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We’ve been trying to ignore it in our blue little Phandroid bubble here, but HP announced new WebOS-based devices today, including the Pre 3 and the TouchPad tablet. The tablet doesn’t look bad, and the Pre 3 finally dons the hardware it needs under the hood to run WebOS smoothly.
So we’re curious: are you going to give WebOS another chance? To be fair, the operating system itself was never bad. It’s great, actually. But Palm’s hardware was so under-powered that even some recent dumbphones would scoff at it.
Will it be enough to sway you away from Android, though? Were you a WebOS owner before who was scared away by a slow-to-grow app ecosystem and cheap hardware? Vote in the poll, and you know how to work that comment section below if you have more to say.
Coverage: Engadget, MobileCrunch, Pre Central
[polldaddy poll=4527458]
Have heard a lot of good things about WebOS BUT I really like Android. Would I give it a shot? If somebody gave me one for free. Else I’d rather buy an Android tablet (if I buy a tablet).
Gotta be honest… this TouchPad is looking pretty sweet. I’m not even that concerned about lack of apps, as I’d mostly use it to browse the web/email/books anyway. If the price is right, I’m sold – sorry XOOM, you are too expensive.
Looks like a very polished and thought out OS. The fact the interface is the same from phone -> tablet ( like iOS ) is a good thing. It makes honeycomb look overcomplicated.
I’m just not into Tablets yet. What’s the point? I have a good smartphone for web/video browsing, I have a desktop computer for word processing & heavy usage, & I have a Nook for my reading. Why would I want a Tablet? It’s portable, but what can it do that my smartphone can’t?
I an on the fence about a 10″ tablet. WebOS is a fine system but its about 4 years too late.
Nope, I wouldn’t buy HP copy paper let alone a phone or a tablet.
I love my Android, but WebOS really seems to understand connectivity. I love how you can just put the devices together to share a link or you can forward your SMS messages to your tablet. It makes a seemless experience. I was really hoping Google was going to do that with Honeycomb but no dice, at least not yet.
C MAC, I don’t know about you, but I can only browse the web on my smartphone for so long. It gets monotonous trying to scroll through tiny menus and fine-tuning every touch for every link. With a tablet, you can browse the web, read books, IM, email, chat, watch movies, etc all one one cohesive screen. I think of it along the same lines as a netbook, only more powerful, intuitive, and lap-friendly. Just my .02.
WebOS does look spiffy but I’ve been recently converted to Android (originally from dumb phones). When I’m due for a phone refresh I’ll be seriously looking at Android, BlackBerry, and WebOS based on my needs and wants in a year or so.
This piece seems completely pointless on an Android-focus site, just as your iPad piece was before Christmas.
If you want to be another catch-all tech/gadget site, go for it, but I read plenty of those already. The only reason I subscribe to this site’s feed in Reader is because it’s only Android. If you’re going to start doing Android vs X every single time something comes out that competes with Android, let us know in advance so that those of us who read all about that on the likes of Engadget already can find a replacement to this blog.
2011 and only 512MB RAM on the Pre 3 … really?
Also, for the record, the Palm brand has been dropped completely by HP.
@Khalid I know what you mean but us Androidnians are open minded (just like Android) and always open to new tech unlike those iSheep that think Apple/iOS is everything.
it actually looks good!
just not polished enough. honeycomb out the box is there and thats because google now has the guy who built webos.
it looks like webos of 2009. rightfully so but i do like the ideas and the logic. its look sexy! which is only make me want honeycomb more!
my bad I was thinking processor speed (512MB is decent)
Maybe… If they can optimize the performance and maybe come out swinging with a carrier free price close to $400. Gonna need personal hands-on first though.
Include something like Alien Dalvik so it can run Android apps. Then maybe :)
please stick to android news, we don’t really need this filler stuff, if your going to become a ‘Tech’ site with no boundaries then just declare that but when you call yourself an android source don’t post a completely unrelated webOS story, this makes no sense here. you should probably also mention
Cartoonish UI is a fail. Honeycomb owns WebOS. Funny how the designer of WebOS designed Honeycomb.
I love Android, but WebOs is tempting (more tempting than iOS). I am mostly impressed that HP is releasing a WiFi only version first. I fear the Android manufacturers are going to screw up Android tablets by first offering them on the carriers.
WebOS 0wns android. Without 3rd party themes plain android looks like it was designed in the 80’s.
I used to own a Pre… I loved using WebOS. It is a very elegant OS for multi-tasking and navigating, much better than iOS or Android (I mostly miss the “card” method for switching between apps quickly and swiping for navigation, I still find my self swiping my screen while surfing the internet to go back occasionally, lol).
Android feels clunky at times (as well as iOS’s take on multi-tasking), let me give an example. When I am playing Angry Birds, in order to exit the app I either have to press menu/back buttons and go back and be able to exit or long press home and open the task manager and close the program, then go back to the home screen. Either way, it is multi-button process to get out of the app. When I played Angry Birds on my Pre… I pressed the main button and the app shrunk into a card and I swiped it away…all done.
Don’t take all that as me not liking Android, I like Android. It is a very robust and stable OS. The main reasons I switched to Android (I have an Epic 4G and I like it, even better now that I put a custom ROM on it) was hardware, accessibility to apps, and I live in a 4G market… and those remain my reasons for having my Android Phone. If WebOS was on better hardware, had more apps available (between official and homebrew apps it was not to bad, and it was starting to get better…and if more apps start migrating to the cloud, this point could become moot as well)and had 4G…I would seriously consider going back. The new Pre 3 looks better and has a nice size processor…so we will see.
I have the best of both worlds, BOTH. My personal phone is an OG Droid and my home phone is a Pre that I got instead of a MiFi. I absolutely love WebOS. the Pre can be a bit of a pain, but I use it every day.
I will absolutely be passing on the locked down Xoom and will be buying a TouchPad to replace my iPad. WiFi only model is first and it will connect with my Pre for sharing once it is on OS 2. If the Pre 3 has a more useable keyboard and is actually a smoother experience for the OS I will buy it as well. Assuming that I can keep my 5GB of free tethering that I have with my Pre Plus.
I love using Android and I will be replacing my OG Droid with a Thunderbolt here in just a few short weeks, but given what the device manufacturers and carriers are doing to it I may walk away after that. Google has really screwed up in my estimation and I don’t see it getting any better.
The problem is the same with Android tablets right now. Very very few tablet specific apps.
WebOS walks all over android in nearly every aspect worth mentioning when it comes to day to day use.
If Palm/HP made a proper slate phone with a kb, I would probably not be investing in android again.
The WebOS experience is incredibly smooth, fast, and has great multitasking. Even the Optimus 2X, with all it’s hardware doesn’t look as smooth running as a Palm Pixi.
A wifi WebOS tablet appeals to me a lot more than the Xoom and Honeycomb
This will be my next pairing! WebOS is just more innovative and intuitive than Android in my opinion. The process flow from one device to the next is excellent! The biggest news to come from this is seriously being overlooked…..HP WebOS is coming to laptops and PC’s as well, while maybe not as a dual or single boot system and more likely as a skin or portal,this WILL finally encourage developers to start working on WebOS. It wont be instant but definitely overtime will help. HP sells more than 2 computers a second thats a whole lotta customers!
I think the problem is that Palm sucks.
Their only decent product was the Treo and that was created by Handspring, which Palm promptly bought out and rode while driving it into the ground.
It’s a shock to me that they didn’t make any devices in the Treo form factor.
I am waiting for a 10 inch wifi only tablet. I refuse to get an ianything, but, I am looking closely at this HP tablet. I would still tether it to my EVO, so I guess I would go both ways.
If I had a webOS phone then I’d surely give it a shot but I’m already in too deep with the Android ecosystem
I really like Palm and webOS. I really do, but I’ve already invested so much into the Android market as is. I refuse to rebuy the same/similar apps again for another OS when I can just redownload my already paid for apps onto an android tab.
I honestly have still yet to find a suitable replacement for my TC1100 running Linux and I doubt I ever really will.
@ Patrick
Why can’t you just press the Home button like everyone else to exit back to the home screen? There is something wrong with your ROM if you need to be closing apps.
Thinking about it, I might get midrange android phone with hotspot, and then get a higher end tablet. I think I would prefer that combo over one big fat slate phone.
The Xoom is too expensive so for sure, I won’t bother with it.
I come from the old Palm organizers so i would give it a chance. But i agree with earlier post. Tablets are cool but i can do so much on my phone (G2) & if i need to do heavy word processing then i will hope on the PC.
I love my droidx and android, however i am tire of sporadic freezes, reboots for no apparent reason and application foreclose. I did not experienced any of thoses issues while playing with my wife’s old pre. WebOS is a solid and super robust system in comparison with android. The downside is hardware, tiny screen, limited storage and limited phone selection. I will remain with andriod until hp gives me a compelling reason to leave.
Put it on better phone hardware and I MIGHT be interested.
Honestly, as a mobile developer who has a device with each of the operating systems, WebOS has always been a really lovely platform that was horribly underused. The Pre3 doesn’t look to use it much better than the Pre2, alas, but the TouchPad looks /really/ interesting… moreso than the Xoom, in some ways.
@Nathan ROM is fine, it is just the way Android is designed, you cannot exit and switch applications as quickly as you can on WebOS. Besides, if I just press the home button the app is still running in the background using up RAM, CPU, and Battery and in order to close it I need to go to another screen or reopen the app and do it that way. Not overly difficult, but way more involved than pressing 1 button and swiping the card away.
I liked the old palm for all the apps (handyshopper, datebk, etc) and without those kinds of apps on webos, I don’t see myself so interested. It’s just another cute and casual web surfer and not the workhorse that my old palmOS PDA (I had a sony clie) used to be.
@Patrick
Multitasking on WebOS is not fun. Managing cards is inefficient with the user’s time. I found multitasking on WebOS to be even more painful than multitasking on iOS.
That said, WebOS looks exactly the same as it did two years ago–rounded, childish and ultimately making it look like a cartoon. That lock screen alone makes me want to stomp on all WebOS devices.
I can’t believe people on this blog feel it’s a good idea to have the same OS on both smart phone and tablet devices. Lets connect a 4″ smart phone to a 10″ tablet to view the same interface? What a joke. How about this? We come out with a 20″ tablet and then we can connect all three and look at the same interface. LAME! The devices can still be interoperable with two separate OSs. Honeycomb on the Xoom offers so much more than Froyo on the Galaxy Tab.
HP is one hell of a company so I feel WebOS will have it’s fair share of success. However, I’m happy that Android came out with Honeycomb. It’s sleek and futuristic with a ton of amazing features geared specifically towards tablets. WebOS and iOS can keep on appealing to people who like “cute”. I for one like Honeycomb and feel it’s a hell of a lot more sleek and robust than WebOS or iOS.
I loved webos on my pre plus just hated the hardware. Glad to see HP are planning great things
Such a wonderful OS. Between Windows phone 7 and Webos, I don’t know which is better…But i’m not sure i want a tablet from webos. It looks good though
@jmax
I can’t say I agree with all of your points, but I do understand what you are saying. I think the look and feel of WebOS is not for everyone, just like the look and feel of everything else is not for everyone. I thought WebOS was great for a phone. I could switch between apps by swiping through them very fast, after a while it almost became second nature… like I said, I still find myself doing that. I guarantee that I could navigate quicker with WebOS than I ever will with the current versions of iOS or Android (I navigate Android quickly, even though if you read my statement, it makes it sound like I have to trudge through it, lol).
That being said, I do agree that WebOS may not be as good on a tablet, my comments were more geared towards the phone form factor. A tablet is used differently and will have more applications being open at the same time and the “card” system might become cumbersome. It also appears to lack the widgets that Android has embraced so well. I think it was smart of Google to develop an OS with the tablet in mind and I think Honeycomb will be much more usable than the Galaxy Tab and iPad, which are both, to paraphrase you, smartphone’s on a bigger screen.
I will have to save my judgement on the WebOS tablet (and RIM’s tablet, which looks very similar to WebOS in some respects) for the time when I have my hands on it. I don’t have high hopes for it though.
If it can beat the comparable android tablets on price I might get it. It doesn’t have the apps of Android though so that might be a deal breaker.
if anything, my main concern is HP itself. having used HP products, i can’t say they’re solid. heck, its been quite an awful experience for me.
but ya, i am still intrigued… only coz of WebOS.
As a proud Android owner, I must say that WebOS looks great. Side by side, Android looks like a high school project. The Android user interface desperately needs some steroids, or at least some uniformity.
Apple proves it can provide a high customer satisfaction experience. The same thing can’t be said about HP.
Having said that, I don’t want to be owned by Apple. And yet, I do by HP?
My first Android phone was crappy. That company lost me. I am now very satisfied with my second Android phone from a different company. I think I’ll stick with Android.
I for one think it’s awesome that there are so many Linux-powered devices hitting the market. Go go open source!
I would be on web-os like peanut butter on jelly if only it had the apps! That is my only reservation about the platform. Android is just getting there in terms of apps. Webos, not even close. Interms of sex appeal and smoothness, just about anything unfortunaitly beats the pants off of android froyo. Gingerbread is getting there. If we can just get honeycomb on our phones!
PS: google definitly has something in the words (READ leaked honeycomb music player)
*is totally satisfied following Android blindly for the moment*
I’ll stick to Android, but thats not to say I’m no interested in WebOS. I wish them the best and the OS looks great, but the functionality and freedom of Android will be keeping me around.
Pre 3 is very solid hardware, and I would get the touchpad over the ipad any day of the week! I wish them luck, webOS is polished and smooth, best mobile UI out there…..
I like webOS but have had nothing but problems with HP. So to answer your question hell no! I wouldn’t spend money on another HP product ever!
I am still using my Palm Treo 700p and it still works well for what I need, with the exception of a GPS. I looked at some Pre 3 pictures and see they finally enlarged the keyboard, which is what turned me away from the original Pre immediately. I’d be glad to try a Pre 3…as an Android Noob, I feel like half the advanced software I’m trying to run is barely Beta quality, and the memory limitations for apps, even with Froyo, are already maddening. That being said, I’m afraid the WebOS may already be doomed as a practical matter with all the growth/hype around Android and Apple expanding to CDMA. I hope I’m wrong.
Cutest looking phone, EVER.
I’ve not used a Pre before but I’ve always thought highly of it since I saw the original presentation.
I considered buying the Pre once but went with a Wildfire because the hardware of the Pre was seriously lacking.
However the Pre 3 looks awesome and finally has the hardware to match. I enjoy my Android, which I’ve had for 3 months, but if I had the option I think I might change to the Pre 3 because webOS seems a more polished, mature, well thought out OS than Android.
Will have to wait for the first reviews in a few months and then see if I can afford one…
I had an iPhone 3G before the Wildfire, and Android is definitely better than iOS. webOS I think then takes Android a step furthe because it has all the same functionality as Android but much more polished and unified.
Android seems too splintered to me. Apps don’t intercommunicate smoothly; one app supports apps2Sd, another doesn’t; some apps I have installed appear in the Market, others don’t; the icons in Android are low definition and childish looking etc…
webOS is almost what Android would be if Apple designed it.
Having said that, Honeycomb shows promise and with Matt Duarte at Google now, maybe the user experience on Android will improve.
Anyone know if webOS has a filing system which you can access like on Android?
Can’t wait until these new webOS products arrive in store to play with them..
Wow! I voted “Yes, I am an Android enthusiast but I’d like to see what WebOS has to offer.” but I expected to be in the minority. not in the 55%. I think this poll shows that people are starting to get a little tired of some of androids short comings that google refuses to address (namely the BROKEN update system, largely thanks to custom UI’s and carrier bloatware) and are now at least willing to look at something else as a replacement as long as it is not an iDevice.
Meant to add:
If I were google, this poll would worry me considering it is on an enthusiast website. Think how much more willing to switch non-enthusiasts would be.
I actually still have my Palm Pixi Plus and its a great phone. The Pre3 looks great. That would make for a very nice replacement of my Droid Pro……..I liked webOS just the Pixi Plus needs more horsepower. That TouchPad also turned out very very nice.
WebOS was made for tablets, it’s always felt like the small screens Palm uses on there handset never really helps highlight what a solid and well rounded OS it is.
I am a big Android fan and the Open Source nature will lead to it being in a state of constant progression. But WebOS is a extremely solid OS and in many ways ahead of android at this time.
i think id stick with android but im sure u could find a use 4 it
I was waiting for the xoom, but at the price they are going to sell, I would rather buy this webOS tablet.
@Patrick
Android is designed to manage your memory just fine. If you are playing angry birds and you hit the home button it may still be using resources. However, if another app comes along that needs those resources android will kill angry birds to free up resources. It is rare that you should go kill off an app manually.
I never use task killers and I usually just hit the home button to get back to the home screen when I need to. My phone runs fine.
Please go read this page where one of the Android Developers explains exactly how android app/memory management works. http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
I think WebOS is nice.. but whole thing about managing cards is just too much.. I have enough thing to manage in life.. now manging apps that looks like card.. I have to manage them close them.. just too much.. plus all the gesture is nice.. but average consumer will be lost and confused.
WebOS is pretty and I have ported my apps to it, but I would never use it. It is very app-centric and feels like you cannot find information unless you are specifically looking for it…unlike Android widgets. I do wish Android could have the UI polish of the iPhone or WebOS, but I’ll take functionality over looks any day, since I actually use my phone instead of just looking at it.
My girlfriend has the Pre so I use to play around with it. I have to admit that WebOS is my favorite since then. She eventually got an iPhone because of a ton of hardware problems and 3 phone replacements.
But if HP has that stuff worked out, their phones should do well.
Is WebOS open source? Will there be custom ROMs? Can it be compiled by anyone and built into any strange hardware never intended by HP?
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Will devices running WebOS be manufactured by many OEM’s or just by HP?
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Depending on the answers, it may just be another iPhone, or Windows Phone 7. A steaming pile of proprietary, um, stuff.
I carried Palm phones for nearly 10 years before they switched to the WebOS. Unfortunately, most of the apps I used on the old Palm OS were no longer available and the ability to sync with my desktop memos went away. I tried Blackberry and am now very happy with Android. Still looking for a way to sync memos without using a cloud server (security concerns), but I’ve crafted an alternative that works OK. I’ll look at the new phones when they come out, but I’m considering the new HTC Thunderbolt once it’s been out for few months and has been thoroughly filed tested by early adopters.
The hardware is still definitely NOT good, it’s simply no longer atrocious.
Thank you GMan, I didn’t want to track that answer down and post it again for Patrick. Too many people have that “Windows” way of thinking, Android OS is NOT Windows, take it from here please…………………….LOL
As a long time Palm pilot user who’s only just switched to Android from a dumb Nokia phone, I’ll certainly look at the Pre3. But as I’m struggling to match the PDA functionality of my Palm T|X on my Galaxy S, it looks like I’ll be carrying both the Galaxy and the T|X for the foreseeable future (at least I’ve ditched the iPod for mp3s). And as for any tablet, as I can touch-type, I can’t see any reason to replace my netbook running Ubuntu NBR with any device with lesser hardware. It’s a real shame Dell didn’t give the 5 inch Steak a decent cpu, as a Streak with a keyboard would have been my ideal device (a moder Psion 5!).
As a long time Palm pilot user who’s only just switched to Android from a dumb Nokia phone, I’ll certainly look at the Pre3. But as I’m struggling to match the PDA functionality of my Palm T|X on my Galaxy S, it looks like I’ll be carrying both the Galaxy and the T|X for the foreseeable future (at least I’ve ditched the iPod for mp3s). And as for any tablet, as I can touch-type, I can’t see any reason to replace my netbook running Ubuntu NBR with any device with lesser hardware. It’s a real shame Dell didn’t give the 5 inch Steak a decent cpu, as a Streak with a keyboard would have been my ideal device (a moder Psion 5!).
@post #13 Nexus Eddie
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Yea for the majority to have voted they would like to see what WebOS has to offer just shows Android users are open minded, like you said.
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@JRDroid post #55
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I dont think it means ppl are tired of Android shortcomings, its like like what I mentioned above.
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If this poll meant ppl were tired of Android’s shortcomings, the poll about switching to the iPhone wouldnt have been so lopsided against the iPhone. One of WebOS’s problems is not being on better hardware IMO.
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I think thats proof that people dont really look at the software as much as they look at hardware. Or they look at both and hardware has a bigger influence. Cuz I like Android, but I think WebOS looks better. But for the hardware choices, Android has the edge in a big way.
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And for folks trying to hate on WebOS, dont forget one of the main guys behind WebOS helped design Honeycomb, and it looks beautiful to me.
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I also read Apple hired some guy that worked on WebOS or Palm, Nokia too. I just thought about it….MS is partnering with Nokia now, so by default MS may get some WebOS influences…
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Its official….WebOS is the best mobile OS out…lol