gdgt

Now that the Pre has some C++ goodness allowing actual, good looking games I need to ask: what does everyone else think? I've downloaded Need For Speed Underground and after some crashing issues (solved after removing my unofficial tweaks and installs), I've really been enjoying the gaming experience. The quality is good, the controls are workable, and the battery draw is not bad at all (considering the draw from 3G streaming or GPS).

Now I don't have a whole lot of experience with Mobile Phone gaming, I've never owned an iPhone or touch, so how does the Pre stack up against the segment leader? Obviously there is a dearth of games on the Pre, but the ad copy for these games seem to be copied verbatim from the iPhone so I'm guessing we can do some apple-apple comparisons.

I'm excited about what the Pre can do from an App standpoint, allowing for easy simple apps able to be thrown together quickly without a draconian approval process, and also with all the C++ that will allow apps people actually want. So, thoughts?

I bought Asphalt 5 for the Pre. There are some crashing issues, I think it just needs an update. This could also be because I have a lot of homebrew patches/services running. Had I a stock Pre it would only run better. It runs extremely smooth for me, which I didn't expect. I haven't run it side by side a 3GS, but showing it to someone who owned a 3GS, he says it looks the same. I'd assume the 3GS might have a little bit more polish due to its maturity. All in all, the hardware capabilities are the same.

One small thing that I think sets the Pre apart is that the gesture area can be used in gaming. When holding in landscape, the bottom right and upper right of the pre can effectively be 'A' and 'B' buttons (this is demoed in the homebrew port of SuperTux).

Even though the game plays extremely well, I can't do a lot of multi-tasking with it open. Since the Pre Plus has double RAM in addition to double storage, it is going to fair very well in that respect. Still, I find that I don't have to have several cards open when I game. For the first iteration of 3D games running on a 2009 Pre, they have exceeded my expectations.

Accorind to Giz, the Pre Plus is supposed to have double the RAM. I downloading one of the 3D games just to check it out and after a reboot of the phone (it was giving me the too many cards message) it worked extremely well. I'm glad that they're offering native C/C++ development on the device, I'm still reading up on how the new PDK differs from the past SDK versions, but giving developers a way to natively run code will make applications run even smoother and give developers more options in design UIs for their apps. While they didn't really announce totally new devices, they've made some great strides at CES by opening up their PDK to all devs and giving developers better tools to make webOS awesome.

Now all they have to do is get more solid devices out there.