[Sukiyaki]

OP, keep in mind this forum is not full of average users, they are mostly power users, developers, often highly skilled in software and other technical fields. I found the forum researching treo's a few years back, right before the 600 came out. I followed regularly even tho I didn't get a treo until the 755, where I felt most of their complaints had been resolved. LOVED the phone.

Now I love my pre and since the 1.2 upgrade fixed the dialer lag, I can whole heartedly recommend this phone w/o reservation. If you or anyone else are people who buy a phone and use it as is, out of the box, then I don't think you will have any problems, as long as the user interface and "feel" of the hardware is to your satisfaction.( Keep in mind minor things like the keyboard always take an adjustment period, but once the mind makes the right connections, typing becomes easier and virtually unconscious.) For those who like to pick apart their phone, add homebrew and other non offical palm apps, then the ground is fertile and the possibilites just beginning to become uncovered. I'm in between, I don't have the savvy or technical skill to write a program, but I get bored with gadgets easily and do want to customize my phone beyond what palm currently offers. I can follow basic instructions that are not too involved. I am willing to read and experiment with stuff that have been proved relatively safe, and am now proudly and excitedly rocking a hello kitty dialer instead of that boring green one!! I have had some minor issues, ( app memory) but they are due to my modifying the phone, and I am confident I can reverse what I've done.

I didn't want to wait with the pre like I did with the Treo. By the time the 755 came out, all the issues had be resolved and there wasn't as much activity in that section, as most of the hacks were routine and there wasn't new ground to break. I was determined to be part of the action this time! So I say jump on in, all the fun is when the device first comes out, and being part of the new discoveries and being able to participate as they happen.
Give pre a try, once you can multitask, you will never want a phone that can't.

[Swipple]

Okay, I have to add my .02 here as well. I am a member of multiple forums for most of the items I own, from my tv and home theater, to my vehicles. The purpose of these forums is to educate, warn, and assist with common issues, problems, and enhancements. No product on the market is infallible, I think that with phones, and more directly this phone, there is added emphasis on the plethora of capabilities due to the extremely competative nature of the marketplace. The simple fact with the Pre is that it is truly the first, solid, competitor to the iPhone. The iPhone has a very strong advantage as it was the first to marked and has already gone through the infancy stages of app creation and real world applications. It took quite a long time for the overwhelming slate of apps currently available on the iphone to come to market. Developers, like everyone else, were waiting to see economic viability in the app market. Once numbers started flowing showing that people were willing to pay .99 or 1.99 for an application, and understanding that there are millions of iPhone users out there the flood gates were opened. The same will happen with the Pre....In fact I expect by the end of 1st quarter '10 there will be at least a couple thousand apps. available.
In addition the Pre suffers from iPhone association, everyone on the planet is familiar with the iPhone, and iTunes, iPods, ad naseum. We want the embryonic release of the Pre to "do everything iPhone can to but better". I laud Palm for there attention to feedback and willingness to address issues as quickly as they have. I further give a giant shout out to the techie enthusiats on this board and others who take the time to try and enhance the Pre experiance. The iPhone is a great gadget but in all reality, a subpar communications device. If you really want to harness the power of that device you need to run it over wifi (at least that has been my experiance), it took a very long time to be able to effectively integrate email and other expanded communication avenues. And finally it has that ******** built in battery for which you will have to send your phone away to have replaced.
The only thing about the Pre that has let me down is the lack of expanded memory (no SD Slot). Apple builds guaranteed near term obsolence into every "i" device they produce because they limit this feature and ride 1 1/2 years behind the curve on memory capacity. I am apalled that the largest iPhone you can buy, given its brand awareness and 1 to 1 compatibilty of with the iPod lines, is only 32g, and that was just released. When we have the capability now of putting 32g on a micro SD this is a shame. Again this is my biggest complaint with the Pre as well. But shame on apple for hamstringing their customer base.
Back to your original question the Pre is simply the best phone I have ever owned, and I have been in the wireless business since 1995 when I was still selling the motorola Brick and bag phones. You will not be sorry by picking up this device, and have patience the apps and gadgets will come soon enough!!

[macjazzy]

WOW, I posted this right before I went to lunch and come back and the thread has taken off without me.

This is a testament to this forum. I never meant any dissrespect or to trash the forum or the phone or anything else. It ws just an observation from an outsider.

I said in my post I understand poeple are always more vocal about their displeasures than pleasures. I understand that.

I was only making an observation that to someone on the fence or just doing general research into buying a phone, if they stumbled upon this site, as I did. They may be scared away.

I also said I ws trying to do a lot of reading between the lines, and I was still in the Pre "camp" and will probably to be an owner this weekend.

Someone asked my reasons for switching from Vzw, it is mostly fee based. I have a phone and text plan only. I downloaded a few Vzw games last month. I expect to pay for them. But I also got a shock when my bill showed I got charged more in data usage for the games than I paid for the games (btw these are not games that need to be online when you use them)

Sprint's new everything plan is half what I pay now for cell/text service only.

And when I started asking around and reading up, there is not the problems with Sprints coverage i thought there was. Guess I was buying into Vzw's ads too much.

thanks everyone for your replys. What a great forum this is.

[deCorvett]

Hey, I don't have a Pre and I love my Pre!!!

[pogeypre]

So far on my poll it is 88 - 3 in favor of the Pre. Real, or at least PreCentral.net, world results.

http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pr...ow-thread.html

[Guidoracer]

I've had a Pre since 6/6, and I'm currently on my second one. I really wanted to be an Android user, but Sprint dragged their feet about getting an Android phone for sale, and I'm totally happy they did. My phone is tweaked, themed, and patched, and works perfectly for me for browsing, videos, and music. Oh yeah, and it's a phone -- one without voice dialing, but it is a decent phone. I do miss voice dialing...

[thekarens#CB]

It's all about finding out if the phone can/will meet your needs before you buy. I waited until homebrew had the one thing I "had" to have, forced roaming. Once I had that I was fine waiting for everything else. I've had several smart phones and I have to say the Pre is my favorite by far and does everything I need it to do and I expect in the future it will also do everything I want it to do as well.

Good luck on your search/purchase!

[kbritt#WP]

i love this phone, and sprint

[tamvegas]

to the OP's original query - I was a fairly happy Verizon customer since 1988 (When it was still Sprint. Ironic eh?). It always bugged me that V crippled their phones and charged sepaerately for every service. When I got my first Treo (650) I coeldn,t get my email without the unlimited data plan, so what had cost 1.99 amonth with the Motorola 820, went to 40 with the Treo. And the 'net services were simply unusable. And my bill was over 80 a month.
So, when a friend on Sprint got the Pre I waited awhile hoping for a Verizon equivalent. None came. That,s another huge negative for V. They're the last to adopt any new technology. Period.
So in July I changed to Sprint (when the V contract was up). My bill is now under 62 a month and have a Pre to boot. Customer service has been great (my notebook going into standy during a restore bricked my original Pre, and even though I'm well past 30 days Sprint replaced it without question.
and coverage here is getting better week by week.
On all the complaining, now that the Pre is getting more widespread, there are more and more new owners wanting to jump in and do all sorts of changes to their Pre and neglecting to study up on all the knowledge available here (largely due to the size of many of the threads, I imagine). So there are more and more.complaints about how much trouble they're having.
Don't let this dissuade you from a Pre. It's truly an amazing device, still very young and growing.

[Gompers]

I'm a former Verizon customer who came over to Sprint for the 755p. You're making two choices here:
1 - leaving VZW for Sprint. I, personally, haven't noticed much of a difference in coverage, customer service or speed/reliability. Plus it's a bit cheaper. A win/win IMO.

2 - Getting a Pre. I love the phone, personally, as a long time smartphone user. I miss a few things here or there, but I'm sure they are on the way, and they are mostly minor anyway.

I think these forums are some of the most annoying I've ever been around. It's a lot of people with little or nothing to contribute looking for help doing things they are too impatient to wait on Palm or other developers to do properly or too stupid to do themselves. They also tend to ask questions that have already been asked ad nauseum because they are too lazy or ignorant to look it up themselves.

In short, there's a whole bunch of noise with a little bit of useful stuff mixed in. I guess that's what is going to happen as smartphones start to be used by the unwashed masses.

My point being, don't lend too much credence in what you read on here, positive or negative.

As far as problems with the device, the Pre has NOTHING on a lot of smartphones. The Tour currently has about a 50% return rate thanks to a pesky trackball problem. It's a pretty solid phone, IMO, and WELL worth the price it's selling for. I was expecting it to be up around 300-400 dollars out of pocket when it came out. I was very pleasantly surprised to see it at 200 after rebate. If it was a 500 dollar (700 out of contract) phone, I would expect better build quality. For what it is, it's awesome though.