My limited review of the Palm Pre

[K & M Computers]

As few of you might know, I work in tech support for Sprint. Today I got my training on the pre and got to spend about an hour playing with it. I must say, I am quite happy with it.

Things I liked

• One thing I was surprised by was how small it was. Its roughly the size of the HTC Touch and slighly smaller than the Treo Pro.That being said, it fit my hand perfectly.
  
• I liked how easy it was to launch applications. I loaded about 5 applications at once. They each took about 3 seconds to load(somewhat slower than other phones out there) but once they were loaded they worked flawlessly, since the pre uses a "card" feature for applications meaning each application is treated like a deck of cards that you can flip to it was easy to change between applications, a simple press of the button on the front of the phone and a flick left or right and it changed to the application.
  
• Closing apps were even easier, slide your finger from the bottom up and discard the card.
  
• I was also impressed with the 3 mega pixel camera included. It gave a nice full screen view when taking a picture. and it was easy to save on the phone.
  
• I especially loved the web browser on it, I had 3 sites open at one time and loved the fact i could zoom in and out using 2 fingers. in a pinch motion open and closed.
  
• I also loved the synergy concept(the phone incorporates all your contacts from facebook, gmail, aim, msn, yahoo, and other sources into one contact so that you can easily switch between methods of contact and keep it all organized) lets say you are talking to someone via aim, and they sign off, at that point you could continue your conversation with them by clicking the cell# next to the contact name and send them a text or email.
  
• The app store was very easy to use, however at the moment the apps are somewhat limited. Rumor is there should be over a thousand in the next month or so. I have also heard there will not be an app that is over 5.00.

Things I didn't like:
Well there were only 3 things i did not like about the phone.

• The slide for the qwerty keyboard was somewhat hard to open with one hand. I imagine over time it would open more easily as the spring is used and becomes less tight.
  
• Where the bottom of the keyboard slides out(bottom of phone) the edge is sharper than I would prefer. I think rounding over that edge would have made it perfect, if you use the keyboard too much I could only imagine your fingers being rubbed a little raw.
  
• No sd card slot. The phone has an onboard 8gig memory w/ aprox 7gigs available for the customer to use which acts as a usb mass storage. Me personally, I'd like to have the option to put a 16gb or larger card in it. Perhaps in future models they will add that functionality.

Thats all I have at the moment, As I get more time to play with it I might update some stuff on here.

[Carla]

I thought the edge on the bottom of the keyboard looked kinda sharp from some of the recent pictures, looked like it might be uncomfortable lol!

[K & M Computers]

it wasnt horrible, but it was sharper than I would prefer, Once I get my own i might have to take a file to that edge and smooth it out.

[codybear]

sd card slot is a must for me.
If it had a keyboard like the touch pro, or touch pro2,
I would consider getting it.
But I'd still rather get the pro2.

[Exil3d]

I wonder is the UI will be ported over to the Pro? Anyone know?

[schettj]

Originally Posted by Exil3d

I wonder is the UI will be ported over to the Pro? Anyone know?

Huh? No. Obama won't let anyone port it over.

Clue: it's a completely different OS and application model.

Bonus points: more like Android then Windows Mobile, but even then not so much.

Obama: he won't let me have a Palm Pre UI on my Touch Pro. The bastard.

[M2Iceman]

Dislike, Cannot transfer files via bluetooth, WTF! But I have one anyway.
Cant change the text message sounds, not cool.

Im looking at this phone for the potential part of it. Im hoping the OS becomes like Andriod and custom apps work, although Im not sure how that will work the Synergy. Im hoping when the phones updates Sprint doesnt brick it when it reads the OS has been changed.

[codybear]

Originally Posted by Exil3d

I wonder is the UI will be ported over to the Pro? Anyone know?

Haha, no.
I would like some of the features, but not really many as tf3d2 does most of that synergy and then some.

Originally Posted by schettj

Huh? No. Obama won't let anyone port it over.

Clue: it's a completely different OS and application model.

Bonus points: more like Android then Windows Mobile, but even then not so much.

Obama: he won't let me have a Palm Pre UI on my Touch Pro. The bastard.

LMFAO!

Originally Posted by M2Iceman

Dislike, Cannot transfer files via bluetooth, WTF! But I have one anyway.
Cant change the text message sounds, not cool.

Im looking at this phone for the potential part of it. Im hoping the OS becomes like Andriod and custom apps work, although Im not sure how that will work the Synergy. Im hoping when the phones updates Sprint doesnt brick it when it reads the OS has been changed.

They probably will....it's sprint.....
The phone has potential, but it's a MAJOR letdown.
only aim and google talk and text in the threaded messaging? wtf is that.
no msn or yahoo or etc...that's some bull.
and the list just keeps going on and on.
I guess I'm just going to have to stick with windowsmobile.

[Dr.8820]

Originally Posted by schettj

Huh? No. Obama won't let anyone port it over.

Clue: it's a completely different OS and application model.

Bonus points: more like Android then Windows Mobile, but even then not so much.

Obama: he won't let me have a Palm Pre UI on my Touch Pro. The bastard.

lol, nice!

[harlem135th]

Nice device but the issues for me the cramped keyboard, memory unable to expand using a sd card, and battery issues as if I didnt have to go through that with the touch pro before flashing.