New Verizon Wireless phones look like big hits

Published 2:29 pm Thursday, April 29, 2010

Since writing our last column we have had the opportunity to try out two of Verizon Wirelesss’ newest smartphones – the Palm Pre Plus and the Motorola DEVOUR.

Both phones are solidly built with bright screens and great features right out of the box. If there are features or functions that are not included on the phone, both devices have links to sites where applications of all kinds are available for download.

Both phones have touch screens (although the Pre Plus does not have a touch screen keyboard) and slide out keyboards. One incredibly handy feature both phones offer is the ability to use the device as a wireless modem.

Also, both phones are geared to synchronize email and contacts with gmail accounts, although other mail accounts can be set up without too much difficulty. Unlike some smartphones, both of these offer a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and both use a USB cable that plugs into a transformer, allowing users to charge the phones directly from an AC outlet or from a USB port on a computer.

Now let’s take a look at the differences between these two phones, starting with the Palm Pre Plus. The Pre runs Palm’s highly acclaimed WebOS operating system. The Pre’s touch screen is a little smaller than most, but users can “pinch” with the thumb and index finger to zoom in and out on most of the applications.

In addition to the touch screen, the Pre uses a “gesture” area under the screen to interact with applications. Flicking your finger across the gesture area and the screen lets users open menus, switch between applications and more.

Switching applications is something that sets the Pre apart from other smartphones. I opened several apps: Google Maps, Email, and the Web browser. Using just a couple of gestures I was able to switch between the applications without having to wait for them to reload or for data to repopulate. That being said, the number of applications that come with the Pre Plus was rather limited at just over a dozen. Still, most of the included applications are very useful and well designed.

Two apps that you don’t always find on smartphones are a document reader and a PDF reader. The document reader is a light version of the popular Documents To Go by DataViz. I was able to open Microsoft Office documents quickly and easily, and it was easy to read the documents with three levels of zoom. As the text gets larger, it wraps so there is no need to scroll left and right to read it.

To edit documents, however, the program needs to be upgraded to the full version (not available for Palm at the time of this writing). I found the PDF reader to be somewhat cumbersome. After opening a PDF the documentation claims users can pinch to zoom in or out to change the zoom factor. This did not work. Instead there were only three zoom levels, and unlike the Doc View app, any level of zoom required left/right scrolling as well as up/down scrolling.

The feature that sets the Pre Plus apart from most smartphones is the ability to use the device as a wireless hot spot supporting up to five devices. This is a huge plus for this little device. Imagine a meeting with a couple of other folks in a conference room where WiFi Internet access is not available.

With the Pre Plus (and local 3G access) you and up to four others can access the internet at 3G speeds for Web browsing, collaboration, email or even gaming. This feature alone makes the Pre Plus a valuable tool for any business person that needs virtually uninterrupted Internet access.

The other smartphone we got to test drive is the Motorola DEVOUR. While the Pre Plus is geared more towards a business user, the DEVOUR favors users who are more drawn to social media and frequent checks of email.

The DEVOUR uses the Moto Blur version of Google’s Android operating system. Moto Blur channels your emails, Facebook news feed, Twitter updates and more directly to a single screen on your phone.

We set up our Google Apps email, personal email, Twitter and Facebook information in just a few minutes. The Google Apps contact list downloaded almost immediately and then attached photos of Facebook contacts where appropriate.

Facebook and Twitter messages appeared in one window, while email messages came into another. We did eventually delete our Twitter account because the sheer volume of tweets coming into the same window as our Facebook news feed simply overwhelmed us.

There were quite a few apps that were pre-installed on the DEVOUR, mostly devoted to media — both music and video — and Internet content. All very simple to set up and use. Most intriguing was the Skype Mobile app (free through the Android market). If you need to make international calls, or if you’re running out of voice minutes, this app could save you lots of cash.

The DEVOUR has an on screen keyboard that works in both portrait and landscape mode as well as a slide out keyboard that can be used in landscape mode. The virtual keyboard is easy to use in either mode. The slider is a little odd at first, but it grows on you quickly. The keys are comfortably spaced and give good tactile feedback.

Both phones performed well in all respects. Our larger (and older) fingers were sometimes challenged by the smaller keys on the Pre, and the vast amounts of data available on the DEVOUR could use some more advanced filtering options, but these are relatively minor issues.

Sven Mogelgaard is the owner of Mill Creek-based Byte Slaves Inc. (www.byteslaves.com) and can be reached by calling 425-482-9529. Will Rutherford is the owner of Bothell-based Computer Concepts (www.conceptsnet.com) and can be reached by calling 425-481-3666.