Gadgetory

the summer of 2007 in the US Rihanna Avril Lavigne and Fall Out Boy led the pop charts the final installment in the Harry Potter series became the fastest selling book in history and the film's ocean's 13 and live free or die hard proved there was still money to be made in Hollywood sequel meanwhile in little old Norfolk Virginia I was preparing to leave my job at wireless carrier sprint nextel and I was in the market for the biggest beefiest smartphone I could buy to see me through the next two years in 2007 that slab of smartphone hot sauce was the HTC mogul you might know it as the Titan the xB 6800 or the P 4000 but whatever you call it at launch it was one of the best Windows Mobile smartphones you could find so as HTC prepares to launch its 2014 flagship smartphone let's take a look back at the best of what the company had to offer seven years ago I'm Michael Fisher this is the HTC mogul and this is PocketNow throwback the mogul debuted at a time when brawny dimensions were par for the course when it came to smartphones while it was fairly light and fit in a pocket better than its predecessor thanks to its internal antenna it clocked in at a girthy 18 millimeters thick and its surface was peppered with buttons from the d-pad and ctrl collective below the screen to the messaging and browser shortcuts up top from the typical power and camera keys to the strange hardware Wi-Fi switch to the sign of the times jog dial and back key the Mogul featured 16 physical buttons on its casing and that's before you take into account the sliding QWERTY keyboard the Mogul was powered by a 400 megahertz Qualcomm processor backed up by 64 Meg's of RAM all of it powering Windows Mobile five and later six on a two point eight inch QVGA screen that used resistive touch and a stylus for precision input but buried here and there on our borrowed throwback unit are little hints of modernity despite the moguls age the phone's IR port is flanked by a microSD card slot and the camera around back is only 2 megapixels shy of the resolution of HTC's 2013 flagship of course much more than resolution has changed in the past 7 years I wouldn't want to use the Mogul as a photo companion today but for the time 2 megapixels was top of the line even in 2007 though the Moghuls software was beginning to show its cracks while Windows Mobile was much more powerful and versatile than competitors like the palm OS and Blackberry platforms it was also tremendously sluggish even on the Moghuls powerful hardware a handicap noted by reviewers of the day and one which went unresolved by the update to 6.1 and even though that keyboard was big and beautiful I found that Windows Mobile could never quite keep up with my keystrokes finally this was the Summer of Apple's mobile emergence with the first an iPhone already showing people what a slick and responsive user interface could feel like Microsoft's mobile platform would soon start losing its luster still the extensibility and raw power of the device cemented it as a favorite in the hearts of many with an enthusiastic developer community cooking up handfuls of custom roms combined with Sprint's relatively speedy EVDO Network and the still significant novelty of carrying a computer in your pocket the Mogul quickly earned a special place in the memory of mobile mavens everywhere helping to kick-start the recognition of a then new smartphone brand that's since become one of the world's most respected did you have an HTC mogul or one of its siblings if so drop your remember it says down in the comments I'm sure it's going to be a wonderful nostalgia fest you should become a part of it also on your way there's a like button in the description down below please click it if you liked this throwback and if your nostalgia appetite is not yet sated you want to see more old phones reviewed with modern equipment and a modern perspective check out the pocket knife throwback playlist here on YouTube we've got a whole lot more videos from every OEM every platform you can think of check out pocket now on social networks at pocketnow.com from modern coverage of the news and editorials in the smartphone space most importantly though thank you for watching once again I'm Michael Fisher and we'll see you very soon this is the HTC mogul and this is PocketNow flashback throwback Jerry I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow this is the HTC mogul and this is the pocket now pocket now throwback from pocketnow.com pocket now did you have you been to pocket now I'm Michael Fisher with pocket now this is the HTC everyone just waits to text me until I'm filming a video let's take a look at the best of what HTC offered seven years ago I'm Michael Fisher this is the HTC mogul five minutes five minutes timeout time does not mean five minutes in Windows Windows Mobile world you