Palm Pre vs Motorola 里程碑,来着PRETHINKING的评论* F6 \9 k, F3 K! u! t
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Android and WebOS are both relatively new platforms. Android was launched in the second half of 2008 and WebOS was launched in the first half of 2009. Both platforms boast their open environment efforts over the locked down Apple strategy and both platforms have a lot to give. Both platforms offer a few things that even the great Apple can’t offer such as, multitasking, Google Voice, and a physical keyboard. We are going to dive deep into both Motorola and Palm's flagship devices as both companies hope to swing the limelight back in their favor. The Motorola Droid on Verizon and the Palm Pre on Sprint. Lets take a look at both, a very very long look.
\! H- X7 G' A1 Y rCheck out the battle between the Motorola Droid and the Palm Pre after the break...
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: |8 o* T- }$ Z7 u3 K r7 \/ q9 ?The most important part of buying a smartphone or any other phone is the phone itself and how well it works as a phone. Yes, (wow that sentence was fun) both devices work fantastic as a phone and both devices have their issues as a phone. Neither device has a physical 'Call' or 'End Call' button like we have seen on every other phone since the late 80's. A negative for some but for the rest of us, it means more screen real estate in a smaller package. As far as call quality goes both phones offer an above par experience when it comes to the network and the phone. The Pre is on Sprint which has a much smaller footprint in the United State so if you live in an area with poor Sprint coverage then you are probably out of luck. I found that the Pre can hold a call with perfect quality with even 1-2 bars of coverage. Sprint network quality is really good. The Motorola Droid is on Verizons massive network which right now is the current king of 3G coverage. The map is much larger but the call quality about the same as the Pre on Sprint. Both phones have a good quality speaker, connect calls quickly, and have very few dropped calls. The Droid's speaker is a little bit louder than the Pre's when on ‘Speaker Phone’ but both are loud enough to be satisfactory.
, n5 l1 h0 K. C' rOne area in the phone department where the Droid takes an edge, is on the amount of time you have to wait to actually get into a call. For some reason the simplest app on the Pre, the 'Phone' app, seems to have quite a bit of lag. The Pre's phone app takes 1-2 seconds longer to load then the Droid and it takes longer to switch between screens such as, recent calls, the dialer, and the contacts list. Also the Pre is lacking a favorites list which comes in handy when you have hundreds of contacts. When scrolling through the contacts list on the Droid it feels much smoother and has virtually no lag or skips. The Pre's contacts list within the phone app has quite a bit of lag and skips often. The Pre isn't completely out of it in the phone app though. There is nothing more rewarding than sliding out the Pre's small keyboard in portrait mode and typing a name to immediately get results within any part of the phone app. With the Pre you can basically start typing any time when in the phone app or on the home screen. When using the Droid you have to be specifically in the contacts list and either slide out the big keyboard in landscape or hit menu then tap search. Other than that the phone apps work as they should and both offer excellent quality calls as long as you’re in a decent coverage area.
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Messaging; K: I+ V' X, P
Next up is messaging. Texting is one of the most popular ways of communicating and both phones do it well. Aside from load times the Pre takes the cake hands down. The messaging app on the Droid is pretty basic allowing you to attach a picture and send it. You have a list of threads and can jump in and out of them quickly. Though simple, the Droid's messaging app is much faster and goes into and out of screens much quicker and without any hiccups. The Pre's messaging app is less responsive, however much more robust. As you well know the Pre offers both messaging and Instant messaging into one app. Something the Droid doesn't do. You can add AIM, Yahoo, and Google Talk messaging within the messaging app and if a contact you know exits something like AIM and jumps onto Google Talk, you can continue that same message thread with that person. Not only does the Droid not have AIM or Yahoo messenger support, but its Google Talk threads are listed in a separate app. Not quite has intuitive as the Pre. Both options work but the Pre is much more integrated with multiple services.- w. @! X% d/ _5 ?
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Hardware
: a- f$ U- E: ?5 N- sBefore we get into the smartphone software lets discuss hardware. The Pre and Droid both have the TI OMAP 3430 which is also seen in the iPhone 3GS and have 256mb of RAM and 512MB of ROM. Other than their processing chip the Pre and Droid are two very dfferent beasts. The Pre comes with a 3.1 inch screen that is displayed in a colorful 24bit 320x480 resolution HVGA display. The Pre, because of its smaller screen and high color density, actually looks better than other phones with similar resolutions like the iPhone and G1. The screen is a plastic capacitive multitouch screen which has a bit of roundedness to it. The Droid has a 3.7 inch WVGA display at 854x480 Resolution. The Droid has a glass capacitive screen with multitouch (YES IT DOES HAVE MULTITOUCH) and is completely flat with a bezel around the screen that has about a 1mm lift. There is no doubt the Droid has better quality video playback when it comes to videos you put on the phone itself as well as videos streamed from YouTube. The colors are more accurate, sharp, and the videos are always nice and big due to the large screen size.
) S' d# g+ g( [) x% XBuild quality differs in a few ways. The Pre has a sort of bad rap for not so perfect hardware when it comes to quality control. The Pre's slider does have a bit of give and sometimes the plastic phone can feel clicky and loose when closed. The Droid on the other hand was built very solid and is made of not only plastic but metal as well. The build sort of reminds me of the Razr. The slide out keyboard is very solid and locks into place when fully open. When the phone is closed you really can't tell that it is two parts just by feel. The Pre is mostly made of plastic and does feel cheaper, but it is good enough for most.6 |; _1 Z0 D) _/ e" o, j: T
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OS Navigation( i c) f4 H0 ]+ \. U3 M- A
Navigating the hardware and software is very different on both phones. With the the Pre and the Droid, you can make general selections like apps, options, and/or notifications by just tapping on them via the touchscreen. The rest of the navigation for the most part is completely different. With the Pre, as we all know, you have an intuitive gesture area. Swiping back will bring you back to the previous screen within an app. Once you are at the very first screen in an app, swiping backwards will bring you to the card view. You can also swipe forward to do different things within certain apps. Example is the browser, you can use the forward button the same way you would use forward in a desktop browser. Other apps take advantage of the gesture area like 'Tweed' which allows you to swipe forward to begin a new Tweet. You also have the center card view button which only brings you in and out of card view which I personally find to be rather useless. The Pixi did away with the card view button and allows you to just do a simple tap on the gesture area to switch in and out of card view. You can also use the gesture area to bring up the quick launch by swiping up and holding your finger down or if you swipe up from the gesture area it will switch you to card view then open your launcher. Menus can be accessed within any app just by swiping down from the top left or top right of the screen or simply tapping the menu button at the top left or top right of the screen. Droid navigation is a bit more jumbled but does work.4 E8 o/ a3 j: Y6 A$ }( C1 s" }. J1 @
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$ _5 D$ m z8 g+ @: g# k( ?$ pThe Droid also has a capacitive navigation bar underneath the screen, however it is not controlled by gestures. You have a four capacitive buttons which are laid out in this order: Back, Menu, Home, and Search. The back button will bring you to the previous screen you were in on some apps but will bring you to the previous menu in others. This is a little annoying during day to day use. I am not always sure when I hit the back button if I am going to be brought out of a message thread back to the list of threads or if it will just jump me with the home screen. Depending on the app it acts differently.( s2 s5 o8 W& I0 n5 C" I3 r# p# Y, R
Then you have the menu button which is extremely important to remember. In most apps and screens if ever you need some immediate options you can always press the menu button. The benefit of this is you can essentially add more options or preferences without making users have to switch to an options screen. The negative to this is that you don’t know what screen has menu options until you tap the menu button. With the Pre you always know if you need to change options or settings in any app you can just bring down the menu from the top left and go to preferences. That isn't always the case with Android. An example of this is on Twidroid, if you are viewing your @mentions and you hit menu button, you get the options for 'New Tweet or Jump to top', but when you hit Menu while viewing the standard timeling, you get the option for ‘New Tweet, Settings, Lists, and Refresh. A little confusing for some but definitely not a deal breaker. My father uses a G1 as his main phone and there have been times he couldn’t find a preference or setting screen and all he had to do was hit the menu button. The Pre keeps this simple by always having a menu on the top left of the screen.
- D" d6 X- ]& z/ |# {Then you have the Home button which only has two basic tasks. Pressing the home button once no matter what screen you are in will always bring you to the home screen on the first page. If you press it and hold it for 1-2 seconds you will see the 6 most recent apps you have used allowing you to jump in and out of apps fairly easy. There have been the occasional times where I hold the home button and an app I just used isn't there but for the most part it works great.
$ H9 [; k x# N, |3 p9 |7 z' aThe last capacitive button is ‘Search’. This button also holds two purposes. You tap it once and it brings you to googles search widget which allows you to universally search for contacts, emails, and apps on the phone or, just like with the Pre's universal search, you can jump to the browser to search if what you typed is not located on your phone. If you hold the button down it will bring up the Voice Search. Voice search works extremely well and is pretty accurate. Something the Pre lacks and hopefully will get soon. With voice search, 90% of the time it will take you straight to a google search in the browser unless you say a contacts name. Hopefully Google makes this more robust so you can search anything on the phone. Unless there is something I am missing?!?! Some people may wonder what the big deal is about the voice search/dialing. For me it is navigation. I use Sprint Nav/Google maps almost every day and the Droid makes looking up directions very easy. All I have to do is say: “Directions, Pizza Hut,” and it will bring up Pizza Huts closest to me in the browser. I tap on one and it loads the directions in the Google Maps app.
_6 h! I! g' LThe Droid also has a 4 way directional pad with a select button located on the slide out keyboard. Aside from editing text or maybe playing some games this pad is basically useless. Tapping on the screen to get to a certain part of a sentence is just as efficient. The trackball on the G1, MyTouch, and Hero is a better alternative to touching the screen than the directional pad.
6 f3 R' \5 e' P! bJust based on the sheer length of discussion about the OS navigation I think it is safe to say that WebOS is simple and works. Android's navigation is great but definitely takes a lot more getting used to.2 y S/ E" Q' I8 I: L7 `6 L. @
The rest of each phones hardware. With the Droid you have a volume rocker on the right, a normal 3.5mm headphone jack, a power button on the top right and a camera button on the lower right. On the Pre you have the same 3.5mm jack, a power button at the top right and the center card view button. Slight advantage goes to the Droid for having that camera button since it does come in handy from time to time. Now how do you type on these phones?
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Keyboard+ H% \; h# E# J- M/ o6 ?
Both phones have a hardware keyboard which sets them apart from the all-powerful iPhone. So which keyboard is better? It really all depends on your personal preference. The Pre has a portrait slider that can seem a little cramped but once you get used to it you can fly. The Droid has a landscape slider that can seem a little too spread at times but once you are used to it you can fly. Neither keyboard is the best at what it is. For example the portrait keyboard the Blackberry Bold/Tour has is the one to beat in the portrait department. As far as landscape QWERTY goes, the Droid's keyboard is not nearly as good as the TouchPro 2 slider and personally I don’t think it’s even as good as the G1 keyboard. Though Motorola did away with the chin that the G1 had, there is still a 4 way directional pad to the right of the keyboard which causes your right thumb to stretch farther than your left while typing. Both keyboards require a little bit of attention while typing because there isn't a whole lot of difference in feel between the keys. I find myself being able to type just over 40 words per minute on both keyboards which is just fine for me. The Droid has a bit of an edge because it also has a virtual keyboard in both landscape and portrait mode. This keyboard is NOT a better alternative to either the Pre or Droid's hardware keyboard but it is convenient and useful when making quick notes or a text.4 ?2 F w6 f- q6 t* Y
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The Droid comes with a 5MP camera accompanied by a dual LED flash and the Pre has a 3.2MP Camera with a single LED flash. I don’t want to spend a lot of time in this area because both the Pre and Droid have decent cameras but both can be better. The Droid takes surprisingly washed out photos when it comes to color. When looking closely at photos between the two cameras you can see a bit more detail (I guess 1.8 megapixels worth) but the color is washed out with white on the Droid’s camera. Even in really good light the photos don’t come out as good as I hoped when I first heard it was a 5mp camera but it is good enough. The Pre has a lower quality picture over all but the colors seem to come out much more vibrant and rich. Both camera’s take pretty bad pictures in low light though I think the Pre does a better job in mild to low light. Despite the flashes on both cameras the quality is just too poor in the dim light to really appreciate. The Droid does have a video recorder which is pretty nice and does a decent job taking mid quality videos. The videos recorded on the Droid do have to be in well-lit areas otherwise you suffer the same problem you get when using the camera for stills. You can also upload videos recorded directly to YouTube which is another nice feature to have. Hopefully the smartphone industry gets on the 8mp bandwagon that Nokia has been tapping into and hopefully we start to see some improvement in low light conditions.
/ Q8 @% x5 ?& g: `- n! J+ NHere are a couple comparisons:
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' t6 P3 t+ u: N5 D" h% q6 YMotorola Droid # K- r; ]- @/ U$ Y; |; e! r# c
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All photos were taken with the LED flash on. As you can see the Pre seems to have a little bit more color. Some photos with the Droid have more detail but for a 5MP vs a 3.2MP, there isn't much of a difference. The Pre holds its own. 5 b/ J! a* h- u- P, R2 g& p7 T/ X
Software:
2 ]: j1 x/ t3 k7 k( |9 o3 OLet’s take a look at the software for the basic smartphone functions we have come to expect. There are a number of good and bad things on both platforms and I am going to go in depth with on each platform. I will take a look at apps that came with the phone such as Email, Calendar, and Navigation then jump into the OS’s as a whole as well as the application stores and notification implementation. Try to bear with me folks there are a lot of import aspects to both platforms that I feel need to be addressed. So let’s move on., g& H( c3 S4 x& N
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[ Edited by wzy403 on 2010-11-18 13:37 ] |