So here it is, long overdue but as complete as I can make it: The Sprint Mogul, by HTC.

The major thing that drew me to this particular phone was the size of the keyboard.  Especially for guys who have bigger hands and thus, bigger thumbs, the larger keys make it easier to function the device.

The SmartPhone comes complete with Windows Mobile 6, including Office Mobile; Wi-Fi; TeleNav, a GPS utility that is included with the latest rendition of the phone; and a host of other standard functionalities.

So here it is!

Cost: You can obtain the phone after savings and rebate for $199.99.  Figure in at least $39.99 for a PowerPack Plan (450 Minutes) and $30.00 for a Pro Pack, and you’ve got about $70 a month for a bill.  Unlimited Web & E-Mail, Texting, plus the Nav feature.  Music is per song, and TV unfortunately at this time is “unavailable”… although there are 3rd party applications to support it.  Nights and weekends, typical of Sprint, start at 7:00.

Cool: Touch Screen, with really smooth controls.  Most functions (other than text input) can be done with one hand.  Also has a “Jog Wheel” for scrolling through features or navigating web pages. 

Placement allows you to use the wheel when the phone is in portrait or landscape.  Location of all buttons is logical for that matter, although incidental button presses aren’t hard.  This isn’t that much of a nuisence though.

Crap: At least of the last upgrade, there is still a problem with memory drain, so you’ll have to reboot once in a while to freshen things up a bit (Windows 98 anyone?).  Internet Explorer doesn’t do justice to some pages, including this one.  Mobile versions of sites do exist, but aren’t always as fully featured as I would like them to be.  Opera offers a free version of there browser for mobile devices that seems to a do a little better, but even that can be a hassle.  There NEEDS to be a device backup feature , something that it possible to do a full sync of info AND programs.

Consensus: Overall, good.  The benefits outweigh the disadvantages.  I’m really happy with what I can get done (like posting more, hopefully) and love being able to execute computer functions and communications on-the-go.  It’s very familiar for Windows Users, who shouldn’t have a hard time adapting to it.  I strongly feel that they need to include a backup utility that backs up programs.  Users who download software can lose it just as quickly which can be very frustrating.  I would recommend this phone, but there are some improvements it could use.