I get asked alot why I carry a PalmPre?

1. Small, light weight – fits in almost any pocket – including dress shirt pocket without causing undo sag. I am tired of carrying around bricks. It is less than half the weight of an iPhone.
2. Full qwerty keyboard. I have big hands and it is very tough for me to type on a virtual keyboard like the iPhones. The real kb is mandatory.
3. WiFi Hotspot. This just works excellent and I don’t have to carry another device with me for usage with XoomPad, laptop, netbook, wifes ipad…etc. I only using about 100meg of data a month, so getting a mifi, just doesn’t make sense.
4. WebOS. Quite friendly and full featured. The phone OS is solid and no major problems.
5. Replaceable battery. Battery life is short with the PalmPre, but having a battery small enough to fit in my wallet, means never being without power. I have 4 batteries I keep charged and in my laptop bag too.
6. Touchstone inductive charging. No more messing with cords or plugging in. Just set it on the magnetic charger and go. I have one near my bed, at my dresser, and at my office. I’d like to get one for my car too. I can’t ever see buying a phone you have to plugin again.
7. Verizon. I have never dropped a call that I can blame on my end. Also, Verizon’s 3g/evdo is quite zippy.
8. USB Drive: When plugged in via USB, the phone shows up as a USB drive on a windows desktop. Drag your pics right off your phone.
9. Cost: the Pre was almost free with a two year contract on Verizon.

I have thought alot about getting the new Palm/HP Veer. I love the idea of getting even a smaller phone. However, it is now known that Verizon has nixed the hotspot on the newer modles (unless you want to pay like $110 a month for the data contract). That is a deal breaker for me. I will replace my used Pre with an Android when my contract is due in November.

Downsides:

• Plastic Case: Rather cheapo case that has two cracks on the back cover already. This is my 2nd one after the first one’s speaker broke. The slider is slowly wearing out and starting to stick.
• The “button”: There is a touch type button on the front that you swipe left-or-right on. This button is often non-responsive or very slow. Worse than having one.
• HP now owns Palm: Nuff said. (not an HP fan)