HTC Mogul owners: How do you like it?

[HobbesIsReal#WP]

I use iNav 3.01 with it at the moment (I will be getting v4 whe I get a 4 gb card and verify for myself it works) and I agree that the speaker is adequate. I use the Jabra 8010 headset and the audio prompted directions comes thru the headset, which is a really nice. I cannot speak for TomTom, but with iNav they have developed a really nice finger friendly interface. You have to be a little more precise when comparing to using it on my PPC-6600, but I have never had any issues at all with it.

I know a lot of people who have a dedicated GPS units that they pack around when on the road in addition to their PDA.....I personally appreciate carrying less and using one device to do it all, but that is simply a personal preference.

MP3 in stereo with the Jabra 8010 is great (in fact I am listening to music with it right now as I am typing this so I could turn off the sat radio so I would disturb my wife working hard on her computer in my office).

I have heard of more challenges than success stories between the Mogul's current BT stack and car / speakerphone BT units. I don't have either one, so cannot comment to much on them.

Within 5 days of owning my Mogul I installed Oxios and have never had any memory issues....unless browsing a lot of graphically intensive websites with IE Mobile (but Opra Mini solved that too).

I certainly have my wish list for the Mogul and my list of "what were they thinking" list....but with weighing out the cons vs the pros, I am happy with the Mogul to get me through until early 2009 when there hopefully be a selection of WiMax phones to choose from.

 

[oalvarez]

Within 5 days of owning my Mogul I installed Oxios and have never had any memory issues....unless browsing a lot of graphically intensive websites with IE Mobile (but Opra Mini solved that too).
.

Hobbes, (in a friendly manner) why does it have to be this way? why should anyone have to install an application to help remedy the memory situation? i just don't get it. if it's a business minded device it should surely work as a Blackberry device (extremely stable) does out of the box.

alas.

 

[HobbesIsReal#WP]

I fully agree that this is the glaring flaw with this phone (I always have at least one with every phone I have owned). HTC should have never thought realisticly to put less than 128 mb of RAM in this phone. But in my experience the only time I have any memory issues is when I use IE. Since I have been using the Opra Mini that hasn't been a problem.

As for the cacheing of the programs that hold the memory, I am not sure if this is an HTC *cough* "feature" or Microsoft's *cough* "feature" with WM6....but Oxios addresses it nonetheless. I have an icon on my today screen and just tap it without thinking about while using the phone. Since I have a few extra plugins that I like to use I am always hanging around 16 mb of free memory (and about 22 mb when I am more plugin selective). Because of this *cough* "feature" it would still be an issue to some level even if the phone had 128 mb.

I am stuck with using WM due to access to work exchange services and third party programs that let me remote control my office PC, etc... I also know that I am looking at hopefully buying a new WiMax phone within the next 12-18 months. With Sprint's data plan I sticking with them. So at the moment, the Mogul is by best option. But I can see, like with any phone I have ever owned, I could see how it will not be the perfect phone for everyone. I like the pros with this phone A LOT (i.e. nice size, nice keyboard layout, Rev A for tethering when needed, lots of ROM memory, etc..) and I have found some very easy solutions to overcome the cons (i.e. only 64 mb of RAM) that have seemed to work for me and my personal situation with work well enough to not hinder my productivity in any significant way.

 

[oalvarez]

^ sounds like that Oxios application is the way to go. i too liked the pros a lot, i think the device has a lot going for it as well. seems like these manufacturers always get sooooo close to producing a great product but always come up short of doing so.

take care

 

[G-funkster]

hey Hobbes, what a lot of 700w owners did was they placed hibernate on the Notification Queue, on the Wake event, that is, when you press the power button. There's a version here (where people describe doing this) that doesn't produce a splash screen so it's unobtrusive:

http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=113574&page=3

You'd use SKtools for this. Post with the utility is #57.

 

[HobbesIsReal#WP]

That sounds GREAT!!! Thanks for sharing g-funkster! My next 3 days are pretty slammed, but I will certainly try to tackle this by the end of the week. I will let you know how it works.

 

[Scott R]

With the news that the Touch is coming to Sprint, I'm going to make the call and see if I can return my Mogul. I'm past 30 days now, but I never activated it, so depending on when the clock starts, I guess I'll see if I'm out of luck or not. Not too crazy about having to wait until November for the Touch, though.

 

[bubbatex]

I can't wait to SEE it myself, though I don't think I would buy it. But, who knows!

 

[HobbesIsReal#WP]

Let us know what you think!!!! You should be able to buy it by July of next year! :stick:

 

[Scott R]

In case anyone cares...I called Sprint and they're going to send me a return kit. I'm assuming that if they send the kit, they'll honor the return. I'm still worried about one part though...they gave me a discounted price in exchange for renewing for 2 years, so once they credit my account for the phone return, I'm hoping I don't have a problem getting them to reset my account back to its prior state. I have a feeling I'm in for some grief. The next best thing would be if they credit my account for the full price of the phone, effectively giving me a $150 credit for renewing for 2-years. I'll let you all know how it goes.

At this point, I'm most interested in a 320x320 WM Treo or a Touch, but I'd really prefer a larger-screen (at least 3.5") higher-res version of the Touch.

 

[johnbh]

HTC Mogul has a lot of potential but Sprint has terrible support (20 minute wait time, then 40 minutes to find no solution). The address book is a real problem: you may only sync via Active sunc 4.5 which is really limited. Unlike the Blackberry (I owned several over five years before switching), you can;t import an address book from a non-outlook source. So if you've got 1500 contacts on you PC, you get all of them on your mogul. If you really jump through a lot of hoops on the workaround (copy your PC side pst and put it aside, delete everything in your outlook address book, import your 200 blackberry contacts into a new address book, then sync), you are still stuck when you uncheck the address book for the next sync with a message that informs you that now active synce will erase all contacts on your PDA... Apparently, the only software support for the Sprint HTC mogul is MS Active sync, which is lacking in options. Aside from this technical oversight, the htc Mogul is a million times better than the Balckberry since it is outlook friendly for meetings, emails, tasks, etc. The phone is good, the battery lasts longer. The screen is hard to see in sunlight but overall, I am very pleased with the daily operation of the unit. Anyone have a software fix for the address book issue? Am I missing something here?

 

[bubbatex]

john - Welcome to the forum! Remember, the Mogul runs WM6 which is Microsoft which also is Outlook. Nothing to do with your contacts problem is a "technical oversight", it's a "feature"!

Glad you like the Mogul otherwise - I hope to have one in a week or two myself.

 

[oalvarez]

. Unlike the Blackberry (I owned several over five years before switching), you can;t import an address book from a non-outlook source. So if you've got 1500 contacts on you PC, you get all of them on your mogul. If you really jump through a lot of hoops on the workaround (copy your PC side pst and put it aside, delete everything in your outlook address book, import your 200 blackberry contacts into a new address book, then sync), you are still stuck when you uncheck the address book for the next sync with a message that informs you that now active synce will erase all contacts on your PDA... Apparently, the only software support for the Sprint HTC mogul is MS Active sync, which is lacking in options. Aside from this technical oversight, the htc Mogul is a million times better than the Balckberry since it is outlook friendly for meetings, emails, tasks, etc. The phone is good, the battery lasts longer. The screen is hard to see in sunlight but overall, I am very pleased with the daily operation of the unit. Anyone have a software fix for the address book issue? Am I missing something here?

the battery lasts longer on the Mogul than a Blackberry? may i ask which BLackberry? i find that very, very hard to believe.

further, Blackberry devices are used by a vast majority of business professionals and typically via a BES. my personal experience (years as well) has been that a Blackberry device coupled with a BES handles business email and PIM synchronization (w/outlook and the like) better than anything offered out of the box on any WM device.

or are you saying that the Blackberry device is better in terms of both battery and business email app?

 

[bubbatex]

the battery lasts longer on the Mogul than a Blackberry? may i ask which BLackberry? i find that very, very hard to believe.

further, Blackberry devices are used by a vast majority of business professionals and typically via a BES. my personal experience (years as well) has been that a Blackberry device coupled with a BES handles business email and PIM synchronization (w/outlook and the like) better than anything offered out of the box on any WM device.

Battery - yes, I am wondering that too!

It has been 5-6 years since I worked with a company that had BES, but my WM device with Exchange OWA/ActiveSync works flawlessly in delivering mail and PIM sync'ing. I typically get email on my phone quicker than on my desktop. Now, I will say that my host is sometimes sluggish, but that is a host issue. I am curious, please tell me more on how BES does this better. Or are you talking about the actual application - how the BB handles email on the device itself (feature wise) - which I believe many like better due to search capabilities, etc.? Thanks!

 

[magelico]

wow this tread seriously makes me consider an updated os, palm functionality can be had with this device

 

[HobbesIsReal#WP]

Yup it can. That is why so many people have already jumped over to the other side of the fence.

 

[JohnH59]

Yup it can. That is why so many people have already jumped over to the other side of the fence.

I'm very close to keeping my Mogul. With your tips and apps, I'm getting close to being able to do nearly everything one handed. I can't do email and messaging one-handed, but so far, I have found that sliding the keyboard out to reply or create an email is not as big a deal as I was first thinking.

I really like the way the email app works with our Exchange server. The "Lookup" of coorporate names is MUCH faster than with my Treo 755p.

I have also found my self using the WiFi more than I thought I would. We don't have EVDO in our area. The only problem with WiFi is that I'm not sure my Exchange account changes and uses it. I guess that's not a problem with WiFi, but with Active Sync. The reason I think this is when I download an attachment, it's not any faster with WiFi than Sprint's network. That's only true with Active Sync. My POP account is much faster.

I'm liking Opera mini 4 beta.

I certainly don't have everything figured out, but I am feeling better. I pick up my Treo every now and then and I do still like the ease of accessing apps. I keep trying to tweak so I can get the fewest taps between apps.

If Bluetooth were better, there would be no question about the change. At least the Mogul doesn't reset while I'm on a call on my Jabra JX10.

 

[HobbesIsReal#WP]

Glad I can help. Rumor has it that this month there will be a ROM update that had better adress the BT issue or there will be a lot of angry posts on the all the forums.

 

[JohnH59]

I'm getting better with one-handed use. Added additional apps has made it much better. I am liking the screen size when I want to watch a movie or transferred TIVO show.

The biggest concern is still the BT headset. My wife says I cut in and out some. I hope they do come out the the ROM update. At least it doesn't reset in the middle of a call like my 755p was doing.

The next biggest concern right now is the number keys on keyboard. This one I really miss the Treo since it has totally opposite colors for the color keys. I set up a Q for a colleague today to access our Exchange server. I noticed it has opposite keys for numbers as well. That really makes it easier to enter numbers for a number of applications. I use Quicken quite a bit and it's simple with the numbers colors opposite the alpha keys.

The only other thing that comes to mind right now is that I wish they had put in a seperate headset jack. I don't even care if it's 2.5mm or 3. I just don't like to have to use the extra dongle to connect a headset. Plus, I have to make sure I have the right dongle with me if I want to charge and listen. I really like the mini-USB though. I have nearly one hundred mini-USB cables.

I may not like all the layouts compared to my Treos. But, I can say the device "JUST WORKS". I've only had it a week, but, I have not had any resets unless an app required it after an install.

 

[aznmode]

I've had my Mogul for more than 3 months now and so for very happy with it. I went back to my Treo 700p for a few hours due to hardware button problem on my Mogul (Sprint store was fixing it) and all I can say is that I couldn't wait to get my Mogul back.

Also I'm not sure if everyone is aware that there are 2 types of screen they use on the mogul. I've gotten a replacement before from Sprint trying to get a phone with the older ROM and when I use my polarized shades, the other screen has a purplish tint and makes it hard to read the screen. My original stays white. I kept my original one and return the replacement.