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It's been a long time coming, but Verizon Wireless has finally rolled out the replacement to the all purpose but extremely long in the tooth XV6700 Pocket PC Phone. Not wanting to confuse customers too much, it seems, Verizon has gone ahead and only slightly changed the named of the new smartphone, calling it the … XV6800.

As with the XV6700, the XV6800 is a tablet-shaped device with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard that slides out from underneath its 320 x 240 (QVGA) resolution, 2.8-inch display. It runs on Microsoft's newest mobile platform for touch screen smartphones, however: Windows Mobile 6 Professional.

If the XV6800 looks familiar, it should, as it is based on the same HTC design as Sprint's Mogul model (see our review). (Verizon might want to take a cue from Sprint and give devices like the XV6800 jazzier names. Don’t you think?)

The XV6800/Mogul sports an improved keyboard over their predecessors, in addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera for still images and video and the EV-DO flavor of 3G favored by CDMA carriers like Verizon and Sprint for high-speed data service, with downloads as fast as 2.4 Mbps.

Although there's only 64MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM, the XV6800's got a microSD slot, which currently supports up to 4GB of additional storage.

As with the Mogul and AT&T's Tilt, which has everything its brethren have plus integrated GPS, the XV6800 is a business-orientated smartphone.

Of course, since the XV6800 runs on Windows Mobile, there's e-mail, with support for push-based messaging in an Exchange environment, a Web browser and mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for reading, editing and generating Microsoft Office documents. It also handle’s PDF files.

You can use the XV6800 as a modem to access the Internet or corporate network.

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile allows for the playing of music and video on the XV6800.

Available online now, the XV6800 should hit Verizon stores tomorrow. It goes for $400 with a two-year contract and after a $100 rebate when purchased over the Web. The rebate is supposed to drop to $50 for in-store purchases.