March 27 2011, 4:10 PM
Well, I have had my Pre 2 for a few weeks now, having successfully traded in my Samsung Focus for it. It's been an interesting little run with the handset, mostly due to how these phones are almost the polar opposites of one another. The Focus is all glitz and glamour. An utterly beautiful device that has some of the best animations and transitions on the market. The Pre 2 is... kind of stumpy. The difference comes in terms of functionality. The Focus looked great, but I kept hitting walls. At this stage, Windows Phone 7 is more about what you can't do than what you can. It has a very limited set of functions. The Pre 2, on the other hand, seemingly has no limits. You are free to do what you want, how you want, and it will do its best to make that as interesting a ride as possible.
When looking at the Pre 2 (formerly of Palm, now more accurately from HP) you really have to break it down into 2 items: The Phone itself, and the operating System, WebOS.
The phone itself is, in this era of smatphones, underwhelming. It's fat and heavy, with a small screen that has a poor resolution and very little in redeeming qualities other than gorilla glass. The keyboard is cramped and takes a lot of time to get used to. There's no dedicated camera button, and the camera itself is weak. It has mediocre to average battery life, which results in more or less a daily charge.
On the plus side, the CPU + GPU combo is top of the line for its era of smartphones, meaning it renders like a mofo. It also has a nice matte finish that doesn't attract fingerprints whatsoever. But honestly, from a build standpoint, it's a very "meh" phone. Going from the gorgeous 4 inch, 480x800 Super AMOLED screen of the Focus, to the "meh" 3.1 inch 320x480 LCD screen of the Pre 2 is jarring. The Focus was light as a feather, while the Pre 2 is like having a solid lump of coal in your pocket. Nothing about the build of this phone is all that great. Compared to other modern smartphones, it is simply lacking.
But then all of that changes once you actually use the phone. WebOS is, by far, the best mobile operating system available. It is stunningly easy to use, offers incredible functionality, allows you to do whatever you want with your device, and simply works well. Featuring true multitasking, an incredibly innovative cards system (which is awesome for browsing), and the sheer power of "Just Type" (picture Spotlight from iOS, only this integrates completely with every aspect of the device, and, you know... works), WebOS is simply amazing. Having owned an iPhone for 2 years, had a several week run with WP&, and used many different Blackberry devices as well as a few Android devices, I can safely say that none of them compares to WebOS. It is simply that much more efficient than the competition.
Part of the brilliance is the "Homebrew" aspect of WebOS. Think along the lines of what Jailbreaking is to an iPhone. Only in this case, they don't constantly try and stop you from doing it, in fact, they actively encourage this innovation (you use the famous Konami Code to unlock the device!). These amazingly dedicated people have allowed the WebOS comminity at large to truly unlock the potential of the device. It's awesome, they deserve a lot of thanks.
The only software related downside is the very small application catalogue. Yes, it's an issue. Many of the big names in development haven't jumped on board, resulting in many gaps. For example, there isn't any official Dropbox, Live Messenger, or Twitter support. Some items have third parties making apps for these products, but the gap is still very noticeable. There are some high quality games in the catalogue (including the favorite Angry Birds) but still, the offerings are bare when compared to iOS. This is going to be a big hurdle for HP to overcome if they want these devices to be more than a niche product. Without solid app support, people just aren't going to abandon iOS or Android.
The fact of the matter is that I love this phone. It suits me perfectly. It works great, is fast and intuitive, and allows me to tinker. Yes, I wish it was a little bigger, I wish it had a higher res screen, and I wish that the keyboard wasn't so cramped. But despite these flaws, the phone does what I need it to do, which the Focus kind of didn't. The Pre 2 is far from the perfect phone. It just happens to be the best phone on the market for my needs.
Besides, the Pre 3 comes out this Summer. Hehehehe...
No comments:
Post a Comment