Now that everyone has had their say about the Palm Pre, I thought it wise to say a few words about the oft labeled “iPhone killer” that Sprint and Palm hope will bring each back from the edge of the dreaded deadpool. It seems as though every touch-screen device to launch since the first generation iPhone has faced an uphill battle and the Pre is no different. It’s unpolished, sure, but Palm’s webOS has managed to slip in right behind Apple’s iPhone OS, which is something the other smartphone operating systems have failed to do. But it’s not perfect and, let’s face it, nothing is ever perfect on launch day.
Having been left off the initial list of reviewers was irritating, sure, but now there’s no stress to rush a review out. In fact, I’m thankful for that because I’ve had time to really dig into the device and get over my own fanboyism. The Pre is a stellar device and I’m 80 percent sure that I will pass on the iPhone 3G S (iPhone fanboy I am not) and ditch my BlackBerry Curve. The only downside would be the lack of usefulness outside the US, which happens often enough throughout the year that I’m apprehensive about locking myself into a two-year contract with Sprint.
Giving a fully vetted and thorough review seems pointless, so I’ll share my thoughts on how the Pre does in real life, like walking down the street, on the subway, around little kids, etc.
Hardware has never been Palm’s strong suit and the Pre is evident of that. Is it horrible? No. Rough around the edges? Yes, both figuratively and literally.
The lip around the exposed keyboard could easily cut through cheese or my delicate flesh, but I don’t rest my thumbs on it. Who does that? As Joel pointed out, the plastic cover on the microUSB port was the worst thing Palm could have done.
Placing the 3.5mm jack in the center of the device is puzzling as well. I don’t like that the iPhone’s jack is on top either. Maybe I’m crazy, but if I pull a device from my pocket I don’t want to flip it around so the screen is oriented correctly. Am I being too nitpicky?
Now onto the keyboard that everyone seems to be lambasting Palm over. It’s not that bad, but the keys are too tacky. The width is comparable to the BlackBerry 8900, but the length is much, much smaller. It’s cramped, yes, but I can tap out messages just as fast as I can on my BlackBerry. Typing with one hand is easy, but a major roadblock comes up when you have to type numbers. Hard plastic keys would have been a better a choice, IMHO.
Every device should have a touch-screen going forward. I immediately try to swipe the screen of any device I receive for review these days including the Kindle DX that I received yesterday. I know it doesn’t have a touch-screen, but I do it anyway. The implementation and cohesiveness of the touch-screen with webOS is flawless. Gestures are immediately recognized and the speed of scrolling (up and down) is on par with the iPhone, but when you try to slow that motion down the Pre doesn’t know how to go from 100MPH to 5MPH. Is that a dealbreaker? No. Have you ever used the other highly touted touch-screen device available through Sprint? You know, the one made by Samsung.
With such a small screen, the gesture area reduces the impulse to throw the device against the wall. It’s my hope that Palm will better utilize the nipple that rests in the center of the gesture area in the Pre 2. An optical nub would better serve users. But that would negate any such gesture to go back even though an on-screen icon is available for such things.
It’s inevitable that all 3G devices with features like GPS, Wi-Fi and Web browsers (that are good) are going to have horrendous battery life. Pre owners and potential Pre owners might get lucky like G1 owners and get an update to correct battery life issues, but for now, it stinks. A normal day of use will kill the battery by dinnertime. The argument of “lightly” using the device is garbage. Who buys a device like the Pre, Bold or iPhone and doesn’t use it? I hear Seidio is selling an extended life battery, though.
The camera is nothing fancy and takes fairly good lowlight images, but you’re limited to turning the flash on, off or on auto. I’d love to be able to correct the WB, but maybe a future firmware update will allow me to do that. Video would be nice, too.
Synergy works as advertised, but the syncing of every single individual I’ve ever emailed from my Gmail account is appalling and obnoxious. The initial sync takes a while rendering the Pre useless. Regular application use isn’t quite as appalling, but it’s not as smooth as we’re lead to believe. WebOS puts a beatdown on the processor and while it’s unclear which applications strain the Pre, it’s probably best to flick each card off the deck.
The iPhone is without a doubt the best iPod ever made. iTunes may recognize it as an iPod, but the comparison ends there. Every single video file I’ve tried to copy over to the Pre simply will not “work on this iPod” or something of that nature and it’s become a chore so I’m simply not going to use it. Playing music, however, is simple and I enjoy being able to flick through tracks with my finger rather than tapping an icon. That’s the one area where Palm trumps Apple. Oh, I can’t transfer approved image formats either and I refuse to go through the process of using iPhoto on my Mac just to sync images through iTunes. I want to drag and drop my content, so sue me.
E-mail on the Pre? Gmail (IMAP) is perfection (to a certain extent), but there’s no search and that’s an issue that needs to be resolved ASAP. But lengthy e-mails that might be truncated on the BlackBerry don’t appear to be on the Pre and everything you would see on your desktop is replicated on the Pre. This is where the BlackBerry gets trumped. E-mail on the iPhone stinks and it will always stink. I was never a fan of the way Android went about Gmail, so I tip my hat off to Palm.
Woe is me. The App Catalog is a blunder and needs to be filled immediately. The simple fact that there isn’t even a Facebook app is shocking. I loathe the web page that comes bookmarked on the Pre. But lest we forget that the iPhone went an entire year before Apple launched the App Store. That’s not an argument I’m going to use here because that was two years ago. Palm and everyone else needs to get their act together. Apple’s App Store is the only reason I use my iPhone 3G. Otherwise I’d just go and pick up an iPod Touch. For those curious about Twitter applications, Tweed is the better of the two available apps, but it doesn’t support Twitpic and has zero notifications.
Palm, please open up the SDK and let developers make future webOS devices the best it can be.
If you take anything from this review let it be this: don’t buy the Touchstone and always plug the Pre into a direct power source.
Now let’s get onto why I may or may not dump everything for the Pre. AT&T has me hooked if only because of the App Store. I realize I can just get an iPod Touch, but I want to be connected at all times. T-Mobile is the only network to support UMA and I travel enough overseas that my BlackBerry keeps those nasty roaming charges at bay. Verizon has nothing to offer me, so I won’t be going there. For now, I may have to carry three devices until I decide what’s best. That is the plight of a high profile tech blogger like myself.
My iPhone 3G is currently on the fritz and I haven’t been able to secure a Genius Bar appointment. I wonder why that is? Aren’t Apple products supposed to just work? If so, why do I have to wait more than a day to get an appointment? Are people just stupid? Anyway, I have the luxury of having multiple devices and I refuse to pick just one. As Gilly would say, “Saaarry.”
Question then, if you did not go out of the country would that change your review? I am interested in that perspective. As an original iPhone user I am about to change and it is down to a Pre or the iPhone 3GS. The Sprint Network seems to have more 3G spots in my area and the turn by turn navigation looks nice. The fact that it is included with the Sprint cost make ATT’s plan look worse to me.
You really have to go feature-by-feature to determine which phone is right for you. However, with regard to price, the monthly service for the Pre is anywhere from $15-50 cheaper per month than the iPhone. That’s before you factor in what the GPS for the iPhone might cost (I’ve heard it might be as high as $10/month).
Also, since the Pre can multitask, the GPS experience will likely be a lot more useful than on the iPhone. Can you imagine having to close the GPS anytime you need to respond to an SMS, check to see if your flight is delayed, etc? Pretty lame if you ask me.
The iPhone has it’s strong suits, no doubt about it. The Pre is a little rough around the edges, with a lot more room for further refinement as the OS matures over time. However, if GPS is a big thing for you, you want to save a decent amount of money each month, AND Sprint has better coverage in your area, you certainly can’t go wrong with the Pre.
iPhone killer. What kind of a marketing dumb fuck would even propose such an notion.
Great unbias review. I have owned my Pre since June 6 (yes i stood in line). The only additions i would add is the browser is the best on the market and will have Flash relativity soon while the iPhone will not. More negatives about the pre I should note: Their music player simply blows and only links up to iTunes which i do not have (otherwise i would owe a iPhone DUH!!!) Thats why I wanted another device so I would be sprung into the Apple device/platform trap. Also, text editing sucks, if you need to correct something you typed there isn’t a way to move the cursor like Centro or Treo. It’s like rolling the dice when you touch the screen as to where the cursor lands… also I can’t forward txts….booo! I want to show my friends what my naughty lady friend txt me last night… oh and the nude pics too. As a last note, my pre went for a swim over the weekend and sat on the bottom of the pool for 20 min… dried it in the sun (AZ) and works. Screen is still a little blotchy… hoping it will still come back to life.
You can move the cursor around by holding down orange key while dragging on the screen. Same with shift key to select text.
Yep I know this… you still have to drag the cursor. Not exactly easy to steer that lil’ bugger where i want it.
You don’t need to use iTunes, it works just fine if you use it as a USB drive. Just drop your music files in the directory of your choice, it’ll handle it gracefully. And I’m curious why you say the “music player simply blows”. I’ve had no problems with it, it’s as fully functional as any other mp3 player I’ve used.
I wouldn’t say it blows, but it’s not good.
As far as I can tell, there’s no support for podcasts. They get mixed in with your regular music (which means you can’t “shuffle all” and just hear music), there’s no way to resume playback where you left off, nor is it easy to jump quickly within a long file.
These are all things that the iPhone does pretty well, and if you listen to podcasts at all, they’re all essential features. If you just want to casually listen to music, then you won’t really have a problem with the Pre’s music player.
Until they add support for podcast playback, I’ll be carrying around my Sansa Clip. I’m actually cool with that, because the battery in the Pre will last longer if I’m not using it to play audio all day long.
By far the best smartphone OS. Now if only they would release a full-touch device on GSM
Seconded.
While I understand that Apple is trying to pain multitasking as a battery drainer, let me say that if you use it the way it’s meant to be used you will get plenty of battery life. Keep your cards closed when not in use and when you need to multitask- go nuts!
I have been able to get through a day and night easily with my phone. Of course I have a car charger, a charger at work and at home :)
I agree with the App catalog being way too limited at start up. I also agree there needed to be a facebook app out of the gate. The one thing that really bothered me was that there isn’t even 1 good game! Sheesh, ateast have solitaire or something at launch for people to play with.
I’ve had my Pre for a week and love it. I don’t mind waiting for updates to add needed functionality and I can understand why some people would be annoyed that it doesn’t have certain features out of the gate. Personally, I think it does everything I need the phone to do. Everything else is basically a want.
For example, my biggest want is for the screen button to blink when you have a message/email/voicemail. The button itself really is underused considering you don’t even need to use it (flicking up on the gesture area brings up the launcher). Adding message notification to the on screen lights would add so much functionality.
That micro-usb cover is pretty annoying. I concur. I was thinking of getting the touchstone just to get around this annoyance. Why do you say not to use it? I’ve heard nothing but good things!
Nice review. I like this phone a lot and hope it succeeds in the cut throat smartphone market. Namely because i own it :)
I would like to say, for the record and once and for all, that the word “unbias” or the use of “bias” as an adjective does not exist in the English language. The correct word is “unbiased”, as in “Great unbiased review.”
I don’t know how the incorrect usage got started, but it is one of the world’s great linguistic injustices.
Okay, I’m done now. Thanks.
Let me know and next time I will send my post for to you to proof read. I don’t have time to do it… if Google Chrome doesn’t have a lil’ red squiggly under it it’s getting sent . I know-Iknow… I live on edge. Next time lets stick to the topic discussed. Oh and best of luck with your crusade combating all the worlds linguistic injustices.
Corrected version below:
Let me know, and next time I will send my post for to you to proofread. I don’t have time to do it… if Google Chrome doesn’t have a li’l red squiggly under it, it’s getting sent . I know- I know… I live on edge. Next time let’s stick to the topic discussed. Oh, and best of luck with your crusade combating all of the world’s linguistic injustices.
Haha… That’s awesome
Right now I have a review Pre and pretty much agree with your review and comments.
Our only difference seems to be with the Touchstone, which is where my Pre is sitting right now.
Why the recommendation against the Touchstone? The heat generated?
I’m not sure, but I believe the heat may be less damaging (and less life shortening) in the long run than plugging in and unplugging the µUSB connector a bazillion times. :o)
Good review. I disagree with the touchstone comment though. Its expensive but I use mine in the car and it works great!
Rick, how did you configure your touch stone to work in your car. Did you use a AC/DC converter?
Yes. Tried a usb cigarette lighter adapter but the touchstone didn’t seem to get enough juice from it. My small 60w converter is working fine though.
Your car accessory adapter needs to have 1 Amp to properly ‘tickle’ the Touchstone
I touch the contacts with my tongue and it kinda felt like 1 amp :) …. Thnx for the info kP
I am a tech junkie and love my gadgets. I am iPhone lover, but only because i think the thing has everything anyone would ever want. When the Pre was announced I was excited. I haven’t had a chance to play with a Pre yet, but in the reviews I have read, its seem lackluster compared to the iPhone 3gs.
I know some of you just hate the iphone because it is so popular or what have you, but any tech person who says that the iPhone is not a technology marvel I beg to understand your logic.
You have a all touch device, that has over 50k applications, can handle 95% of what the web has to offer, has awesome text messaging and mail applications, push notifications which work awesome (try Beejive for 3.0 with push), Speed, search, copy paste, soon to be MMS, ease of use, anyone can figure out how to use it, and a solid feel.
The pre’s benifits are Synergy and multitasking. However I am a freak about my address book so i dont like an app to combine things. As for multitasking, the push notifications will take care of that for apple. The only place I think the iPhone needs to allow multitasking is streaming music, everything else can use push and save batery life.
As for email, can someone please tell me how the iphone email sucks? I have had the iphone for 2 years now and everytime i use my friends blackberry i think it sucks because I like having true HTML email and great document views. I think they need to allow you to save documents to your phone from email, but with search I can easily find them now anyways. And if the email is on my imap server, I can search that too.
Now flash, I dont get peoples obsession with it. I rarely hit something I cant use my iphone for that requires flash. Am I the only one. Seriously, who cares.
Well we will see what happens with the Pre, but I think the lack of apps and the iPhone 3gs is going to hurt it. Once all the apps use 3.0 api’s i think the iphone will become even stronger.
Good luck to the Pre, but right now and for the forseeable future, I will stick with my iPhone.
Wow! Thanks for the iPone review. Last time I checked the post it was titled “Review: Palm Pre”… We all get it, you want to F—k your iPhone… Opps, I mean make sweet love to it. Let me guess… love at first sight?… *no*-*no*…soul mates! I bet You cringe at the idea of touching another phone in that way. Congratulations Apple has you just where they want you… on your knees and your head in their lap.
I am entirely convinced that the only reason someone would not buy an iphone (year or more ago, an ipod) is because they refuse to ‘follow the crowd’. they make comments like ‘Congratulations Apple has you just where they want you… on your knees and your head in their lap.’ as a way to justify their idiocy. apples products are as popular as they are for one simple reason: vision. apple has the design time to make their products great because they are always first to market.
the competition to the iphone is no where in sight. no intelligent app developer is going to spend time and money producing software for a platform with a user base as small as the pre’s. how many pres did palm sell on opening weekend? something like 50k? oh well apple moved over 1million 3gs phones. give me a break; the argument isn’t even to be had.
i laugh at anyone considering an alternative smart phone. why own the copy when you can own the real thing.
Actually, I will go with whoever has the BEST product. And since the iPhone has come out, I have not seen one phone even come close. The Pre was the first hope, but its fallen short. I use to be a palm fan until the iPhone.
Apple makes great product and has the BEST customer support on the planet. Have a problem with the phone make an appt with a genius and they replace it.
Please dont give me your holy the jesus BS. How someone is soo ignorant is beyond me, grow the F**K up.
Actually iPhone is the WORST at being a phone. Being a touch internet type device – no doubt it excels just not as a phone. Frankly I carry my iPhone sans voice plan and a pay as you go just to have decent call quality.
I just got a seed device for the PRE today and it’s decent, love the screen but the build seems a little cheap. Keypad is really crammed and I’ve never been a fan of sliding keyboards.
Last I check Blackberry OS 4.5+ had support for HTML email with BES 4.16 so perhaps your friends have an older BB OS or not on BES. You can plow through 100 messages on BB before you can finish swiping and changing email accounts on the iPhone. Use a Bold on BES and you will see the benefits.
I might be old fashioned, but I carry around a cell phone mail to, you know, be able to call. And AT&T’s service is horrible.
So that’s why I don’t get an iPhone. Everyone I know that has an iPhone (around the country) has told me it drops calls — just not something I want from any phone.
Get it off of AT&T and I’d consider it.
You apparently have not had to try and use one of these phones on an exchange server or configure IMAP manually. It is a nightmare. I support 300+ students and even more faculty and staff at a medical college.
So far, 4 Pre’s have made there way to me and I have been able to get exactly 1 of the 4 to sync to the Exchange server and NONE of them have made there way successfully onto the IMAP server. It has been 2 days of hell dealing with them and this has actually made me change my mind about getting one.
Not to mention that the damned thing feels like it wouldn’t make it thru a 3 hour car ride with my kids much less the duration of a standard contract.
I am now narrowing my phone search down to either the iPhone 3G or one of the Android phones such as T-mobile’s MyTouch.
I think user error is to blame here, since exchange and IMAP work great for me. You have to enter the right server info though.
Sorry Rob but I am the IT guy here. I enter these servers every day. Google the issue, you will see that it is a known issue.
There is a known issue with PRE having flacky support for SSL certs and any Exchange EAS enforcing security will not connect so that is by far the biggest fail on Palms part – update in 2-3 months will correct it .. long wait for corporate support where security is need (read 90% of companies)
there is a known issue with SSL certs as well Exchange ActiveSync policies that enforce security. Check the Palm support forms as the posts on it are quite long.
Hi Peter,
I think no product will be perfect the day it was launched.
It improves over time as users give their critical feedback to the manufacturer. So for me the best thing to do is to wait for a better version to come out before you switch your mobile phone carrier.
Despite a few flaws which you mentioned in your post. I think overall, Palm Pre is quite good.
Thanks for the detailed review.
Mani Raj
Havoc Marketing
Good review, but I noticed an alwful lot of qualifiers in your praise.
If Apple had released *this* Pre the anti-apple contingent would be screaming that it wasn’t ready for primetime. And then they’d spend precious hours castigating Apple as all flash and no substance. Much like they did when the original iPhone was released.
It seems that fanboyism is all over the place, not just for Apple.
>> “the syncing of every single individual I’ve ever emailed from my Gmail account is appalling and obnoxious.”
This is a Gmail issue, not a Pre issue – Gmail has since (11 months ago) stopped automatically turning every email address in your history into a Contact:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/07/gmail-to-no-longer-auto-add-contacts.html
But it’s up to you to do some housekeeping in Gmail to tidy up your contacts.
Not quite.
Gmail has two main categories “My Contacts” and “All Contacts”. The former is the contacts you’ve added manually, the latter contains also the contacts that you’ve emailed (even if it is only once).
The problem is that the Pre syncs its contacts from “All Contacts” rather than “My Contacts”.
“But lest we forget that the iPhone went an entire year before Apple launched the App Store. That’s not an argument I’m going to use here because that was two years ago.”
I would say the fact that there has been an iPhone store around for 2 years makes it even worse that Palm didn’t launch with one way better than what Apple offers. It isn’t like they didn’t know about the App store right?
Regardless of that one sentence I enjoyed the review! Thanks.
“E-mail on the iPhone stinks and it will E-mail on the iPhone stinks and it will always stink”.
Always? Really? You know this how? Your time machine? It’s hard to take anyone who makes such proclamations seriously.
If e-mail on the iPhone sucks and will always suck, then you really have got to show us what it looks like on the Pre. If it’s just merging accounts, there’s no need for it to always suck on the iPhone and you’ll need to show us what else it is about e-mail on the Pre that makes it so-o-o-o d@mned good. Really, why should we take your word for it?
If I could get our IMAP or Exchange servers to work on it, I would be happy. That being said, it is a pretty slick app for the gmail/hotmail accounts that we were able to make work.
Maybe you can show us something that works with the Pre.
On a slightly related note, what is bad about how Android does gmail? I have never seen a better implementation myself..
Pre owners will always be wondering what they are missing out on!
I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on what I’m missing. Be sure to let me know if I leave anything off of this list.
I am missing:
- The inability to send MMS messages
- The opportunity to spend an extra 20-30 dollars each month for service
- not being able to look forward to having Flash support
- a difficult process of importing contacts (and photos for those contacts)
- an inability to leave myself signed into IM in the background
- a huge pile of worthless 3rd-party applications
… and of course
- Shazam
Is that about it? Shazam is tempting, I’ll admit.
I know… and apple is miles “ahead” haha. They din’t even have cut ant paste until 2nd half of ‘09.
Responses to your claims:
- The inability to send MMS messages
” Really – It will have it in July, not a big deal”
- The opportunity to spend an extra 20-30 dollars each month for service
“The Service Plan is about $20 more a month if that. But for the amount i use the phone IDC. I used almost 2GB of data last month on my iPhone, so who cares.
- not being able to look forward to having Flash support
” I don’t get why people are all worked up over flash, really!!! But also know Apple doesnt release future product offerings, so they could be offering in the next 6 months, but adobe is under a NDA so cant announce it. DUH”
- a difficult process of importing contacts (and photos for those contacts)
“I use mobile me and it works FLAWLESSLY> Even without it, it takes everything from your address book on MAC or Outlook from Windows. As for Pictures, nice little app allows u u sync ur contacts FB images to your address book”
- an inability to leave myself signed into IM in the background
“I can stay signed in to IM app and get notifications whihc work flawlessly. Also I can use a multiprotocol IM App, can the Pre (NO)> Also, Where is the Facebook app for the PRE, oh it doesn’t have one.
- a huge pile of worthless 3rd-party applications
Worthless apps such as accessing my Uverse, My Att Account, IM App, Facebook App, Shazamm, Turn by Turn GPS, Bank Account App, Fandnago, Some of the best Loopt, MLB at BAT, Incredible Games, and the list goes on. I have over 20 apps I use all the time. But, be short sighted and say they are worthless, just because u have 18 apps to choose from and I have 50k.
Please don’t go there!!! No one comes close to the iPhone in apps. Its the main thing that will keep me on the iPhone until someone competes.
So out of 50k of Apps you use 20 .. sounds like a lot of filler and junk to me .. so does one value quality or just having a bunch of apps?
Every major mobile platform will have the major mobile apps so what is your point?
50k apps let you only use 20? Sounds like a lot of worthless filler to me. I’d rather have quality apps then sort through piles of junk.
Make no mistake the major mobile applications will be cross platforms this isn’t like video games and apps are “exclusive”.
All hail Apple!
I do believe young Eddie said it best – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuuZ-lYyAEY
Interesting that out of 50k apps you use a whopping 20. So wouldn’t logic show for a device to be successful you only need quality apps. If any new device came out and features the SAME 20 apps you use would you consider it a failure due to it didn’t have 50k to browse through?
This is like the NES logic in the 80’s .. the system had a few gems and a whole lot fo crap. It didn’t make the system bad but don’t judge AppStore on how many Apps it has as a deciding factor, it’s only one. Considering the crap Apple has pulled on developers why do you think they wouldn’t take their app and put in on other platforms if:
Convesion wasn’t too difficult
Cost was minimal
The Pre is a pretty solid device, it has some issues just like the iPhone did and still has. There is no perfect device so pick what works for you and STFU. Not everyone wants an iPhone, not everyone wants at&t and not everyone wants to live under Apple’s control on what they can or cannot do with their device.
Frank,
There 50k apps because everyone has different needs. Each of my friends has different apps that are important to them. For me i have about 60 apps installed on my phone of which I use 20 almost daily. the others I use time to time.
So the phone essential can be customized to fit someones needs.
As for customizations of the interfacem you can easily jailbreak the phone and do whatever you want to the device. I liek the default look and feel so I keep it.
Do I think the iPhone is the perfect device, but right now it has very few flaws. Only flaws left inability to use streaming radio apps in the background, need a flash on the camera, maybe flash on the phone, and a replaceable battery, but besides that, no other device has everything it has and they are a couple years behind.
The app stare has different gems depending ont he users, are there soem crap apps yea, but I would say that might be about half of them. But you can find an app that suits ur needs. Like Twitter. There are alot of twitter apps ranging from free to 9.99. Each one does different things and works different, but i have choices, not just one app to do it.
I am not trying to be on a Apple high horse, but they have done things right on this device. They might keep control of legit devices, but its to ensure stability and good user experience.
As for AT&T, i really dont know why people think they are that bad. They use to be really bad, but the service is quite good now. I very rarely drop calls.
“Do I think the iPhone is the perfect device, but right now it has very few flaws. Only flaws left inability to use streaming radio apps in the background, need a flash on the camera, maybe flash on the phone, and a replaceable battery, but besides that, no other device has everything it has and they are a couple years behind. ”
Hmm, interesting. The Pre has multitasking, flash for the camera, and a replaceable battery. All on their very first release.
“Please don’t go there!!! No one comes close to the iPhone in apps. Its the main thing that will keep me on the iPhone until someone competes.”
Also ironic. When iPhone first released, both Blackberry and the original Palm had more apps. But you still bought an iPhone.
Seriously… I find it hilarious that when an iPhone doesn’t have a feature everyone says that it’s a pointless feature to have…. until the iPhone gets that very feature, and then it becomes the greatest thing ever. The iPhone wasn’t first… and it won’t be the last great phone ever built. Everything that goes up must come down.
Jason,
But the Pre comes out 2 years after the iPhone, after multiple companies have tried to compete with it, with a device that has no apps at launch especially a Facebook app, no video camera, and no virtual keyboard. Yea the iPhone does not have multitasking, but for the most part I don’t need it for anything but streaming audio. As for Flash, thats a software update no device yet supports it, and as we all know Apple doesnt disclose product enhancements, so I would think it will be coming in a future update.
As for buying the iPhone when it first came out with no apps. The apps on the Palm and Windows mobile and Blackberries at that point were not dynamic apps. But the intitial draw to the iphone was how it handled internet and how slick the device was, not the apps, but they had web apps and a web app SDK at launch.
How about i use a Pre in landscape mode, and try to type a new website address, opps i can’t i have to turn it around and open a keyboard. Serious design flaw. I give PALM one more year and they will be done or purchased by another company. The PRE is not going to save them, but will help sell them.
1) Not everyone needs a Facebook App (kind of like you apparently don’t need MMS, or multitasking). I’d certainly rather have those two than a Facebook app.
2) Video camera? You’re just NOW getting it. And it’s already on the Pre “to-do” list.
3) Virtual keyboard? I’ve used the iPhone and I own an iPod touch (2nd gen) since it came out. I *HATE* the virtual keyboard. PLEASE, give me a real keyboard, Apple. Further, I’d rather turn my phone 90 degrees and type on the real keyboard than try to use the Apple virtual keyboard. OH NO! Banish the thought you might have to rotate your hand to turn the Pre upright to type!
4) Flash may also NOT be coming to the iPhone. But one thing’s for sure. The Pre (along with most other phone OSs) are definitely getting it.
MMS – Will have it in July, no big deal I have an app that does that does that for me now, until ATT enables it.
Multitaking – Besides streaming audio, please tell me what u need to multitask.
Physical Keyboard vs Virtual – I can type incredibly fast on the iphone. I cant even use a physical keyboard anymore. Once someone uses the virtual keyboard for a couple weeks they find it very easy. This is a preference. But I give physical keyboards a couple more years and they will be a thing of the past on a mobile device, everything will be touch screens for smart phones.
Even is i dont get Flash, I have not had a need for it at all, so I dont understand why everyone is soo up in arms about it.
You will have MMS and we will have video capture.
YOU may not need to multitask. But I’d rather my phone work more like my computer (do you use multitasking on your computer?) than work like a 10 year old single-tasking phone.
Yes, keyboard (like ALL of your points) is a preference. YOU may prefer a virtual keyboard, but not everyone does.
And Flash is great. Have you ever used it in your computer browser? If not, you should try it! (sarasm). Modern browsers and websites use Flash. THAT is why it’s so important.
Either way… it’s obvious you love your iPhone, and I love my Pre. So we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Let’s have this discussion in a year when the Pre2 is out and the 4th Gen iPhone. Pre will be lucky to have 1M units and iPhones will have over 20M, Apple must be doing something right without MMS, FLASH, and being on AT&T.
And the speed on the iPhone 3GS blows away any smart phone on the market!!!
I think Anthony believes email requires a physical keyboard. The iPhone keyboard works terrifically for me.
does anyone know the status of HTML 5 support in the Pre’s browser?
“That is the plight of a high profile tech blogger like myself. ”
You poor thing. Such a cross to bear.
I am on verizon and am thinking about a Pre in ‘10. I love my itouch, but don’t feel the need to get the iphone. I was thinking about the combo verizon MiFi and the Itouch, what do you think?
Why have two devicess….If you love your itouch, why not upgrade to an iphone, for all the added things you can do.
You have a Phone, iPod, Mobile Computer, Game Unit, GPS all in one. Why carry two devices? I don’t get that logic.
The iPhone3gs is incredible. !!!! It is blazing fast!!!
I own a MiFi from Sprint… and it’s great, especially if you need some form of mobile internet connection. Sure, you can tether (well, maybe not, depending on your phone)…. but it allows you to connect up to 5 devices to it. Great little device.
And I absolutely love Touchstone. It is all that and the bag of chips.
Nice review, and good choice of music – I just saw the White Rabbits at the Independent this weekend too.
The Pre definitely has a lot of good things going for it, and its 1.0 version is arguably better than Apple’s 2.0 software. The problem is, Apple’s a generation ahead and has a huge advantage in installed base, apps, and capital. Hopefully Palm can continue to improve webOS and get a few more devices out there.
After two days of using my new Pre, I love it. The Exchange Sync setup was a breeze according to our company IT guy, easiest smartphone email sync ever according to him. After using it, it syncs perfectly with my companies Exchange server and I can now almost ditch my laptop.
THe multi-tasking is awesome and the interfacing with the touchscreen is amazing. I have stuck with Sprint all these years, mainly because of cost relative to AT&T and also because, the AT&T network completely sucks in San Francisco. Why they call it an iPhone is beyond me. They should just call it an i, the phone part is the worst feature of the iPhone. MY all everything SPrint plan only costs $99/month. And if you like lots of silly apps that do nothing more than cram your iPhone with useless time wasters, go for it. The Pre is a serious business tool with a very sleek design. No regrets! And it actually holds a phone call, not like all my friend’s iPhones, dropping calls with every breath.
The Pre is dead in the water.
It won’t release the SDK until late summer. Developers are in the mean time spending their precious venture capital money on the more than 20 Android phones coming out this year, the best selling Blackberry smartphones, 40+ million iPhone/Touches, tens of millions of Windows mobile phones and world best selling Nokia phones.
The Pre has an installed base of around 100,000 to 200,000. Any developer is going to look at the 40,000,000 installed base of the iPhone and compare it to the 200,000 base of the Pre and not even think twice.
Not to mention Pre is barely floating with a stock price of less than $2.00 before the announcement of the Pre last December 2008 and had to get an injection of $450 million from Bono to keep it from bankruptcy.
Palm is up against Microsoft, Google, RIM, Nokia and Apple for developers. The last 5 companies have very deep pockets… Palm doesn’t.
A smartphone is more than internet, calender and a clock. Nobody buys a laptop without programs, why would someone pay $200 for a smartphone with almost no apps (only 30)?
WOOT WOOT!!!
“A smartphone is more than internet, calender and a clock. Nobody buys a laptop without programs, why would someone pay $200 for a smartphone with almost no apps (only 30)?”
Don’t know. Ask the people who bought the very first iPhone why they paid god awful amounts of money for a smartphone with NO apps.
What kind of logic is that?
When the very first iPhone came out, how many other app stores were already out?
How many other smartphones were as easy and intuitive to use as the iPhone? Android wasn’t released. Windows mobile is a joke.
You can’t compare the marketplace two years ago to the marketplace now. That’s ridiculous.
Its the same thing some people say, you can’t compare the Pre to the iPhone because the iPhone has a 2 year head start. Righhhtttt… customers will say, hmm… I won’t buy what I think is the best out there right now I will see compare the iPhone from 2 years ago to the Pre now and then decide which is better. LOL.
Yeah not sure about the Touchstone comment either. I leave mine on my desk and as I’m constantly in-and-out of my work area it is great to just rest it on the Touchstone thoughout the day to keep it juiced. Saves me from having to plug/unplug a USB cable 20+ times a day.
In fact, I like my Touchstone so much I’m going to get at least one more for home (there are two Pre owners at my house).
Oh and on a final note… as an added bonus the Touchstone comes with a back cover replacement which has a matte finish. Great feel and doesn’t show fingerprints. =)
Wow! Lots of fanboys here. But I can’t throw rocks from my glass house. I used to love the iPhone–then went to a BlackBerry pearl b/c it was smaller, traveled internationally w/ease, and had stereo bluetooth for my car… it also fit in my jacket cellphone pocket better.
Then, I bacame an Android fan after getting a G1 from the nice folks (maybe not nice designers) at HTC. My first impressions were mixed, but it became my phone of choice when I realized my BlackBerry was just gathering dust.
Then, Android 1.5 came out. It was obvious to me that the Apple’s 3GS had less to do with the Pre and more to do with Cupcake (YouTube support and all). As forecasts slate Android to overtake iPhones by 2011–I feel comfortable with staying with the platform. It can only get better with an exponential growth rate of the base. I may indeed upgrade handsets from different manufacturers–a luxury Pre and iPhoners don’t have–but I am staying with Android.
MobileMe and the iPhone theft recovery made a great splash yesterday for the iPhone–only $99 bucks a year. I was fascinated. Then I found a free app on Android that did the same thing (recovery) and was much simpler to integrate (I hit install and was done…completely).
Time will tell–but as far as platforms are concerned, Android’s model is simply more robust than either Palm’s or Apple’s as it will morph across manufactures, carriers, and int’l boundaries.
It doesn’t take an Apple Genius to figure that one out.
For the fanboys of device/hardware-centric toys: have fun with your temporary girlfriend-of-a phone and your cheap-sex “lovemaking” as mentioned earlier… I’ve got the long-term commitment thing going on with Android and the sex is great. Lots of baby Androids in the future :-)
I also do not understand the touchstone comment. I have mine and it works great and is a blessing to just dump onto and walk around my room.
I am hoping you can enlighten us Peter???
I rub the Pre on my Dick and It’s FULLY CHARGED in 500 milliseconds.
This is pretty sad, THe pre with your closeups looks terrible. I mean I wouldnt wanna carry that around. Not as bad as the googphone but terrible looking and cheap.
The app screens you showed are incredibly ugly and I cant believe Palm would risk their future on this device after seeing what apple did so well in advance.
Palm/Sprint, your ultimate and very timely demise is upon you and thank god for that.
looks like some shitty pocket calculator my dad gave me when I went to college.
All i care is when will it be released in Australia.
Do you think the Pre is the Iphone Killer?
http://www.youcanquotethis.com/archives/902
Not yet, but Apple will one up them in another year. They will play catch up with the Pre 2 and Apples next phone will be a bump ahead of them.
By this time next year there will be over 80 million apple touch device on the so it will be interesting to see.
Nothing is an iPhone killer. And this phone isn’t being advertised as such (unlike the failure that was the Instinct, which was explicitly compared to the iPhone — stupid marketing). It’s being advertised as a totally different animal.
The iPhone has its place. Blackberry has its place. WinMo as well. Android (may) have a place. And Pre has the potential to have its place too. One will not kill the others. And competition and diversity — a good thing for the market in the end.
Even though there are some idiots who think everyone should use only Apple products… that would in the end be a disaster for everyone.
I love this review. It speaks to me. I get it.
It may be cool to own everything first, but as most of my friends and I agree – I’ll wait for the 2nd or 3rd gen before I drop some change, and of course change carriers since no one in their right minds uses anything other than Verizon.
“high profile blogger”? I haven’t laughed that hard in years. Wake up, dude. You can barely pass as a high school news paper half asses hack writer. Your shit is jumbled and schitzoid. Try proofreading and editing, the stream of conscienceness crap just doesn’t cut it. I give it a low profile D-.
Very tempted to early adopt a Pre (in fact, I put myself on the waiting list, one is in with my name on it). Here’s the dilemma – Sprint contract is up this August freeing me to go iPhone 3Gs… but I’m not sold on touchscreen typing (but like everything else about the iPhone). iPhone supports MLB.TV (will the Pre? unknown). But Pre has a keyboard (even if inferior to my existing Treo and BBs). Most interesting Pre is multitasking – and after playing with one in a Sprint store for about 30 minutes I get it and like it… but battery life concerns seem to be real. But Sprint all-in data/voice/messaging is much cheaper than AT&T. Tough tradeoffs.
So it comes down to this – if Sprint will let me go for a Pre with the ability to return AND not be stuck with 2 years of Sprint if I do return I’ll likely go for it… otherwise I’m going into a holding pattern.
Once you get use to the virtual keyboard, its hard to go back to real ones. The iphone is soo good at fixing your mistypes it is unreal. You have to have this trust that it will fix a mistype.
The MLB app is awesome. You also have a greta app called sportstacular that is awesome for sports store. The iPhone 3GS speed is unreal. As for multitasking, for IM’s you can use the push notifications. and now in the new version if your in the middle of something in a app and call comes in, it brings u right back to the point in the app you were in.
I also truly believe that Apple will allow background apps on the 3gs. I am only using like 128-135 MB of RAM, with 100+ free. So I think they will give you the opportunity to run certain apps in the background eventually. And if you really want to run background apps, you can jailbreak the iphone 3gs ;-)
You can always go get a iphone 3gs, but dont port your number, u have 14 days to return and cancel the service without a penalty.
Yes, they will give you 30 days to use and return the phone and cancel your contract if you don’t like the phone.
OK, so i went to the sprint store and played with a Pre. Here are my thoughts:
Pre’s only plus is multitasking. However, the only use I found for that was streaming music. Also, the device is slow in opening applications, especially to the iPhone 3GS.
Manufacturing Quality – The pre feels cheap, the iphone feels solid. It is very clear, what I mena go pick up both device you can tell the difference.
Touchscreen – The Pre’s touchscreen is made of plastic, the iPhones is made of glass. The quality difference is HUGE!!! The model I used of the Pre at a scratch on the screen already, it very easily scratchable whereas the iPhone is not. Also, the touchscreen is not very responsive to your finger. The Pre always felt it was behind what my finger was telling it to do by a second or two. With the iphone it is super responsive.
Apps – There where only a few apps available.
Overall – I think the Pre has potential, but it is not up to par with the iPhone yet. I will be very interested in seeing what happens in the next year!!! Good Luck trying to one-up Apple. Anyone who does not think that Apple will allow multitasking in the next release of the software is dumb. They know its the one thing that palm can tout it can do and the the iPhone can’t. I’d be shocked if they don’t kill that thought very quickly in a 3.1 or 3.2 release. 4.0 i predict will bring big changes to the iPhone UI.
Everyone keeps saying the Pre multi-tasking is awesome. But I’ve yet to hear one person ever describe HOW multi-tasking is awesome?
What are these multiple apps that you’re running simultaneously?
In what way has multi-tasking made life easier for you?
What particular problem has multi-tasking solved for you?
If your in the middle of an email and u get a text, you have to leave the email and go to text screen. Also having a streaming audio app in the background is nice. I agree, the iphone needs multitasking.
Saw your post about streaming radio. Thanks – that makes sense. Can you run multiple text message windows at the same time on the Pre? or multiple email windows at the same time? that would seem to be useful multi-tasking.
Yes, you can. Think of the Pre as being more computer-like (multiple applications, multiple windows) than traditional single-task-phone-like.
Multitasking is the the ONLY advantage I have seen with the pre, unless u need to have a physical keyboard, but if you give the virtual one a chance, you will never go back to a regular one.
But do realize Apple isn’t stupid, they will see this and nip it in the butt. Especially with Steve back behind the wheel!!!!
The Pre’s ability to swipe the touchscreen to advance tracks sounds cool.
But actually the iPhone has that beat in user-friendliness and cool factor. You can advance or rewind tracks just by clicking the mic on the iPhone earbuds! And that’s been around since 2007.
Do the Pre earbuds even include a mic for phone calls or volume control? Hmmm.
Before any of you leave your iPhones, check this article out!!!!
This alone would keep me from ever buying a Pre!!!
What can it do when not connected to the internet, nothing!!!!
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/07/taking-flight-why-the-iphone-still-beats-pre-for-air-travel.ars
I have been seriously thinking about the Pre and it’s based more on the price of service than anything else. I currently have a T-Mobile Dash (almost three years old) and a 32 GB iPod Touch.
I love the full keyboard of the Dash and I would be completely satisfied with the Dash 3G, however the device is $169 (they apparently dropped the one year contract option for $50 more) and now require a data plan with all smartphones.
My current calling plan is the loyalty unlimited that runs $50 a month and I pay $15 for unlimited texting, I rely on WiFi for my data consumption so I get by for about $73 a month with all of the taxes and fees. To get the new Dash 3G would run me $169 plus replacing the $15 texting plan with a $35 unlimited data/texting plan so I would be looking at around $92 a month all said.
For me breaking $75 a month for my cell phone is a pretty tough barrier to get past, this is what has kept me from getting an iPhone as a comparable plan would likely push me over $100.
The Pre at $70 a month for 450 minutes plus unlimited data/text/nav seems like an awesome deal especially since the majority of my minutes are used after 6 p.m. and apparently Sprint nights and weekends start at 7.
On my iPod Touch I only use a handful of apps and they are all from companies that will likely release their app on all of the major app stores (Facebook, Yelp, Bloomberg, Twitter, Livestrong, Yahoo, Evernote and Public Radio).
If there are even 1 million webOS devices out there it seems like it would greatly benefit you to be one of the first developers as you can probably get your app on the majority of the devices as opposed to the iPhone that has incredible competition.
Does anyone have any comments about Spring service?
i dont know about spring but i get a lot better service with sprint in my area!!
i don’t get why there is a cult following when it comes to apple, i haven’t seen this many groupies for a single company before!! anything apple poops out they love!!
i have apple products mac book, ipod, i wont get the iphone because it is locked down to whatever apple wants you to have so they don’t lose out on revenue for example not allowing flash! if they had flash then people might not buy as many apps/games so they feel that should be off limits!!(just my theory apples fan boy back off me)
i hate company’s like that if it has the capability then let it be!! its not like flash is this bad thing for the phone that apple is keeping it off limits! (that’s also why i hate Verizon they are always locking down there phones!!) its really sad to see these apple fan boys i sometimes wonder if they are all there upstairs O_0!!!
i have a friend that works at apple eats drink apple he talks about apples non stop!!! apple can not make a mistake every thing they do is for the good of the apple followers can you say cult!?!?!! bunch of morons if you ask me!
moral of the story im getting a pre!! f#$@ iphone! not apple i like some of there stuff!!
What a beautiful review of the iPhone 3G.
Open letter to Palm Pre product manager:
I am a palm user since inception.
I think you did a huge mistake by not including
Palm Desktop and local sync. for Palm Pre.
As a hardcore fan I suggest changing your plan and commit to support
a desktop sync. mechanism for Pre (ideally with Palm Desktop).
Then announce the plan and quickly allocation resources
to get that done as soon as possible.
It will cost you losing the battle to rivals if you don’t act quickly.
- A disappointed fan!
Ive had an Apple Iphone 3G (32GB) for three weeks now. Hard to believe a celphone can hold 32 gigabites. ten years ago most would have never predicted it. Anyway ive been very happy so far except the carrier here in Australia Telstra I belive is charging way too much for downloads Ive alread clocked up over $100 in downloads mainly pocasting radio shows. I get the bit about calls dropping out ithink Apple should really address that apparent faoult other than that the application are so easy to handle, the keyboard is great even for my big fingers…
LOL, Iphone zombies and palm zombies are funny including this review. I have 3 pre’s in my family and in no way could they cut through skin. I laugh everytime I hear that line. They are both great phones that will continue to evolve for the betterment of all of us. Most of you are biased one way or the other. Sprint is great for me. I have 5 phones unlimited data, text, sprint tv, navigation, locator to locate my kids 1500 min family plan and a 205 a month bill. I dont know of a better plan, but I love my phone as does my wife and son. So you zombies keep battling, its funny.