HTC Mogul Cell Phone Review
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Alfredo Padilla Published on July 23, 2007 Comment on this |
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The HTC Mogul is a phone for the messaging, emailing, calling person-about-town; with its 2.8-inch screen and large slide out QWERTY keyboard, this new HTC device is a good pick for the user who sends a lot of text and email messages and prefers a real keyboard to type on. The successor to Sprint's very successful PPC-6700 Windows Mobile smart phones, the Mogul is built by HTC, as were phones from other carriers like the T-Mobile Wing, Verizon XV6700 and AT&T 8525. But unlike these, the Mogul is the first HTC phone sold in the United States to bear HTC's name, part of their new global branding strategy. Regardless of what the phone is called this form factor has been very successful in the US and the Mogul looks to continue that success. The Mogul brings only a few upgrades over the PPC-6700. Firstly, it's the first Sprint phone to run Windows Mobile 6.0. This upgraded Microsoft operating system brings several enhancements over version 5, including HTML Email and better integration with Exchange Servers. The Mogul also packs a 2 megapixel camera, but it's nothing to email home about; in our tests the Mogul's camera had middling performance, with particular trouble reproducing colors. The Mogul had decent battery life, providing 5 hours 50 minutes of talk time. That's pretty good, but is not as long as the T-Mobile Wing or BlackBerry 8800. It's large screen and solid Windows Media Player Mobile software makes it a well equipped multimedia device.
The Mogul supports EVDO data for high speed internet access. Although it doesn't currently support Sprint's newer EVDO Rev A network, support for this will supposedly come in a firmware upgrade which Sprint estiamtes will be available later in the year. In addition the Mogul supports 802.11g WiFI and Bluetooth 2.0, along with IRDA for legacy devices. This makes it a very well connected device. About the only thing we are missing from the Mogul is GPS; there is no built in GPS receiver, but support for linking to an external Bluetooth GPS device is included in Windows Mobile.
The Mogul has already seen at least one firmware upgrade that activates support for Sprint's music store on the device; see the music section of our review for more details. Although our review unit did not come with this installed, Sprint claims that new inventory of the Mogul will come with this update already installed. Windows Mobile 6 is a powerful and flexible platform, with excellent business tools and support for Push email via Exchange Activesync. Unlike the T-Mobile Wing the Mogul exhibited very little lag; the user interface was snappy and responsive. So, we have no trouble calling it a worthy successor to the PPC-6700.
The Mogul is currently only available from Sprint in the United States for $299.99 with a two year contract. If this release follows the same path as its predecessor the PPC-6700, you should expect to see a version for Verizon coming sometime in the next six months or so.
Here's our handy guide to the different sections of our review; click on any of the titles to read the full section.
Tour & Design - The Mogul is a well deisgned handset, but the screne could be easily scratched, and the plastic case does not feel robust
Audio Quality - We found audio performance to be generally good; the frequency response was mostly within the limits and the Mogul had a good level of sidetone.
Imaging - The camera in the Mogul was dissapointing - captured images had low resolution and poor color.
Making/Receiving Calls - Making calls on the Mogul can be a little awkward because of the lack of a real keypad however the software features were very good.
Messaging - With a solid email client, excellent corporate integration and comfortable QWERTY keyboard the Mogul makes for a powerful messaging device.
Organizer - The Mogul's organizer features are amongst the most powerful found on any device on the market.
Multimedia - The Mogul offers solid multimedia support, but with limited storage via Micro SD cards it won't replace a dedicated device.
Software - Windows Mobile Professional 6.0 is a solid operating system, but some of the software features, such as the browser, are beginning to fall behind competitors.
Battery Life - The HTC Mogul's battery performance is solid, but not exceptional.
Connectivity - With support for EVDO, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IRDA and Mini USB the Mogul is one of the best connected devices out there.
Hardware - The Mogul's hardware is good, with a plethora of controls and solid specs throughout.
Other Features - The only additional feature worth noting is the ability to use the Mogul as a wireless modem.
Value & Comparisons - At $299.99 with a two year contract the Mogul is a solid value for its extensive feature set.
[page title="Tour & Design"]
Front Closed
Front Open
Left
Top
Bottom
Right
Back
Battery Out
In the Box (7.5)
Handling (5.0)
The HTC Mogul measures 4.3" x 2.3" x .7" and weighs in at 5.8 ounces. It's definitely a big phone, but rounded edges let it fit comfortably into the palm of your hand. It's weight will make it uncomfortable to hold up to your head for an extended period of time. For long calls you're probably better off making use of the included stereo headset. The back of the phone is textured for a better grip, but most of the phone is still made of slick plastic. Nothing like the soft touch paint that's found on devices like the Treo 750 or T-Mobile Dash.
Portability (4.0)
The HTC Mogul's size and weight mean it will bulge in any pocket. If you're wearing tight jeans forget about it. It will fit into most bags, but again it takes up much more room than a regular cell phone. Those who don't mind looking geeky are probably best off using the included belt case.
Aesthetics (4.0)
The Mogul is not a particularly attractive device. It has a certain professional charm, but the grey plastic and plethora of buttons don't contribute to any kind of "sexiness". It's certainly not as pretty as other Windows Mobile devices like the Treo 750 or T-Mobile Dash. If you're looking for a fashion phone you'd better look elsewhere.
Durability (6.0)
The Mogul is constructed of plastic to keep weight down. We fear that the plastic will scratch easily, and are further concerned about the large screen; throw this in your pocket with your keys and the exposed screen could be easily scratched. You probably want to throw a screen protector on it as quickly as possible. We are always concerned about moving parts and the Mogul's slide out keyboard is not exception. It's spring loaded and you don't get the scraping sounds you heard on previous HTC sliding keyboards, but on the other hand springs can loose their springiness over time, which might affect the slide out keyboard. The device does feel solid, which quiets a few of our fears, but the plastic case, slide out mechanism and exposed keyboard are concerns for long term durability.
[page title="Audio Quality"]
To test the quality of calls made by the HTC Mogul we use the same professional testing equipment used by many of the manufacturers themselves; a HATS (Head and Torso Simulator) that simulates the human head and ear and an electro-acoustic analysis program called SoundCheck. This combination of hardware and software allows us to analyze the performance of the phones in depth, analyzing the quality of the sound that the phones send and receive. For more details on how we test audio performance of cell phones see this article on how we test.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (7.33)
The graph above shows the frequency response of the HTC Mogul for received sound by the Mogul, such as a person on the other end of the line talking to you. The blue line represents the Mogul's performance while the two red lines show the limits within which we'd like to see the phone's curve lie. As you can see from the graph the Mogul generally lies within our limits, but it does go above them a bit at the lower end of the range. What this means is that lower frequencies may be slightly exaggerated, so the voice on the other end of the line may sound a little bassier than they really are. It also falls off fairly quickly at the high end of the frequency range, which means that voices may sound a little clipped. Still, despite these issues the Mogul performed reasonably well on this test, and voices should sound generally good.
| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | T-Mobile Wing(on T-Mobile) | BlackBerry 8800(on AT&T) |
| Score | 7.33 | 6.14 | 6.99 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Helio Ocean(on Helio) | Nokia N95(on AT&T) | Apple iPhone(on AT&T) |
| Score | 7.88 | 6.46 | 7.57 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (7.68)
The quality of the sound sent by the Mogul (such as you speaking into it) is outlined in the chart above. Like the receive frequency chart the Mogul's performance is indicated by a blue line with our limits delineated in red. As with the sound receive frequency the sound sent from the Mogul bumps up against the limits, but only slightly. It also falls off rather quickly at the high end. The exaggerated frequencies mean that your voice could sound a little clipped. As with the receive frequency response, despite some problems the Mogul's performance was about average.
| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | T-Mobile Wing(on T-Mobile) | BlackBerry 8800(on AT&T) |
| Score | 7.68 | 6.14 | 5.7 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Helio Ocean(on Helio) | Nokia N95(on AT&T) | Apple iPhone(on AT&T) |
| Score | 6.45 | 6.81 | 7.58 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Handset Side Tone (9.12)
All phones insert some of your spoken voice back into your ear so that you can hear yourself during a conversation. The chart above measures the volume of this side tone in decibels. The Mogul averaged -17.12 decibels in our test, which is just a touch off the -18 decibels that the standard we test against looks for. This is a very good result; you won't have to raise your voice in most situations to hear yourself during a conversation.
| Cell Phone | Sidetone Measurement | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 17.12 | 9.12 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 20.98 | 7.02 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 16.72 | 8.72 |
| Helio Ocean | 22 | 6.45 |
| Nokia N95 | 19.61 | 6.81 |
| Apple iPhone | 8.8 | 5.8 |
[page title="Imaging"]
Resolution (3.57)
To test resolution we take a series of photos of an industry standard resolution chart and run the results through the Imatest software. Imatest produces a score called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph), which is a measure of how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they begin to blur together.
The HTC Mogul didn't perform terribly in our resolution test, able to discern 895.9 lw/ph horizontal and 831.6 lw/ph vertical. This is significantly better than the T-Mobile Wing, another HTC phone with a 2 megapixel camera, which scored a terrible 533.3 lw/ph horizontal and 422 lw/ph vertical. Still, the Mogul lags behind some other 2 megapixel cameras, including the one found on the Apple iPhone that scored 970 lw/ph horizontal and 879 lw/ph vertical. The LG Prada's 2 megapixel camera also did a better job with a score of 1006 lw/ph horizontal and 1108 lw/ph vertical. The Mogul did beat out both the Nokia N75 and Helio Ocean however.
| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | T-Mobile Wing | BlackBerry 8800 |
| Score | 3.57 | 1.26 | n/a – no camera |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 895.9/831.6/PH | 533.3/422 | n/a no-camera |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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n/a - no camera |
| Cell Phone | Helio Ocean | Nokia N95 | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 2.18 | 6.81 | 4.18 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 701/476.6 | 1368/1223 | 970/879 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (1.82)
To test how well the camera on the Mogul captures colors we take a series of photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth chart that displays 24 different colors. We run the resulting photos through Imatest, which compares the Mogul's captured colors to the original ones.
The chart above is produced by Imatest. It shows the original colors in the small rectangles, the Mogul's captured colors in the outer square and the corrected colors in the inner square. Imatest also produces the chart below where ideal colors are indicated by squares and the Mogul's captured colors are indicated by circles. The longer the line between the two the more inaccurate the camera's color capture.
As you can see from the charts above the Mogul's color capture leaves something to be desired. In fact, it's terrible. Almost every color is off, and not by a small amount. This likely indicates a serious problem with the Mogul's white balance capabilities, where it analyzes the image to judge the color (or temperature, as imaging geeks call it) of the light source. We take photos in automatic mode, and this result indicates that the Mogul did not do a good job of judging white balance. We also took photos using the Mogul's other white balance settings, and when we set it to the manual Incandescent light setting (the type of lights we use), the result was actually significantly better, albeit still terrible. Because we score phones on their performance under automatic conditions, the Mogul gets a low score, but you might be able to slightly improve your photos' color performance by experimenting with your white balance settings.
| Cell Phone | HTC Mogul | T-Mobile Wing | BlackBerry 8800 |
| Score | 1.82 | 3.35 | n/a – no camera |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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n/a - no camera |
| Cell Phone | Helio Ocean | Nokia N95 | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 6.66 | 6.95 | 5.22 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (1.45)
To test the noise produced by a phone's camera we take a series of photos of the GreagMacbeth color chart at various lighting levels ranging from 60 lux to 3000 lux. We then use Imatest to judge the noise produced at each lighting level. The Mogul performed well in this test, with fairly consistent results across lighting levels. We were happy to see that even at the lowest lighting level noise was no worse than under brighter conditions. Although the overall noise at all lighting levels was less than optimal, the consistency across lighting levels means that you can get decent results even in low light conditions.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 1.45 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 1.1 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | n/a – no camera |
| Helio Ocean | 1.14 |
| Nokia N95 | 1.42 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.2 |
Live Preview (6.5)
The Mogul's live preview leaves something to be desires. Although we appreciate the fact that it uses the entire 2.8" screen for the preview we found the colors were washed out and overly brightened compared to what you are actually seeing. The produced photo's color is also off from what you were seeing on the screen, although less so. We were pleased that pixelation was not apparent and when you move the phone around distortions are less than you see on many phones. Still, the lack of color fidelity bothers us, although given the Mogul's poor color performance this may not be surprising.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (6.06)
Unlocked standby to first shot is a measure of how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until you have captured a photo. This is a good indication of how quickly you can pull the phone out and take a quick shot. The HTC Mogul was able to take a shot in 3.3 seconds. This is a good time, better than the Treo 750's 5.77 second time or the Helio Ocean's 4.1 second time. Because the Mogul uses a fixed focus lens and doesn't take the time to make sure the shot is in focus it's also faster than auto-focus cameras like the Nokia N95 (6.5s) and LG Prada (7.7s). The Mogul is also helped out by having a dedicated camera key, something the Treo 750 was lacking. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 3.3 | 6.06 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 2.97 | 6.73 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | n/a – no camera | n/a – no camera |
| Helio Ocean | 4.1 | 4.88 |
| Nokia N95 | 6.5 | 3.08 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.43 | 8.23 |
Shot to Shot Time (5.7)
Shot to shot time is a measure of how quickly a phone's camera can take a series of shots. When possible we use burst mode, but not all models support this. Luckily the Mogul does have a burst mode, although you should note that this takes photos at a much lower 640 x 480 resolution. If you want to take a series of photos at the full 1600 x 1200 resolution you will need to do so manually. Using burst mode we took a series of six shots in 3.1 seconds. This works out to 1.9 frames per second (fps), a good score. This is better than the Helio Ocean's 1.25 fps and most phones usually score below 1 fps. One nice feature is that you can take up to 30 shots in a row using the Mogul's burst mode, it keeps taking photos as long as you hold down the shutter button. Most cell phone cameras stop shooting after just a handful.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 1.9 | 5.7 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 2.3 | 6.9 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | n/a – no camera | n/a – no camera |
| Helio Ocean | 1.25 | 3.75 |
| Nokia N95 | 0.42 | 1.26 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.4 | 1.2 |
Shutter to Shot Time (9.52)
Shutter to shot time is a measure of how long it takes the camera to actually capture a photo once you have pressed the shutter button. Most cameras require at least a little bit of time to process the image, with auto-focus cameras adding additional time to make sure the scene is in focus. The Mogul uses a fixed focus camera however, which means we would expect it to perform fairly well and it didn't disappoint with a time of .21 seconds. This is better than the Helio Ocean's .6 seconds and the Apple iPhone's .4 seconds. It's also better than the T-Mobile Wing's time of .43 seconds. We were quite pleased with the Mogul's shutter to shot time, although it should be noted that "real" cameras with fixed focus lenses generally display no lag time between shutter and shot.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 0.21 | 9.52 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 0.43 | 4.65 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | n/a – no camera | n/a – no camera |
| Helio Ocean | 0.6 | 3.33 |
| Nokia N95 | 1 | 1.96 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.4 | 5 |
Interface (6.0)
Photo Album Software Internal (7.0)
Manual Control (2.0)
The Mogul does not provide users with many manual controls. There are a couple of scene modes, for example daylight, night and sport mode. More advanced manual controls like manual white balance, aperture priority mode and shutter priority mode are all missing. We were particularly unhappy about the lack of manual white balance as this can be found on some entry level handsets, much less an advanced phone like the Mogul.
Zoom (0.0)
The Mogul has a 2x digital zoom, however this zoom is only available at lower resolution settings. When you are taking full size 1600 x 1200 shots there is no zoom. Digital zoom is of limited utility at the best of times, but when you're talking about cropping and resizing smaller photos it's almost completely useless. We do not award points for phones that don't offer their digital zoom at maximum resolution, thus the Mogul receives a zero in this section.
Focus (0.0)
The HTC Mogul has a fixed focus lens. This means that what you see is what you get. This is in contrast to phones like the LG Prada and Nokia N95 that have auto-focus lenses. For a high end device like the Mogul we were disappointed to see a fixed focus lens. We hope that HTC begins including auto-focus lenses on their high end devices soon.
Flash (3.0)
The HTC Mogul includes a simple LED flash that's always on when you activate it. The flash is only affective out to a range of a couple of feet.
Metering (6.0)
White Balance (2.0)
Image Handling (6.0)
Video
Overall Video Score (3.0)
The HTC Mogul takes video at two resolution levels: 128 x 96 and 176 x 144. Both of these resolution levels produce poor quality videos with a high degree of pixelation and a general fuzziness that is probably the result of high compression. Color fidelity is as good as you can expect from such low resolution video, but the Mogul's videos aren't a patch on the 352 x 288 videos taken by the Treo 750, much less the 640 x 480 resolution videos captured by the Nokia N95. We were not impressed by the Mogul's video capture and wonder why HTC decided to go with such low video capture modes given that previous handsets like the AT&T 8525 includes 352 x 288 video capture.
Video Resolution (3.04)
As we mentioned above the Mogul captures video at a maximum resolution of 176 x 144. This is sufficient for sending MMS video, but not much else. To test the quality of the resolution captured by the Mogul we run stills from a video capture of an industry standard resolution chart through Imatest. Just like still resolution this produces a score called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph). The Mogul performed reasonably well in this test for it's low resolution, able to discern 220.9 lw/ph horizontal and 137.8 lw/ph vertical. This is significantly better than the T-Mobile Wing's atrocious 82.39 lw/ph horizontal and 141.3 lw/ph vertical, and better than the Treo 750's score of 132.4 lw/ph horizontal and 184.6 lw/ph vertical. It should be noted that our resolution score is independent of the capture resolution, which explains how there can be such a wide range between phones that capture at different resolution levels. Still, better is not good and when you consider that the Nokia N95 scored 336.5 lw/ph horizontal and 428.1 lw/ph vertical you can see how poorly the Mogul performed.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 220.9/137.8 | 3.04 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 82.39/141.3 | 1.16 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | n/a – no camera | n/a – no camera |
| Helio Ocean | 283/160.1 | 4.53 |
| Nokia N95 | 336.5/428.1 | 14.41 |
| Apple iPhone | n/a – no video recording | n/a – no video recording |
Video Compression (6.0)
Interface (6.0)
The video capture interface on the Mogul is basically identical to the stills capture, only with different settings available. In place of the photo counter in the upper right is a timer that shows you how much video you can capture when in standby and the length of the current video when capturing. The bottom of the screen provides brightness, metering, flash and white balance settings along with buttons for accessing the settings dialogue and your album software. As with the stills capture interface we found the video capture interface to be a little busy but generally easy to use and with quick access to many settings. Manual Control (0.0)
The HTC Mogul's video capture mode offers no manual controls. This includes things like manual white balance, shutter settings and manual gain.
Zoom (1.0)
Unlike the digital zoom on the stills camera the Mogul does offer 2x digital zoom at the maximum resolution in video capture mode. Of course given the very small resolution provided by the video camera this is almost completely useless, but its there.
Editing (0.0)
Unlike the excellent photo editing options available on the Mogul there are no video editing options on the Mogul. If for some reason you want to edit the low resolution videos captured by the Mogul you'll have to get some third party software to do it.
Modes (4.0)
As with still photos you can choose from two metering modes when capturing video on the Mogul, center weighted and averaged. Although there is no specific setting for MMS video, either of the resolution levels on the Mogul will be compatible with MMS messages as long as you limit the length of the video. There are no options for scene modes on the Mogul.
[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]
Dialing Speed (3.25)
To test how easy it is to dial a number on the Mogul we timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we had dialed one of five test phone numbers. We repeat this test for all five of our test numbers and take the average for our score. The Mogul took an average of 6.16 seconds to make our test phone calls. This is a terrible time for a phone, significantly worse than the iPhone's 3.96 second average and even slower than the T-Mobile Wing, which took a lengthy 5.46 seconds to make a call. We found the touch screen dialer on the Mogul to be very poor, with numerous inputs missed and small keys that are hard to hit. You can also open the keyboard and dial using the hardware buttons but this did not significantly decrease the time we got by using the on screen keyboard. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 6.16 | 3.25 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 5.46 | 3.66 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 4.35 | 4.6 |
| Helio Ocean | 3.1 | 6.45 |
| Nokia N95 | 4.62 | 4.33 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.96 | 5.05 |
Talk and End Buttons (6.0)
The talk and end buttons on the Mogul are located below the screen to the left and right of the other control keys. They are small keys that sit higher than the other control keys so you can find them easily by feel. When pressed they provide good tactile feedback. We generally liked the talk and end buttons on the Mogul, with our biggest gripes being the small size.
Call Management (7.5)
While in a call the HTC Mogul offers the same options that we've seen from other Windows Mobile Professional devices. You can filter the call history list by missed, outgoing or incoming calls. When a call is selected you are shown a call history for that specific number along with duration information. You can save phone numbers from this list to a new or existing contact. There are no counters for total minutes used or data transferred. When you are in a call you have on screen access to a variety of functions that might be useful such as creating a note, muting the call, holding it and accessing contacts. You can also access the keypad via the left soft key. The right soft key opens a menu that will give you access to many of the same features on screen, plus a couple of others. Because Windows Mobile Professional is a multi-tasking operating system you can generally access anything on the phone while you are on a call. About the only major thing missing is the ability to record a call.
Startup to Call (1.82)
To see how quickly the phone can get started to make a call we time how long it takes for the phone to start up and dial each of our five test numbers. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The Mogul took an average of 55 seconds to start up and make a call. This is an extremely long time, but typical of Windows Mobile Professional devices. The T-Mobile Wing took even longer at 62.86 seconds for example. Of course the BlackBerry 8800 only took 6.5 seconds and the Apple iPhone 26.12 seconds. If you're phone is turned off and you need to make a call quickly on the Mogul we're afraid you're just going to be out of luck.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 55 | 1.82 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 62.86 | 1.59 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.5 | 15.38 |
| Helio Ocean | 9.5 | 10.53 |
| Nokia N95 | 36.4 | 2.75 |
| Apple iPhone | 26.12 | 3.83 |
Ring Volume (8.57)
To test ring volume on the Mogul we turned volume up to maximum and determined which ringtone was the loudest. We then measured the volume in decibels using a sound pressure meter. The Mogul measured a maximum ring volume of 85.7 decibels. This is a solid ring volume, most phones we test range between 80 and 90 decibels in this test. It's significantly lower than the Nokia N95 however, our current champion at 105.3 decibels.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 85.3 | 8.53 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 84 | 8.4 |
| Helio Ocean | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| Nokia N95 | 105.3 | 10.53 |
| Apple iPhone | 84.9 | 8.49 |
Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
Like other Windows Mobile devices you can use your own MP3, WMA and AAC audio files as ringtones. All such files on the device or memory card are not automatically available, instead the files need to be dropped into the "My Ringtones" folder on the device. Still, this is a simple procedure using either your sync software or the on device file manager. We were pleased to see this level of support for your own music ringtones given the fact that phones like the iPhone don't allow you to do this. We were also pleased to see that voice notes you record yourself can be set as a ringtone as well, giving you even more flexibility.
Non Audio Alerts (10.0)
The HTC Mogul has a vibrate, on screen indicators and LED indicators that serve as non audio alerts. The vibrate alert on the Mogul is stronger than on most phones, we were easily able to feel it in a pants pocket, and you should be able to feel it in a jacket pocket as well. We've yet to meet the phone with a vibrate alert strong enough to feel in a bag, but you may be able to hear the Mogul's vibration in a bag in quieter conditions.
[page title="Messaging"]
Supported Email Services (8.0)
As a Windows Mobile Professional device the HTC Mogul has a powerful messaging application that is able to handle both POP and IMAP email accounts. It's good to see to see that in Windows Mobile 6 Microsoft has upgraded the account wizard so that it can automatically configure many popular email services, including AOL, Yahoo and Gmail. Hotmail email can be set up using the included Windows Live application. Altogether the support for email services is amongst the best we have seen on any device.
Push Email (3.0)
The HTC Mogul supports push email via Microsoft Exchange Activesync. This delivers incoming email messages to you in real time. This service only works with the proper server side support, but is generally available in any enterprise environment. There is no built in support for other push email services, but you can find various third party installations to use things like BlackBerry or Good email with the Mogul.
Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The Mogul was easily able to handle our five test accounts, and can probably handle more. It should satisfy anyone who need to keep track of multiple email accounts on a single device.
HTML and Attachments (12.0)
One of the upgrades that comes with Windows Mobile 6, which the Mogul runs, is the ability to view HTML encoded email messages properly. Previous version of Windows Mobile, and most phones, turn HTML email into a garbled jumble of text. This feature is a major upgrade and puts the Mogul and other Windows Mobile 6 devices ahead of Symbian and BlackBerry devices, which can't handle HTML email properly. The Mogul also provides good support for viewing email attachments. Office Mobile takes care of Word, Excel and Powerpoint files while PDF files are handled by Adobe's viewer for Windows Mobile. A zip manager is also included. We were very pleased with the Mogul's attachment and html support. It's amongst the best we've seen from any phone.
Email Customizations (2.0)
The email customization options on the Mogul are as limited as on any Windows Mobile device. You cannot change display font type or size. You also cannot change how many lines of messages are displayed in the message list. About all you can do is add signatures to outgoing messages.
Time to a New Message (3.22)
To test how easy it is to create a new email message we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have a new email message dialogue up on the screen. We repeat this test five times and take the average time for our score. The Mogul took an average of 6.22 seconds to get a new email dialogue up. This is a poor time, especially for what is supposed to be a data centric device like the Mogul. The Apple iPhone, Blackberry 8800 and Treo 750 all took significantly less time, as you can see from the table below. The Mogul did do slightly better than the T-Mobile Wing's 7.46 second time, but both devices are rather slow. It should be noted that we shut the email program down after every test, if you leave it running in the background you can knock several seconds off of our time.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 6.22 | 3.22 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 7.46 | 2.68 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 1.76 | 11.36 |
| Helio Ocean | 2.1 | 9.76 |
| Nokia N95 | 4.4 | 4.55 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.9 | 10.53 |
Email Usability (11.0)
Overall the email program on the Mogul is powerful and fairly easy to use. Those who don't need advanced features don't need to bother with them while those who do need them will appreciate having access to them.
Supported IM Services (2.0)
The HTC Mogul ships with Windows Live Messenger, which allows you to access the MSN IM network. Fortunately as this is built into Windows Mobile 6 Sprint does not charge you for an SMS message for each IM sent or received. There is no built-in support for any other IM services, however you can install a third party program like Agile Messenger to add this functionality.
MMS Support (0.0)
Amazingly the HTC Mogul does not support MMS messaging. This functionality had to have been removed by Sprint as MMS support is a standard feature in Windows Mobile devices. We are extremely disappointed that MMS has been removed from this device.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
To test whether the Mogul displays smiley faces as graphical representations or leaves them in text format we sent four common smileys to the phone. We were disappointed that like many other Windows Mobile devices the Mogul leaves smileys in graphical form. We know this isn't a big deal for many, but it's small details like this that can make a phone seem polished.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
Text messaging on the Mogul is built into the same messaging application that handles your email as its own account. The interface is very similar to the email interface, with messages organized in a simple list that can be sorted in various ways. When you create a new message you are presented with a to: field where you can enter recipients and the body of the message below. There is a handy counter that allows you to keep track of how big your message is, and if you go over the 160 character limit the message is automatically split into multiple text messages. We found the interface generally easy to use and intuitive, however we would have preferred the threaded text messaging interface found on Treos and the iPhone.
Time to a New SMS Message (1.83)
To find out how easy it is to create a new text message on the HTC Mogul we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have a new text message dialogue up. We repeat this test five times and take the average time for our score. The Mogul took an average of 5.46 seconds to get a new SMS dialogue up. As with email this is not a good time, with the majority of the time being taken to launch the messaging program. As with email we completely shut the messaging program down for each timed test. If you keep the program running in the background instead you can open up a new message much faster. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 5.46 | 1.83 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 7.1 | 1.41 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 3.82 | 2.62 |
| Helio Ocean | 3.1 | 4.76 |
| Nokia N95 | 0.9 | 11.11 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.62 | 3.82 |
[page title="Organizer"]
Synchronization (6.33)
The HTC Mogul synchronizes with your PC using either Activesync on XP or Windows Mobile Device Center on Vista. Synchronization is a simple process, install the software for your computer, connect the device using the included USB cable and set up your synchronization. We had no problem getting things going.
You can synchronize your HTC Mogul with a PC either via USB or Bluetooth. Contacts, including photos, tasks, appointments and notes can all be synchronized, as can things like files, media and bookmarks. We were very pleased with the array of synchronization options available for the Mogul.
The Mogul can be synchronized using Activesync or Windows Mobile Device Center with a PC running Outlook. There is no support for any other PIM management system, nor is there support out of the box for synchronization with a Mac. If you want to use the Mogul with a Mac we recommend The Missing Sync.
Alerts (8.0)
You can set alerts on the HTC Mogul for both calendar appointments and tasks. When an alert sounds you are shown a small indicator at the bottom of the screen with the option to dismiss the item, view it or snooze it. We were pleased to see the ability to snooze for several different time periods. We were also pleased that you can set the alert to go off at any time that you choose, from 1 minute beforehand up to several days before. Unfortunately you cannot set individual ringtones for each item, instead the universal ring that you set in the sound settings are used. Still, the options available are better than most other phones, including the iPhone and Series 60 devices like the Nokia N95.
Over the Air PIM Sync (2.0)
The HTC Mogul supports over the air synchronization of your contacts, calendar and tasks using Microsoft Exchange Activesync. If your company/organization supports Exchange server you can set it up to synchronize with that server, or if you're and individual you can purchase an Exchange account from services like Mail 2 Web.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (6.80)
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 14.7 | 6.8 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 16.04 | 6.23 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 16.3 | 6.13 |
| Helio Ocean | 21.24 | 4.71 |
| Nokia N95 | 25.42 | 3.93 |
| Apple iPhone | 20.86 | 4.79 |
Looking/Sorting/Search (6.0)
The HTC Mogul provides solid sorting and searching functionality as we've come to expect with Windows Mobile devices. Contacts can be sorted by name or company and can be filtered by category. We were disappointed that you could not choose to sort contacts by first or last name as you can on Series 60 devices like the Nokia N95. Still, the categories support is a big plus that you don't see on other smart phone platforms. You can easily search through your contacts by first or last name, with the contacts list automatically filtering as you type. You can also quickly jump to a letter either using the on screen alphabet or by starting to scroll and waiting for the alphabet to jump up on screen. All of these options make it very easy to find the contact or contacts you need and provide enough power for those who have thousands of contacts they need to organize. Fields (8.2)
When you create a new contact on the Mogul you have a wide variety of fields to fill in, up to 41 including the notes field. These include all of the basics of course as well as more specialized fields like account, government ID, assistant name and telephone and things like spouse, birthday, anniversary and children. For power contact users, perhaps a sales person who need to keep detailed information about their clients, this range of fields is extremely useful. We also appreciate the notes field where you can enter any piece of information that won't fit into a standard field. About the only thing missing is the ability to create your own custom field.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (4.67)
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (13.85)
To test how easy it is to add a calendar item to the HTC Mogul we timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we had added a lunch appointment for the following day with a reminder 15 minutes before. We repeat this test five times and take the average time for our score. The Mogul took an average of 7.22 seconds to add a calendar item. This is a solid time, comparable to other smart phones like the Treo 750's 6.76 seconds and the BlackBerry 8800's 6.92 seconds. It is significantly better than the T-Mobile Wing, which shares the Mogul's form factor and operating system, which took 11 second s. This is a reflection of the fact that the Mogul has a much more powerful processor than the Wing and exhibits far less lag. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 7.22 | 13.85 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 11 | 9.09 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.92 | 14.45 |
| Helio Ocean | 24.2 | 4.13 |
| Nokia N95 | 18.64 | 5.36 |
| Apple iPhone | 18.92 | 5.29 |
Calendar Views (7.13)
Fields (11.0)
When creating a new calendar appointment on the HTC Mogul you have a good selection of fields, including some advanced fields that are not available on other phones. Basics like title, start/end, location and all day events are of course available. You can also set a reminder with almost limitless flexibility for when it goes off. More important for power calendar users is the presence of advanced functions like recurrence, categories, and the ability to add a note to each event. You can also set your status for the appointment to free, tenative, busy or out of office, a nice feature that regular users of Outlook will find familiar. The plethora of basic and advanced fields make the Mogul one of the more powerful calendaring devices out there right now.
ToDo/Tasks
Adding ToDo/Task (6.24)
To test how easy it is to add a task to the HTC Mogul we timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added a new task reminding us to get groceries. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The Mogul took an average of 16.02 seconds to complete this test. This is slower than we would have liked, but not a terrible score. It is faster than the HTC Wing, which took 18.96 seconds, and the BlackBerry 8800's 18.8 second time. It is slower than the Treo 700p's 12.9 second time though, and also slower than the Nokia N95's time of 12.38 seconds. The Mogul was slowed down by the fact that there was no quick shortcut to tasks. Instead we had to navigate to the plugin on the home screen to launch the program. You can speed up your time if you need quick access to tasks by adding the item to the Start menu. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 16.02 | 6.24 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 18.96 | 5.27 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 18.8 | 5.32 |
| Helio Ocean | n/a – no tasks program | n/a – no tasks program |
| Nokia N95 | 12.38 | 8.08 |
| Apple iPhone | n/a – no tasks program | n/a – no tasks program |
ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (7.0)
As with other Windows Mobile Professional devices the Mogul provides you with good options to sort and prioritize your tasks. Each task can be assigned a priority of high, low or normal. You can sort your tasks by status, priority, start date or due date. You can also filter your tasks by category. These options are much more powerful than what is offered on other platforms like BlackBerry OS or Symbian Series 60. Fields (9.0)
When you create a new task on the Mogul you have an excellent selection of fields to choose from. In addition to basics like title, due date, and reminders you can also set priority, category and add a note. We were also pleased to see the ability to create recurring tasks with the option to create advanced recurrence patterns. The tasks program on the Mogul should provide most users with all the options they need.
Notes
Adding Notes (3.98)
To test how easy it is to add notes to the Mogul we timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we had added a simple standardized note. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The Mogul took an average of 12.56 seconds to add a note. This is an average score for a smart phone, about the same as the Treo 750's 11.65 seconds and a little faster than the BlackBerry 8800's 13.12 second time. We found the fastest way to create a new note was to open the keyboard first, allowing us to then use the keyboard shortcut to launch notes from the Start menu, and of course we need the keyboard anyways to type out our test note. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 12.56 | 3.98 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 15.42 | 3.24 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 13.12 | 3.81 |
| Helio Ocean | 16.06 | 3.11 |
| Nokia N95 | 17.7 | 2.82 |
| Apple iPhone | 12.66 | 3.95 |
Note Interface (3.0)
The Mogul uses the same notes application as found on all other Windows Mobile Professional devices. This interface is a simple list of notes that can be sorted by name, date, size or type. The left soft key allows you to create a new note while the right soft key opens a menu where you can access additional functions like renaming/moving notes, deleting them or sending them wirelessly. When you open a new note you are presented with a simple blank interface where you can type out new notes. You can switch to draw mode using the right soft key menu and add hand drawn items to notes. You can also add voice notes within regular notes. We found the interface to be fairly straightforward and easy to use, although the right soft key menu is rather large for a simple notes program. We also would have liked to see the ability to search your notes as on the BlackBerry 8800. Note Formatting (2.0)
The Mogul, like other Windows Mobile Professional devices, doesn't offer many options for formatting items in your notes. You can add voice notes, but not other media items like pictures or videos. You also can't change the font type or size, however there is a zoom option to make text appear larger. We were pleased that you can add hand drawn items to notes, but we wish you had more formatting options.
Voice Memo (4.0)
Voice notes on the Mogul can be created in the notes application. You can activate this function by choosing "View Recording Toolbar" from the right soft key menu. In addition to making stand alone voice notes you can also add voice notes to text notes by activating the same option when inside the note. This is generally a cumbersome approach to voice notes, but we were happy to see that on the Mogul you can automatically start recording a voice note by pressing and holding the voice speed dial button on the left side of the device. You will continue recording as long as you hold the button down. This is a much easier process than using the notes application's ungainly interface and is thus an improvement over other Windows Mobile Professional devices that lack this shortcut key. Although to be fair you can assign this fu