Is HP Veer too small?
HP is recently going to launch a small cute phone, Veer “4G”. While it’s unfortunate for me being outside the U.S., I’ve come across Joshua Topolsky’s review of this smartphone. I was really surprised by the final score “5/10”, which, according to the review, is partially because Joshua thinks “the phone is simply too small”.
But I don’t think Veer is too small. It’s just because other smartphones are mostly too big.
Mobile phones are mobile
If you want a full-featured computing device, get a laptop. If you want a powerful and on-the-go Web-browser experience, get a tablet. If you want a device that is always available anytime anywhere, get a mobile phone.
That’s why size matters. That’s why there’s a phrase called “form factor”. That’s why different sizes of devices are provided for customers to choose from.
A relatively smaller size is essential for any mobile phone. It does not provide additional value to phones, because it is the value of a mobile phone.
Furthermore, when phone-calling is “degraded” to the level of a simple app inside the smartphones, “mobile phones” has already become something more about “mobile” than “phone”.
How small is “too small”?
Different people have very different preferences about sizes. Mobile phones should fit our hands and people should feel comfortable with them. We can still argue that no one would like a tiny phone like Veer.
Well, is Veer tiny? Comparing to other smartphones, Yes. But comparing to mainstream feature phones, I’d say not really.
This is a simple comparison among three small phones and a huge one. Veer is a small smartphone. But from the viewpoint of all the mobile phones including feature phones, I think it’s unfair for Veer to be considered “too small”.
It’s really interesting to see huge Samsung Infuse will launch the same day as Veer. If it was true that no one would buy a tiny phone like Veer, how could I imagine any one buying such a gigantic smartphone?
Trade-off between “smart” and “mobile”
As Joshua pointed out, obvious compromises are made for the size of Veer. When talking about smartphones, phone makers and tech reviewers love to discussing the processors they use, the size of memory and internal storage, just like what they did with PCs.
I’ve got no problem with all these performance comparisons. However, I just don’t get the idea of “you could get a more powerful device for the same price”. Does everyone need a dual-core processor or 720-whatever-p video playback capability on their phones?
Don’t forget that after all smartphones are mobile phones, no matter how “smart” they are. Technology enthusiasts will always dream about “smarter”-phones until they get the “smartest”-phones. They don’t really care about sizes unless performance is affected, which often leads to super-sized super-powerful “alien” devices.
That’s fine. But for an average user, a “not-so-smart”-phone is good enough. It’s perfectly reasonable for anyone to get a “more mobile” smartphone instead of a “smarter” one. “The screen is very small” is a feature, not a bug.
There’s a clear trade-off between “smart” and “mobile”. Don’t assume that more people are going to choose the “smarter” end immediately. And don’t forget that more than half people are still using feature phones for now, even in the U.S. (Nielson, 2010)
Other aspects about Veer
Veer is cute and Veer is small. There’re big numbers of people who love that, including me. There’re reviews in great detail with a completely different conclusions, such as the one on PreCentral. But I have to make it clear that I’m not saying Veer is going to be a huge hit (or not).
Though I’ve never used a WebOS phone, WebOS seems to have a very neat user interface as far as I know. It’s still not a popular mobile OS, probably not as mature as iOS and Android. Its performance and stability can greatly influence the user experience of Veer. And on the other hand, there’re currently much fewer apps for Veer than its rivals.
Therefore, in my opinion, if HP really did a good job on the software of WebOS, esp. the upcoming WebOS 3.0, Veer could be a really nice choice for people who wants a smartphone with a relatively smaller size than other smartphones.
