The Veer is tiny. Extremely tiny. Absurdly tiny. Seriously, I can’t stress this enough — the phone is absolutely miniature. The Veer is just 2.1 inches across and 3.3 inches tall, with a thickness of .59 inches. While it’s certainly not the thinnest smartphone I’ve ever used, it feels like the smallest overall. The closest companion in terms of design would be Microsoft’s failed Kin One; in fact, the phones share similarities in a number of ways, from the diminutive display (the Veer’s screen is 2.6 inches, like the Kin), to the slide out QWERTY keyboard. Overall, that’s probably not a great thing, though the Veer is easily more stylish.

On the black version, the body of the phone is made up of a plastic, soft touch material, similar to the Pre 2. The white version feels a bit more rigid and plasticky — that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely feels different in your hand. The front of the devices house that small screen, an earpiece, and ambient light / proximity sensors, plus a gesture area below the display which has a thin LED strip that lights up on touches or for notifications. Up top, there’s a loop for your favorite phone charm, the SIM slot, and a chrome mute switch. On the left side of the phone you’ll find a volume rocker, while the right side holds the power / sleep / wake button (which I found tough to reach in a number of situations) and the very odd, Veer-only magnetic sync / charge socket (more on that below). Around back there’s a small speaker and an opening for the camera sensor.

The phone has a sliding mechanism that’s similar to the ones seen on the Pre and Pre 2, but this particular slider feels substantially tighter and more solid than previous Palm phones. There is a slight bit of wiggle when the phone is opened, but it’s nothing compared to the "Oreo effect" observed on earlier models. There’s a definitive snap and mechanical feel to the Veer’s slider that is confidence-building. When you do get the phone open, you’ll find a minuscule but surprisingly useful keyboard inside. HP has opted for a clickier, less resistive version than on the Pre 2 but have reduced the amount of travel and pressure needed to complete a key press. It means that you can type faster and more accurately than on the spongy keyboard of the Pre and Pre 2. That’s great, but I still had trouble the sheer tininess of this keyboard — it’s simply not very spacious, which means missed keystrokes are common. Once I got used to it, my accuracy improved, but I wouldn’t say it was ever a totally comfortable experience.

Now let’s talk about that weird Veer port for a moment. Basically, given the diminutive size of the handset, there’s no room here for a Micro USB port or a headphone jack. That means that inside the box for the Veer 4G there’s a tiny little dongle for plugging in headphones, and a special cable for syncing or connecting to a charger. Honestly, it seems impossible to believe there wasn’t another option for at least one of these, but that’s the score. The dongle for the headphone jack is so tiny that you’re probably guaranteed to lose it — as far as the sync cable is concerned, well… both special accessories mean that you’re in major trouble if you don’t have a spare laying around. I would have opted for a slightly larger phone with both of these jacks on board, but that probably has more to do with my overall size issues with this phone. And one other thing — the dongle is just plain ugly.

It seems that the goal with this phone was to make a successor to the Pixi that was even more impressively small. HP and Palm believe there is a market for a phone of this size. I have my doubts, and none of those doubts were put to rest after using the Veer for a few days. The phone is simply too small in my opinion. The screen can be hard to read at times, and the interface now feels cramped and crowded. Honestly, it’s tough to understand why HP didn’t just evolve the Pixi form factor here — it’s a more attractive, thinner device that feels better in your hands. Adding a slider to a phone this small makes the whole experience much less comfortable than having a candybar QWERTY. Taking it in and out of pocket almost always resulted in unwanted slides (which means the phone wakes up), and I found it generally difficult to grapple with when I need to send a quick message or email.

The market reaction will show whether or not there really is a place in people’s hearts for a phone this tiny, but from a hardware perspective, I was unconvinced.

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