What will replace my Prē: Android or iPhone?
My Palm Prē Plus is coming to end of its life. Even if HP had not abandoned WebOS all the development was going to be for newer versions of WebOS — versions HP promised I could upgrade to but reneged on that promise. So despite an operating system that I adore and a user interface that makes all other phones look clumsy and awkward, I can’t avoid the reality about this phone. The bugs will never be fixed, the apps I hoped for (Skype, PocketMoney, a working Google Voice app, Google+, Omnifocus, a decent time tracker…) will never appear, the GPS is crippled (thanks for the fraud, Verizon!) the Web browser will never be able to upload photos or access locative information, and the case is cracked. So now I’m faced with a decision: iPhone or Android?
I waited to see what the iPhone5 iPhone4S looks like and yesterday’s announcement didn’t bring any real surprises. The tweaks that were promised in iOS5 will be welcomed on my iPad, but I’ll care somewhat less about them on the phone platform. I was mostly curious about how the case will look, and whether it would be a 4G phone (which could have some bearing on whether to stick with Verizon for another two years.) As it turns out, it’s pretty much an iPhone4 with a better camera, faster processor, and uh… was there something else?
These aren’t the droids I’m looking for
I hate to dismiss the Android platform without getting an Android device and using it for some time. So far I’ve only gotten a couple of minutes at a time to explore the platform on other people’s devices. There are a couple of features I’m really interested in — Google Voice integration for example — that just won’t be the same without Android. Yet the platform itself in all its incarnations is uncompelling. The virtual keyboard and autocorrect feature are clumsy and at times seem obstinately counterintuitive. I don’t want to work that hard to use my phone.
Android does have awide range of hardware available, and large screens. Anyone who fetishizes a five inch screen on their phone has no choice but to go with Android. I prefer my phone to be a bit smaller. Pocketability is a key feature. It’s bad enough to have to give up my perfectly-sized 3.1″ screen on the Pre to move up to a 3.5″ screen, but on the Android platform, getting a device with a screen as small as 3.5″ means getting a downrevision device with slow hardware.
The i’s have it
No matter what, going from a webOS device to anything else on the market means I’m going to have to settle for a user experience that is less than elegant. Android is mostly an unknown quantity to me, while I have invested fairly heavily in a software library for iOS. I used all of the first three revisions of iPhone before switching to the Palm Prē, and continue to use my iPad. I won’t have to buy new software or learn different versions.
I’m very tempted to take advantage of the release of the iPhone4S to buy an iPhone4 at the bargain basement price that Apple announced. The iPhone4 is a capable device, and I’m not exactly floating in cash. I have a little time left to make that decision, but I’ve been wishing that Apple would put 64GB into an iPhone for some time. Faster download time is always a bonus as well, and buying faster processors means being able to hang on to the same device for longer. That sounds like a weak rationalization, but the Palm Prē’s 500mHz processor was already sluggish when I reviewed the Prē a little over a year ago. Time has not been kind to the Prē since; If I buy a phone this month I’d really like to still be using the same device two years from now.
As sorry as I am to see the Prē go, it’s time. The Prē was a fine experiment and I love the platform. If HP hadn’t killed it, I might be considering a Prē2 or even a Prē3, though I still prefer the smaller form factor. Great user interface is not the only selling point for a phone, and the software selection for the iPhone is unmatched. So it’s time to say that insanely pretty good is good enough and move on.
