I agree that there was very little substance in this article, and as a potential buyer, this doesn't help sway an opinion one way or the other. Here's what I can contribute after two weeks with this device (both me and my wife).
1. The speakerphone is pretty loud. We traveled this past weekend and used speakerphone in the car and heard the phone just find over kids, road noise, and a quieted radio.
2. The Bluetooth pairing is as fluid as it is with most devices. Being able to tap in the upper right corner for quick access to Bluetooth and Wifi settings is very convenient. It is very reminiscent of my last WM device, but that was over 3 years ago.
3. The synchronization process is fine if you are using Google calendar/contacts. I have not used it with Exchange. Otherwise, there isn't a sync app for Palm Desktop anymore. This really upset my wife at first, but she never used her netbook to look at her info anyway. This may be a dealbreaker for some folks though. Keep in mind, however, that all your device's information is backed up automagically to Palm and are retrieved instantly after a hard reset.
4. The new WebOS is fluid in the switching of applications, and the "synergizing" or linking of Facebook, Google, and other information is extremely intuitive. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it a needed step forward from the PalmOS? Absolutely.
5. I have an iPod touch, and can say that the touchscreens seem to be equal. The pinching action is similar, and the accuracy is comparable.
6. I would give the reception a B. I just traveled across state lines this weekend and found the reception to be good, but there were a couple of inexplicable dropped calls while driving.
7. The keyboard is similar to the change to typing on my wife's Centro for me. Even though the keyboard is small, I seem to type better on it than my Blackberry World Edition, but don't have any quantitative evidence that I am faster or more accurate now.
8. I am not using the device for work purposes, so I do not plan on utilizing this aspect of my device. However, I do see that the option is available.
9. The device does not record video with the camera, but the still camera shots are very good, especially with the flash when needed.
Otherwise:
- SMS text conversations are organized very well
- Battery life needs serious improvement. I assume that constant backing up of your information wirelessly doesn't help matters. We have both altered our power settings with only marginal improvements.
- The app store is growing, so give it some time, but it is organized well and easy to use.
- The iTunes (8.2) syncing works just like it is an iPod. Pretty neat to me. The purchase of an album on Amazon mp3 store went flawlessly. Can't complain about any of this.
- When switching the ringer switch to vibrate and back to audible again, the system sounds volume sometimes drops to 0. This means that I don't hear my alarm clock the next morning if I don't check it.
- Screen is very easy to see in almost any condition I have encountered.
Hope this long-winded report helps you guys.
