Wrap-up

If you're unfamiliar with webOS, it works a little something like this: every app and settings page is represented by a virtual playing card, and your phone is the deck. Swipe open the app drawer and select an app, and it will launch in a little card-shaped window. Swipe down to make it appear full screen, swipe up to minimize again. Add another, and the second will appear as another card next to it -- instant, intuitive multitasking. Repeat as many times as you'd like (we had 48 cards open at once and apps still worked fine, though they took additional time to load), then swipe them all the way up to the top of the screen, one by one, to deal them into the ether and free up system resources.Say you've got related tasks -- perhaps you're planning a date? Stack your Yelp restaurant recommendation card, Google Maps location card, and your date's contact information card in a miniature "hand" -- and when your date texts you that they'll be late, you can swipe up the unobtrusive notification that appears in the lower-right-hand corner to view it, swipe it aside to dismiss it (or tap to reply) and continue with your plans. Slide out that keyboard on the homescreen and press a single key, and Palm's Just Type universal search engine will compare your entry against your contacts, email and a host of custom search engines quite rapidly, and slide further down the screen and you'll find buttons to immediately make your text input into a new memo, email, task, SMS, calendar event or social network status. Oh, and copy / paste shortcuts don't require any long presses here, just one finger on the gesture area and a tap of the appropriate letter.What's astounding is that -- except for some occasional hiccups and apps that take a moment to load -- all of this happens as quickly as your finger moves. That's how seamless this UI is, and it makes the mini Veer look mighty powerful. Truth be told, there is some potent silicon underneath -- the same 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 you'll find in the likes of the T-Mobile G2 -- and 512MB of RAM, but we've used "faster" Android devices that didn't feel nearly this fluid.In fact, we almost wonder if the MSM7230 might be overkill here, at least without some additional throttling when it's not under load -- we enjoyed its power in a variety of apps, but it can suck down battery juice. You'll want to charge the battery nightly just as you would for most larger smartphones.Just because everything you can do is speedy doesn't mean everything you want to do is there. The Veer comes with a fairly decent set of the basic necessities that make a smartphone smart, and it can get Google Maps, Facebook, YouTube, Pandora, Evernote, Yelp, a couple of emulators and Twitter clients, the aforementioned Angry Birds and our own Engadget app. Generally speaking, however, the webOS App Catalog is downright sparse and you don't even get the full enchilada here, as not all webOS apps are compatible with the Veer. We found we could scroll through entire categories of apps without finding things that caught our eye, and it was usually just a couple of minutes before we reached the bottom of a list, often no richer for the experience. Our Google calendar, contacts and Gmail were easily added, and while push email worked great -- after we found the manual switch to have it update in real time -- conversations still aren't threaded, which can really make reading a chore. Oh, and... not that there'd be any room for it here... there's still no software keyboard What are you looking for in a smartphone? Is it a tiny handset that turns heads? The Veer is no Zoolander phone, but it'll fill the bill if fashion is your prerogative (especially the black one) and do far more than that one-inch StarTAC. If you're looking for a capable multimedia or productivity device, you can probably tell this isn't the one -- the Veer's scaled-down screen and keyboard aren't well suited for browsing the web or interfacing with mobile software for long durations. No, the Veer is a quick, at-a-glance reference handset for keeping tabs on your world, and at present, it appeals to a user who knows what they want before they whip out their phone.The streamlined, swipe-based nature of webOS is what makes the Veer's tiny screen and keyboard actually somewhat viable, as while you may only be able to see a little piece of a webpage or a few status updates at a time, webOS cuts out enough of the scut work between point A and B for you to get where you're going. The question is -- with a $100 on-contract price -- whether you'd really want to purchase a Veer when the larger, faster, more capable Pre 2 can easily be found on Verizon for less money.There is one more use case where the Veer makes sense, and that's with an HP TouchPad tablet alongside. Then, HP likes to imagine, you'd have your large screen for serious work, your small screen for portability, Touch to Share for a rudimentary take on the Continuous Client , and the Veer's HSPA+ hotspot serving up speedy WiFi. Everything in perfect harmony, right? It's definitely a compelling idea, and one we plan to test when the TouchPad actually comes out, but for now the Veer is a single tiny smartphone charging the Apple / Google beachhead... albeit one modestly well-armed.