- 3G-enabled smartphone with intuitive Palm webOS platform, touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard; easy integration with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and more
- GPS-enabled for turn-by-turn directions; can be used as a 3G Mobile Hotspot for up to five Wi-Fi connected devices
- 16 GB internal memory; 3-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music streaming; Wi-Fi-enabled
- Up to 5.5 hours of talk time, up to 350 hours (14.5 days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, rechargeable battery, AC charger, micro USB cable, quick start guide, gesture guide, self-cleaning carry pouch
Amazon.com Product Description
Running on the Palm webOS mobile platform, the 3G-enabled Palm Pre Plus for Verizon Wireless brings together all of your important information from where it resides–on your phone, at your workplace, at home, or on the Web–into a single mobile device. In addition to high-speed connectivity on the fast and reliable Verizon Wireless 3G network, the phone’s memory has been doubled to 16 GB and it comes with a built-in 3G Mobile Hotspot that can be shared vi… More >>
My husband was so excited when he purchased my new phone the Palm Pre, an ‘upgrade’ to my trusty Treo.
What I like about it:
1. It’s slightly smaller than the old Treo and slick to the touch.
2. The screen is bigger.
3. Browsing the web is cool, but some things are limited, like the radar maps on the weather website.
What I don’t like about it:
1. It is very slow. Between the time you ‘touch’ a selection and the time it comes up is sometimes a second or two, so you’re neve sure if it actuated. Sometimes several ‘touches’ are required before the Treo registers it.
2. The keyboard is very unreliable. I get numerous double letters for a single button press, and frequently get no letter when I push the associated button. I have to look at the screen as well as the keyboard when I type which slows things down.
3. The ereader software is different and not as user friendly. I use my phone as my ‘spare book’ when I travel and am having to get used to a less convenient format for paging through my books.
4. The emails I just can’t figure out. I get only about 1/4 the emails on my phone that I actually get. I’ve tried closing my email program on my home computer and leaving the email program open on my phone, but it doesn’t matter. I look at my home computer and see all the emails, and don’t delete anything, but on the palm, most are missing. Also, there is no way to send junk mail directly to a junk directory.
5. Battery life is dismal. I might make it through the day if I keep the bluetooth turned off, maybe. I used to get at least 3 days from my old phone.
3/2/10 – Update: I downloaded the software upgrades and today I received 2 out of the 4 emails – this is an improvement! Other items are still as above. Now when I have to wait for things to load I get a cuter icon.
6. Music program is not user friendly. I have to use a 3rd party software to make a playlist, then the usb connection to download that playlist file into the same directory as the music. You can’t do it on the phone itself.
7. Big issues trying to download my contact lists. The palm software lets you catagorize your contacts (business, personal, etc.) The new Palm Pre dumps them all together, so it takes a ton of scrolling to get what I want.
8. New Palm software removed all the birthdays from my calender. Not a problem caused by the phone, but still part of the whole upgrade process.
9. The apps selection is very poor, especially when compared to apple’s.
10. Call quality. Okay, this should have been my first one. It is a phone after all. On many calls, I can barely understand the other person. It sounds garbled and tinny. Again, no comparison to the old Treo. Headphones help with this, but I don’t always have them on.
Rating: 1 / 5
I am very impressed with the multitasking functions. Great phone easy to use. I am verry happy with it. I would strongly recommend it.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have been a IPhone user for two years. Changed to Verizon last week, I am completely surprised on how well pre pluse works. Multitasking Rocks, games are great. Internet, email, calander works great as well. I just saw the spacial on Verizon that the Mobile hot spot is for freeeeeee, I am loving this phone. If I could have changed any thing I would have waited until this week to buy it for 49$ at my Verizon store and not pay 100$ more just a little over a week a go. Oh well I still love the phone and what it does. Try it you will like it. I mean whats no to like great smart phone and you even get the Mobile hot spot free for two years.
Rating: 5 / 5
As a recent long-time (8 years) Sprint customer waiting for high-end Android (not much luck with HTC Hero as a phone) phones that as of March 1st never happened, I experimented with arguably the best / most popular Smartphones (iPhone & Droid). As a Macbook owner I loved the fit-n-finish of the iPhone, iTunes and the gazillion apps available. However, as a PHONE it stunk, poor reception, dropped calls and too many missed calls (according to my friends / family).
Next the Verizon Droid. Although the screen is gorgeous and l loved playing around with the customization afforded by the Android platform, although it was responsive and fairly well built, I didn’t like:
a) physical keyboard – I could actually type more accurately and faster with the on-screen keyboard (minor)
b) too bulky to carry around comfortably and just felt heavy overall (moderate)
c) annoying proximity sensor, despite trying 3rd party apps etc… I just hated being on a call and when I wanted to switch to speaker or invoke the keypad, I had a heck of a time getting the screen to come back on – shaking it didn’t work, toggling the power button etc. (major)
Sticking with Verizon and looking at my other options, Eris (similar to Hero at Sprint, ok but looking for higher end phone), BB (tried the 8530 nice but screen to small and apps are just OK, Tour was other choice but no wifi, so out) – in looking at what was left for a Smartphone w/ wifi, I decided on the Palm Pre Plus.
I looked at the Palm Pre when it came out at Sprint and didn’t “get it” (what was all the fuss about – also, the strange commercials made me NOT want to buy it) … of course Sprint reps at the store must not have had a clue either because if they had and walked me through some of the real features of this phone I most likely would have chosen it!
The fit-n-finish is excellent and although I’m not much of a physical keyboard person (slider), the keyboard is usable and has come in handy on a few occasions. Through the customizations available via Preware, I have had so much fun tweaking this phone to be near perfect for me… it just needs:
a) a bit larger screen (minor)
b) sirrius radio app (minor)
c) longer lasting battery (moderate)
Give it a try and check out some of the resources online .. WebOs and the Palm Pre community rock.
You may be pleasantly surprised!
Rating: 5 / 5
I have to say that I have used/owned several smartphones before including the Old PalmOS, Windows Mobile 2002/2003/5/6/6.1/6.5, Android, iPhone and Blackberry. And this is by far the most professional, funnest, most useful, most in-sync phone I have ever used!!!!!!!!!
Palm has really done it. Their WebOS is amazing. I never ever experienced Multi-tasking as perfect as it is on this phone. Its really easy to use, even for beginners, and really fast and the idea behind it is just really simple. There is absolutely no flaw behind this system.
The card system itself which allows the multi-tasking is really a cool feature. Atleast now I can pause my work wherever I am so that I can continue doing whatever else needs to be done. This innovation to me is comparable to when “Live DVR” was invented. Its truly that innovative.
As far as apps go, there are nearly 3000 native apps available for it and more coming fast! Its not as many as the iPhone catalog, but you know what, atleast it doesn’t have 345 different apps that do the same thing (EG: The lightsaber app on the iPhone. There are so many, but they all do the same stinking thing). Not to mention you can buy motionApps Classic and run all the old PalmOS Software, making the library really compete with the iPhone. And even though there arent as many “new” apps as the iPhone, there are tons of patches, updates and software and games that do EVERYTHING you need good enough. In fact, fewer apps even save you money in the long run.
The Live syncing is amazing. All you do is put in your email address and/or facebook login and it does it all for you… It syncs all your calendars automatically. It syncs all your contacts automatically. And it syncs your inbox automatically. I have never experienced anything as effortless as this. It literally put all my information there for me. Putting this with the multi-tasking system makes doing business and mixing in pleasure a snap. The closest phone that matches this, I will say, is the iPhone. But the Pre is far superior in this aspect than the iPhone.
The Launcher is cool too. You have the launch bar which can be dragged from top to bottom. Then the launcher itself which pretty much mimics the iPhones main launcher screen with several enhanced features which make it better.
I like the music player and the support for ITunes, which most players do not have. So this is one of the few smartphone systems that can sync with ITunes on your pc and play your music. The original player was great. But I downloaded the free remix edition and it turned my Pre into the ultimate mp3 player ever!
As far as hardware goes… I know many knock it. But, really, for a handheld, how much power do you need? 600mhz is not enough? You can even overclock it to 800mhz. It doesn’t matter. The games play the same as they do on the iPhone (Trust me, I have played them on both), the smoothness of the interface is perfect. Really, what more do you want? Why pay more for better hardware that is really not needed on a handheld device? You want gaming power, buy a PSP or a DS. And still, it can probably play games just as well and poweful regardless.
The Keyboard looks awkward at first, but is really nice and comfortable to use. And its a nice feature to have with a phone for messaging and e-mail and other things..
It has 16gb of on device memory. What no 32GB???? Really, do you need that much anyway other than for music? I have about 25 hours of music on it. It only took up a little over a gig. For the rest of my music fixes, I use Pandora and radiotime- which more than cover up for the lack of an FM Player. In fact RadioTime plays over 50,000 stations in the US for free. I had every station I listen to on their. And as far as needing extra storage, the Pre is the first to offer Cloud Storage, meaning you can use ZumoDrive online to act as additional storage for the pre making it work as if it is actually part of the PRE. Its Awesome! I can virtually have unlimited space on the go with this thing. Not to mention that it also has a feature that backs up your whole phone onto Palm every day without ever interfering with your work. Why is this good? Because if you have to replace your phone, all you do on your next phone is login with your palm account and it restores ALL information and APPS so you dont lose a thing.
The G-Sensor/Accelerometer works great. I used it with Need for Speed undercover and its perfect.
The Camera works well and takes nice pictures.
The screen quality… To me in actual display, graphics capabilities and color/brightness… ITS THE ABSOLUTE BEST. It has a 24bit graphics processor. Really, you cant go wrong with that. As far as touch sensitivity… OK. The iPhone is the best hands down. But, its good enough and is about 90% as good as the iPhone. Believe me, you would barely even notice the difference. And if you never had an iPhone before, you wouldn’t know the difference. PERIOD.
The design is really slick. I love it. Its not heavy. Its not bulky. The screen size is great. It could be a bit bigger, but its big enough. I never accidentally dial numbers with this thing. Its a pure genius design.
People also complain about its sturdiness… I think its pretty sturdy. Otherwise buy an attractive case on ebay for $5 and thats it. But its definetly better than the Nexus one which will crack if you keep it in your pocket. Whats up with that?
Other nice features of the pre:
*Documents to go to view Excel, Word and PDF files.
*Supports Facebook, Google, Exchange, IMAP and POP as well as AIM and other things.
*For Developers it supports HTML5/CSS/Javascript or c/C++ with SDL and basically allows you to recompile any library thats available for linux so that you can port apps over easily. And you can actually use all these languages together!
*Instant over the air updates of your apps
*Great sound quality for phone calls.
*3G phone. What would you really need 4G for? It streams music and video in HD really well already.
*Palm really cares for its customers more than other companies. That puts this over the edge for that reason alone!
The only downside to this is that battery. It consumes a lot of battery power. But just buy an extended battery, and it will last longer than any other phones battery, gaurantee’d!
Try the Pre, you will not regret it. In fact you wont even go to another phone after this!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5