Sprint has released their first foray into the Windows Mobile 6 world, the Mogul. It is the successor to the PPC-6700. Fortunately, it comes without the clunky external antenna that the 6700 had, although, other than that, the form factor is very similar. In fact, anyone who's held an AT&T 8525 or a T-Mobile Wing will tell you that all three phones (all made by HTC) are very similar in size and shape.
One area where the Mogul differs, however, is its weight. Compared to the Wing, this phone felt much lighter, which is odd, given that their listed weights are nearly the same.
The phone has great features, not the least of which are it's 400Mhz processor, 64M of RAM, and a full 256M of flash ROM for programs and file storage, which is double the storage of most Windows Mobile devices. And Sprint didn't stop with the 256M of storage, there's a 512 MicroSD card in the box. And if that's still not enough, the phone will take up to a 2G MicroSD card.
And there are buttons galore. On the front at the top are buttons to access Internet Explorer and email. At the bottom are the standard call and end keys, two softkeys, a Windows key and an OK key, along with a four-way navigation wheel. I thought the navigation wheel seemed a little flimsy. It may hold up just fine, but it was definitely not as solid as it could be. Along the right side of the phone are the power button, a button that brings up the Comm Manager application, and the camera button. On the left side, there is an on/off switch for the WiFi radio, another OK button, a scroll wheel, and a voice command button. The scroll wheel is just like the sort you'd find on a Moto Q, which will allow you to scroll around in IE, your contacts list, etc., and by pressing the wheel in, you can also use it to select items. Although I thought the scroll wheel was very useful in certain situations and made a nice addition to the phone, it was difficult to tell how far in to press the wheel for the select function. There isn't a solid click to let you know you've applied enough force, it just sort of sinks in.
The phone also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard like the 6700, however, this one is spring loaded, and slides in and out with a satisfying snap. Although they are practically the same, this keyboard has at least one advantage over the keyboard on the Wing, and that's the softkey buttons. They are where you would expect to find them, at the very top right and left of the keyboard, instead of directly underneath the ones on the screen. They are also full-size, making them much easier to use.
Other features include Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, speakerphone, EV-DO data speeds, a 2MP camera (which also shoots videos), and access to the Sprint Music Store. I was able to pair a Bluetooth headset to the phone with ease, and the Wi-Fi worked great. The speaker on the phone wasn't outstanding, but it was usable. The camera took decent pictures, definitely better than the previous generations of 1.3 MP cameras, but not great. Here's a photo I took at the zoo:
If you click the image and view it full size, you will see that the camera tends to over-sharpen things. The area where the tree line meets the sky seems to have gotten the worst of it. The sharpening wasn't this bad in all the pictures, this was the worst example I had. It seemed to me that outdoor photos had the most sharpening. But in a pinch, it's better than no camera. The EV-DO downloads were pretty fast, and I was able to surf at reasonable speeds. One thing that would have been nice, given the network, is Sprint TV, but it was nowhere to be found. Reports are that Sprint TV will be on at least one Windows Mobile 6 phone from Sprint, but this isn't the one.
The back of the phone could have used one of those little self-portrait windows, also. Not that I personally take many self-portraits, but lots of people do, and how much can that little piece of plastic add to the production cost of the phone? And while I'm speaking of the back of the phone, I wasn't a big fan of the ridges on it. I'm sure they were designed to make the phone a little easier to grip, but it just felt a little odd to me. And if you ever have to take the back cover off to get to the battery, be very careful with it. It's about as thick as a Lays potato chip.
One other thing I really liked about the phone was the stylus. It was thicker than the average phone stylus, and it collapsed telescope-style back into itself. The added thickness made it easier to hang on to, which was a nice touch. Also, the battery life was very good. I was able to go about a day and a half with push email and frequent use of various programs on the phone.
Compared to competing models there are things about this phone I liked better than others, and some not quite as much. But as a replacement for the aging PPC-6700, it's a very solid phone with a fast processor, lots of storage space, and a fast data network to attach to. I give it 8.5 out of 10 stars.