Review
I’ve tried to edit some simple PowerPoint presentations on my ToucPad with Quickoffice and was not very happy, particularly when templates with some graphics had been applied. It would be great to be able to review and edit PowerPoints from the TouchPad, so I downloaded it and went to town! Here is my evaluation of the product.
Pros:
- PowerPoints are rendered almost perfectly with SmartOffice. Background graphics look just like the file looks in PowerPoint 2010 and text colors, fonts, etc. are perfect. Quickoffice struggles with this.
- Simple Word and Excel edits work as advertised. Quickoffice also does this fine, but SmartOffice does allow you to create and edit simple Word and Excel files.
- SmartOffice supports integration with DropBox and Google Docs, meaning that documents stored in these cloud repositories are available as long as you have internet access. This stretches your 32GB or 16GB storage.
- Cost was relatively cheap at $9.99.
Cons:
- Quickoffice supports printing documents from webOS to HP printers. SmartOffice does not.
- Since SmartOffice is also released on other mobile platforms, including iOS, Android and Bada, they did not implement webOS gestures and other webOS UI choices like the three-paned screen layout. This is not a big con, but is noticable.
- Box.net is not integrated like DropBox and Google Docs. I like having all of my online repository accounts accessible from Quickoffice, and would like to see Box.net integration added at some point.
Overall Evaluation
If you want to be able to edit PowerPoint files with your HP TouchPad, this application is a must-have. While Quickoffice does a better job with printing and with Word and Excel documents, SmartOffice does a very good job with PowerPoint. I give it a 4/5. Support for printing to HP printers and Box.net would move that up to 5/5. Download it and give it a shot! And stay tuned for my full review of the TouchPad, coming soon.
