HTC Mogul Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Alfredo Padilla Published on July 23, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (3.3)
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 5.5 | 3.3 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 5.5 | 3.64 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 5.48 | 3.65 |
| Helio Ocean | 5.2 | 3.85 |
| Nokia N95 | 11.82 | 1.69 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.1 | 6.45 |
Let's take a closer look at the differences between the Mogul and Wing, two devices that both run Windows Mobile Professional and have similar form factors. One of the upgrades that came with Windows Mobile 6 is a plugin on the home screen that allows you to control Windows Media Player Mobile. On the Wing this plugin allowed us to get music playing simply by tapping on the plugin. On the Mogul Sprint decided to replace it with a plugin that supposedly launches their music store. Unfortunately, on our review unit, this plugin took us to a web page where you are informed that the feature is "coming soon". There is a firmware upgrade available that enables this functionality, and Sprint claims that they are installing this update on new units in manufacturing, but existing units in retails stores won't have it. We would have preferred that Sprint push back the launch date for a couple of weeks to ensure that a fully functional phone was shipped.
Dedicated Music Controls (0.0)
Unfortunately, due to Sprint's ridiculous decision to disable the Windows Media Player plugin on the home screen (see above) the Mogul does not receive any points in this area.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (6.2)
Windows Media Player mobile on the HTC Mogul is a solid piece of software, offering all the functionality that most people will need to play back music. One of the upgrades that comes with Windows Mobile 6 is the ability to create playlists within the software, something you couldn't do on previous Windows Mobile devices. We were disappointed that the Mogul didn't recognize our standard .pls playlist, however it will recognize playlists synchronized over from Windows Media Player on your PC. The Mogul was able to recognize tags on both our WMA file and MP3 files, but wasn't able to recognize tags from the AAC file we created in iTunes. You can view your music by title, artist, album or genre. You can also set ratings for songs that are synchronized over to Windows Media Player on a PC. Unfortunately the update to Windows Mobile 6 didn't bring a search feature, which we would have liked to see. The software supports album art and can scan your device to add music files to the program automatically, although this needs to be done manually.
We don't like the fact that you also need to manually switch between the library on your device and on a memory card. Music can be played in the background however. One other area where Windows Media Player Mobile still lags behind software on Series 60 devices is in the lack of an equalizer. We also found it annoying that when navigating the music library you have to use the on screen back key to view the previous key. We would have appreciated more D-Pad support here. Still, overall its a solid music player, especially if you synchronize music with Windows Media Player on your PC.
Online Song Downloading (0.0)
Out of the box the HTC Mogul does not support direct downloads of music to the device. With a now available firmware upgrade the Sprint Music Store is enabled, allowing you to purchase music directly from Sprint for 99 cents a song (sprint claism that this update will be pre-installed on new Moguls soon). Unfortunately music downloaded directly to your device can only be played in Sprint's music software because of their proprietary DRM. This means that you won't be able to use Windows Media Player Mobile to play back music purchased directly. You can download a desktop version of purchased music from Sprint that will play in Windows Media Player Mobile, but we find it frustrating that music you download directly to your device is crippled in this way. Because our review version of the Mogul didn't support direct downloads out of the box we are not awarding points for it. Streaming (0.0)
The HTC Mogul is able to play streaming windows media audio over the internet. It was not able to handle streaming Mp3 or Real audio. This is standard for Windows Mobile devices and a step above Series 60 phones like the Nokia N95 that wasn't able to stream any audio from the internet.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The Mogul does not include any software for downloading or organizing podcasts on the device. There are some third party programs like Pocket Podcasts that you can add to get this functionality.
Music Sync with PC (7.0)
The HTC Mogul can synchronize music between your phone and Windows Media Player on a PC. Sprint's desktop software is not supported, although this is no great loss. If you're on a Mac you will need to pay for a third party solution like The Missing Sync to synchronize music with iTunes. If you're an iTunes user on the PC you're just out of luck.
Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
Windows Media Player Mobile on the HTC Mogul supports WMA, AAC and MP3 music types. The only DRM format supported is Microsoft's PlaysForSure. For those who have invested into Sprint's proprietary DRM'd music won't be able to play it on the Mogul, although this support may be added in the future.
Music Interruption (10.0)
The Mogul does a solid job of handling an incoming call when you are listening to music. The music is paused automatically when the call comes in and resumes again from the same point without any major problems.
Video
Video Software Access (2.62)
To test how easy it is to access videos on the Mogul we timed how long it took to go from the home screen unlocked until we have a video playing. We repeat this five times and take the average for our score. The Mogul took an average of 7.64 seconds to get a video playing. This score is below average for a smart phone. It's faster than the T-Mobile Wing's 8.7 second average, but slower than the Treo 750's 6.88 second time or the Helio Ocean's 5.5 second time. It is faster than the Nokia N95 however, which took 10.22 seconds to get a video playing. Again we miss having a shortcut to launch Windows Media Player Mobile. | Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| HTC Mogul | 7.64 | 2.62 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 8.7 | 2.3 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.3 | 3.17 |
| Helio Ocean | 5.5 | 3.64 |
| Nokia N95 | 10.22 | 1.96 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.2 | 6.25 |
Video Controls (9.0)
When playing video in Windows Media Player Mobile you can use the on screen controls or the directional pad. Pressing in on the directional pad is play/pause while left and right moves to the next or previous video. Pressing and holding left or right acts as fast forward or rewind. Toggling to full screen requires that you use the on screen controls, while volume can be controlled on screen, with up/down on the directional pad or by using the scroll wheel on the left side of the device. We were generally happy with the video controls on the Mogul. We were especially happy with the good integration with the directional pad. Most especially we were happy to see that controls can be reconfigured in the player's settings.
Video Software Score (6.0)
Windows Media Player Mobile does a solid job of handling video playback on the Mogul. As with music you can scan your device to find compatible videos, although this has to be initiated instead of happening automatically. Full screen is supported, and in full screen mode you can view videos in landscape orientation. As with music you can't search for video files, however you can view videos by title and genre. Playlists are also supported, but only those that are synchronized over from Windows Media Player on your desktop. One annoyance is that when navigating through the media library you will need to use the on screen back key to view the previous screen. It would have been better if we could have used left on the directional pad to do this. We also would have appreciated a little more power in organizing our videos, for example viewing TV shows versus Movies as you can do on the iPhone, however it will do the job for most people.
Video Sync with PC (7.0)
As with music you can synchronize the HTC Mogul's video content with Windows Media Player on your desktop. Again you will be out of luck if you use iTunes on a PC but on a Mac you can use The Missing Sync to synchronize media to the Mogul.
Video Formats (4.5)
The Mogul supported all three of our 3GP encoded videos, Windows Media Video and MP4 encoded video, however it did not support MP4 videos encoded in H264. Other formats like Flash, Quicktime and Real Media are not supported, although you can purchase a third party program like Coreplayer that can play just about any format.
Video DRM (5.0)
The only video DRM supported by the Mogul is Windows Media DRM. This is used by services like Amazon's Unboxed, giving you access to a decent selection of protected content. Those who have invested in iTunes videos are out of luck however.
Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
To test how smoothly the Mogul can play back video we played five different 3GP encoded files at bitrates ranging from 48 kbps to 768 kbps. We were pleased to see that the Mogul was able to handle all five of our test files without problems. This is great as it allows you to play back decent quality video on the handset.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The Mogul does not support any video download services.
Video Streaming unscored
We don't score video streaming services because there is no standardization of this technology yet, however we do test some sites to see if they work on the device. As we would have expected streaming Windows Media video from Windowsmedia.com played just fine on the Mogul, but other sites like Youtube Mobile and Zoovision.com didn't work at all. This is disappointing as Youtube especially is a site whose content we're sure many people would like to access on a device like the Mogul. The Mogul also doesn't support any of Sprint's streaming video services.
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