Palm Pre (CDMA)
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 3, 2009 by Eric M. Zeman
Palm hopes the Pre can bring it back from the brink of extinction. Based on what Phone Scoop sees, Palm's chances of salvation are pretty good. The Pre is a solid phone, even if it makes a few mistakes. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
The Palm Pre
I was third in line to get this phone, and so far I am definitely not disappointed. It is definitely a fully featured phone and feels very good in you hand. I LOVE the fact that it can sync flawlessly with itunes, and by doing so you can make your own ringers. The screen is crisp and vibrant, and also has a very clear camera. The only cons i see thus far is that it is a fingerprint magnet, and that you cant set ringers for text or emails (well @ least i haven't figured it out yet anyway, lol). This is the hottest phone out right now, and i think has an edge over the iphone because of the physical keyboard. Go out and get one and see the reincarnation of Palm!!!
Pre is a great phone, with a few drawbacks
Hello.
I am a 9 year sprint customer, My last phone was the HTC Mogul, and between that horrible POS phone and the extremely bad Sprint reps we have dealt with, I was about done with Sprint.
When the CES showcased the Pre, I fell in love and hoped for a decent phone. I hate Winblows mobile and AT&T is not, nor ever will be an option so the Iphone is worthless to me for now.
The Palm Pre is a good phone, don't listen to the fools that talk about the sharp "Cheese cutting" edge, it is not that bad. As for a small keyboard, thats really a matter of opinion, but my large hands have little problem typing away, dual handed, or single handed.
Pros
I LOVE the packaging
Beautiful screen
No lights on the thing at all (i like to sleep in the dark, my Mogul had at least 3 lights on or blinking at all times)
More then enough memory at 8 gigs
easy to transfer files back and forth with my mac book
easy to use menu and a simple learning curve
BEAUTIFUL camera
the speaker for the phone is much better then anything I have had previously and the speaker phone works very nicely
Cons
Blue tooth is sketchy for me so far, but that might be due to needing an upgrade
I don't seem to get very good signal (again, an update should fix this)
It can easily scratch (still looking for good protection)
the headphones that it comes with are kind of cheap
All in all I think Palm has done a great job with this phone, and near updates will just make it better. Sprint did a good job getting this phone.
On My 6th Pre in One Year
I have been with Sprint since 1999. This is by far the worst phone experience I've had by far. Within one week of my 1st purchase, I had to replace the handset under the warranty. Within two months, I then had to file insurance claim. After that claim, I have had 4 since.
I do like to concept and some of the features, such as some of the applications, the crystal clear pictures and the speaker phone option.
I have been very disappointed with my phone experience; however, I will continue to be a loyal Sprint customer.
LOVE this phone
I love this phone. I got it in Sept of 09 and I can't find much I don't like. My biggest complaint would have to be that you can have cards open and then suddenly it says to many open. But I sometimes only have one or two open and shutting one doesn't make it so I can open another. Also when I 1st got this phone the battery was a problem but that had more to do with my "playing" with the phone. I have no trouble now for normal daily use. I also love the touchstone!!! Greatest phone I have ever had. I worked in wireless for 10 years and have been out of it for 4 but this is the best phone I've seen.
Pre: Awesome Idea Gone Wrong
Ive had the Pre since around the week it came out. (Well, I should say, I had my first pre since then, the second one since April)
At first, the phone seemed like Sprint had finally gotten it right, and seemed like a legit alternative to the iPhone, since I wasnt going to transfer to AT&T
I was amazed by the capabilities of the webOS after being a religious follower of Windows Mobile phones (I know, I know).
As time moved on, I realized that not only was the Pre not what it was advertised (not to mention that Verizon got a better one when Sprint pretty much advertised this one as exclusive...that's another beef though)
I'll get to the basics
Pros:
-Touch screen works very well
-High resolution is better than other phones ive had
-Touch screen sensitivity (ie ability to move bar)
-Qwerty keyboard
-Small, not oversized, and fits in my chest pocket
-Good volume
Cons:
-Touch screen cracked internally (apparently a widespread problem)
-No on screen keyboard
-Phone freezes (albeit less with 1.4 updates)
-email seems to freeze every day between 3-4 pm...not sure if this is just me having this problem, or others
-Phone overheats when used for longer than 20 minutes
-Apps? ...yep...you can download about 7 good ones
-Battery drains fast...update did seem to help this a little
-webOS says "too many apps running" when I try to open just one :/
...there are more cons im forgetting but honestly, this is way more than there should be for this phone.
Apparently webOS is designed alot differently than droid/Iphone and that is where some of the problem lies.
I am truly disappointed in the amount of good apps that this phone has--which is literally 7 that I downloaded (only 2200 total compared to 6000+ droid and tens of thousands of iphone apps
So much potential wasted. Palm definitely lost me on this one, and I bought an HTC Hero to replace the Pre and will be much, much happier.
Best phone I have owned so far!
I haven't had too many phones yet, and they have all been regular phone, and Pre has been my first smart phone. The reason I picked the Pre over iPhone is because I really don't care about it. But I did compare the Pre to the myTouch 3G and the HTC Hero before making my final decision. The reason I picked the Pre was because of WebOS, it was so easy to use and it wasn't in my way while I did my computing on the phone.
Hardware feels really good in my big hands. The curves on it make the devices feel natural like a river rock that has been smooth out by water.
Software well like I stated above WebOS is awesome, love it more so than Android. myTouch 3G was going to be my phone but when I decided to try out the Pre at the Sprint store I really couldn't go back to the myTouch 3G (even though I liked it very much).
PROS
Multi-tasking
Good sounds from the speaker
Synergy
Can Sync it up or use it as a USB drive
CONS
Battery life (especially if you have a lot of app runing)
Could use more RAM
A MicroSD card sold would be awesome
No virtual keyboard when surfing the web in landscape mode
Epic Phone
My first was palm was the 755p which was a cool phone it really helped me get my feet wet as far as smart phones go. My 2nd palm was the 800w which had nothing but problems than i got the palm pro which was the 800w with a better look and more stable os.
Well now that i have the palm pre all i can say is wow this is one sick device for all that it can do its amazingly user friendly.
I love the way it launch apps and multi tasking is the best part of the phone no task manager needed to close a app.
The os is very solid it rarely crashes or run slow. Palm really put there foot into this phone in my opinion this is better than the ifail lol i meant iphone.
Oh i almost forgot you can build your own apps or patches for this phone to fit your personal need.
Pros
Great os
Call quality is perfect on sprint
Very user friendly
The web browser is amazing
The look of the phone is pure eye candy.
Its has a very responsive keyboard
The 3mp camera is a work of art.
The sms email IM apps all in one is the s....
Cons
Battery life is very weak
The touch stone is a very pointless.
Longgggggggggggggg boot up time i can cook a full meal while this phone boots up.
That is the only problem i have with this phone
This phone can be deceiving.....
Much like just about anyone reading these reviews, before buying this phone, I was phone shopping and reading reviews. I heard alot of great reviews, yet alot of bad reviews about this phone, yet I bought it anyways.
I bought this phone after returning my Pixi approximately 3 weeks ago. When I first bought the phone I was excited, and eager to get home and play with the phone. It immediately updated and worked awesome, and I was beyond happy with it. I signed up for precentral.net and still read alot of bad reviews, and thought that maybe I was just one of the lucky ones that received a good working model. Low and behold, imagine my disappointment when I woke up this morning, and my phone not only would NOT turn out, but after finally turning on at the store, would not load, just remained at the palm screen.
Throughout the last three weeks this is what I have found;
Pros:
WebOS is phenomenal, no need to use my laptop for anything.
Display rich and beautiful
Can have more than one window open at a time
Can tweak the phone to your liking
Very nice camera
Nice loud sound
Full Mp3's as ringtones.
Cons:
Small feel of the phone and slick casing makes it easy to drop
If I moved the phone the wrong way the whole screen would either turn sideways and upside down.
Speaker phone not loud
Keys to close together and not very bright
Doesn't always hang up on the first attempt
had a issues with missing calls
All in all, I really liked this phone WHEN it worked, and IF/WHEN Palm works all the glitches out of this phone, when come upgrade time next year I may reconsider this phone, but for now I will just stick with my solid Blackberry.
Bad Pre Experience
Pros
Loved the features like the ability to have multiple apps up at the same time.
Cons
I had 4 Pre's, first one the external speaker died, second one would not get on line, third one the external speaker died, forth one the keyboard died.
Needless to say, I am not impressed with the quality of this phone, plus I expected it to be faster on the web. I switched to the HTC Hero and am very happy so far.
Stay away from the Pre line of phones.
Exchanged my Pre for a Hero
I just exchanged my Pre for an HTC Hero today. I did this for many reasons.
Pros: Nice screen, cool apps, good size.
Cons: Flimsy hinge, poor call quality, small keyboard, weak vibrate, poor volume for ringer and speaker, uncomfortable to hold.
There were just way too many bad things about this phone for me to keep it. I think with some minor improvements it could be an awesome phone, but it's just not there yet.
