HP Veer 4G Review - Getting Us Excited for Pre 3

I mentioned at the beginning that product launches generally seem to be top down, rather than bottom up. Launch the flagship first, get the enthusiasts excited, then release mainstream and lite versions to cater to flesh out options for everyone else. The original Palm Pre launches went this way for a reason - imagine how different the Palm Pre would have turned out had the Pixi preceded it. That said, I completely understand HPalm's reasoning for launching the Veer when it did, and the reason is simple.

WebOS needs new hardware. The Palm Pre 2 wasn't a widespread mass market device that appealed to many more than WebOS enthusiasts, and in the US at least it's been proven time and time over that phones absolutely need carrier backing and subsidy to sell. The Veer undoubtedly is an easier device to manufacture, it's using a very popular SoC, and most of the package is altogether very safe. There's no time for HPalm to wait for the Pre 3 to get to a similar level of readiness, and so we get a launch like this that's bottom up. Short term it might make the situation confusing, but long term we're talking about whether WebOS will have a place at the table this time next year. 

I've come away with a bunch of different thoughts having used the Veer for this long, but the biggest of them is that although the device is definitely not for me, it has actually had the side-effect of getting me excited about the Palm Pre 3. There's nothing wrong with the Veer itself, I'd just prefer a larger display, bigger keyboard, and more importantly the flagship device where most of the developer attention will be focused. That's an important point too - the experience will always be best on whatever device the most developers have in their pocket, purely by virtue of them spending the most time with it.

The next thought is that WebOS feels incredibly smooth and fluid on the 800 MHz MSM7230 - it's a mind blowing difference in speed compared to the Pixi, and likewise with the Palm Pre Plus. In subjective terms the Veer feels dramatically smoother than any of the Android phones I've played with which also use the MSM7230. On Android the only real competitor in terms of this size is the LG Optimus One series of devices (which go under a variety of names stateside for each carrier), and although I'm a big fan of those devices, the compromise that's made is you get a decidedly slower phone based on a 600 MHz ARMv6 MSM7227. Then there's the matter of price. As of this writing, can get the Veer for $99 from AT&T directly, or $50 from Amazon Wireless on contract.

Left: LG Optimus One, Right: HP Veer 4G

I was originally skeptical that WebOS could remain competitive with an entirely single core lineup in a world where dual and even quad core is becoming the norm, but honestly I've come away with renewed confidence. 

If you're in the market for a tiny smartphone and are willing to use a nonstandard cable for USB and a small detachable dongle for your headphone jack, the Veer makes a lot of sense. The other big ones are the non user-replaceable battery and lack of external storage, but admittedly that's the same boat the Pixi was in. The Veer runs the full version of WebOS 2.0 on a modern SoC, and is a huge step forward in polish and performance from the Pixi. There's nothing lite about the experience, and WebOS 2.0 definitely feels like a step forwards from WebOS 1.0. Now, about that Pre 3...