Sprint Mogul – PPC-6800 Review
Sep 3rd, 2007 by Vinny
I recently upgraded my Palm Treo 650 (read: smashed against wall in fit of dropped call rage) to the new Sprint Mogul from HTC. The model is PPC-6800. The phone runs the new Windows Mobile 6 OS, and has a full slide out keyboard. It is an upgrade to the PPC-6700 model which was very popular.
My overall reaction is a positive one based on 6 weeks of use. I was the lucky first person to get one in the Sprint store.
Image from SprintMogul.net
Pros:
- Battery life is very good on this model, it will easily last two days with moderate use. I constantly check my email during business hours with ActiveSync, and make about 30 minutes to an hour of phone calls each day.
- EVDO support. The new Sprint network is quite fast, and with the mega-plan I had to pick ($30 extra a month), I get unlimited PC data access through a USB cable which is nice.
- At some point in the future, Sprint will have TV and Navigation support built in, see my rant below for more on this.
- The keyboard has a resistant slide-out spring now, so it won’t open in your pocket on accident. This is an upgrade from the 6700.
- Application support is as good as my Palm (although more freeware stuff for Palm OS). Google maps for mobile is very nice. This phone supports a bluetooth GPS, so you can use Googles location features with it. I have also used TomTom Handheld and it works great with this phone.
- It comes with a nice leather belt case. I have been using the case and it works well. It has a magnetic button which closes tight, so the phone hasn’t slipped out yet.
- Upgraded camera, it is now 2 megapixel. The camera is what you would expect from a mobile device, it is crappy. Without bright light, it is always blurry and takes a few seconds to take the picture. It does include a flash which lights up a little, but not more than a few feet away. Overall its a nice addition, but I will still carry a digital camera for real pictures.
- Plenty of internal memory. You will be hard pressed to install enough programs to fill up the 160+MB of memory built in. At that point your system will be so bloated, it’s pretty useless.
- Included 512 MB MicroSD. This was a nice surprise as you can copy music or movies directly onto the device when you get it. When you plug it in to windows for the first time, it will create a new Mobile Device under My Computer where you can access the Storage Device folder directly.
- Voice activation that actually works. There is a voice button on the side that you press for the phone to listen for voice commands. It works very well when recorded properly. It can be setup to makes calls or open applications.
Cons:
- Its windows, and it still has bugs. One bug I keep running into is that the sound just stops working after a certain period of time. I can’t determine a set time, it appears to be random, sometimes a week, sometimes two days. A reboot of windows fixes this (reset button).
- Sprint customer service sucks! I wanted to keep the same plan I have had for over two years, it includes unlimited text messages. The customer service lady at the Sprint store said, yeah thats not a problem. So I get my next bill, and guess what, charges for all of my text messages. Waiting on hold for the minimum of 20 minutes, Sprint explained that they do not offer my old plan anymore with unlimited text. To get the same package it will now be double. I also get to use the Sprint TV and Navigation software, but wait, it isn’t supported yet on my phone? But you will happily charge me for it right? Yup.
- It doesn’t have a nice silicon case like the Treo. This is a design issue though, since there really isn’t a good way to get a silicon case on it, unless it is a split design or something.
- It turns on randomly. The screen will turn on what appears to be randomly, but I now tracked it down to switching between the EVDO network and the standard network. This can get very annoying in low signal areas, and I hope Sprint will figure this out (don’t have my hopes up too high).
- No headphone port. The Mogul comes with a USB adapter that has a 3.5mm headphone port, but that is a pain to carry around.
Other things to note:
- There is now a 2200 milliamp battery available, which should almost double the battery life. The only thing I don’t like is that it’s larger, so a new battery cover is needed. This will make your case unusable.
- I purchased a dock kit from igonemobile.com which works nicely. It also includes another charger and a car adapter which are always handy. The phone uses USB for charging so you can use any USB charger.
Overall this is a great phone, and I hope to use it for a few years. I made sure to purchase the Sprint insurance plan in case it dies, since these are about $500-600 to replace.
