[Beefy]

Right now, Beefy, I'd say you don't want to be pushed over the edge. Are 3 more weeks with your existing phone really that bad? Honestly, you should wait. If you don't, you'll be upset with your purchase, as you'll find something that the Hero can do that the Pre can't (there are things the Pre can do that the Hero can't, but it's all a matter of perception). Try them both side by side, and report back here. Otherwise, you're doomed to dislike your purchase.

I'm a happy Pre owner, with no hardware issues, but if I were in your shoes, this close to the release of the Hero, I'd wait and compare them.

The OTHER idea that I'm considering is buying a Pre, then seeing if I enjoy it enough for 30 days. Otherwise, as we're now 10 days past the expected launch date of the Hero on October 11th, I could return the Pre after the Hero launch and pick that phone up. I was quoted with a $65 restock fee + $30 price increase for the Hero over the Pre, so call it an even $100 to "upgrade" to the Hero if I'm not satisfied with the Pre in that time. I have had a chance to use it pretty extensively though, and know what it's about. I'm not sure if I would feel better or worse in that timeframe.

I just don't want to wait another 20 days with barely-surviving Muziq.

[ChappyEight]

Not a bad plan.

[jbg7474]

The OTHER idea that I'm considering is buying a Pre, then seeing if I enjoy it enough for 30 days. Otherwise, as we're now 10 days past the expected launch date of the Hero on October 11th, I could return the Pre after the Hero launch and pick that phone up. I was quoted with a $65 restock fee + $30 price increase for the Hero over the Pre, so call it an even $100 to "upgrade" to the Hero if I'm not satisfied with the Pre in that time. I have had a chance to use it pretty extensively though, and know what it's about. I'm not sure if I would feel better or worse in that timeframe.

I just don't want to wait another 20 days with barely-surviving Muziq.

In that case, do it, and join the ranks of the truly cool people.

For my part, I was coming from a 755p, which was a great phone, but starting to flake out on me a bit. I was looking forward to the Pre from January, and got one on launch day. Honestly, for the first two weeks, despite having played with one in the store, I was a little disillusioned. I mean, it was sexy, but there were things the 755p could do that the Pre couldn't, and I had a tough time getting used to the keyboard initially. I nearly took it back. But after a while, it grew on me. Then I got into root access, and homebrew apps, and well, I started to see the potential. Then the keyboard became second nature, I became spoiled by the web browser and the EAS implementation (I didn't have some of the early EAS issues that many encountered). Now I look at my 755p and it seems a crude instrument. In fact, almost everything looks crude compared to the Pre. I find the Pre to be an exceptional tool, and I pretty much never let it out of my sight.

Take the plunge. And when the Hero comes out, I think you'll stick with the Pre.

[Beefy]

Not a bad plan.

Of course, it also assumes I'm happy paying the extra $100 if I don't like the Pre. Blegh.

[bpdamas]

The OTHER idea that I'm considering is buying a Pre, then seeing if I enjoy it enough for 30 days.

I would NOT do that! If you do, you will be completely disappointed with the Hero.



Just kidding. Seriously, though, that does sound like a decent plan. I will be on my 6th Pre for hardware issues but am extremely satisfied with Sprint, Palm, my purchase, and the overall phone. There are too many things that I like about the phone to get pissed about these hardware issues. After using this phone now for over 3 months, I definitely would be annoyed going to any other phone or operating system.

I mean, I am starting to get pissed my computer doesn't delete a whole word when you hold shift and press backspace. I might go ahead and just email microsoft. Better yet, I will do like so many on this forum and jump over to a microsoft forum and complain that I can't believe vista or windows 7 doesn't have this as an option. Seriously, even my phone can do this. Ha!

[GMoney749]

My advice would be give it 30 days and stay away from forums while you do. Then check out the Hero when it comes out.

[Beefy]

In that case, do it, and join the ranks of the truly cool people.

For my part, I was coming from a 755p, which was a great phone, but starting to flake out on me a bit. I was looking forward to the Pre from January, and got one on launch day. Honestly, for the first two weeks, despite having played with one in the store, I was a little disillusioned. I mean, it was sexy, but there were things the 755p could do that the Pre couldn't, and I had a tough time getting used to the keyboard initially. I nearly took it back. But after a while, it grew on me. Then I got into root access, and homebrew apps, and well, I started to see the potential. Then the keyboard became second nature, I became spoiled by the web browser and the EAS implementation (I didn't have some of the early EAS issues that many encountered). Now I look at my 755p and it seems a crude instrument. In fact, almost everything looks crude compared to the Pre. I find the Pre to be an exceptional tool, and I pretty much never let it out of my sight.

Take the plunge. And when the Hero comes out, I think you'll stick with the Pre.

I too found the keyboard to be far less of an issue than the way people have described it. The top keys are a little finicky, but everything else is a breeze. I'll never be typing at the speed I would on a keyboard, but I'm definitely typing faster than with T9 on a standard keypad.

The screen...the screen of the Pre draws me like a moth to a flame. It's so bright and vibrant and I absolutely love how clean the lines are. According to what I've read for the Hero, it only supports 65,536 colors. That is a massive difference between the Pre and the Hero. Millions of colors versus hundreds of thousands allow much cleaner looking lines and display options.

The buttons on the Hero are also kinda...strange. Rather than a dedicated single click functionality - like the Pre or the iPhone - you have home, back, zoom in, zoom out, a trackball, and a call and end button. If your phone is a touchscreen that can do all that anyway, my question becomes, why have so much kludgy hardware?

Anyway, could you recommend me a good extended life battery? Preferably one that'd work with the Touchstone. I think I'm going to go with the Pre.

[kse_rules]

The keyboard was a huge selling point for me. I love being able to feel the space between the keys and feel the keys as I push them. I know a touchscreen keypad is kinda cool and trendy and all. But when it comes down to it, the keyboard makes typing so much easier and quicker.
I heard that if you buy the Touchstone and take the magnets out of the back you can stick them to the back for the extended battery, and that works for some people. Also they have a 1350mah battery that is the same size as the one the is in the phone, and it is supposed to give a 20% increase or so. I was thinking about buying an extended battery and I was gonna go with the battery that is like 2600mah or 2800mah (don't remember which was the actual size) but I did some tweaks to the phone, I had changed the brightness and changed the location to off unless the application asks, and I also changed the e-mail update time from every 30 minutes to manual. Just those tweaks made my battery last so much longer. Also I make sure to soft hit the power button to turn the screen off when I'm not using it. So if you are in fear of battery life after you get it and have messed with it, try some of the tweaks. If those help, but not quite there maybe go with the 1350mah battery and then you've got a main battery and a back-up battery. So that's double the battery right? Lol.

[kse_rules]

Also I kinda wish the phone DID have a trackball since before my Pre I had a Blackberry Curve and it made navigation between letters when typing soooo much easier if you make an error or want to change anything. If the Pre had a trackball I would keep it foreverrrr. Also when I got my phone the Sprint/Radioshack guy informed me that with my Simply Everything Plan, on my main phone line I get an upgrade every year. So you could always try out the Pre for a year and then go with something else after wards.

I personally love having a screen protector on mine. I just bought a generic one and cut it to the proper size and it works great. I don't feel like I'm missing buttons or my touch isn't exactly where I placed it. So I would invest in a few.

[Reeves]

My advice would be give it 30 days and stay away from forums while you do. Then check out the Hero when it comes out.

This.

Although despite my loud bellyaching here of late...I'm thinking of just sticking with my current Pre after having the battery swapped out and seeing how long it will last me. If it makes it to June of 2010, I'd be surprised, but also rather elated.

[jbg7474]

I too found the keyboard to be far less of an issue than the way people have described it. The top keys are a little finicky, but everything else is a breeze. I'll never be typing at the speed I would on a keyboard, but I'm definitely typing faster than with T9 on a standard keypad.

The screen...the screen of the Pre draws me like a moth to a flame. It's so bright and vibrant and I absolutely love how clean the lines are. According to what I've read for the Hero, it only supports 65,536 colors. That is a massive difference between the Pre and the Hero. Millions of colors versus hundreds of thousands allow much cleaner looking lines and display options.

The buttons on the Hero are also kinda...strange. Rather than a dedicated single click functionality - like the Pre or the iPhone - you have home, back, zoom in, zoom out, a trackball, and a call and end button. If your phone is a touchscreen that can do all that anyway, my question becomes, why have so much kludgy hardware?

Anyway, could you recommend me a good extended life battery? Preferably one that'd work with the Touchstone. I think I'm going to go with the Pre.

Seidio has a 1350mAh battery that is the same size as the stock battery and thus works w/ TS. But check out the accessories forum, as there is some good battery info there.

[ejohnnyk]

Honestly, I can't imagine why you WOULD NOT want a Pre.

Yes, the phone has some limitations right now... but they'll slowly disappear over time.

The Hero is reportedly way too slow.

You can't beat the way the Pre handles multi-tasking.

[qst4]

I feel as if I've been a beta tester for the pre. Not in bad way, but you need to be perpared for beta tester blues in some respect. I've also been used to Palm hardware having Docs 2 Go and I'm suffering without it. Also having a good clock that lets you see multiple time zones. I'm on my second Pre, the first being replaced for blotches, second has minor issues I've been able to live with.

That said, there are virtues to "growing up with a phone" which is probably why iphone users are so fanatical about their phones. There is also something to be said about the openness of the phone through Homebrew and WebOSInstall. Tweaks and themes you can apply and an active developer community. Within two months I was able to duplicate 90% of the apps I used regularly on my ipod touch. All said, I'm happy with the purchase.

[dj ozone]

If you type alot you're going to want a real keyboard...but just to make sure try playing around with the hero if you can hold out that long...

[glamisfanatic]

The Hero is an impressive piece of hardware, I probably would have chosen it over the Pre if I knew it was going to be released on sprint. WebOS is great, but missing a lot of things.

[Beefy]

Well, I couldn't stand having a phone with an LCD screen that required that I have it half-closed just to be able to see what I was dialing/texting anymore, so I bought a Pre last night.

Initial impressions are good, although I did already experience an auto-restart, which isn't very comforting. I'll continue to use it for the 30 day period that I have before my no-hassle return policy ends, at which point I will make a further evaluation between it and the Hero.

Thanks again for the advice.

[ChappyEight]

Good luck, Beefy. Hope you have a good experience. What's the build date on your phone? Mine's 08/03/2009 and I've yet to experience any major issues (knock on wood). I bought it from a Best Buy in Avon, IN.

The only thing I've noticed is that I do have some Oreo going on. However, it doesn't bother me so I'm not concerned about that. Everything else has worked great.

[Beefy]

Good luck, Beefy. Hope you have a good experience. What's the build date on your phone? Mine's 08/03/2009 and I've yet to experience any major issues (knock on wood). I bought it from a Best Buy in Avon, IN.

The only thing I've noticed is that I do have some Oreo going on. However, it doesn't bother me so I'm not concerned about that. Everything else has worked great.

I'm not entirely sure. Is there a way to check the build date?

I have a very slight twisting action myself, but as with yours, it's very very light and doesn't bother me very much. Looking forward to seeing the changes with the 1.2 OS.

Any idea why contact photos that I set might still be blurry, as though they were still rendering? I added them for a few individuals in my contact book and I'm not sure why they're appearing as they are.

[ChappyEight]

You can check the build date by opening the dialer and typing ##786#. It's listed as the WARRANTYDATECODE.

Sorry, not sure on the contact photos as I've not added any yet.

[Beefy]

You can check the build date by opening the dialer and typing ##786#. It's listed as the WARRANTYDATECODE.

Sorry, not sure on the contact photos as I've not added any yet.

Gotcha, just checked mine and it's 8/6/09. Fingers crossed that battery life improves.