HTC Mogul Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Alfredo Padilla Published on July 23, 2007 Comment on this |
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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 function to any button on most Windows Mobile Professional devices.
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