[EVO 4G General] davebu:
I just got a Pre a few days ago and have been messing around. I loved my Hero and love my EVO even more, but something was making me test out WebOS. I have compared the two after a little use. The results surprised me, I can say I may be switching between the two for a little while, at least during the week when I don't need 4G.

Software

Notifications - WebOS

Such a beautiful way to display them, easy to see but don't interfere with any current activities.

Native Apps - WebOS/Sense

Messaging, calendar definitely better on WebOS, the HTC dialer though is much better. T9 is necessary in a dialer. HTC Contacts also are much nicer to use, better Facebook (and Twitter/Flickr) integration, easier to manage contacts from different sources.

Homescreen - Sense

I find it slightly easier to navigate apps on android, thanks to apps like "App Organizer" which allows you to categorize apps. Widgets are so helpfull, it would be great if WebOS would have some widgets, like clock/weather, wifi/bt toggles ect. I do think 7 homescreens is to many though. (Note double digit home replacements within android, something for everyone)

Multitasking - WebOS

Not really much of a debate here, WebOS is amazing at multitasking, android's multitasking is much harder to manage running services and swap between the two.

Buttons - WebOS

The required buttons on android are numerous, although they never really bothered my I LOVE how WebOS makes many of them useless. I do miss the dedicated search button and a menu button is useful also (clicking top right is sometimes annoying), although I imagine I could try to program a gesture to do the same. Back gesture, change programs gesture, home button, what more do you need?

Root/Homebrew - WebOS

Obtaining root requires different methods on each phone and each update attempts to stop this. WebOS is open, go at it. I love modding my phone, have on windows mobile, have on android, and have started to on WebOS. If I ever bought a new android phone and it couldn't be rooted I would throw it away, its useless without root access.

Apps - Android

Bigger app market, more devs, stronger tools, ect. WebOS cant really compete here.

Browser - Android

I need to use the browsers more to compare, though they seem very comparable, both being Web-Kit browsers, but I am leaning towards Android right now, with 2.2 having full flash and sense 2.1 having flashlite (full flash with mod). Also, unless I'm completely missing something, the WebOS browser cannot act as a desktop by default. To view sites that auto-detect for mobile devices and redirect you, you have to hope they have an option to view the desktop version (most do), but I like having it default to desktop versions of sites.

Overall - WebOS

This is a really hard decision for me, I really like both and would love some features of both to extend to each other. Multitasking is so much better on WebOS, android is really saved by Sense as vanilla looses hands down to WebOS. I would love to have had Sense+WebOS (HTC nearly bought Palm) alas, it will never happen. I need HTC Contacts/Dialer in WebOS as they are perfection. Hiding contacts from some sources. I have 100 contacts on fb I don't call, text, email, ect, EVER. I don't want them in my phone, but I do want fb info/pics of the people I do call. I no longer use exchange though as both android and WebOS are extremely efficient with gmail.

Now for the Hardware

Battery - EVO

My battery life the first few days has been terrible on the Pre, tried many things and maybe they will work out, otherwise definitely going back to my EVO, which never died from a days use.

Keyboard - EVO (HTC IME_MOD / Swype)

I use the custom keyboard made by the devs at xda, the stock one is quite annoying (up/down/left/right arrows). I also really like Swype, it works really well. The virtual keyboard on the Pre is useless to me. Not only because of the screen size because I had the Hero and it had only a slightly bigger screen. The hardware keyboard on the Pre is decent, especially for its size, but i prefer a slide-out hardware keyboard or a nice software keyboard.

Screen - EVO

Really its just because its so much bigger. Colors are much more vibrant on the Pre, but the extra space is so nice I cant pass it up.

Hardware - EVO

HTC makes a solid phone (despite their early flaws with the EVO) I really do prefer the hardware of the EVO over the Pre. They both feel nice and solid in your hand, but HTC just makes a phone feel and look right. I don't think HP can make a better piece of hardware than HTC either.

Camera - EVO

This comparison is unfair, two phones from different generations the EVO wins though it doesn't have the best camera on a smartphone. The video recording is capped reducing the quality and the FPS. The dual LED flash is better, but can sometimes washout people in closeups. Also the addition of the front facing cam for video chat makes this no contest.

Speed - EVO

The EVO has a faster processor, a generation ahead of the Pre, but WebOS makes the Pre comparable to the EVO in speed. Where the EVO wins is loading time of apps. The EVO loads nearly instantly while launching any app, even messaging, takes a few seconds. This may be different on the Pre Plus, but it would definitely be different in a new WebOS smartphone.

Overall - EVO

I really can't wait for the next WebOS device, please HP bring us one for November (most likely June though). The EVO is a generation ahead and made by (in my opinion) a much better quality company and a better design team in HTC.

If there are other parts of the OS or the phones that I forgot to compare please let me know. I really do love both of these phones and can't decide which I like better. WebOS is amazing, HTC makes amazing hardware (and software modifications). I really would have loved an HTC built WebOS phone.

This makes me wonder how difficult it would be to run WebOS on another phone, yet I am not nearly skilled enough to even figure out how to start on that.

**EDIT**

Voicemail - EVO

Both Google Voice voicemail via the voicemail app and direct replacement of sprint voicemail and sprints voicemail app are far superior to the standard flip phone voicemail of the Pre. This is obviously software and could possibly be changed in the first HP WebOS phone, but I doubt comparable Google Voice service.