After owning a Palm Pre for almost a year and having it replaced three times, I decided to give an Android phone a try. I had considered getting an HTC Evo when it came out but decided to wait for a few reasons:
1. There have been a few reports of the top glass separating from the Evo screens. I am going to wait a few months to make sure there aren't any other manufacturing glitches that need to be worked out. The Pre had several problems at release and it was a pain dealing with them.
2. 4G isn't available in my area yet but supposedly will be in the next couple of months. Currently Sprint is charging a $10/month premium for 4G on the Evo regardless of whether you live in a coverage area or not. I'll save my $10/month until it's out in this area.
3. There are still rumors flying around that the iPhone may have a CDMA release towards the end of this year. If that is the case, I will gladly drop all of these phones and go with Apple.
I was able to find a Samsung Moment for a reasonable price out of contract and have been using it for the past couple of days. My initial impressions are mediocre. So far the Pre and WebOS win for me on several fronts.
1. Customization - The Pre had so many things you could customize due to the OS being based on CSS. I loved all the tweaks I could do without much difficulty. While Android can do some amazing stuff, I have yet to find solutions so some simple things such as no home screen landscape mode in 2.1 (this worked in 1.5). If this was a Pre, I'm sure someone would have found a solution.
2. Keyboard - I am finding the hardware keyboard on the moment hard to get used to. While I have only used the phone for a couple of days, that may wear off but I doubt it. The keys are actually harder for me to hit the right one than on the Pre and the space bar is too small. Sometimes when I hit the space bar it doesn't register which can be annoying. Even though the keyboard is laid out like a computer keyboard, I find it off-putting. The software keyboard is decent and I am almost wishing I had skipped the hardware keyboard and gone with a HTC Hero but I heard too many bad things about dust getting under the glass, and no camera flash is a deal breaker. I loaded Swype last night which is working out great so far. In fact, I can easily see myself rarely using the software keyboard and just sticking to Swype.
3. Multitasking - Android does multitasking but not like the Pre. I liked how WebOS allowed you to see all the cards at once and close the ones you didn't need any more. When you long press the home button on Android, the list of apps only shows six of the last apps used. I would much prefer that it only showed stuff that was open.
4. App launcher page - I wish I could mash together the WebOS and Android app screens. I love being able to put stuff on the home screen in Android but I don't like that when you click the app launcher, it's one giant scroll page. WebOS would have a hard time putting icons on the home screen with the current card setup but that could be easily fixed if the had a card bar across the top of the screen with mini versions of the open cards that would magnify/pop out if you long pressed on it.
5. Battery life - I haven't used the Moment enough to confirm this but the battery life seems to be about the same - shitty.
6. Browser - Hands down WebOS wins. No multi touch on the Moment. I know some of the other Android phones have multi touch so I'm not going to blanket trash Android internet browsing. Copy and paste from web is super easy on WebOS - I haven't figured out how to do this on the Moment yet.
7. Build quality - The Moment and I would dare say all Android phones, have better build quality than either of the WebOS phones out there and herein lies my biggest problem. I use my phone so much and take it everywhere, that I need something that isn't going to fall apart. As witnessed by having to get a 4th Pre, they are not up to snuff. I treat all my possessions (especially electronics) with great care so my Pre problems are not due to carelessness. If Palm had contracted HTC to make a WebOS phone, I would probably still be with a Palm product.
8. App Store - Android blows WebOS out of the water as far as apps. No contest here.
This is a pretty negative review for Android but my opinion may change over time using the Moment. My goal really was to give a different OS a shot and see how it went. I have several months before 4G is rolled out in Los Angeles so I can take my time deciding if I really want to use my upgrade to get an Evo. Who know, in the next few months the iPhone may be announced for Sprint release or HP/Palm may announce a better made WebOS phone - anything can happen. For now, I'll stick with the Moment and see if my opinion changes.
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