Android Understanding

[VKitty]

I am up for a new phone upgrade, and I have narrowed it down to two phones..

Palm Pre Plus & Android

No I have not decided on what Android phone I would get but I do have a questions.


What can an Android phone do that the Palm Pre Plus can not??

 

[Corey]

That's a tough one to answer. I've only played around with the Pre, so I don't have much experience, but much of the functionality appears to be similar between the Palm Web OS and Android. A lot of the difference comes down to how you like the implementation of the features, hardware, and small things here and there. Depending on what you're looking for in a phone, you may prefer one companies way of doing things over the other. If you're able to give both of them a shot, you may get a better idea of which phone suits your needs and your tastes. They're both capable smartphones that handle general, everyday tasks like messaging, email, and social networking without any problems and have a growing collection of apps to manage more specialized tasks. From what I've seen, the Android Market is a little more fleshed out than the Palm setup. The comparable apps seem a little smoother on Android (though that's just personal opinion and in no way fact). Really, without knowing what you're looking to do with your phone, you may be able to best get a feel for what you like with a hands on of all the options. Depending on the carrier you're with (Pre Plus has me thinking Verizon or possibly ATT), the variations in Android phones are going to greater than the standard Web OS setup.

 

[VKitty]

Ya, I guess I will have to go to the store and try them both. I was just trying to get a feel of what they can do first, and what I should look for. Didnt want to miss a feature I didnt know about.

 

[pops.comp]

Ya, I guess I will have to go to the store and try them both. I was just trying to get a feel of what they can do first, and what I should look for. Didnt want to miss a feature I didnt know about.

Im sure thats bound to happen either way, I still find a little nugget of information about my droid every once in a while

 

[Corey]

Ya, I guess I will have to go to the store and try them both. I was just trying to get a feel of what they can do first, and what I should look for. Didnt want to miss a feature I didnt know about.

Sorry, I know it was a somewhat generic response, but they really are both capable phones that cover most of what you'll need. If there's an edge, it may be in the Android Market. The larger size and rate of growth give you a far greater opportunity of coming across an app that will meet a specific need if you're looking for something that is missing.

Are there certain "must have" applications that you're looking for? It might help to give you a better idea of which phone might suit you better.

 

[VKitty]

Sorry, I know it was a somewhat generic response

Lol, I understand.. I have just been reading alot, and people keep saying that Android is better, but do not give any info on how or why. I even searched the internet, and could not find anything different ..

 

[Corey]

Lol, I understand.. I have just been reading alot, and people keep saying that Android is better, but do not give any info on how or why. I even searched the internet, and could not find anything different ..

Take this all with a grain of salt, because my time with the Palm has been extremely limited.

I chose the Droid over the Palm Pre because, at the end of the day, I liked the operating system better. While I really liked the way the Palm handled multi-tasking, the rest of the phone was just kind of ho-hum. I like the multiple home screens and I really like having widgets that display different bits of information. It's nice having the date, weather, my emails/sms/mms/facebook all available with a quick glance, rather than going through notifications and opening all the programs. I've been able to set up the 3 home screens in different ways. I have the main scren with the time/date/weather, messaging, and some quick icons. I have a music-centric screen with my music player, pandora widget, and slacker widget, and I have my 3rd screen setup with settings widgets to turn on and off various parts of the phone or to turn on/off other programs, as well as a really sweet grid calendar to keep me somewhat organized. It's that kind of setup, without the need to root/jailbreak/homebrew that sold me on the Droid and the android platform. There are some widgets/settings available on Sense UI enabled android phones that I wish I had, but otherwise, I have everything I need and have found apps in the Android Market to fill in the few gaps where the stock programs came up short.

 

[VKitty]

Wow Corey,

Thanx, that was very helpful, I apreciate you taking the time to help me understand the Android system, and you did that very well.

Thanx again!

 

[Complex Pants]

I have a Palm Pre right now and it is very good phone. I don't think either the droid or the pre is a bad choice. I have not played much with a droid, but personally I don't like how plain android looks. I much prefer HTC sense (from my limited experience).

Right now the Pre Plus is a better phone if you want to play 3D games, but android is rapidly closing into WebOS. As Corey said WebOS is the best multitasking phone on the market, and if you are the type of person to have 6+ things running you may really find this to be an awesome feature. Like Android, WebOS is hackable (check out www.precentral.net). I believe that WebOS's notification system is better than androids, but not by much, so I wouldn't considered that a major reason to choose a Pre over a Droid.

However, the one place the Droid clearly wins over the Pre is the build quality. I love my Pre, but it is not a solid feeling piece of hardware.

At the end of the day I would go to the store and play with them for an hour and ignore what the sales people say. Choose what you think will work best for you. And remember , you have 30 days to change your mind.

 

[Fitz1015]

I have a Palm Pre right now to. but i am really thinking hard about moving to the HTC EVO when it comes out. the biggest reason for me wanting to change is the hardware. you cant palm cant touch that screen.

 

[scodoublet]

I haven't played with any other Android phones besides the Droid, and I had a Pre before that and they can pretty much do most of the same stuff. Pre does have the edge in 3D gaming and the camera on the Pre is like infinity times better than the abomination they call a camera on the Droid. Multitasking is another area where the Pre wins out in my opinion. The cards view is is just fun to mess with and very functional. The touchstone charger set up is also super cool.

Now that's pretty much the only places in my opinion that the Pre outperforms the Droid. The Droid is built like a brick! Because it's bigger, heavier, and just feels more well made. It seems like it could take a fall a lot better than a Pre. It's made out of metal and glass as opposed to just plastic like the Pre is. The Droid is generally faster in most areas of use not counting the camera. Not that the Pre is super slow or anything but I could notice a difference.

I loved my Pre when I had it and probably would have gotten another one when I switched from Sprint to Verizon but it wasn't out at the time I got my Droid. With that said, since getting my Droid, I've never been happier! I am not regretting leaving the Pre for the Droid. The only thing I really miss is the Pre's camera. That was one of the best cameras I've ever had on a phone. Really you're just going to have to spend some time with both and decide on which you like better though.