HP Veer 4G Pro Reviews

AT&T is currently offering the Veer 4G at $99 with a two-year contract. That may seem like a great deal, but when you consider you could have the Inspire 4G, or Captivate — both more powerful, full featured devices — for the same price, it might make you do a double take. Furthermore, you could get an iPhone 3GS or Samsung Focus for half the price! At the end of the day, there is nothing inspiring, exciting, or deeply original about the Veer 4G. As a webOS device, it underperforms the Pre 2. From a pure features and apps perspective, it’s easily bested by iOS and Android devices in the same price range. So really, the only factor here that could be potentially appealing to customers is the size and inclusion of a hardware QWERTY keyboard, and that’s not much to go on as far as I’m concerned. If HP and Palm wanted to make a splash back into the smartphone game, the Veer was not the device to do it with. In fact, it might have been a smarter move to wait on the release of the Pre 3 and TouchPad to reintroduce webOS to the world. As it stands now, the Veer has taken the remaining embers of excitement I had about the operating system and its devices and all but extinguished them.

However, for all its shortcomings, we like the HP Veer. We quite know what customer this phone is made for, but we can see it as a useful phone for those who want all the perks of owning a smartphone, but don’t often spend time digging into them. If you are performing basic functions or spend the time to get used to how small everything is, the Veer can be a great phone. For everybody else, we recommend waiting for the Palm Pre 3 or checking out Android or iOS.

In the end, the Veer is pointing in the right direction. We're not going to say "watch out Google" or "start counting your days Apple" – and we think even RIM BlackBerry has nothing to worry about – but we're also not predicting total failure. The Veer is just an early false restart for the webOS platform. The main problem we have is working out who this phone is aimed at - is it teenagers with feasibly smaller fingers? They probably will want more apps and better messaging options. Media and camera fans need not apply, and the battery life rules out any kind of power user who might be interested in the newer OS. The Veer is generally well-packaged, but unless it comes with a fantastic price point when it lands on UK shores, it's not going to be a winner for HP.

If you're in the market for a tiny smartphone and are willing to use a nonstandard cable for USB and a small detachable dongle for your headphone jack, the Veer makes a lot of sense. The other big ones are the non user-replaceable battery and lack of external storage, but admittedly that's the same boat the Pixi was in. The Veer runs the full version of WebOS 2.0 on a modern SoC, and is a huge step forward in polish and performance from the Pixi. There's nothing lite about the experience, and WebOS 2.0 definitely feels like a step forwards from WebOS 1.0.

As pessimistic as some parts of this review might sound, the HP Veer 4G is a great little device -- for the right person. True power users will likely scoff at its tiny screen and keyboard, but it's not designed for them. I think this smartphone is best aimed at the general consumer that just wants a basic phone with a keyboard for messaging and an easy to use operating system. The Veer has its limitations, but it has a lot to offer due to its small size and overall good performance. I'm not making any judgments when I say that your mom, your sister, or a teenager would probably really like the Veer because it's small, easy to use, and powerfully simple. It doesn't have all of the bleeding edge features that are typical of the phones that Brighthand covers, but it definitely has a place in today's smartphone market.

The Veer is a hard device to categorize. To be sure, its small size will appeal to many. The size comes with trade-offs, however, such as the scrunched keyboard, and lack of standard connectors. If you have small fingers and don't care much about what plugs into the Veer, then perhaps these can be overlooked. In the larger scheme of things, HP needs to veer in another direction if it wants to sell its hardware.

It is really hard to say who HP has tailored the Veer for. Its petite, pocketable size, as well as its QWERTY keyboard, suggests that it is meant for a younger, social-networking-savvy crowd. The robust multitasking, account syncing, and search tools, however, would be suitable for business users. In the end, the design really isn’t for everybody; people who want to watch a lot of videos or play graphics-intensive games should either wait for the Pre 3 or check out the iPhone 4 or an Android phone on AT&T. If the Veer’s small size appeals to you, be sure to spend some quality hands-on time with the phone first. The keyboard really is a pain to use, and with no software keyboard alternative, you’re stuck with it.

Ultimately, webOS really impressed us. It's an solid operating system in almost every regard, and even outperforms Android and iOS when it comes to things like multitasking. Sure, the email system needs improved, and there needs to be a way to add more shortcut icons to the bottom taskbar, but HP has a hit on their hands if they can launch nicer hardware. The Veer 4G isn't it. It's too small, too niche, and forces too many compromises. We think the Pre 3 has a much better chance at getting consumers excited, but we'd recommend steering clear of the Veer 4G for now unless you fit into a very narrow niche who values ultra small form factor of this device.

So small! WebOS still feels amazingly well-designed and thoughtful. The battery life is the best I've experienced on a Palm device, the first one to last all day. Did I mention it's tiny? (I realize this section looks much smaller than proceeding one, but that's what it comes down to: WebOS is super easy to use, and it's hard not to love this cleverly designed, littlest of smartphones.)

To sum things up, while I really wanted to like the Veer 4G, and there were some things about it that I really liked, I found that the small size and limitations that go along with it held back the Veer from really being a great smartphone. WebOS is still a great operating system and a joy to use, even on the small form-factor of the Veer, but that is not enough to make it in today's market. The lack of available apps and the poor camera experience did not help the Veer's chances either. Hopefully HP will take what is good about the Veer 4G, the quick performance and solid battery life, and enhance the weak points like the camera, app situation, and email client with the upcoming, larger Pre 3 and later versions of webOS. Maybe then we'll have a webOS device that is really a contender against the Androids and iPhones of the world.

I love the idea of webOS, which has the best visual design of any smartphone OS. I even like using webOS. But I can't recommend this phone with enthusiasm. WebOS is facing strong headwinds without widely available mainstream phones, and the Veer's small screen and awful headphone jack make it a niche pick.

As much as we absolutely adore is quaint form factor, we find that it’s also its Achilles Heel at the same time. Specifically, we’re limited in our output with certain functions, like typing up messages or reading emails, that seem to make it become more of a chore than anything else. Even more, the HP Veer 4G lacks the battery stamina to fully provide the juice that smartphone users are accustomed to seeing at this point. Finally, its $99.99 on-contract price point might seem appealing, but when you place it next to other comparably priced devices, like the HTC Inspire 4G, it quickly loses out in a variety of departments – albeit, it still presents us with an acceptable webOS experience.

The HP Veer 4G doesn't really offer anything that would tempt an iPhone or Android phone owner to buy this device. It's more like a messaging phone that can do a lot more. But even viewed in that light, the Veer 4G doesn't hit the mark. While the design is remarkably small and pocket-friendly, the screen is tough to read in portrait mode, and you have to attach an awkward accessory just to plug in headphones. We think the phone would have worked better as a landscape slider. The video camera is also unimpressive for a $99 smartphone when you can get 720p video recording--and better games--for $49 from the Samsung Focus. The bottom line is that the Veer 4G is more fun to show off than it is to use.