[anzollo]

I have mixed feelings about the Pre. I like the keyboard although I thought I never would. The build is decent on my Pre, but I just got it and I know there have been some updates. The touch screen is very good and picks up about the same as my iPhone 3GS. The call quality is great even with one bar. The form factor is decent and fits good in the hand. The web browser is snappy and text messaging is spot on. The touchstone works well and is a great addition.

The cons:
The battery life is terrible. This is comparing it to my 3GS that had the same features on. Originally I setup the pre to have wifi, bluetooth on and check email every 30 minutes. In 4 hours of use my Pre was down to 49% battery life with sending about 20 texts and checking my 4 favorite blogs a few times. My iPhone 3GS went a solid day and a half.

I connected the Pre via usb to my stereo and it works, but it disables the cell phone portion so I can't make or recieve calls. I can connect via bluetooth, but then the audio quality is not up to par for me. The delay between touching and running an app needs to be improved and most likely will be at some point.

As a cell phone the Pre is much better than the iPhone. As a media device I would say it is on par with the 1st gen iPhone as far as speed, but the 3G as far as features.

The email app needs improvement. Unless I am just not familiar with it yet and please let me know if I am wrong, the email app is slow and too difficule to quickly delete multiple emails. I get abnout 50-150 emails a day and to delete them all one by one when I know they are junk is just a pain.

A lot could be done to improve the pre as it has a very similar processor speed to the iPhone 3GS. The addition of a videro camera a better podcast app or refinement thereof would be something of interest to me.

Overall the experience is positive, but I would still like to see the battery issue improved without buying a new battery. Only time will tell, but I think with all the Android phones coming out that Pre will run a solid 3rd.

[Jeratain]

I've read here that having Wifi on will actually increase your battery if you're using that instead of data. The Pre (supposedly) has been designed to be in a low power state when Wifi is on but isn't being used.

As for many of your other concerns, I think they're all valid and I think that over the course of the next few months, we'll see incremental updates to WebOS that will start to add the features you and many others desire, and improve performance (speed and battery life). Of course, it's all speculation on my front, but if it wasn't true then none of us would stick around for too long if Palm wasn't working on keeping the experience a solid one

[geodim]

Give the battery a little while to break in. I know it sounds silly that it could make that big of a difference, but it does.

[wynand32]

So, if the issues you identify--battery life and performance--were improved, and the features added (e.g., video recording), where would you rank the Pre against your iPhone?

[jhoff80]

Not sure if you know this, but you can swipe emails off the side of the screen to delete them faster. Not quite the same as being able to select a bunch and then press a delete button, but I find it's about the same speed-wise. ... Of course, I usually only have like 10-20 emails I need to delete.

[anzollo]

So, if the issues you identify--battery life and performance--were improved, and the features added (e.g., video recording), where would you rank the Pre against your iPhone?

I would say it is on-par unless you want to include the apps. It is tough to compete with over 75,000 apps although only a fraction are decent. The pre is really focused on being a good phone I think and having all of your contacts accessable. It could use some work to compete with the iPod protion, but then again this is not aiming to be an iPod also.

[itsallsubliminal]

the only thing i disagree with you on is the 3rd place after android..

i've had the Hero for a week and am missing my pre like CRAAAZY! Android is not as fluid as the pre, nor does it multitask as easily. The touchscreens on android devices (not just my hero, but others) isn't as sensitive to the touch as the pre or iphone. I find androids browser and rendering HORRIBLY LAGGED. When i go to scroll, 70% of the time i hit a random link cuz the capacitive screen and operating system don't seem to be quite as in sync.
also, when you have a few (useful) apps open wth android, it gets REAAL sluggish.

I like the app catalog of android, but cant stand mistapping and lag when trying to multitask. It just frustrates me to the point where i say "I hate this phone" and put it down without completng my tasks. I suppose for email, android it better, but that is it! I also hate having to get out of what i'm doing just to turn on wifi or bluetooth. I really could go on, but its just abunch of nics and nacs.

I'm a huge NFL fan, so the Pre is ELITE when it comes to sundays.
My NFL sunday cards go:
NFL.com
Confidence Pool Email
NFL Mobile Live
Fantasy Football
Notes (to jot down any ideas on trading my players)
Audio Stream of a game (if i'm not home)

(seidio extended battery is where its at )

The beauty of the cards view is that most everything is still readable, so unless i need to refresh a page, i can leave them all in card view


(sigh)... anybody wanna buy a hero? lol

[robertpetry]

welcome to the Pre!

I love mine but my Apple loveing wife wants to trade hers for an iPhone!

Regarding the email deleting, you can get a patch via Preware that will add a "delete all" and "mark all read" button. That has helped me a lot and Preware is easy to install. I do like adding packages with it better than webos quick install though you will need that to install Preware.

patches are much simpler than jailbreaking an iPhone and there are a lot of great patches.

good luck!

[anzollo]

the only thing i disagree with you on is the 3rd place after android..

i've had the Hero for a week and am missing my pre like CRAAAZY! Android is not as fluid as the pre, nor does it multitask as easily. The touchscreens on android devices (not just my hero, but others) isn't as sensitive to the touch as the pre or iphone. I find androids browser and rendering HORRIBLY LAGGED. When i go to scroll, 70% of the time i hit a random link cuz the capacitive screen and operating system don't seem to be quite as in sync.
also, when you have a few (useful) apps open wth android, it gets REAAL sluggish.

I like the app catalog of android, but cant stand mistapping and lag when trying to multitask. It just frustrates me to the point where i say "I hate this phone" and put it down without completng my tasks. I suppose for email, android it better, but that is it! I also hate having to get out of what i'm doing just to turn on wifi or bluetooth. I really could go on, but its just abunch of nics and nacs.

I'm a huge NFL fan, so the Pre is ELITE when it comes to sundays.
My NFL sunday cards go:
NFL.com
Confidence Pool Email
NFL Mobile Live
Fantasy Football
Notes (to jot down any ideas on trading my players)
Audio Stream of a game (if i'm not home)

(seidio extended battery is where its at )

The beauty of the cards view is that most everything is still readable, so unless i need to refresh a page, i can leave them all in card view


(sigh)... anybody wanna buy a hero? lol

My wife has the Hero and Android does need some work. However the inception of Android devices are huge. They have 10,000 apps or so and a rapidly increasing userbase especially when Droid comes to verizon this year. We'll see what happens. I like the Pre but miss my iPhone. I would miss some features of the Pre too though.

[itsallsubliminal]

every phone has its quirks, so it really comes down to what do you want in a phone and what do you NEED to fit your lifestyle.

here's what i don't like about android. Most of their phones are HTC, and HTC pops out phones like hotcakes! Which means, they don't take the time to get it right, its all about money, and people will def buy the LATEST AND GREATEST at the expense at having alot of quirks.

[sthfatal]

I love my PRE!! you had good strong arguments and I like that. Its not like we had an iphone "******" come here and bash the pre..you had very good and true points. Someone also mentioned this b4 but if you install preware on your phone there is a TON of things you can tweak to your likeing like "delete all email" button in the email app. I would suggest trying preware and some of the patches it offers and most importantly enjoy ur new palm pre!! Oo I almost forgot....WELCOME TO PRECENTRAL.NET!!

[stevo101]

every phone has its quirks, so it really comes down to what do you want in a phone and what do you NEED to fit your lifestyle.

here's what i don't like about android. Most of their phones are HTC, and HTC pops out phones like hotcakes! Which means, they don't take the time to get it right, its all about money, and people will def buy the LATEST AND GREATEST at the expense at having alot of quirks.

I agree with you on most of your points each phone has its ups and downs. Plus HTC does crap out tons of phones thats why its good in a way to have palm build there own phones and update there own os, so you wont have to wait for ever like with android first google updates android then htc has to do stuff then sprint (takes for ever)! if we can only combine bits and peaces of each phone for example: iphone apps and memory, palm pre card view and most of its os, and androids different pages. that way you can move your cards so your not staring at them all the time plus you can have widgets like weather and battery stuff like that. webos is definatley more polished then android but for me i like android more i had the pre for a month and sold it and im waiting to pull the triger on the hero. (had the g1 before the pre, and windows mobile way before anyone of those phones)

[spartca]

Thank you anzollo, I often wonder about the experience of iphone users compared with that of the pre.

[Daniel0418]

Everyone rates it compared to Android and iPhone but it just can't be compared yet. Palm has 1 year to catch up and get their gen 2 device to be perfect. I think the Pre was named the Pre for a reason No but in all seriousness Android came out October 2008, iPhone was July 2007, and the Pre June 2009. Android is just now catching up to iPhone and the Pre definitely has some work to do but it is not stuck in any position. If Palm can pull it off and give users what they want then it can easily take second or third.

[nabril1569]

The email app needs improvement. Unless I am just not familiar with it yet and please let me know if I am wrong, the email app is slow and too difficule to quickly delete multiple emails. I get abnout 50-150 emails a day and to delete them all one by one when I know they are junk is just a pain..

glad you like it. There is a tweak that allows multiple deletes and I believe reads of emails. Once you get it, that will resolve that con.

[wilsonpossible]

I connected the Pre via usb to my stereo and it works, but it disables the cell phone portion so I can't make or recieve calls. I can connect via bluetooth, but then the audio quality is not up to par for me. The delay between touching and running an app needs to be improved and most likely will be at some point.

I haven't connected the pre through USB to any stereo's car or otherwise, yet.. as I don't have any that accept USB, however, the stereo plug works flawlessly.
You can use your SprintNav, with Pandora and it will turn down the Pandora volume when SprintNav gives you directions.

Great review though, love that it's not unbiased!

[Minsc]

One thing that surprised me is that you felt that the touchscreen was on par with the 3GS. I have friends with iPhones, and every time I use one I'm always amazed at what a nice experience it is to scroll through a list of "stuff" using your finger. Not only is it buttery smooth, but it really seems as though your finger is physically connected to the thing that you're scrolling - no hesitation or lag at all. IMO, the iPhone is absolutely unmatched in this area. The Pre is probably better than most phones in this regard, but there is usually still some stuttering and lag when scrolling.

[Attackcenter]

It is my opinion that an extended battery should be considered and is worth the price. First off:

CDMA is supposed to naturally take up more battery power than the GSM: CDMA technology offers lower talk time than GSM because the transmitter (CDMA) is active all the time.
GSM has higher talk time than CDMA based phones because the transmitter (TDMA) does not require constant transmit. The transmitter can be idle when not actually transmitting packets. Also, EVDO technology could questionably be part of the battery problem.

A friend of mine has an Iphone. He uses an extended battery device that the Iphone slides into.

I own the Seidio 2600 mah Palm Pre Battery. It is made in Taiwan, Cells Made In Japan, and it is of excellent quality. After I bought it my battery issues were gone. I can basically crank everything up full bast. I also like to watch movies on my phone. So, this turned my phone into a media player. Not to mention that the Palm Pre supports the X264 movie codec for good compression and quality movie conversions.

Some of the issues of the Android phones are that their sluggish and the touch screens are not as smooth as the Iphone 3GS / Palm Pre.

AC

[Elysian893]

I have mixed feelings about the Pre. I like the keyboard although I thought I never would. The build is decent on my Pre, but I just got it and I know there have been some updates. The touch screen is very good and picks up about the same as my iPhone 3GS. The call quality is great even with one bar. The form factor is decent and fits good in the hand. The web browser is snappy and text messaging is spot on. The touchstone works well and is a great addition.

The cons:
The battery life is terrible. This is comparing it to my 3GS that had the same features on. Originally I setup the pre to have wifi, bluetooth on and check email every 30 minutes. In 4 hours of use my Pre was down to 49% battery life with sending about 20 texts and checking my 4 favorite blogs a few times. My iPhone 3GS went a solid day and a half.

I connected the Pre via usb to my stereo and it works, but it disables the cell phone portion so I can't make or recieve calls. I can connect via bluetooth, but then the audio quality is not up to par for me. The delay between touching and running an app needs to be improved and most likely will be at some point.

As a cell phone the Pre is much better than the iPhone. As a media device I would say it is on par with the 1st gen iPhone as far as speed, but the 3G as far as features.

The email app needs improvement. Unless I am just not familiar with it yet and please let me know if I am wrong, the email app is slow and too difficule to quickly delete multiple emails. I get abnout 50-150 emails a day and to delete them all one by one when I know they are junk is just a pain.

A lot could be done to improve the pre as it has a very similar processor speed to the iPhone 3GS. The addition of a videro camera a better podcast app or refinement thereof would be something of interest to me.

Overall the experience is positive, but I would still like to see the battery issue improved without buying a new battery. Only time will tell, but I think with all the Android phones coming out that Pre will run a solid 3rd.

Try setting up a gmail account. Junk mail is filtered server side, so you don't have to worry about getting much on your phone. You could forward your normal email address to your gmail and be done with it.

[Weaser999]

Yeah what he said above. Much better. Works like a charm that way.