With scores of smartphones available, one obvious way for them to stand out is with size.
The new phone that takes to extreme is HP’s tiny Veer. It has the foundations of good smartphone, including great operating software and the ability to run on AT&T’s high-speed ” 4G” network. But the size presents some major weaknesses, too.
Spending some time testing these phones made it clear that size does matter. Picking a phone that’s too large or too small can make the experience dismal.
I started on the smaller end of the spectrum with the pint-sized Veer, which comes in black or white and is cuter than a cache of cat videos on YouTube.
Styled like a mini version of its bigger sibling, the Pre, the Veer is about the size of a stack of credit cards with a bright 2.6-inch screen on top. The screen slides up to reveal a small keyboard. Its battery is rated for a not-so-generous maximum of five hours of talk time, and it includes 8 gigabytes of storage. It costs $99 with a two-year service contract with AT&T.
The Veer is so tiny that it doesn’t even have a built-in headphone jack, a standard smartphone feature that must have seemed too big to cram into its little package.
Instead, its magnetic charging port doubles as a connector for a headphone adapter, which is included. I kept worrying that I’d lose the adapter — until I realized I could just stick it on the fridge.
The Veer uses the webOS operating software, which was developed by Palm before Hewlett-Packard Co. bought it last year. The webOS is clean, intuitive and smartly designed. You can see open applications as little “cards” that you can slide across the screen, tap to enlarge or flick to dismiss. There’s also a search feature for quickly searching data stored on the phone and on the Internet.
The Veer’s tiny screen, however, made my hands feel enormous, which they aren’t for someone who is barely 5’3″. I also felt clumsy holding the phone, especially with the keyboard closed, as it felt too small for my hand. Like a slippery bar of soap, it almost flew out of my hands several times as I tried to slide open the keyboard. Calls sounded OK, but it was weird holding such a tiny nugget of a phone up to my ear.
The phone includes access to HP’s App Catalog, which has Foursquare, Facebook and some other popular apps you’d find on the iPhone or a phone running Google Inc.’s Android software.
There are only about 6,000 apps in all, though, so the selection is much slimmer than iPhone’s or Android’s. You won’t find an app for eBay or the “Words With Friends” game here.
The Veer seems most well-suited for “snacking.” You’ll be fine looking up a restaurant, checking email, updating Twitter or any other simple task.
But trying to use it extensively for a single task is difficult and not worth the trouble. Although Web pages looked sharp on the screen and videos streamed well over AT&T’s “4G” network, I didn’t really want to read full news articles or watch clips on such an itty-bitty screen.
My fingers felt cramped on the tiny keyboard, so I didn’t have the patience to send extensive messages.
I’m a fan of compact electronics, and I’m a sucker for a big, bright touchscreen. But this phone felt too extreme for me.
When it comes to smartphone sizes, I’ll stick with a medium for now, though.
[source: The Times of India]