Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Why I'm sticking with Palm, for now.

After almost a year and a half with the Palm Pre, I've been itching for a new smart phone. I've been sitting on my upgrade eligibility since June and now I'm seriously considering getting one of the new Sprint 4G devices.

Now most may ask, "what the f*#% are you waiting for?" The Evo 4G has gotten awesome reviews and the Samsung Epic 4G Galaxy S phone is no slouch either. The only thing keeping me from getting a new phone is how much I love webOS. I've been waiting to see what HP and Palm come out with because I don't want to lose the operating system that I honestly think is better than any other out there. I don't want to lose the ability to click on links in my twitter feed and let them load in the background as I keep scrolling through the rest of my tweets. I don't want to lose the ability to have Google maps open while I simultaneously text my friend directions. I want to be able to have the best foursquare app available because I know the developer loves webOS as much as I do. As much as I would love to have the awesome hardware that comes with one of the new 4G superphones, I don't want to upgrade to an inferior OS. YES, inferior. 

Now, rumors of a new device have been confirmed as fact. France will have an updated version of the Pre (Pre 2) with webOS 2.0 in the immediate future and Verizon will be getting it before the end of the year. The Pre 2 will have a 1GHz processor, 512mb of RAM, an upgraded 5MP camera, a glass screen and higher quality construction. WebOS 2.0 (or HP webOS as it's now being called) will further improve on what Palm has been doing well all along and an update will be pushed to all existing devices before the end of the year. Sounds great, but no mention of a new device for Sprint. There are rumors that a new device will be announced Q1 of 2011 but that's all we know. Sprint isn't divulging any information and neither is Palm so far. So what do I do? 

A substantial OS update may hold me over for a little while, I really have no immediate NEED to upgrade my device, but I'm itching for a new toy. It's not very comforting that Sprint hasn't gotten the Pre Plus or the Pixi Plus that were released on Verizon at the beginning of this year. Should I wait, or will I be waiting in vain? 

I've made this decision: I will wait til the end of this year, if there isn't some sort of announcement by then for a new 4G Palm device on Sprint, I'm jumping ship.


**Update: Sprint probably won't be getting the Pre 2. Looks like they're holding out for better hardware

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