Two of Verizon Wireless’ top smartphones are going head to head in an in-depth comparison. We have the Palm Pre Plus, it runs webOS and features the best multitasking user experience on the market. And we have the BlackBerry Storm2, which runs BlackBerry OS 5.0 and features unmatched messaging capabilities. Which do I feel is a better smartphone? Read on to find out.

Hardware

Let’s go over the specs real quick. The Palm Pre Plus has a 3.1” capacitive touchscreen at 320 x 480 resolution with multitouch capabilities. It has a full physical QWERTY keyboard, 3 megapixel camera with flash, all packed into a riverstone-like frame. The BlackBerry Storm2 9550 has a 3.25” capacitive SurePress touchscreen at 360 x 480 resolution. It has a unique touchscreen dubbed “SurePress” which uses four electronic actuators to make it feel like a click on a hardware keyboard. It also packs a 3 megapixel camera with auto focus and flash, and features unrivaled email capabilities.

The screen on the Pre Plus is bright and vivid, the colors displayed are quite nice, although the screen is on the smaller side, which is a small draw back. The screen on the Storm2 is innovative and unique, I have never seen anything of this kind. The click is subtle, and responsive at all points of the screen. Typing on the Storm2 isn’t bad at all, gives me the feeling that I’m typing on a physical keyboard. I personally love the updated SurePress technology, but it’s something that is purely out of personal preference. The colors looks pretty good, and overall I prefer the screen on the Storm2 slightly over the Pre Plus, although again, that’s personal preference.

Text Input

If you’re getting a smartphone, the text input is very important. The keyboard on the Pre Plus is small, slightly cramped, but useable. The problem with the keys on the Pre Plus is that it’s not clicky, I can’t tell whether or not I pressed a key until I look up at the screen. The typing on the Storm2 was pretty good, although the SurePress technology, as I stated earlier, is purely personal opinion. There is a “speed limit” to your typing on the Storm2, but nobody is really going to fire at 140WPM right? Or maybe you are going to? I call tie, at least from my viewpoint.

Software

Let’s dive into software a little bit. The BlackBerry Storm2 is running OS 5.0.0.320, the OS that Verizon shipped the Storm2 with. The Pre Plus is running 1.3.5.1, at the time of this writing.

Home

Pre Plus

Storm2

The home screen is the first thing you see when you power on the device. On the BlackBerry, you have a number of different options. You can set 1-3 rows of icons, or you can show “Today” which shows you what new notifications are on the device. On the Pre Plus, you have a dock with 4 icons which are customizable. And that’s it. Both of them aren’t my ideal choice, but I think the Storm2 edges out a little higher.

Phone

Pre Plus

Storm2

Call quality on both phones were pretty good. I did notice some signal issues on the Pre Plus, but the earpiece on the Pre Plus sounded louder and more clear than the Storm2.

Email

Pre Plus

Storm2

BlackBerry has always been known for their excellent push email service. Emails arrived on the Storm2 faster than it appeared on the Pre Plus, but reading emails (especially HTML emails) on the Storm2 wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing. On the Pre Plus, emails (when set on push) arrived a couple seconds later, but the text and the font were much easier to read. For the business user who is always on the move, and needs to access email instantly, I would recommend the Storm2. For the average consumer who just needs access to email, I would recommend the Pre Plus.

Web

Pre Plus

Storm2

If web browsing is important to you, get the Pre Plus. Pages loaded faster on the Pre Plus, the rendering was more accurate on the Pre Plus, and pinch-to-zoom make it much better than the browser on the Storm2. We saw at MWC 2010 that RIM is working on the new webkit-based browser, but for now, the Pre Plus has a much better web browser.

Camera

The Pre Plus has a 3MP camera with flash and the Storm2 also has a 3MP with flash, and the Storm2 adds autofocus to the mix. The Pre Plus takes pictures amazingly fast, I can take two pictures on the Pre Plus in the time it takes the Storm2 to take one picture. From the tests I conducted, the Pre Plus has slightly more clear images than the Storm2.

Pricing

The Pre Plus is available for $149.99 on a two-year contract and rebate. The BlackBerry Storm2 is available for $179.99 on a two-year contract and rebate.

Conclusion

What are my final thoughts? It boils down to this: Both phones are capable and they have all the features you would ever need. If you’re using your phone as a web browser a lot, I would recommend the Pre Plus. If you use your phone for sending and receiving messages, I would recommend the Storm2. Ultimately, what every person wants will differ, and there is no “better” phone…in most cases anyway. Your lifestyle really makes the final call…