One month with the Palm Pre

Looks

Through out the hype period before it’s actual launch, the images of the Pre concerned me a bit. With all the curves, I thought it would be a bit too femalish for me, but when you actually get to play with the device, it has this cool alienish futuristic look to it. Touchstone also adds to this coolness.

Keyboard

The keyboard is fine if you are coming from older devices like the Treo but am not sure if you are coming from the newer BlackBerrys. That might take more time getting used to. I have been using the iPhone over the past year and since the Pre is also a touch screen, one tends to start out using it like the iPhone. However, with the full qwerty keyboard, you can get around much quicker and get things done faster. 

Set Up

Setting things up is really sweet and fast. Since this is essentially a cloud phone, you just enter you email info, im info etc and you are good to go. I was even pleasantly surprised being able to set up the my Gx5 email without having to sync with my Desktop. I think this may have to do with some of the magic they got from the Chattermail acquisition. 

Multitasking

Palm’s implementation of multitasking is just absolutely wonderful. The card paradigm is the sweetness thing I have ever seen on a Smartphone.

Fatter is better

The Pre feels better in your hand than the iPhone. For once, thin is not better.

Third Party Apps

Even though the App catalog has a limited no. of apps, using these apps validate WebOS as a platform to create powerful and useful apps. Even more exciting is what is going on in the hacking/jailbreak scene, where like the iPhone, you will soon see some mind blowing apps.

Societal Factor

Unlike previous awesome Palm devices that know one in mainstream knew about, the Palm Pre is an attention getter. I have been stopped quite a few times by curious folks wanting to know more about the Pre. Also, Palm's markting has been great. Seeing ads like this makes you feel good owning one.

Gripes

Would prefer they kept the menu/option button next to the sym key like we had on older Treos.

While people will love the interface, I have some issues with the design of some of the U.I. elements.  To a layman they all look good, but to a top notch graphic artist, some of these U.I. elements look cheesy. 

I think the top status bar/bottom alert area concept is great but the implementation is a bit flawed. I don’t see why they can’t be combined into one and placed permanently in the bottom. It saves real estate and makes things easier to touch.

The downside of this captive screen is that you can’t use your nails and that makes it a bit harder to put the cursor between words. That may sound crazy to you, but this is what us Treonauts have been used to.

Palm should stop being iPhonish in certain areas. For example, why go away from the sensible alphabetical listing of apps for the absolutely stupid iPhone way of laying out apps in just random silliness. By week 2, you don’t even know where your apps are any more.

The maps app needs a lot of work!

The slide out keyboard is cool, but it really slows things down. I like to get things done as fast as possible so having to always slide out wastes time. This is not a play phone like the iPhone where I need a wide screen to watch videos. This is a work phone. I need to get stuff done asap.  So I will really be looking forward to the Eos with it’s always available keyboard.

So which one: iPhone or Palm Pre? 

For me, both. Palm Pre is great for working and getting things done. I won’t recommend it as a multimedia device anytime soon. On the other hand, the iPhone is great for multimedia and if you jailbreak it you can do some amazingly cool stuff.

Right now, WebOS will be my work device, while the iPhone will be more of my multimedia device. If you are coming from a Treo, WebOS is absolutely awesome, but I would wait till Eos is released as it will be an easier transition because WebOS would have been more matured and have more apps. If you are using a dumb phone then stop being dumb and go get the Pre now.

Comments

[Wayne]

I do not know – I am perplexed-I dreamed about the Pre as the ads were so compelling but know that I have it I am not completely satisfied and really board to tears with no apps to play with-

I like the keyboard and it is easy to type on with nails
I like the card feature and the swish off the screen with both up or l/r with emails
I like the sleekness and it seems to be durable

I do not like the cheap plastic catch covering the charge/sync mini usb port-mine is hanging and I can not clip it back in

I do not like the KB coming out the bottom rather than the landscape position

I do not like that you can not read email in landscape unless you put in a hack code rocknrollhax every time

I do not like the way you answer the phone by unlocking to answer-80% of the time I send my calls to VM instead of being able to answer them-whats up with that?

AFTER READING THE REVIEW BETWEEN THE i pHONE AND BLACKBERRY-SEE REPRINT ON MY BLOG – THE IPHONE IS LOOKING BETTER TO ME

WHY CANT YOU SHUT OFF THE PRE AND HAVE IT WAKE UP AT A CERTAIN TIME-MY BB USED TO DO THAT. NOW I HEAR ALERTS ALL NIGHT

ALSO THE RING TONES AND ALERTS HAD TO BE HACKED AND CHANGED SO THEY WERE LOUDER-I HAVE A SOLUTION ON MY BLOG FOR THAT FROM ANOTHER FORUM

THATS ALL FOR NOW

[Everett]

Good review, but I disagree somewhat with your comment on the screen real estate. For me the top bar is for system items/status whereas the bottom bar is strictly for notifications. If they were all in the same area, I would have to search more each time something changed or something new came in. I like knowing if I see it on the bottom its some type of new message and if you click on it you can get a little more detail. If all this activity were in one place it would feel cluttered and winmo like.

Not sure why you didn't like the maps?