerphone, voice commands, smart dialing, speed dial, vibrate mode, and text and multimedia messaging. The contact list is limited only by the available memory, and each entry includes storage for as many as 12 numbers, home and work addresses, e-mail, IM screen name, birthday, spouse’s name, etc.  You can identify each contact for caller ID purposes by paring them with a photo, a caller group, or any of 24 polyphonic ring tones.

Another added feature of WM6 is that the call history is now sorted to the appropriate contact page. This makes it easy to see when you received or made a call to a specific person, as well as the time of the call, the duration, and any notation you may have added to the call all on the individual contact page.  Additionally, I encountered no problems pairing the Mogul with my BlueAnt Z9 BT headset.  It is a little awkward dialing a number on the HTC Mogul due to the lack of a number pad.  The easiest way to dial a call on the touchscreen is using the stylus.  The onscreen number pad is just too difficult to dial accurately with even slightly large fingers.

Camera/Video:  The pictures and video taken with the onboard 2.0 mega pixel camera were decent, but not great.  The camera software was far from intuitive.  It took me awhile to get my bearings and learn to shoot.  The one setting I did like on the camera was the panoramic shot setting.  This setting actually allows the user to take three regular overlapping pictures that are then automatically merged together into one wide panorama. The pictures I took were great for emailing, little else.  Video is okay, but you’ll still want something better, even for YouTube. 

  
I did find an unexpected use for one of the camera functions.  During the first week of testing, I took the Mogul with me for a day of geocaching.  After the sun had set we were trying to find one last cache, but it was in a dark, wooded area and neither my partner nor I had packed a flashlight.  I turned the phone to the camera setting and set the flash to “fill flash” and illuminated the surrounding woods enough to spot the elusive prize!  Seriously, this thing is burn-your-retina-bright!

Audio:  The sound produced through the external speaker was expectedly tinny sounding.  Using earphones improved the sound significantly.  The bottom line is that while the Mogul is a multimedia device, it’s not good enough in either the Audio or Video categories to make you want to list your iPod or digital camera on eBay anytime soon.

Network: I was able to connect the Mogul to Alltel’s EVDO and the onboard 802.11g Wi-Fi meant that I enjoyed a peppy browsing experience at home or at work. In addition, the Mogul sports Bluetooth 2.0 and IRDA connectivity for legacy devices. This makes it a very well connected device.  The Mogul has no built in GPS receiver (ala the AT&T Tilt), but support for linking to an external Bluetooth GPS device is included in WM6.

Battery life:  The Mogul’s 1500 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated for 4-5 hours of talk time. After a full day of making phone calls, browsing the Internet, snapping a few pictures and playing a few games, the battery never dropped below 40% charge.  Furthermore, I always cradled the HTC overnight so it would have a full charge for the following day.  I was satisfied with the battery life. 

Keyboard:  The Mogul’s slider mechanism has a very satisfying feel to it.   As the trailing edge of the top half of the Mogul reaches the top of the third row of keys, there is a very soft “schlick” sound as the spring mechanism snaps it in place.  Though it lacks the Treo’s excellent one-handed operation experience, the Mogul offers an excellent QWERTY keyboard. When you slide out the keyboard, the display on the Mogul will switch to landscape mode automatically and quickly. The Mogul maintains a balanced feel when the keyboard is extended and all of the hardware buttons remain accessible and functional as well.

Navigation: Granted it borders on overkill, but with the Mogul you can choose one of three ways to navigate the device: a thumb wheel on the left side, a 5-way d-pad underneath the display, and the included telescoping stylus for use with the TFT TouchScreen. However right-handers, like me, might be a little might find it a little awkward that the D-pad is on the left side when the keyboard is open.

Conclusion:

It doesn’t have the tilt screen or the built-in GPSr like the AT&T 8525 but, as a Verizon customer, I can take consolation that my service provider will do all that it can to make a device with those specs available to me sometime in 2010!  In the meantime, I think I could live with the Mogul.  The good news is that Verizon is supposed to be launching their version of the Mogul, dubbed the VX8600, sometime in November 2007.  The bad news is, rumors of the VX6800 being offered by Verizon have been circulating for over a year!

In my opinion the Mogul has all the features of a great PDA and a pretty decent phone as well.  Finally, I don’t have to choose either one or the other!  This is what convergence was meant to be.  Overall, I’d give the HTC Mogul a rating of 8.5 out of 10.  I’d put it on my highly recommended list of devices.  In fact, it’s now at the top of my personal “Want” list. 

Pros:

• Better-than-expected screen
• Processor Speed: zippy with no lag in multi-tasking
• QWERTY keyboard
• Abundance of navigation options
• EVDO, 802.11g, BT, and IRDA

Cons:

• Pocketability: the Mogul is thick enough that most users will not want to try to carry this device in their pocket but will, instead, opt to use the included belt holster.
• Power button placement: It’s just too easy to inadvertently turn the device on/off. 
• Camera Interface: not very intuitive.
• Screenpad dialing: difficult to do even with average size fingers.

Specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm MSM7500, 400 MHz
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional (Pocket PC)
• Display: 240 x 320 TFT TouchScreen LCD
• Memory: 64 MB DDR SDRAM; 256 MB ROM
• Size & Weight: 4.3″ long x 2.3″ wide x 0.7″ thick; 5.82 ounces (with battery)
• Expansion: Single MicroSD slot
• Network: CDMA2000 1xRTT/1xEVDO Dual-band 800/1900 MHz
• Communication: Dual band CDMA/EVDO; 802.11b/g; Bluetooth 2.0
• Audio: ExtUSB headphone/headset jack
• Battery: 1500 mAh Lithium Ion cell
• Navigation: QWERTY thumb keyboard; 5-way directional pad; application buttons; 3-way jog wheel; touchscreen