[scrambler7]

i have the htc hero and the palm pre (and a tour, but i'm not a BB fan), and i have to say i prefer the pre. as much as people have dogged the pre's keyboard, i think it's great. the keys have some grip and are spaced out so you know what you're pressing. i find that i can type faster on the pre than even the tour (though the tour's keyboard is much more comfortable). the hero's onscreen keyboard is not so great. i found that typing was easier on the diamond than on the hero, which is pretty crazy.

as ninjamom said before, the card system can't be beat. the problem i have with android (and BB for that matter) is the lack of a task manager. closing apps is a pain on either of those platforms and sometimes you can't even really close an app. with the pre, you can easily see, switch between, and close apps. for multitasking, webOS clearly wins, with WM next, Android third (with advanced task killer, app management is more palatable), and BB last.

i also love the notification system on the pre. you don't have to stop what youre doing just to address an incoming notification, which is sweet. it will show you enough info on the initial notification so you can go to it if you want or ignore it for a bit and finish up whatever you're doing. on the hero, i hate having to stop what i'm doing and bring down the notification screen with no preview as to what the incoming message is about.

another huge thing for me is the web. the pre's browser is much better. the pre's browser is faster and renders pages better. android's browser renders pages well, but the problem is that it always tries to text wrap, so when you zoom in, the rendering can be completely off. that also slows down the browsing experience and leads to pressing the wrong link when you zoom in because the field you're trying to press will move as it auto-wraps again.

i also find the email on the hero to be a bit inconsistent. on the pre, i always get my emails before it hits my desktop, but the hero goes off and on. as for battery life, the hero wins there, but not by much.