Techcitement Review: The iPhone 4S Wins Over A Long-Time WebOS User

I’ve been a user of Palm/PalmOS PDAs/smartphones for over a decade. I had a Palm III, a Handspring Visor with the SprintPCS Springboard, Treo 600, Treo 650, and the webOS Palm Pre. I’ve been a Sprint customer for over 12 years, so all of these devices have been CDMA versions on Sprint. I was an early believer in having one device that was always with me as both a phone and a PDA. Unfortunately, that relationship with Palm has come to end because Palm and its devices are no more. Knowing this was coming, I researched Android phones, figuring I would buy some flavor it when the time came. I juggled the idea of buying the Epic 4G Touch or the Google Nexus 4G. While doing my research, Apple released the iPhone 4S on Sprint. The decision of what phone to buy became clear in my mind when my wife received an iPad 2 as a gift from my mother. I didn’t want to buy an app on one device and not be able to use it on the other. So with that in mind, I purchased a black iPhone 4S 32GB on Sprint. I got the 32 GB model because I want my iPhone to replace my aging 30 GB iPod with Video. As long as I’m getting an iPhone, I figured I want all (or most) of my music on it too.

The Good
As I mentioned already, the iPhone 4S is much faster than my Palm Pre. The iPhone 4S takes about 30 seconds to start up in the morning whereas my Pre took several minutes. The battery performance is much better also. What I like most about the iPhone 4S though is that there are so many more apps available than there are on webOS. Probably the best for me is that there is a Skype client for iOS. I haven’t used the Skype app to make calls, but I have used the chat functionality extensively to communicate with off-shore developers. The easy access and ability to have a good Google Voice app and a Dropbox app is great also. Also, I haven’t picked one yet, but I am reviewing SIP VoIP apps to load onto my phone so that I can access my office phone line when I’m away. This is something that was never possible on my Palm.

The Bad
I like the notification center in iOS, but webOS is the best when it comes to notifications. One thing that really annoys me is that when you get a notification, an appointment reminder for instance, the notification disappears when you unlock the screen. I would prefer that it remains on the screen with a snooze/cancel option like it would if the phone was unlocked. With all of the power that the notification center and the lock screen could provide, it disappoints me that only the Stocks and Weather apps from Apple can appear there. It also annoys me that Sprint doesn’t include its navigation app on the iPhone like it did on the Palm Pre. I don’t use GPS navigation often in my car, but when I do need it, I’d like it to be there. On my Palm Pre, I never used the internal mail app because I didn’t like the interface and I didn’t feel a need to download email to my phone. I used the mobile web app for Gmail. I still feel the same, so I don’t use the built-in app for email for iOS. Instead, I use the Google-produced Gmail app.

I do wish that Google produced a Calendar app for iOS.

Multi-tasking is the one area where webOS is the winner hands down, no contest. The Cards interface for switching between apps is amazing and every mobile OS should do the same. Closing apps to release memory is also much better on webOS. Double-tapping the Home button, entering jiggly mode, and then exiting an app to quit it is way more complicated than just flicking it up off the screen as with webOS.

The Ugly
The two apps that make me wonder what Apple was thinking are the Music and Calendar apps. I’ve never used an iPhone before to listen to music, but when comparing the smartphone to my iPod 30 GB with video, there are a number of shortfalls. Who had the bright idea to not include a progress bar when a song or podcast is playing? When listening to music or podcasts, I want to see how much time has elapsed and more importantly for podcasts, how much time is left. Also, if I am listening to music or a podcast with the Music app and I answer a call, I’m not brought right back to where the audio left off when I end the call. I have to relaunch the Music app and start the podcast again. Is there an alternative to using Music to listen to music and podcasts synced from my iTunes library?

The other really glaring horror of an app is the Calendar app. In fact, the first app I purchased for my new iPhone was Calengoo. Calengoo is a fantastic app that syncs seamlessly with all of my Google calendars and provides the week view so desperately missing from Apple’s Calendar app. Yes, I know if you hold the iPhone sideways you can get a week view from Apple’s Calendar app, but Calengoo’s view is more of an automatic designation. The other standout feature of Calengoo is the integration with Google’s Tasks app, which is a huge plus for me. It’s highly customizable in terms of which calendars you want synced, displayed, and notified for. If you use Google Calendar and you have an iPhone, I consider Calengoo a must-have purchase.

This review doesn’t include anything about Siri simply because I haven’t used it yet as I was trying to avoid the supposed battery hog to take advantage of the iPhone’s other functions instead. Also, Synergy is really amazing on webOS for seamlessly integrating all of your online personas, but considering that my brain is in the Google cloud (Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Reader, Docs), I didn’t really use Synergy to its full extent.

I’ve been using my wife’s iPad 2 for about four months now, so I know how iOS works and was able to download and play with apps prior to getting my iPhone at the beginning of February. With its true multitasking and Card interface, webOS is a far better user experience. However, with a faster processor, more and better apps and much better battery life, I’m quite happy with my new iPhone 4S on the Sprint network. It’s easy to use, much faster than my Palm Pre, and has a lot of apps that are unavailable for webOS. Overall, I can easily recommend buying the iPhone 4S.