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
Palm Pre and WebOS
This is a good device.
This year I went from the iPhone 3GS(iPhone OS) with AT&T and then the HTC MAGIC/MYTOUCH(Android OS) unlocked with AT&T and now to Sprint with the Palm Pre(WebOS) and I have to say that the WebOS is by far the best looking and operating. WAY TO GO PALM!
The Palm pre also has a great design and is much easier for texting than on the iPhone and Mytouch. ALSO GO SPRINT! Super Fast Internet and GREEATT PRICE!!$30 per month cheaper than AT&T and has better service!
Pro:
Great looking OS
Cool Futuristic Design
Full Keyboard
Good Speakerphone
Great Call Quality
OS Has ALOT of Potential
OVER THE AIR OS UPDATES! YEA
Great Web Browser
Super Crisp LCD Screen
WIRELESS CHARGING! (WORKS GREAT FOR ME)
Soft rubber matte feel w/Touchstone back(NO CASE NEEDED)
Easy Call interface
Great Texting interface
WiFi works great!!!
Cons:
Sometimes it acts weird (newer OS)
doesn't really bother me b/c its nothing major.
Overall this phone is more exciting than the Iphone and the Mytouch and the blackberry and the driod and the Nexus one and the Hero and anything out right now. Basically because of the design and feel of it and an OS that makes your realize that Palm was one of the first smartphone makers
The Pre is Simply The Best...
Wow... Finally a phone that is more fun to use than an iPhone 3g. Initially I had gotten a Hero, but after a few weeks of suffering with Poor Performance (Lag), Weak Email system, and other issues. I decided to give the Palm Pre a try despite some of the negative reviews on here and I'm glad I did.
Palm's WebOS is truly the best operating system ever made yet and can only get better. I love how the Pre does Muli-tasking with the Card System. It is awesome and really fun to use. Just a finger flick and the open program is wisked away and closed. Synergy just works great and the music player is very good.
I Love the size with its pebble like shape and smoothness. Build quality is actually excellent for a slider phone with good weight and smooth sliding operation. I have had no issue with cracks or oreoing. The screen is a pleasure to look at with web pages rendering clean, colorful, and sharp. Youtube works great and loads fast on Sprint. The keyboard tough on the small is excellent and easy to use... You need to try one yourself.
Pros:
Form factor- Really fits perfectly in hand.
WebOS- Truly the best
Touchstone charging system- Is a must have.
Screen- Beautiful and Clear
Call Quality- Excellent
Signal Strength- Very Good in my area
Synergy
Palm App Store- Good Quality Apps
Good Build Quality
Battery life is better than my iPhone 3g
Cons:
No camcorder
Can't wait to see the 2nd Generation Palm Pre...
did what some may consider blasphemy
sooo I traded my hero in yesterday for this here palm pre... Went through best buy so I got some gas money out of it ;) and heres why I did what I did...
the hero had a problem where the phone wouldn't sleep and using 3rd party sms apps as a temp fix led to bugs and missed txts... Apps would crack when I had to restart the phone cuz it would randomly lose its evdo connection and not reconnect again, so I was constantly uninstalling and reinstalling apps... I didn't really like all the screens and widgets for Sense UI... And my best buy in victoria, tx wasn't gettin the samsung moment :(
and now my 2 cents on the pre...
yayz:
hardware qwerty :) I used a treo 800w for a year and have stick fingers to this kb is no problemo and way faster than the touch pros and the heros
webOS is awesome! The gestures, multitasking, the freakin Konami Code for dev mode, all the other easter eggs, the card system, I could go on and on...
the screen is like wow! Looks better than heroes to me, despite its .1" smaller size :P
(I do though have a blemish of discoloration on the bottom left corner, but that just makes it MY palm pre :D)
nayz:
the battery.. sorry palm but a 1150mAh batt doesn't cut the mustard... I had it in my locker at wuurk all nite and it was down 50% in 8hrs by only sending 10ish txts and browsing the web during my 30 min lunch break...
the slider.. it feels weird as I used a touch pro and rumor and those slide landscape.. but both weren't perfect on them either as they had wobble and gap too.. I think the portrait slide has me jumbled.. or maybe I'm just paranoid..
the usb hatch cover.. its crap and hard to pry out...
and I'm just paranoid about screen cracks and the dreaded "oreo effect" that linger in the forums related to the pre.. my only comfort is that I haven't read anything about a cracked screen in a post dated past july...
all in all I'm quite content and I can't wait for more apps and flash 10 :D
Palm has a winner
wow I am really amazed by this phone, and having come from an iphone 3g that is saying a lot.
In my opinion there are two phones that stand above the rest iphone and Palms new webOS phones.
iphone is a great device, but the Pre really picks up on some things that apple leaves behind.
1) multitasking is amazing how did I ever live without this???
2) Synergy is outstanding. I didn't have to enter 1 contact in my phone, and my calender syncs flawlessly without plugging into my computer
3) navigation is a breeze
4) screen is great
About the only bad thing is the battery life isn't great, but no worse than iphone in my opinion, anf the keyboard is a little on the small side so it takes some practice.
Sprint has some really awesome plans too, I save a ton over AT&T plus they have 3g everywhere I go.
Reccomend the Pre
I have owned the Palm Pre for about 2 weeks now and love this phone. All the people who are bashing it, I don't understand. I guess everyone has their own opinions though. People complain about no on screen keyboard, no apps and and a few other features but most are fixable with the hacks/tweaks. The Pre has a Linux base so a lot of it can be changed around without affecting the phone.
Pro:
Awesome Camera and Flash
8GB storage for songs, pictures and movies
Pull Out Keyboard
Like an iPhone but improves on iPhones short fallings.
SMS is like a instant message chat
WebOS! Ability to change the entire OS without taking the phone in.
Multi Tasking!
Video Quality
Phone Sound Quality
Speaker Phone Quality
Many more ...
Cons:
Battery Life! I am near a computer most the day so I can charge it but can barely make it a day without charging. I use it a lot though. That is my only complaint or problem I have had with the phone.
Lots of Firsts with this Device
There were so many firsts with this device. I carried this phone for about 2 months. I really fell in love with a lot of it. There were just a few things that held me back from giving it 5 stars.
PROS:--------------------------------------
Size (very thin for a touchscreen = keyboard)
Capacitive hi-res screen
Palm Synergy (really brought my google and facebook to life)Just having it assign the facebook profile pictures to my contacts picture ID was so amazing!
Universal search. Made using the phone a snap.
Multi-tasking, loading webpages and applications in background. Loved it.
Processor Speed, don't kid about WiMo slow downs, this phone is fast. It can handle a lot of software abuse.
Homebrew was easy to install and easy to find. Very supported homebrew community.
Visual Interface was stunning.
CONS:-------------------------------------
No video (i am a video junkie)
Text messaging options (cannot forward, copy, or change ringtones for)
Massive Potential
It was going to take an act of God to get me off my crackberry, well apparently it only took an act of John Rubenstien.
PROS:
-Size / form factor, love the feel of this phone in my hand and while on calls
-WebOS, this OS has insane potential, especially when flash 10 comes out, just look at the Homebrew apps out there, sky's the limit, best multi-tasking on phone yet
-Synergy, syncing over the clouds, snag Pocket Mirror or Echo and your syncing Outlook over WiFi. No more cords
-Screen, super responsive touch screen, very bright, great pixel density
-Web browser, who needs a facebook app when facebook works fine from the browser, as soon as flash support comes out, best mobile browsing experience out there
CONS
-no out of the box outlook sync support (i've heard webos1.2 will resolve this), not a problem for me though, i sync via wifi
-slider mechanism has a tiny amount of play, not horrible but doesn't inspire confidence
-does not yet support contact groups (miss my mass txt messages i sent to my work group for updates), should be fixed in update
-"only" 300-ish apps via catalogue and homebrew
-voice calling not currently supported (works if you have a headset with builtin voice control though like the blueant V1)
Huge PRO: most software / OS cons can be and will be resolved via the enormous OS update support Palm is providing as well as 3rd party app support.
Palm Pre is Great
I simply love this phone i can multi task even when i am on the phone. this phone is truely a great phone has to be one of the best phones that i have came across. The phone is user friendly even my grandmother can use the phone that how easy it is.
pros
great screen
good pop out key board where you don't have to use two hands to use it
web is so fast and i can get on any site
Gps god on this phone because of the bigger screen
you can make your own ringers
email is very fast
very easy to run different programs
Cons
The app are coming in really slow(but i have seen some improvement)
battery life not so great(but really does any PDA have a great battery you better go get an extended battery)
sometimes my contacts get switch to a different contact
Outstanding phone
This is an outstanding phone. All the more amazing is that it is a 1.1 release of software. It does a lot things including taking great pictures, sound quality is very good, very usable internet. Bundled with good set of applications including GPS. My wife has the iPhone and that is another outstanding phone but the Palm Pre actually is the first phone that compares to it. Both show a lot of attention to detail (something that negative reviewers never to take the time to notice). I find that my adult male fingers handle the keyboard just fine. The way it deals with contact is so good, it consolidates everyone into a single entry. Touch Stone charger is a neat toy that saves some wear and tear on the phone as you just drop into place and its charging. I find sync with my Mac works and is very useful. As with all things there are a few limitations. Battery life is limited. This appears to be a problem with the radios (watch a youtube video using G3 and the bottom of the phone gets hot and the battery goes down, switch to Wifi and it will actually cool down and the battery holds up much better). The number of applications available are very limited but still not bad for a 1.1 release of software. Both problems can be fixed with software updates, which so far have been coming.
I LOOOOOVE my pre
pros-
multi-tasking
fantastic screen
fast internet connection
user interface
lets you talk to someone when theyre online and switches automatically to text if they aren't online.
look and feel
camera
con-
battery life
battery life
battery life
slight lag when rendering images
first pre had cheap build quality. second pre was fantastic
so i bought this phone initially just to try it out. i have an iphone and was curious about this PALM PRE. i never really intended to keep it. i was just experimenting with it and putting it against the new iphone. in my mind nothing could beat the iphone, but it didn't hurt to try. and to my amazement this phone really BLOWS AWAY THE IPHONE. being an EX apple geek, that means alot.
as for the app store... apple has 65,000, but about 64,500 of them are pure garbage... hundreds of fart apps... fake beer drinking apps... tazer?? wtf? and half of them are test trials for actual games.... for every game that costs more than 99cents... there is a trial...
my favorite feature is the multi tasking. it flows seamlessly from app to app. when i get a call, it doesn't kick me off the app, i can just simply switch to another app while talking. the sound quality is better than the iphone's. the speaker is better than the iphone. the internet is WAY FASTER! its sad when i watch youtube on the iphone... it stops and plays then stops and plays and the quality is tragic. i can barely see whats going on.
on the pre, i feel like im watching a tv. and there really is actual tv too with full episodes.. thats way cool.
on to the bad parts.
the graphics can be a little bit laggy at times, but i found out that its the GPU not being utilized yet. this will come with a future update and it will b a smooth if not MORE smooth than the iphone.
the battery life is FRICKIN WIERD. sometimes it would die on me in 6 hours with minimal use. sometimes it would last me 36 hours. the battery life is not very good.
