Features
4.5
Mogul can do a lot of things. A lot. It’s one of the first devices to ship with Windows Mobile 6, which means if it can’t do something out of the box there’s a decent chance somebody somewhere has written software you can install to do it. That’s the nice thing about having a smartphone. WinMob 6 Professional doesn’t add a ton of functionality as compared to its predecessor, but it does add a few notable messaging features and also runs a bit smoother.
The Today (home) screen is the first thing you’ll see once you’ve booted up your Mogul. Here you can keep track of your appointments, new/unread messages (voice, SMS, and email), tasks and application shortcuts. This screen is probably my favorite thing about Windows Mobile - like the Active Standby display on Symbian devices, it really makes it easy to glance at your phone and decide if you need to click through menus for more information. Myself, I tend to forget exactly what time my appointments throughout the day are scheduled for, so Today saved me from having to unlock Mogul and tap through a few screens to check.
It’s impossible to detail everything this device can do in a reasonable amount of space. Suffice it to say that it ships with robust calendaring and contacts applications that whose functionality is enhanced by the device’s touchscreen, thumbwheel and QWERTY board. More importantly, Mogul’s 400-MHz processor is fast enough to smoothly power all the device is meant to do, and the overall experience of running WM 6 on Mogul is much more satisfying than on the HTC Wing, a similar-looking T-Mobile smartphone that’s powered by a much slower chip. Aside from problems that crop up when running five or six applications at once (WinMob needs a more intuitive means of managing and quitting active tasks), and some issues with Internet Explorer that I’ll get to later, Mogul performed very well - launching applications was acceptably fast and screen redraws when switching from landscape to portrait views were quick and smooth.
Also worth mentioning is an integrated contacts search that can be initiated by typing on the QWERTY board from the home screen, the excellent On Demand application for quick news, weather, and information updates, and compatibility with Sprint’s online Music Store, which offers 99-cent per track downloads direct to your mobile device. While my review sample came before the store was made available for Mogul, I’ve used the system on other Sprint phones and it’s the best in the business. In need of an interface reworking? Yes. Fast, cheap, and stocked with a decent selection of music? Absolutely.
Mogul also came loaded with mobile versions of MS Office apps, and combined with the phone’s Email and Web functionality, I was able to research, write, and email a couple of articles in Pocket Word while waiting for a flight at the Las Vegas airport. Windows Media Player can handle protected and unprotected audio and video files, but not songs purchased from the iTunes store. I was able to play music sideloaded from my computer onto the device via microSD memory card, but not mp3 files sent to Mogul over Bluetooth. Video playback was actually a bit unsatisfactory, with clips suffering from jerky motion and artifacts a bit more than I expected.
Note that Mogul is slated for compatibility with Sprint’s faster Rev. A EV-DO network pending a forthcoming firmware update. This will only enhance any network-dependent features on the device.
HTC built Mogul with a two megapixel camera with LED assist light and video capture capabilities. The camera’s performance was about average for a cameraphone, but certainly not on par with the best in the business - chalk that up in part to a fixed-focus (not autofocus) lens. Still images captured in natural light and well-lit indoor conditions looked pretty good, with some shots exhibiting a better-than-average amount of detail and good color saturation. But Mogul’s tolerance for less than optimal lighting was a bit less than other 1.3 and 2 MP cameraphones I’ve tried, and low light tended to result in photos that were not only grainy, but blurry as well. Using the flash assist light didn’t really help that much - photos came out a bit more recognizable, but were marred by unnatural color. The camera software features a wide variety of scene modes and adjustments, and digital zoom is available on all but the highest resolution settings (which, come to think of it, is a bit annoying).
Video capture on Mogul worked fairly well for a cameraphone, but was limited to 176x144 pixel clips at 15 frames per second. Mogul does record audio with video clips. Images and videos may be attached to email messages or transferred to a computer via USB cable, Bluetooth, or microSD card, but MMS messaging is not supported.
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