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
Kicka** phone!
I sat outside of BestBuy near where I live to make sure I got the Palm Pre. I was a little worried since this would be the first phone with the webOS on it. I have been a hardcore Blackberry/Verizon customer for several years, so needless to say I was holding my breath.
When I left Verizon Saturday the 6th I had the BlackBerry Storm since Feb. so this was a completely different ballpark for me. All I have to say is AMAZING.
Pros
*Perfect touchscreen, so responsive.
*full keyboard, better than the full touch version.
*Very stable, no freezing, very little lag unlike my storm.
*Web is 100% faster, my storm was like dialup in the EVDO area I live.
*Tons of more features on Sprint compated to Verizon (TV, Nav, radio, nascar ect)
*the Amazon MP3 store is nice to have built in.
*WIFI!!!!! I cant say how much that is an improvement.
*the notification system is great makes it seamless, same goes with the "cards" of the OS.
*Gmail Push, I live by Gmail so I couldnt ask for better.
Cons
*battery life could be better but i know updates will come to fix that.
*no yahoo or MSN messenger at launch, once again I know they will come.
*Lack of apps, again with "they will come."
Overall I am very happy with my service and my phone I know much more is to come for the Pre and webOS so its only a matter of time.
If you are considering getting the Pre, please go to a store and really try it out if possible. This phone is not for everyone but with the try for everyone on the edge.
The Truth
Pro's
size
keyboard is great better then the 8900 BB
screen
itunes sync
gmail,facebook sync
touch screen is on par with iphone
push HTML email
Cons
feels a bit cheap
slider not very smooth
Great Phone, little buggy, but will be fixed soon, hopefully
I think this is an awesome phone. I just have been playing with it for a few days, but the UI is beautiful, the multitask is great, and everything works really well.
The keyboard is a bit small, but I don't have big fingers, so it isn't really a problem for me. The app store has limited stuff, but hopefully this will increase, as the WebOS, could be a real great hit. Hopefully the WebOS will be used with other carriers, so that developers will have big incentive to develop stuff for Palm.
Only issue is that it is a little buggy and slow at points. Also there is no auto-correct feature for the phone, ie. T-9 or something like that. Also battery life is poor. Hopefully they will bring out a battery with extended life that we can purchase.
But other than that, the phone is excellent.
Soulmate
I'm glad I chose this phone and Sprint over the iPhone and AT&T! I switched over from Alltel, since after their merge with Verizon they started sucking really bad (go figure).
Pros:
-actual keyboard
-small size
-great multitasking (have texted, checked facebook and e-mail all while talking on the phone without closing anything)
-awesome reception
-easy to sync to computer
-love how i can load my music from iTunes and play the first 30 seconds as ringtones
-easy to use e-mail
-fast network. i rarely even sync it to the wi-fi in my apartment since it works fast without it.
-love the constant free updates
-working GPS
Cons:
-battery life
-quiet ringtones
-can't choose my own alert for text messages
I absolutely love this phone! I'm not very technology saavy and I find it amazingly easy to use. Ultimately I decided between this and the iPhone for several reasons. The major ones are:
-smaller than the iPhone
-much easier to use
-offers small things i enjoy like MMS messaging without a forced paid upgrade
-AT&T and T-Mobile suck
-i can actually see my background
Pre keeps getting better
I have had the Palm Pre almost from it's initial launch. With software upgrades, now up to 1.2.1, the phone keep getting better. Use input to Palm is obviously being listened to. This is not a phone that you make a judgment on as to whether you like it or not by using it a couple of days. This phone has so many features to explore, it is well worth the time to explore them all.
From the convenient "touchstone" charger to it's unmatched Youtube clarity, this phone is a web browsing must.
Palm Pre lives up to the hype
Palm Pre is a truly great phone. I've been using it for a few weeks now and it is by far he best phone i have ever owned. I'll go straight to the pros and cons
Pros:
-Screen is sharp and clear, and great touch capability throughout the OS
-Physical Keyboard; you cannot overrate this
-True Multi tasking; flip between web pages, emails, music player, camera, etc
-Truly intuitive OS
-Phone Quality and reception are great. Granted the Sprint footprint is not as large as VZWS & ATT but where it exists it is great, and it roams free on Verizon (as long as the majority of calls are not roaming)
-Camera Works nicely, takes strong photos
-Web Browser is super fast and accurate
-Synergy makes PIM a +
-Threaded messaging (text+IM) you will wonder how you lived without it and why no one else does it right
-Itunes support!
-Small App Catalog so far, but some really good ones so far
Cons:
-Battery life needs to be improved (either stronger battery or OS tweaks but this is not a strong suite here)
-Keyboard is there, but not great. I a adjusting but this ain't no blackberry
Things Palm needs to do:
-Get the App Store going. Open up mojo!
-FLASH SUPPORT!!! What good is webkit without video?
-Video Camera, not just photos.
The Pre is really a pleasure to use. Just to illustrate I am coming from Blackberry and my wife is coming from a regular phone, and we both love our Pres, and we just switched from Verizon and are extremely satisfied with the service (and tech support one time i called).
Happily Surprised
Ok, I stood in line starting at 645 am last saturday to buy the Palm Pre at launch and after playing with it for the last couple days I must say that I am happily surprised. (see what I did there) I have owned both 2g and 3g iphones and as cool as they are I must say that the Pre definitely has a slight edge over them. Yes I know the iPhone looks realy cool and its an Apple. However being able to drag and drop music onto the device as well as simple things like being able to erase one call at a time from the call history along with a better digital camera are just a few of the things that place the Pre just ahead of the iPhone in my book. I get better reception and faster data on Sprints network not to mention that you can get this great phone w/ unlimited anytime minutes, text/media messages AND unlimited data for 100$. The battery life is ok. Ive been on it all day (My day starts at 630, it is now 520)
today talking and surfing the web and have used less than a third of my battery. Unless there are any major issues that arise within the next few days I will be keeping my pre and be completely satisfied. Bye Bye ATT and iPhone. Thank you Sprint and Palm.
Palm Pre
This is not only one of the best phones i have ever seen,it is by far the best sprint has come out with since i have been a customer(2001). The phone i had before was the instinct and even with its flaws it was a great phone that got a bad label. Marketed towards iphone customers was a bad move becasue it is not even a pda. But that aside the Pre is the best of all touchscreens that i have seen played with activated and fixed. It has all the cool features like Tv, radio and like the iphone an apps store that is soon to explode because of the ease with which to make the apps. (iphone complicated to write for) The signal strength will be 100x better than previous PDS's and also the Pre has great sound from the earpiece to the nicely proportioned speaker on the back. Overall i have had the phone 3 days and the only complaint i have would be the battery life, but with as much as this phone does, how could anyone really expect a wafer cracker sized battery to stay full the whole day.(lets be realistic) in closing this phone is a must buy for anyone who wanted more from their instinct,hates windows mobile,and wants to have good service(att is the worst from my trials) oh yeah SPRINT allows you to carry insurance something ATT still wont do. and yes i know bout sending it to apple but who wants all that hastle.
Palm Pre You use a iWhat?
Solid phone, This phone is out the box better than the iWhat. Everyone is saying how hot the phone gets, what phone dosent get warm? GROW UP PEOPLE. This a solid device with a LOT of growth potential. And its web based, ALOT EASIER to write programs for. PERIOD. Learn the facts .
The iWhat was almost 7monts pout before the SDK became available. The Pre SDK is in the works already.
I have a iWhat 8Gig, and I have compared the 2 side by side. The Pre is more responsive and alot quicker. Just watch and wait to see whats next people. The Pre is a SOLID phone. I Love It Thus Far
Palm Pre My first week with it!
first let me start out by saying that I'm not a fanboy of any phone manufacture. I am however a fan of the Palm Pre! I have owned just about every high end device Sprint has sold, I even owned the Iphone 3G for a short time, and I have been with Sprint for more than 12 years now. So let me say that this phone is not for everyone but if you like change and I must say change for the better then this phone is for you. I love the fact that I transfered all 450 contacts of mine that were on my BB curve to Google and set up my gamil and google calendar and it all popped up on my new Pre once I established my Palm Profile. Amazing! Some have said the keyboard sucks, well give it more than a couple of days to get used to it. Some are just slower than others. I adjusted very well and am typing just like I did on my curve. The battery life gets better with time. Yesterday with moderate to heavy usage at times my batter had 28% left at 11pm, I took it off the touchstone at 7am when I left for work. I'm very happy with this phone and it has been well worth the wait. I'm also excited to get new apps as they become available. What's not to like about this phone? The only thing I can really say is that I wish it had voice dialing and voice directions turn by turn on google maps. Other than that which more than likely will be added at some point in time via OTA updates. Nothing else! Phone is great I love it and wish everyone could get it right now.
