Palm Prē, Tomorrow Morning at Sprint...

[MikeTheC]

Well, folks, tomorrow's the day, I guess. I'm going to head over there to take a look at the thing and see if it's worth getting. I would imagine that, certainly from the perspective of having a so-called "dumb phone" cell phone, it'll be an upgrade.

At this moment, I don't know for certain if I'll get one; however, the alternatives are really beyond my reach or desire at the moment. What I will be happy to do -- provided I get one and therefore have a chance to play around with it -- is write up a review and try to field questions.

Again, not to get everyone excited yet, but I just wanted to let you folks know.

Is there anyone else here planning on taking a look as well? Maybe we could collaborate on our reviews.

[MikeTheC]

Alright, so, as promised I will give you my impressions of the Prē.

The unit itself is relatively light-weight. Basically, it's what you'd expect in a cell phone. As you slide the screen upward, the bottom edge of the phone is exposed. Due to the case design, it is a sharp, hard edge that one's thumbs will be exposed to, and could easily cause some amount of bruising.

Who designed this thing's case?

Moreover, the application launcher makes an effort to mimic the Android G1, and anyone who has used a G1 should immediately recognize the similarity. It's almost as though the folks at Palm couldn't come up with anything else and so just stole the concept.

It took (no joke) about 4 minutes of furtive scrolling through and flipping between the various launcher panels to finally find the web browser, and that was with a trained sales associate guiding me through the process.

The process for navigating between various modal aspects of a program (say, for instance, preference panels and the app itself) is a bit quirky and is marginally cumbersome.

In the Prē's defense, the keyboard itself did feel decent. I didn't find myself mistyping due to accidental presses on wrong keys. It is a small keyboard, but I found it functional.

In short, I didn't buy it. I'm sorry, but it really isn't worth it. Yes, it would have been an upgrade from my present phone, but I just wasn't really as satisfied with it as I'd hoped I would.

Now, for comparison, I decided to check out a real Android G1, so I went to the local T-Mobile store. Without question, even though it came out first, the Android is the Palm Prē done right. A much larger keyboard makes the data entry process a lot nicer. The case doesn't feel as cheap, and there are no sharp edges.

Ultimately, however, I really wasn't willing to go up in cost on my monthly plan (well, at least not by as much as would be required to keep me at my present service level plus data) and so I'm staying with my present "dumb phone".

I'll replace what I've got at such time as my present unit dies.

[OutOfReach]

It took (no joke) about 4 minutes of furtive scrolling through and flipping between the various launcher panels to finally find the web browser, and that was with a trained sales associate guiding me through the process.

Erm isn't the web browser accessible from the dock-like quick launch bar?

[MikeTheC]

Erm isn't the web browser accessible from the dock-like quick launch bar?

Not by default it isn't. I forget what all is down there, but the web browser evidently isn't one of those items. You may be able to add it, but I had long since given up on the phone and walked out of the store by the point that I would have otherwise figured out if it could do that and how.

[hanzomon4]

Now, for comparison, I decided to check out a real Android G1, so I went to the local T-Mobile store. Without question, even though it came out first, the Android is the Palm Prē done right. A much larger keyboard makes the data entry process a lot nicer. The case doesn't feel as cheap, and there are no sharp edges.

Ultimately, however, I really wasn't willing to go up in cost on my monthly plan (well, at least not by as much as would be required to keep me at my present service level plus data) and so I'm staying with my present "dumb phone".

I'll replace what I've got at such time as my present unit dies.

Kids this is why you just say no... Are you serious or just yanking my crank?

[MikeTheC]

Kids this is why you just say no... Are you serious or just yanking my crank?

Absolutely serious. I personally prefer what I saw on the Android to what I saw on the Pre.

[zmjjmz]

Interestingly, you said pretty much the exact opposite of what most professional reviewers said. They liked the software, but found the keyboard to be non-functional.

[szymon_g]

ok, so its a phone...
so where are any reason to be excited about?
nothing better or worse than already existing iphone-wanna-be phones

[pwnst*r]

ok, so its a phone...
so where are any reason to be excited about?
nothing better or worse than already existing iphone-wanna-be phones

lots of people get excited about new releases of phones and since it's tech related, it's not uncommon to get excited about it.

i'm sure if you list some things you get excited about, you could be ridiculed also.

[MikeTheC]

Interestingly, you said pretty much the exact opposite of what most professional reviewers said. They liked the software, but found the keyboard to be non-functional.

Professional reviewers? Good grief, don't tell me you listen to what those folk say... :p

In all seriousness, the reviews I've seen have been with pre-release hardware. The comments about the Pre's keyboard feeling cheap or flimsy or whatever I found, in the release version of the product, to be completely unfounded. As for accuracy (not necessarily comfort) I found my large hands had no problem accurately pressing on the intended keys each time.

As I said, the Android's keyboard is without a doubt superior to the Pre's.

I can't help the software, and in any even the Pre's user interface looks like it's basically a rip-off of Android's.

Whatever unique originality that Palm once had has seemingly vanished, sad to say. I really used to like their product. Heck, I still have a Sony Clié PEG-T665C (somewhere).

Ultimately, I'm not getting one of these kinds of phones anyhow, since I just cannot justify what they charge for Internet access. I mean maybe if I didn't have a computer at home and it was going to be my only Internet device, then sure, but as things stand, what do I need to spend another $25 - $35 a month for?

[lnknpk04]

I have to say that I agree with the other reviewers on this one. I have been with sprint for years and was considering switching to T-Mobile because of the G1...then I actually tried the phone out. I didn't like the shape, feel, etc. I checked out the Pre on Saturday morning and have to say that I loved it. The keyboard is a little small for my fat little fingers, but its def. usable. I will say that I'm a little irked that the SDK isn't freely available right now. Though I like WebOS, I will be putting Android on this puppy when a good port comes out.

[musicmatt]

I am a historical palm fan; I have a TX which I love (although I do not love palm's complete abandonment of the platform as far as updates and bug fixes are concerned) and I use a treo 700p, which is the only smartphone I have enjoyed using. That being said, I went into the the sprint store a while ago to check out the pre, and actually left angry. While there are some good ideas there, I found the interface to have all the flashiness that I hate about iphones, but without the intuitiveness that I have to give them credit for (I used an ipod touch for a while). It seems like they were chasing the iphone, (as is everyone these days) and didn't do a particularly good job. Palm is never going to beat the apple at the game it invented, and they're ignoring a sizable chunk of people who not only DON'T want another iphone, but are also loyal to what Palms brand used to be. bad long term business, if you ask me.

I don't know why I care so much, but obviously I do. People are funny, aren't we?