HP Veer 4G Review - Getting Us Excited for Pre 3
by Brian Klug on June 7, 2011 5:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- HP
- AT&T
- Palm
- veer
- webOS
- HSPA+
- Mobile
- HP Veer 4G
Compared to the Pixi and even the Palm Pre Plus, the Veer offers a dramatic difference in speed and smoothness. Unfortunately the Pixi lacks WiFi so running our webpage loading suite didn’t make much sense, however I timed application loads between the Pixi, Veer, and Pre Plus. There’s a dramatic difference between the older ARMv6 Pixi and the newer ARMv7 Veer. Again the Veer runs an 800 MHz MSM7230 with 512 MB of LPDDR RAM.
| Application Launch Time Benchmarking | |||||||
| Application / Launch Time (s) | Palm Pre Plus | Palm Pixi | HP Veer 4G | ||||
| Maps | 15.3 | 20.1 | 7.1 | ||||
| Camera | 4.5 | 5.0 | 3.6 | ||||
| Memos | 4.0 | 4.5 | 2.7 | ||||
| Web | 3.3 | 2.5 | 2.1 | ||||
| Clock | 5.0 | 3.8 | 3.3 | ||||
| Startup | 2:19.1 | - | 1:39.9 | ||||
The difference in raw, perceptible performance difference between the Veer and everything that came before it (save the Pre 2) is huge. Animations are completely fluid, typing fast no longer results in dramatic lag, and there’s no longer huge stalls in responsiveness. WebOS 2.0 also seems to have better memory management – I opened nearly 100 cards with AnandTech.com fully loaded and never once got an out of memory error. I did notice huge amounts of memory being swapped to disk (it’s very easy to monitor using top over novaterm on the Veer), but the device continued being fully responsive.
Unfortunately loading times on the Veer are still incredibly long due to some mismanagement of the linux boot process. Unfortunately it appears that WebOS increases the sleep time that apps send to the caller during the boot process from an already crazy 60 seconds to 120 seconds. There’s discussion of this on WebOS Internals, but the situation is even worse now, at 120 seconds.
This is somewhat masked with much faster hardware, yet I have very little doubt that the Pre 3 will take an inexcusably long time to boot as the Veer and every WebOS device that came before it.
We also ran the standard web benchmarks on all three devices. Results are comparable here but not entirely - WebKit remains 532.2 between both versions of WebOS, but it's clear that a newer JavaScript engine is being used in WebOS 2.0, possibly V8 which Qualcomm works closely to maintain and optimize for OEMs. What we’re seeing here however does translate to a perceptible performance delta.
Whereas the Pixi is essentially laggy to the point of unusable, so much so that I honestly wonder how the device was ever considered releasable, the Veer is completely fluid.
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ClockerXP - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
Dial ##3-836# to get to the menu where you can disable 3G. Works on my Pre+ on Verizon!ClockerXP - Saturday, June 11, 2011 - link
I mean ##3836# (no dash)dananski - Sunday, June 12, 2011 - link
I agree that the hardware is better than people say. I haven't had any problems with mine and it only has minor scratches from all the times I've dropped it. But the OS is good too. Cards and synergy are two things I couldn't go without, and I like the simple gestures.ioannis - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Brian, thanks for the comprehensive review, delivered in the usual Anandtech quality.The App Catalogue compatibility seems to be the only major complain I'd have over this phone. My question is, will WebOS 3.0 with the Enyo framework come to the Veer? And assuming that all the apps eventually get ported to it (or at least all apps released from the time 3.0 is out will be based on it), would that solve the 'pixel density'/resolution-dependent apps problem?
softdrinkviking - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Hi Brian. Great review. I especially liked your explanation of HSPA+, nice work there.I had one question. You again referred to Super LCD as (IPS) in this article, as you did in the article a few days ago (HTC evo 3D). In that article you crossed out the (IPS) and I assumed that meant you were reassessing that. Have you come to any conclusions about Super LCD and what process it is made with?
Brian Klug - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
So I was mistaken earlier about Super LCD being IPS, I went over my notes and have written down that Super LCD is just PVA. I'm going to try and do some more digging to find out why I have that here and what the implications are. Honestly though the SLCD display on the Sensation looks quite good.-Brian
Solidstate89 - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
I haven't owned a WebOS phone because of the flakiness of the hardware, but the OS has always appealed to me. Similarly although the Veer isn't for me, I do like just how much better WebOS 2.0 is looking.I sincerely wish them the best in the market as it is quite simply a brilliantly designed OS. However it's just taken too long to get to market. I wanted to get a Pre 3 on Verizon, but realized it would be too late with Verizon Wireless nixing its Unlimited Data plans before it could be released so I went to sprint and picked up a WP7 device.
Quite happy with it, and although it's a blatant rip-off, I can't wait for the card-style multitasking to arrive with the Mango Update :)
Best of luck to WebOS.
softdrinkviking - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
cool, thanks for the reply & info. i have seen plenty of PVA screens in the store and they look pretty good to me, maybe not as good as the high-end NECs and other professional monitors, but i had a hard time telling the difference between the led backlit LG IPS and the similar sized BenQ with a PVA. (this is in Japan, so i can't say what models you have in the states).As long as they are good quality, and a decent resolution, I can't imagine that PVA would be unacceptable on a cel phone. they are undoubtedly better than TN.
jamawass - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
I think the veer makes sense if you take into consideration hp's tablet strategy. A veer with mobile hotspot would be an excellent combo with a 7 in touchpad ( to be released after the 10 in later this yr). I have a 7 in sony reader which fits in all my jacket's pockets. That's my device of choice when I'm waiting at the auto shop, etc and I always receives glances when I whip it out of my jacket. It's light, and much more portable than an ipad.I suspect this is one of hp's strategies with the veer and I wouldn't be surprised if they market them as a combo deal in the future.
I've used webos for a year now and generally like it's efficiency, but Apple and other companies have been cannibalising their innovations. As stated above, hp needs to accelerate the upgrade cycle in both soft and hardware to survive.
marc1000 - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Brian and Anand, I could not find a way to contact you. So I will write this down on the comment section.Microsoft is killing the only thing cool on all older WindowsMobile phones (6.5 & below): the MyPhone service will die in a couple months.
please read this thread at XDA where some users reported receiving the same MS email with the news.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1...