I have been a Palm Treo user for about 5 years. I put off upgrading to a Pre in order to wait for the HP Pre 3. When HP cancelled production of the Pre 3 I decided to order the Pre 2. I used Echo to sync several thousand contacts and calendar items from my Palm Desktop to my Pre 2. I???m still working on getting a secure password application operational on my Pre, but I???m sure I???ll get that worked through.
I???m super impressed with WebOS. The multi-tasking is intuitive and slick. I looked at many Droid phones, but I just didn???t find one that I liked. Having a sideways slide-out keyboard just did not appeal to me. I really like the compact size of the Pre. The only comparable Droid is the Motorola Pro, and it has a smaller screen. Other Droids are like carrying around a brick. It also irks me that Microsoft gets a kick back when you by a Droid.
My wife had a Droid Pro, but after playing with my Pre 2, she also ordered a Pre 2. After using the Pre 2 for a day she said that she had the Pre 2 setup with everything she did with her Droid that took a year to configure.
A full charge on the Pre 2 battery lasts me a day. If I???m on the phone A LOT, I???ll need a charge late in the afternoon. That???s another plus compared to Droid users. I know 5 Droid users and they all have to charge their Droid multiple times per day even after loading various power saving apps.
I???m not comparing to an iPhone because it doesn???t have a keyboard. My son has an iPhone so I???m familiar with the iPhone. Fundamentally I don???t like the iPhone sync system with iTunes, although I???m sure there are ways to work around that. As a business user with many private/sensitive contact, calendar entries, notes, etc, I want a separate ???PIM??? desktop application that isn???t prone to being hacked or infected like iTunes or Outlook.
WebOS could definitely use more apps, not because one really needs all those apps, but to foster better apps. Regardless, I???m slowly getting what I need.
One other point: I???m specifically not syncing to Google. With so many private contacts I cannot have this information synced to a 3rd party. However, I know two other Pre users that have setup Google and Facebook syncing and they say they have not had any problems.
Like all smartphones, the Pre 2 does have its moments. On occasion the touch display goes bonkers when I???m trying to key a PIN after dialing a number. When that happens I just slide out the keyboard.
There is no question in my mind that WebOS is unquestionably the best mobile operating environment. If HP had stuck it out they could have ruled the mobile and desktop world with WebOS. Hopefully another company will pickup WebOS and continue the effort. I figure that if I can stick with the Pre 2 for a couple of years may be there will be an upgrade path or a better Droid/iPhone/etc option.
Finally, the Verizon Pre 2 ships with document management compatible with MS Office, a PDF viewer and mobile hot spot. This means the Pre really has almost everything you need for business use right out of the box.
The open letter I wrote to HP’s new CEO asking her to bring back the webOS product line generated more responses than I could deal with. The overwhelming theme was to turn that letter into a petition of sorts to let readers get their voice heard about the cancelation of the webOS product line.
