Needing no nonsense advice...

[fwarchol]

Hi there all, noob to Android Central! I am currently an early adopter of the Palm Pre. I actually still have my original Pre. I am so ready to jump ship. I was wondering the following:

I would like to hear from others who have made this change from the Pre. What makes the EVO better than the Pre? How user friendly is the OS? Can you multitask on the EVO? I am not a huge apps person - how good is the email, internet and messaging?

I appreciate any honest answers you can provide me!

Thanks!

 

[RUSH]

Hi, fwarchol.
Welcome to Android Central.

I am also coming from Webos and the original pre myself.

The transition is going to take a little time to adjust too. The evo does most everything you would expect a phone to do and then some.

Multitasking is what webos does elegantly... I must admit. However, where webos lacks on features that's where android take over. Android does multitasking differently than webos - infact I come to now love the way I can just tap once and be right back at the application I was at before. Sweet. Who needs 20 to 34 cards open at the same time. Huh?
Both operating system is awesome and both have their pros and cons. One thing that surprise me about android is... Some missing features from webos phones are optional on android. I couldn't believe somethings I am now able to do.

I could go on and on about how great Android is... but I don't have that much time. You won't regret leaving webos OS. I know I don't.

Below is a link that will show you how to manage your phone capabilities.

http://forum.androidcentral.com/general-help-how/31622-getting-started-android-tips-tricks.html Also, please read this... for webos users who are making the transition to Android.

 

[dwhitman]

I was a release day Pre owner and am now a very happy Evo owner.

Pluses:
The screen. ZOMG. Huge. Beautiful. Easy to read.
FAST. This thing screams compared to my Pre, even with the Pre OCed.
Apps. Many, many more that on WebOS.
Much better camera. I took vacation photos with it and never felt I needed a "real" camera. Also means bar code scanning actually works well.


Toss-up: on screen keyboard. I adapted a lot faster than I feared I would. Nice to not have to slide open for access, but miss the positive feedback of feeling the keypress. Bottom line: after a week or so I type as fast as I did on my Pre.

Con:
I still miss WebOS cards. Android multitasks just fine, but cards...it's the right way to do it.

 

[etnpnys]

I loved my Pre, and my wife still has one. When the EVO was announced I was like "Who the eff is gonna want to carry something so big?" So when everybody was jumping ship from WebOS, I bought a used Hero. I loved the capabilities (but not the speed) so much I started looking into the EVO. I took the plunge and upgraded to the EVO.

What do I miss? Cards. Tasks. Notes. A unified messaging application. Polish and a more unified presentation. The web browser.

Why will I not go back until they make me reconsider by showing something amazing?
* Hardware - WebOS seriously needs a 4+ inch screen, and the Pre is so horribly underpowered it's ridiculous.
* Hardware (again) - I thought I would hate a software keyboard, but now that I have one it drives me crazy to use my wife's Pre and have the extra effort after touching the keys to actually press them down.
* Hardware (again, again) - I thought at the time that the Pre had an adequate screen size. Now, the screen alone on my EVO is the size of the entire Pre - and I am frustrated when I use my wife's phone that the resolution looks so low and you can't see anything on the screen.
* Hardware (again, again, again) - the Pre is smaller, but it actually feels like a big rock in your pocket compared to the EVO. The EVO is shaped much better for fitting in my pocket due to the way that the back is angled. Strange, I know.
* Apps - there are so many more apps and capabilities that you can do with Android it makes the switch easy. Different keyboard - check. Barcode scanning - check.

I know that my list of things that I miss is longer than the things I love, but the overall experience with the EVO is far better. The pros - even if there are few - are so drastically better that they outweigh the cons.

 

[kamtsa]

Con:
I still miss WebOS cards. Android multitasks just fine, but cards...it's the right way to do it.

Can you explain the differences in app level multitasking between Pre and Evo? You can assume we all know how Evo behaves.

Thanks.

K.

 

[flamingpixi]

I used the pixi for about a year, and got my hands on a pre plus for a couple months. I did like webos, but am now a fan of droid.

I didn't really feel there was a learning curve, yes - a different phone with a different OS took a couple hours to play with to get used to...but I have to say, it's not nearly as hard as the posters over on precentral made android sound.

Multitasking is different, but operates just as easy. It involves a long press (keep in mind long means 1-2 seconds) than choose one of the last 8 apps you had open, and they open where you left off. Same amount of time it takes to flip through your cards, and definitely less time than opening a new app. Opening a new app on the evo is practically instantaneous...even google maps, and I know you know how long that takes on the pre. The phone also handles a slew of information coming in at once. My pixi & pre used to restart or significantly slow down to the point if stopping if it got a text, FB alert and tried to download a VM. This phone just handles it. Multitasking is not something you should be worried about.

Email, internet & messaging rocks. You have several email apps to choose from, I use all gmail, so I use that (the conversations are actually threaded in here). Internet you have a whole handful of browsers to find the best one for you. Same with messaging, I use handcent. As for typing, felt the same about a physical keyboard, but this phone is big enough to type on...and it has swype, which I used to compose this whole response, and it's fast. Plus, the evo shift has a keyboard if you really want one.

Having said all that (and having proclaimed my evo has superpowers, lol) every device has it's own hiccups now & again. I have had my evo suddenly slow down for a moment (much like my palm would) but then again it sped back up in just a moment out two. Sometimes they have problems with the app market, just like palm.

Overall, better experience. good luck with your choice!

 

[MissJennell#IM]

I would say that you should go into a store a play with an EVO. It is going to be the best way for you to know the answers to the questions you want. And then you will know how exactly it works too.

 

[enzie5454]

Hi there all, noob to Android Central! I am currently an early adopter of the Palm Pre. I actually still have my original Pre. I am so ready to jump ship. I was wondering the following:

I would like to hear from others who have made this change from the Pre. What makes the EVO better than the Pre? How user friendly is the OS? Can you multitask on the EVO? I am not a huge apps person - how good is the email, internet and messaging?

I appreciate any honest answers you can provide me!

Thanks!

My wife and I were pre supporters until I bought myself an evo in late October. Playing with the evo at the store was night and day performance-wise compared to my pore. There are things I miss about the pre (software), but I will not be looking back.

What I loved about my pre:
-WebOS cards - IMO the best multi-tasking OS out there. The evo does it differently.
-Swipe up to close apps.

What I love about my evo:
-Hardware - large, bright, and responsive screen (looks twice as big as pre's), no restarts, no lag or freezing. Also, apps load super quick (maps on the pre took more than a minute to load - it opens instantly on the evo)
-Android - you had to use preware to get some of the standard options on the evo
-4G - If you have it in your area, it is BLAZING fast. I get between 5 - 13 Mbps down
-Apps - tons of them. Sure there are a bunch of apps that are useless, but there are so many that are helpful / fun (Chase Bank app is the best)
-Battery Life - The battery appears to be better on the evo than it does on the pre. And I'm still in the "honeymoon" playing phase of the phone.

What I had to adjust to:
-Android Multi-tasking - it is different, but I got used to it quickly. You hold down the home key for about a second or so and your last 8 opened apps appear. Just click on the app and it will take you to where you last left off.
-Software keyboard - it took me about a day to totally get used to it. It corrects everything wrong I type. After one day, I typed faster on the software keyboard than I did on the pre hardware keyboard.

Needless to say, after my wife had about 20 minutes of playing with my phone, we switched her pre to an evo too! You can't go wrong with the evo!

 

[enzie5454]

Can you explain the differences in app level multitasking between Pre and Evo? You can assume we all know how Evo behaves.

Thanks.

K.

You hold down the home key for about a second or so and your last 8 opened apps appear. Just click on the app and it will take you to where you last left off.

I do have to say that the webOS multi-tasking is more elegant, but Android's works just fine.

 

[dwhitman]

Can you explain the differences in app level multitasking between Pre and Evo? You can assume we all know how Evo behaves.

Thanks.

K.

On android you switch between tasks by either:

1. holding down the home button to get a popup of the last 6 apps you used or
2. just hitting the program's icon in the launcher. If it's open already, this just pops it to the front, doesn't invoke a new instance

Android actively manages memory in a way that WebOS doesn't.

In WebOS, if you have too many programs running, you get that dreaded "too many cards" warning, so you close some cards.

In Android, there's generally no need to explicitly exit apps ever.
If memory gets too full, Android purges something you haven't used in a while. Nothing is lost, but if you go back, it has to reload. That's why the popup on long pressing home isn't "running apps", it's "last apps used". The intent that you just don't need to worry about memory, that's the OS's job.

 

[RUSH]

You hold down the home key for about a second or so and your last 8 opened apps appear. Just click on the app and it will take you to where you last left off.

I do have to say that the webOS multi-tasking is more elegant, but Android's works just fine.

... and if I may add - you can put the internet app on your home screen for faster access to the webpage you last visited.