There's a whole lot of misinformation on the web right now about reasons why HP had troubles with the TouchPad and eventually had to abandon the entire webOS hardware division. We'd moved on internally after yesterday's news but a bunch of stuff that popped up online today prompted a quick discussion about the realities of webOS hardware.

Read on for our analysis.

There’s a divergence in the smartphone world. Some devices are either maintaining or shrinking overall size in an attempt to become more convenient to carry around. Although it’s not what you’d expect, we have seen a few devices go in the opposite direction. As nice as it is to carry a small phone, it’s far more productive to have a bigger one. They’re easier to type on, better for reading web pages and generally more useful when you’re actually trying to get something done.

HTC was first in our labs with a member of this new breed of larger smartphones with the EVO 4G. While we found the larger screen nice, the lackluster OS performance and poor battery life weren’t exactly great selling points. Now it’s Motorola’s turn.

The Droid X is the spiritual successor to last year’s Droid. While the original only had speed going for it, the X adds size as well. Speed comes in the form of the OMAP 3630, TI’s first 45nm SoC based on the ARM Cortex A8 core. In essence, this is TI’s answer to the Apple A4. And the size is due to the Droid X’s 4.3-inch screen.

But unlike the EVO 4G, you don’t sacrifice performance or battery life. As a matter of fact, you end up with the best battery life of any Android phone we’ve reviewed. And TI has put together an SoC that finally rivals and exceeds Qualcomm’s Snapdragon.

Read on for our full review.