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Palm Pre Phone (Sprint) | 
| Brand: Palm
Category: Wireless
List Price: $499.99
Buy New: $79.99
as of 9/10/2010 16:31 EDT details
You Save: $420.00 (84%)
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  173 reviews
Sales Rank: 8985
Color: Black
Media: Wireless Phone
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: Palm Pre 100
UPC: 805931036766
ASIN: B002JIO4JY
Release Date: October 28, 2007
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| | Browse the web and access email and messaging with a sleek, full-QWERTY smartphone featuring a 3.1-inch color touchscreen | | | Palm's webOS featuring Synergy technology automatically pulls your contacts and calendars together into a single easy-to-view screen | | | Sprint's 3G network provides reliable data services on the road, while Wi-Fi connectivity offers extra speed when available | | | 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field; 8 GB of storage (approx. 7 GB available for user) | | | In the Box: Palm Pre smartphone, lithium ion battery, AC travel charger, carry pouch, USB cable, 3.5mm stereo headset. Measures 2.3 x 3.9 x 0.67 inches (WxHxD); weighs 4.75 ounces. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
The revolutionary Palm Pre will make your life simpler by always being one step ahead. The Palm Pre will pull each of your online calendars into a single, easy-to-view screen, so you'll always be on top of your appointments, and it will automatically link all your contacts from different sources, letting you easily find what you need when you need it. Whether you are sending emails or text messages, browsing the web, listening to music, or simply making a phone call, the Palm Pre makes everything easier than ever.  |  |
The svelte Palm Pre slides out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard for fast and easy text input. | | Palm Synergy Brings Your Calendars and Contacts Together
The Palm Pre features Synergy technology, which gathers all your information from different sources and puts them together in one place for you to see. Instead of having your information scattered in different screens, the Pre automatically brings them together so you can easily find what you need. If you have calendars from Microsoft Outlook, Google, and Facebook, Synergy will automatically gather all your appointments and put them into one easy-to-view calendar, so you won't miss an appointment again. The Pre also makes managing your contacts simple -- not only will it gather your contacts from different places such as Google, Exchange, and Facebook, but if you have the same contacts in different places, this revolutionary phone will automatically link them together so they show up just once. And all your conversations with the same person will automatically be gathered into one chat-style view. For example, if you start a conversation via text message with someone, the Pre lets you quickly reply via IM or email.  |  |  |  |
1. Take photos with the 3 megapixel camera.
2. Built-in GPS makes navigation easy.
3. Contacts are gathered into one listing.
4. Never miss an appointment with a universal calendar. | | Sleek, Attractive Design with Easy-to-Use Keyboard
The Palm Pre features a sleek design that looks great and fits easily into your pocket. It measures 2.3 x 3.9 x 0.67 inches (WxHxD) and weighs just 4.75 ounces. The pebble-shaped phone has a beautiful 3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320x480 resolution display that lets you watch videos in full widescreen format. When it's time to write an email, you don't have to settle for a small onscreen keyboard. Simply slide out the QWERTY keyboard for fast and accurate text input. The Palm Pre has 8GB of built-in memory and uses a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack so you can connect any headphone you want. 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS Keeps You Connected
The Palm Pre is smartly connected to the Internet all the time, so you'll always have quick access to your email, calendars, and other information. When you are on the road, the Pre connects to Sprint's 3G network for Internet connectivity wherever you are. Sprint's 3G network is America's most dependable and provides outstanding speed and performance. If you are home or near a Wi-Fi hotspot, the Pre can also connect to it for even faster connectivity. And with GPS functionality built in, the Pre will let you look up directions or nearby points of interest even if you're not sure where you are. Live Email that Connects with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
The Palm Pre features live email, which means that whenever you get a new email, it is pushed directly onto your phone. You don't have to wait manually push a refresh button or wait for a scheduled sync. And if your email has attachments, you can view audio, video, images, and other documents directly on the Pre. For business users, the Pre can connect to your work email through Microsoft Exchange Activesync, making things easy for your IT department. WebOS Operating System Lets You Multitask and Do More
The Palm Pre runs Palm's new webOS, which lets you keep multiple applications open at the same time and move easily between them. Each application is represented by an on-screen card. You can flip through the cards, move them around, or throw them off the screen to close the application. The webOS features universal search capability, so if you need to find anything, simply start typing. The Pre will first search through your contacts and applications to see if it can find what you're looking for, and then it will offer to search Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia or Twitter. No matter what you're looking for, the Pre will quickly help you find it. 
Watch videos in full widescreen format. View larger. | If you receive a text message or have a calendar appointment coming up, the webOS will let you know you with a small, unobtrusive notification on the bottom of the screen. You'll always know what's going on without being completely interrupted. Take and View Photos, Watch Videos, and Listen to Music
The Pre lets you take great pictures with the built-in three-megapixel camera with LED flash. You can also watch widescreen videos on the beautiful screen, or buy songs from the Amazon MP3 store and listen to them with the built-in music player. Download Applications Directly Onto Your Phone
The Pre's App Catalog makes it easy to download new applications by simply browsing for them and downloading them directly to your phone. By downloading additional optional applications, you can do more with your phone. Automatic Over-the-Air Back Up
The over-the-air Palm Services automatically backs up your data and lets you restore it -- all without connecting to your computer. If your phone is lost or stolen, you can even remote erase everything on it. Additionally, the phone will automatically receive software updates so it will always be up to date. * Activating and Setting Up the Palm Pre on First Use
After receiving Palm Pre, it needs to be set up and activated. Activation requires a few steps. First, turn on the phone by pressing and holding the Power button. You will be prompted to choose English or Spanish. The next screen will check for voice and data activation. Once ready, tap Next. You will be presented with a Terms and Conditions page for Palm Services. Tap Accept to continue. At this point, you'll need to slide out the keyboard to create a new profile. Enter your name and password. The next step is entering your email address. You'll enter the same password and email combination you first entered, and then tap Next to continue. The next screen will confirm your profile and you'll receive an email from Palm. You'll have to accept various terms and service, and continue to tap Next when necessary to continue. When prompted, you'll have to choose between two location-based service settings. Either enable Auto-Locate, which provides for seamless use of location services all the time, or tap on Ask Each Time, which gives you a prompt every time an application requests the phone's location. Once done, you'll go through a tutorial and at the conclusion of the tutorial, an onscreen prompt will let you know that you're done. First Use set up is now complete and your Palm Pre is ready to go. What's in the Box
Palm Pre smartphone, standard lithium ion battery, AC travel charger, carry pouch, USB cable, 3.5mm stereo headset.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 173
 From a Former iPhone Lover... (FREQUENT UPDATES) August 2, 2009
Dr. Dan (Miami, FL)
493 out of 501 found this review helpful
Once upon a time, I was a major iPhone fan. Like many others, I had grown tired of ho-hum smartphones and wanted something new and fresh. Initially, I loved my iPhone. There was simply nothing like it, with its beautiful touchscreen interface and great packaging. Best of all, I'd been assimilated into a fun "iPhone culture." Yeah, I guess in a way I'd even look down my nose at others who did not own one. ;p
But as time went by, my happy relationship began to sour. Don't get me wrong... as a MEDIA device, it was beyond compare. It STILL IS. But as a PRODUCTIVITY device, it STUNK: the virtual keyboard drove me bananas, the calendar was hardly usable for my purposes, and the constant dropped calls in south Florida were infuriating. As the months dragged on, I began to resent my phone and despise AT&T. There was a glimmer of hope when the Apple's App Store made its debut, but instead of productivity apps I needed, it was flooded with junk with no easy way to sift through all the noise to find the quality apps. Though I must admit I was DEFINITELY addicted to a game or two! ;)
I wanted a phone that could serve me well as both a PRODUCTIVITY and PERSONAL device. So when the Palm Pre came out, I took a deep breath and signed on with Sprint to get one on launch day (June 6th).
Put simply? ..............
I.
LOVE.
THIS.
PHONE.
When writing this review I made the assumption that you, the reader, already knows the Palm Pre's features. What I did was just jot down my real-world experiences with the Pre to illustrate how freaking AMAZING it is...
IT AIN'T PERFECT, THOUGH! I'll definitely address those issues (caution, I'm pretty blunt).
------------------------- FIRST, THE THINGS I LOVE -------------------------
1) MULTITASKING:
When I read about multi-tasking on the Palm Pre, it looked cool. When I played with the mult-tasking feature in the Sprint store, I thought it was really cool. But when I LIVED with multi-tasking, I realized I would never own another phone that doesn't do this. It doesn't always work perfectly... sometimes there are issues with lag but once you learn which apps are resource hogs you get the hang of how to operate with it.
Here's some real-world examples of how I use multitasking...
"Day-to-day"
I consistently have email, texting, Twitter, phone, and Epocrates (medical app) open at all times while I'm working. No need to search for buttons or menus. Just flick and I'm there.
"The Drive"
A while back my boss drove me down to New Orleans. I SIMULTANEOUSLY............
- Ran turn-by-turn navigation with spoken street names (thru car speakers)
- Ran Pandora (also thru car speakers)
- Sent MMS messages to my folks
- Tracked my wife's flight to Puerto Rico in real-time, using FlightView
- Viewed a PowerPoint presentation
- Sent that powerpoint presentation via email to a colleague
"Ordering Pizza and a Movie"
Just the other day my wife called me from the road to ask where she could get a movie rental and pick up a pizza in her area. I SIMULTANEOUSLY..........
- Ran my Google maps which found the nearest Blockbuster and pizza place to her,
- Ran Flixster and read Rotten Tomato reviews of different movies
- Texted my wife back and forth with my recommendations.
"Email + Messaging"
I can have both my email and texting apps open, and copy/paste from one into the other
"No Wifi headaches"
Here's a big one! I can enable/disable Wi-Fi without leaving the web page I'm on or the email I'm trying to download. Just touch the top of the screen for the menu and I'm done!
2) REAL KEYBOARD:
When Steve Jobs told me I'd get used to my virtual keyboard on my iPhone, I believed him... but after a year and a half of ownership, I came to this realization: nothing beats a real keyboard. I'm 6'3" and 200lbs, and while the Pre's keyboard is small, after a couple weeks I got very quick and accurate on it... MUCH faster than I ever did in all the time on my iPhone. It's worth mentioning that the a virtual keyboard has already been created for it, adding the convenience of BOTH. iPhone will always be stuck with just a virtual keyboard. There's also a homebrew app called "AutoCorrect Edit" that allows you to customize your autocorrect dictionary and make typing shortcuts. Killer.
3) CALENDAR:
You can sync multiple calendars to the Pre, and view them all simultaneously if you want... Google, Facebook, Exchange, etc.... they're all there. In addition to my personal calendar and my wife's calendar, I keep track the schedules of no less than EIGHT physicians in my fellowship program... all on my phone! Best part is I can view them all together, manage them, and update them from my device and send them to all the fellows and faculty in my program OVER THE AIR.
Also, there's calendar app integration... From my phone, I can add a flight directly to my calendar from Flightview. Or a movie I just purchased tickets for. Or dinner reservations I made using Open Table. All without opening my calendar. Easy. I can't wait until more apps offer this kind of functionality...
4) USB FLASH DRIVE ABILITY!
A couple weeks ago, I needed to email some documents and spreadsheets to my boss. My laptop had an erratic Wifi connection, so I was stuck. What did I do? I simply plugged my Pre into my computer via USB, dropped the files onto my phone, and emailed them to by boss using Sprint's network! Plain, freaking, AWESOME! This is not mentioned enough in the reviews I've read.
Another cool thing: who needs iTunes? With drag and drop, you can easily transfer music (with album art!) and videos back and forth on the Pre. Seriously. A monkey could do this.
5) AMAZON MP3 MUSIC STORE!
Love this place! Almost as much variety as iTunes, which is good enough for me. You can preview and download all the songs you want! I do wish you could see the duration of songs as well as the full title (for remixes and such), but overall I'm smitten with it. Not only that, they often feature entire albums for DIRT cheap. Best of all, UNLIKE iTunes, you can do whatever the heck you like with your music, and it doesn't have to be converted to a proprietary format! Beautiful.(P.S. I realize that music sold on iTunes is now DRM-free, but I still resent the fact that a good number of songs that I BOUGHT are stuck on iTunes unless I "upgrade." Hogwash.)
6) TOUCHSTONE WIRELESS CHARGER!
This is basically a hockey-puck device that you set your Pre onto and it charges it using a magnetic coil... no wires! This is particularly great at night right before I get into bed: rather than fumbling with wires and the Pre's (I'd like to smack the Palm engineers for that last one), all I do is just set my phone down on the charger. Easy. And I have a full charge in around 2 hours. The Touchstone does more than just charge my phone, though...
- If the Pre rings while on the charger and I press "TALK", it instantly goes to speakerphone.
- If I'm talking on the Pre and then set it down on the Touchstone, it instantly switches to speakerphone.
- If I want more privacy and take my phone OFF of the Touchstone during a conversation, it instantly switches speakerphone OFF. Nice.
7) CAMERA:
Outdoor shots are amazing. Shutter has almost no lag. Although my iPhone used to take better pictures in low-light conditions, when there's NO light, the Pre has a flash... my iPhone did not.
*** UPDATE! 3/1/10... ***
With its 1.4 update, the Palm Pre now shoots VIDEO! You can also EDIT the video clip and send it via MMS/email, or even directly post it to Facebook or YouTube! This function works rather well, and video quality is not bad at all in good lighting conditions. Awesome! ... So video recording took Palm 8 months, and I didn't even have to buy a new phone. Compare that to Apple, who released video recording after TWO YEARS, and you had to buy a whole new phone?! Get outta here.
8) NETWORK AND PRICING... DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!!
My wife and I are saving a ton of money with Sprint. I know coverage varies from city to city, but for me, Sprint's been great. In my opinion, AT&T cannot support the deluge of iPhone customers. They pay a high premium to maintain iPhone exclusivity, and take another hit by heavily subsidizing the iPhone to entice new customers. Subsequently, improvements to infrastructure move at a slower pace than they should. Not only that, but iPhone customers have to pay a lot more per month than say, Palm Pre customers on Sprint! All Sprint plans for the Palm Pre include UNLIMITED data, UNLIMITED texts, and TURN-BY-TURN GPS NAVIGATION! With AT&T, you have to pay out the nose for those kinds of goodies. I price matched feature-for-feature with Verizon and I'm saving tons of money with Sprint. Do. Your. Research.
9) HOMEBREW!!!
This is certainly one of the best aspects of webOS that I am saving for last. The Palm Pre has an OUTSTANDING homebrewing community. Best part is, you don't have to be a techie geek to be a part of it.
You may have heard of people "hacking" their phones in order to get them to do what they want. But unlike Apple, where "jailbreaking" is necessary to "hack" their phones, webOS users merely "homebrew" to "patch" their phones. This isn't just semantics: unlike Apple's constant Gestapo policies, Palm has chosen to embrace the homebrew community and welcome their innovation. The result? I can change the way the Pre looks and behaves. I can make it look just like an iPhone or a Blackberry. I can have homebrew apps like custom AutoCorrect dictionaries for my typos. I can change the appearance of the launcher. I can easily switch my phone radios on and off... the list goes on and on. Currently there are hundreds of homebrew apps and patches, and over a thousand themes. It's really exciting stuff and really fun to be a part of it.
10) GAMING:
I never thought I'd enter this as an advantage for the Palm Pre, but it's become very clear that the Pre's hardware is very capable of intense 3D gaming. Thanks to Palm's Plug-in Development Kit, developers can now port apps from other platforms (like the iPhone) directly to the Pre in a matter of days. Don't believe me? As of this writing there are over 30 3D games for the Palm Pre. I own six of them (Need For Speed: Undercover, Assasin's Creed, Brothers in Arms, Let's Golf, Asphalt5, Glyder2) and ALL of them have impressed me. Presently, neither Android or Blackberry can offer games as rich in graphics as seen in the Palm Pre or iPhone. Now, with the SPRINT Pre, you'll have to pretty much close every other application you have running, because these games are memory hogs. But in the case of the Pre Plus on VERIZON, you can run 3D games and 50 other apps, if you so desire. It's crazy.
... Why should you care about all this? Because here we have a device that can now do intense 3D gaming...... AND all of the cool stuff I listed above. Pretty damn cool.
--------------------------- MY MAJOR COMPLAINTS ---------------------------
1) BATTERY LIFE.
Suuuuucks. No two ways about it. I'm lucky if I'm able to make the day during heavy use or extended periods in areas with bad reception. Luckily, the battery is REMOVABLE, and extended-life batteries are available. If your battery ever dies, you have the option of slapping in a spare... this is actually a WONDERFUL feature... I just wish the stock battery was better.
****** UPDATE (3/1/10) ******
Since the Pre was updated to 1.4, battery life has improved somewhat. I can now get through an entire day of moderate to heavy use on a single charge. Keeping things in perspective: my wife (nowhere near as heavy a user), used to get through the entire day on a single charge BEFORE the update.
2) LAG.
Here's what I don't get: the Pre has the same processor speed as the iPhone 3GS, yet there are times I want to throw my Pre against the wall. Don't get me wrong... the Pre is usually quick and multitasking makes this less of an issue. But sometimes? The times it takes for my Pre to "think" and process my commands are unacceptable. Palm has made inroads on this: with the latest update, the calendar speed is much, much improved and I am now satisfied with it. And soon, Palm will give us an update which will directly access the Pre's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which will mean much faster scrolling and graphics rendering in browsers and games. Still, I'm left wanting faster performance overall.
*** UPDATE! 3-10 ***
Palm's made significant progress in this area with their latest 1.4 update. Now all Palm has to do is enable that GPU, and we'll be very close to getting iPhone-like speeds. Lag is almost a "minor" complaint now, though it could still be faster.
*** UPDATE! 4-10 ***
A homebrew patch has been released that allows you to overclock the Pre's processor. What this means is you can run the phone faster than it was designed. Theoretically, there's a risk of wearing your processor out faster. Battery life also takes a hit while the device is in use. But, the added performance has been well worth it and my battery life has been the exact same while on standby. It was incredibly easy patch to do and I did it in five minutes. I recommend it to pretty much everyone! If you need help look me up on Twitter (@vara411).
3) 8 GB OF MEMORY, NON-EXPANDABLE.
This has been less of an issue than I anticipated, but with the new 3D games and video recording, I anticipate my memory requirements will go up. Despite all the apps and videos of my baby daughter, I still have 4GB free. Not too bad. Fortunately, the USB drag/drop function on the device makes clearing space so easy. It's worth noting that the Palm Pre Plus has DOUBLE the internal storage (16gb, non-expandable) and double the RAM. If memory is more of an issue for you, then the Pre Plus is definitely worth a look.
-------------------------- MY MINOR COMPLAINTS ---------------------------
1) NO VISUAL VOICEMAIL... YET. C'mon Palm and Sprint. Update this!
2) NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THE HELL A PRE IS... YET. Thanks to less-than-stellar marketing decisions, the Pre has not caught on very well. Compare that to the Motorola Droid and iPhone marketing campaigns, which are much better run and have much larger budgets... and you see Palm may have a tough time getting the word out through all the noise. But hey if you are a trend-setter and want to be different, get a Pre or Pre Plus! :)
3) APPS...
At the time of this writing (***updated 4/14/10***) the Palm Pre's App Catalog has almost 2,000 apps (plus hundreds of homebrew apps and over a thousand themes). This is certainly dwarfed by the thousands of iPhone and Android apps, but they're really starting to become a steady stream (no longer a trickle) of new apps. My complaint is that I'm still missing some very important apps, namely Docs2Go with full EDITING capabilities. It's supposed to come to webOS in early 2010, but my patience is wearing thin. I also wish we had Shazam, though I know we'll get it as soon as Palm releases its mic API's.
But if it's apps you want, you should know the Catalog still has a ways to go. It's grown substantially since starting with 30 apps, but I'm still quite peeved we don't have Docs2Go (right now you can only view but not edit Office files) or Shazam... but they're coming! Plus, we have a lot of big names now, like Direct TV remote DVR, Slacker Radio, Pandora, Flixster, etc... and we now have awesome 3D games like Need for Speed, Assassin's Creed, etc.
4) PALM'S FINANCIAL TROUBLES
I thought I'd include a little blurb on this because a lot of people have come up to me and said "Palm isn't doing well, therefore I shouldn't buy a Pre." This is crazy talk. First of all, my phone still works great regardless of Palm's financial reports. Second, webOS is an EXCELLENT product. Regardless of what happens to Palm (if they get bought, for instance), it will definitely persevere and continue to thrive. Third, there's awesome deals to be had right now: the Pre Plus is really cheap right now with FREE Mobile Hotspot on Verizon. Basically, you can tether up to five devices (laptop, iPad, iPod Touch) to your phone... FOR FREE! Finally....... and this is very important........ this is a PHONE we're talking about, people. Not a car or life insurance! Sheesh.
... I guess that sums things up! In short, I'd say the Palm Pre is a great blend of the iPhone and a Blackberry, with the added ability to multi-task. If you're between either of them, I'd highly recommend it. I love it.
********************* UPDATE 10-07-09 **********************
It's confirmed: Palm Pre is coming to Verizon in 2010.
********************* UPDATE 10-15-09 **********************
To save money, my wife joined me on Sprint. She initially went for the HTC Hero because she wanted a virtual keyboard. She didn't like it, and got a Palm Pre instead. In her words: "it's just so much easier to use." She also has grown quite fond of the Pre's keyboard.
********************* UPDATE 11-19-09 **********************
It's been almost 6 months since I got my Pre and, with caveats, I'm still in love with it. There have been a couple issues like the flimsy USB door falling off but I repaired it myself.
Also, since I've owned the Pre, Palm has sent SEVEN over-the-air updates. It's great to see they're continuously refining and improving it. Subsequent updates have added new features... to name a few:
- SMS Emoticons
- Text forwarding
- Copying text and images from the browser
- Speed improvements
- Yahoo! synergy and instant messaging
- E-mail search capability
- Ability to send contacts as .vcf files via SMS or email
********************* UPDATE 12-09 **********************
Palm updated to 1.3.5, which removed the silly app limit and significantly improved performance of the Pre. All the love lost is back again. ;)
********************* UPDATE 1-10 **********************
The Pre now has 3D gaming! I'm not talking silly games... I mean 1st person shooters, Need for Speed... just like the iPhone. Awesome.
The Pre gets video recording in February!
The Pre gets Flash 10.1 in February!
********************* UPDATE 3-10 **********************
With the 1.4 update, we now have video recording! We can also edit videos and post them to YouTube, Facebook, or send 'em via MMS or email! Other notable enhancements are *MUCH* faster performance in opening apps and better battery life. I love how Palm keeps improving this thing.
Palm Pre VS iPhone VS BlackBerry. The Pre is an Awesome Phone. November 9, 2009
Andrew (Maryland, USA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
I have owned the Palm Pre phone for close to 5 months now, and all I can say is wow. I bought 2 phones for the family when they were first released in June 2009, one each for my wife and me. She loves her phone. After 5 months of use, both phones look brand new. As a business owner and technology analyst, this phone is quite impressive and fully meets my needs!
Build Quality is Solid with a Nice Keyboard:
The Palm Pre phone comes with a 1 year warranty from Palm. This is a good sign when a company is willing to back their products for that long, especially for a mobile device that gets handled and moved around frequently. I am an electrical engineer and computer science professional by training, so I pay close attention to the engineering and quality of the products I buy. First the basics - the Palm Pre is a solid and well built phone. The keyboard slides from under the phone for typing in letters and symbols. The phone has two moving parts (the top of the phone, the screen area; and the bottom of the phone, the keyboard); these are designed to have a little give, which means you can slightly twist the top part of the phone from the bottom. Some people have wrongly assumed that this must be a defect or poor quality, but that is not the case. Every Palm Pre phone has this slight twist, and so it is perfectly normal; it allows the phone to open and close freely without much friction and thus preserve the life of the phone (i.e. its sliding mechanism). In five months of using both phones, the sliders on our phones have continued to work perfectly. I use my phone frequently, about 1 to 3 hours per day. I handled the phone delicately the first few weeks, like any new device; but I soon learned that it is more solid than it appears. In contrast to the Palm Pre, the iPhone does not have a physical keyboard and thus no moving parts. The BlackBerry phones come in many different styles and many with fixed keyboards. None of these phones have the elegant sliding keyboard found on the Palm Pre - slightly curved. Typing on the Palm Pre keyboard is nice. If you type on the Palm Pre keyboard with it close to your ears, you can actually hear a click sound after you press each key. The keys look small, but are quite responsive. I am of average height and build, and I have medium sized hands (much larger than my wife's hands) and I was surprised how easy it was for me to type on the keyboard and make very few typing errors. I typically type a few lines of text before I hit a wrong letter. I like the fact that the Palm Pre keyboard provides a nice tactile feedback (each key you press, you can tell when it makes contact - a little like your light switch when you turn on the light).
The Battery Life is Normal for a Smart Phone - Can be Expanded:
The Palm Pre is a smart phone that has a large screen for viewing web pages on the Internet. The battery last about 1 to 2 days based upon usage. If you plan to spend hours at a time on the Internet, the phone will last you no more than about 5 hours, about the same as the iPhone or comparable BlackBerry phones. The battery in the Palm Pre (and Blackberry) is replaceable. So you can purchase a second battery for your Palm Pre phone and keep it charged for emergency. This allows you to take the Palm Pre phone on long trips or if you work outside of the office. The iPhone's battery is sealed, so you cannot replace it. One thing I like about the Palm Pre is that you do not need to connect the phone directly to the electrical outlet via a cable to charge it. It can be charged wirelessly by simply resting the phone on top of the optional touchstone wireless charger and it automatically starts charging.
The Camera - A Real Surprise:
The Palm Pre at the time of this writing has the most beautiful user interface of any smart phone device on the market (more on this below). My nice has a BlackBerry phone, and the minute she saw the Palm Pre, she fell in love with it. I took a picture of her baby, and her husband who has worked as a professional photographer thought the Palm Pre had a 10 megapixel camera - the picture was stunning. The resolution of the Palm Pre screen is so sharp and the colors so vibrant and beautiful, her son's picture just seems to "pop" and seemed too stunning to be taken by a smart phone. And the picture taken was extremely sharp. None of the other smart phone cameras seem to come close. As an engineer, I did a little investigating to see why the Palm Pre, with only a 3 megapixel camera can produce a picture that looks like it came from a 10 megapixel camera. What I learned surprised me! Palm engineers used the latest image correction technology produced by DxO Labs. This technology is also licensed by Nikon and Canon, and it increases image quality, exposure, lighting, and color optimization, to produce beautiful, brilliant, and vibrant color photos. I own a Nikon D80 SLR camera, so it is good to know that I can take quality pictures with my Palm Pre phone on my casual trips around town and on vacation. So quality picture is not just about megapixel count, it's also about the photo sensor and image processing; for this I give the Palm Pre an A+. I was not expecting such a high quality built-in camera when I bought the phone, so I am extremely pleased. Thanks Palm!
Performance:
The Palm Pre has a high performance processor like the iPhone 3GS. In a recent review by Tomshardware, it was found to be faster than the iPhone 3GS. Overall performance was: Palm Pre (13.8s) versus iPhone 3GS (16.4s). In the last two months, I have noticed that hundreds of new applications, both free and paid applications (one dollar and up) are becoming available for download on the Palm Pre phone. This is good because Palm just announced that they will soon be increasing the performance of the Palm Pre phone through over-the-air software updates. I thought my Palm Pre phone was fast enough, but I will take this.
Impressive and Intuitive User Interface:
The user interface (which is part of Palm's WebOS operating system) on the Palm Pre is simply the most "elegantly" modern of all of the smart phones. This is where the Palm Pre really shines, and why my wife and I love this phone. It is so intuitive, you feel as if it was designed for you. It can run a number of applications at the same time; you can move multiple opened applications on the screen as if you are moving a deck of cards in your hands or on a table, and flick the card (that is, an application) off the screen to close the application. With the competing phones, you cannot do that; their interfaces are like calculator buttons, you press on the different buttons to open their applications. The Palm Pre card interface called "card view" is an absolute revolution on how a smart phone's interface should work. It puts each website you go to on a separate card, Wikipedia on one card, Amazon on another card, etc., it's simply awesome. The Palm Pre has other innovations like synergy to sync your Facebook, Twitter, Google Mail, Yahoo Mail, and Exchange Server accounts and more to your phone. One of the things I really like is the "notification area" feature of the Palm Pre, in which messages appear on a small strip at the bottom of the screen to notify you of emails or phone calls which is great if you are in a meeting.
Conclusion:
After 5 months of use, both Palm Pre phones have been rock-solid, and a pleasure to use. When I am not at work, I use my Palm Pre phone to listen to audio recordings with my Sony wireless Bluetooth headphones. I would not use another smart phone event if you offered me free cell phone service. This is a well thought out and designed phone. That is why a recent survey showed that approximately 90% of the people who bought the Palm Pre phone are pleased with their decision. I for one am a happy customer; the best cell phone purchase I have ever made. Before the Palm Pre, I wanted an iPhone; not anymore! I highly recommend the Palm Pre phone.
Best Smart Phone I've Ever Owned August 3, 2009
Daniel Rimar (Cape Coral, FL)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
had a Blackberry for work, and a Sanyo 8400 for personal use. I was tired of carrying two devices and could not use the Blackberry for personal calls. I bought the Pre the first day it was released and haven't needed the Blackberry since. The Pre handles my work (Exchange EAS) and all personal email accounts.
The Web browser is fantastic. In October the Pre will be one of the few smart phones with Adobe Flash support.
The Web OS makes it easy to develop apps. Many users are creating "Home Brew" apps that can be downloaded at Pre Central [...]
Turn by turn navigation is included with an everything data plan. Other carriers charge extra for this service.
Text messages are treated as coversations, each person you are texting is a separate session and you can see your entire conversation. You can use the touch screen to switch between different contacts. The Pre's slide out QWERTY keyboard makes typing easy and convenient.
Ergonomically the phone is well designed. It sits very comfortably in your hand. The touchscreen and gestures are intuitive. The screen is bright, sharp, and clear.
The only negative is that the phone is fragile. Get a nice case and screen protector. I like the Phantom Skinz screen protector.
The bottom line is that this phone does all of things I need a phone for extremely well- email, texting, web browsing, and navigation. The Web OS makes the apps and possibilities endless.
Came from an iPhone with high expectations... and they were met! November 19, 2009
amd2
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I owned my original iPhone for two very happy years. I wanted to upgrade to the 3GS but my husband and I agreed that it would be smart to switch to Sprint in order to save money. Well, I wasn't very happy about this. My husband has a Palm Pre, and he's all ga-ga over it, but I wanted a phone with a virtual keyboard, so I initally got the HTC Hero. After two weeks I couldn't take it anymore... it was simply not easy to use and the virtual keyboard drove me nuts. So I traded it in for a Palm Pre (to my husband's secret delight).
I miss being part of the "iPhone club," having a bigger screen, and having virtual voicemail... but outside of that? I'm a very happy customer. The Palm Pre has turned this unwilling recipient into a proud owner.
What do I like about it? EASE OF USE. The HTC Hero was a headache to understand. With the Palm Pre, I was able to figure it out within a day or two, as though I had been using it for years. The cards system of multitasking is genius in its simplicity, and very effective. I can easily flow from the web browser to my emails to my texts and calendars effortlessly.
It also helps that the Palm Pre is a much more open ecosystem than the iPhone, which allowed my husband to install an iPhone theme onto my Pre (for old-time's sake!), to make it look exactly like an iPhone. I know you can "jailbreak" an iPhone to do this also but the vast majority of people don't know how to do that, whereas any average Joe can make the Pre look and sound just like a Pre. My husband actually DESIGNED a Blackberry theme for the Pre and it's one of the most frequently downloaded.
Another thing I really like about the Pre is the screen. It's smaller, but vibrant and beautiful. The HTC Hero had 65,000 colors, but the Palm Pre? Sixteen million!
This may sound silly but another feature I like is the mirror on the back of the Pre's slider. Ladies (and guys, you too!)... this is a very useful feature!
Palm's App Catalog has a growing number of apps, some of which I find really useful, like Pandora, Google Maps, and Flixster. I haven't missed the thousands of iPhone apps quite like I thought I would because to be honest I didn't download that many when I had my iPhone.
I really like the camera on the Pre. Fast shutter times, and great outdoor quality pictures. Indoors the quality suffers in low light... but when there's NO light then we can use the Pre's built-in flash.
Finally, updates. I like how Palm regularly updates this phone. With the iPhone they would only come once in a while. It's good to know that Palm is continually striving to improve their product. The Pre now saves pictures and copies text from the browser and forwards text messages. Full flash capability is coming soon which will make the browser even better. (My husband told me to put that part in!)
Things I don't like? Battery life is pretty bad. My phone will certainly be dead in the morning if I forget to charge it overnight. My husband surprised me with a Touchstone charger and if you get this phone you HAVE to get this accessory. I don't have to fiddle with wires or anything... just set my phone down and I'm done. Another thing I don't like is that things aren't quite as snappy on this phone as on my friend's iPhone 3GS... but it has gotten faster with updates and again I can do more than one thing at once on the Pre.
That's pretty much it! I'm not a very techie person, just an average consumer and smartphone user. I thought I would miss the iPhone more than I am now, but to be honest, the Palm Pre has been a pleasant surprise. I really like it. If you're on Sprint or on another network considering the Pre, it gets my vote.
Palm Pre is the best phone I've ever used. August 3, 2009
J. Rome (Manhattan Beach, CA)
23 out of 28 found this review helpful
I've had the Palm Pre nearly 2 months now, and overall I have to say that I am very, very pleased. The ability to multitask has made it all too simple to quickly flip between web pages, Twitter, music and email. The card system is the simplest multitasking paradigm I've seen on any platform, handheld or desktop. The notification system for incoming phone calls, new emails, text messages and calendar events is best in class, as you're able to deal with these other tasks on your schedule, not according to the dictates of the phone. And it's fun to use, too. While there are not thousands of third-party applications yet, the ones available are of uniformly high quality and are always useful.
The turn-by-turn directions (free with every Sprint plan available) are dead-on accurate and have me wondering if I really need that fancy GPS that's integrated in my car. As a phone, it's much better than expected. While the signal strength is a bit worse than the Palm Centro it replaced, it's rarely an issue since free roaming (voice & data) is included. The speakerphone has gotten rave reviews from folks on the other end of the call, apparently it works quite well. I especially like it paired with the Touchstone, as the speakerphone automatically activates when placed on the dock, and it switches back to regular mode when picked up. Cool.
I've got this working with 3 Bluetooth devices so far... an inexpensive headset, an Eclipse AVN-2210p in-car GPS and the Motorola ROKR S9-HD headphones. The headphones work for music and voice calls, and the controls work great for music. Speaking of which, the Palm media player works well, as it easily syncs with iTunes to update Podcasts, music & playlists automatically. In fact, it's so good as an MP3 player that I've sold an iPod Touch and I haven't used the Nano since purchasing it!
The web browser works very well, able to navigate to any web page (except for crappy Flash-based sites) and works seamlessly on iPhone-optimized websites. The screen is a little on the small sign, but laser sharp. If the text gets too small, I just flip to landscape mode and then reading is a breeze. Using gestures to navigate websites and to launch new cards (applications) takes about 5 seconds to learn and then quickly becomes second nature.
And of course, it has a very usable thumbboard, making it easy for anyone to tap out text messages (unlimited on the Sprint plan), send email or even write new blog posts. From card view, you can start typing and the Pre automatically finds email addresses, phone numbers and bookmarks that fit the characters. Or you can immediately search Google or Wikipedia to find the information you need.
The camera is very good, great for emailing pics and the colors are very nice. The flash makes it usable in a pinch even in the lowest light, and with the right lighting conditions (just before sunset, in the fog) the photos could easily be mistaken for something taken by a point & shoot camera or even an SLR.
Overall I'm very happy. To recap the positives:
- Great voice quality
- Exceptional speakerphone
- Touchstone integration is very nice
- Music player has replaced 2 iPods
- Best-in-class web browser
- Easy multi-tasking
- Very good camera
- Physical keyboard
- Universal search
- GPS-based turn-by-turn directions
- Great applications out of the box (YouTube, Google Maps, Sprint NFL)
- 3rd-party applications are universally great (Tweed, Pandora & Accuweather are among my faves)
- Awesome alert system
- Replaceable battery
- Charges over standard micro-USB connector
- Can be used as USB thumb drive
- Good Bluetooth support
- Battery life is good even under moderate-to-heavy usage
- The slider means that the phone slips easily & unobtrusively into any pocket
Things that should be improved soon
- More applications in the App Catalog
- Better signal strength
Really, that's it. All the Spring plans included unlimited data, unlimited texting, GPS directions and Sprint TV. Honestly, it's the best new gadget I've ever had.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 173
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