PhoneBoy Going Windows Mobile?
Ever since I started seriously blogging, one of my goals was to have people send me cool gadgets to look at and blog about. Maybe I’d keep them, maybe I’d send them back. Of course, I figured once I started advertising who I work for, I thought nobody would send me any devices that might be “competition.” Not that my job description includes “looking at the competition,” in fact it has nothing to do with phones at all, but I think it’s important to understand what we’re up against.
Despite all this, someone from Qwest emailed me the other day announcing their new HTC handsets being offered on their network, and offered to send me a phone to test drive. Like I was going to turn that down.
Last week, my new HTC Mogul arrived. I dutifully tried to use the phone for various tasks. It’s different on so many levels that I have no idea where to begin:
- The phone is CDMA, specifically on Sprint’s network (Qwest is an MVNO on Sprint). This means I can’t simply use either my T-Mobile or AT&T SIM on it like I do with a GSM handset. I have to use a different number. GrandCentral will help some calls route to the phone, but this limits the amount of use I can really make of the device.
- The phone runs Windows Mobile 6 instead of Symbian. Personally, I find the Windows OS bad on a desktop. I was not terribly impressed with my Dell Axim X30, which runs Pocket PC 2003. Doesn’t appear the OS has changed all that much.
- The keyboard on this device stinks. Many keys are not in the place I expect them to be. I can’t tell you how many times I hit the “Windows” key when I meant to hit the shift key.
This is, of course, not a full review, nor is it anyone’s opinion but my own. I expect I will do a bit more blow-by-blow over the next several days.
