Official Palm Pre User Review Thread

[Khaler]

I got my Pre on release day and have been using it heavily since. All of the previous posts in this thread listing the positives are spot on. Rather than just reiterate those, let me say 'Ditto' to them and list an additions/exceptions.

Please bear in mind, to date I LOVE THIS PHONE! That being said, let me point out a few rough spots and issues. Most of them are software so they should be easily fixable with some PalmOS updates. (we're already on version 1.02 now)

Battery life. This seems to be the biggest negative to a lot of folks. The reason the battery drains so fast is that the built in setup wizards try to setup *everything* for maximum use. In other words, everything is set to poll/update very fast and waaaay too often. If you setup your Google Chat for instance, it is doing constant and immediate updates on status. That means your data connection is going 100% of the time and yes, that adds up to a fast drain. Hotmail is also very guilty of being autoset for such fast polling that it drains way too fast.

So right out of the box, let the wizards help you set everything up but then go in and make some judicious changes to them. At this point in time I would recommend NOT using the GoogleChat to IM feature. You can easily double your battery life just by turning that off. Hotmail? Switch to Gmail. The Gmail interface is rather superior and the autosync to Google calendars/tasks/contacts works so well that I am using it as my "gold" system. I sync my work Lotus Notes to Google/Gmail and then let the Pre autosync to Gmail. This works beautifully.

Other idiosyncracies that should be fixed by PalmOS upgrades:

Microsoft Exchange EAS sync issues. Most of these seem to be caused by accounts that use heavy security. There are some known issues there but the Palm engineers are aware of them and a fix should be out quickly.

Calendar confusion: There isn't enough level of detail for categorizing entries at this point IMHO. Entries are color coded based on their origin. IE, Facebook in one color, Gmail in another, Exchange another, etc. You cannot further categorize (color code) things like appointments vs birthdays vs holiday entries and so forth. This makes the calendar less than it could be but again, that can be easily fixed as the data is *there* just not being used to it's best advantage.

Sound use. Okay, so a Facebook notification comes in, then an Instant message arrives, then a Gmail email lands. I get the bottom of screen visual notification that is different for each source, but I get the same freakin sound notification for each one (if I have sounds turned on for them). Yeesh, please give me some customization tools there so I don't have to have the same sound for those different sources. Yes, you can *change* the sound, but no, it's still using the same sound for all three notification types. There are a number of other issues with Palm OS that are exactly like this. It's very cool the way it works now, but more customization options are needed.

Downloading songs from the Amazon MP3 store. You have to be WiFi connected! You can browse and buy all day long, but you cannot use the Sprint data network to transfer songs over. A WiFi connection is required. Now I fully understand the reasoning behind this, to prevent overloading the data network with 5 meg song downloads, but it is a bit of a pain to have to hit a WiFi hotspot to get your songs. Luckily the WiFi radio on this phone is VERY fast and those 5 meggers come down quickly once you hit a hotspot. The more I think of this, the less it bugs me as they're keeping my web browsing and searching damn fast by keeping all the music downloads *off* of that connection system, but still, they should mention that up front.

More options in pull down menus. Now this is mostly an issue with being unfamiliar with the new OS, but all too often I find myself thinking "Why can't I just delete that entry?". In some cases, swiping the entry from left to right off the screen performs the delete. In those cases, there isn't always a "Delete" option if you open the menu options from the upper left of the screen. It's a noobie thing, but it could be more clear.

My current number 1 gripe, Gimme Flash! The web browser is very very good, far better than Opera Mobile or anything I had on WinMo 6.1 with my HTC Touch. Pinch zoom functions work great, very fast and responsive, panning/scrolling is a beautiful thing to do and when showing it to others they're rather amazed by how well that works. The faster you flick, the quicker the scroll yet it will stop immediately with a second tap. Half the time I find myself going to the FULL website over the mobile website as the browser is just that good. Even "busy" pages like Amazon are easy to navigate the full site with the Palm OS browser. Yet Flash is missing currently. It is expected within the next month or two.

There is a full YouTube app that comes with it, so you can still watch YouTube vids all day long, but pop over to Vimeo and you get the "You gots no Flash dude" warning message. I can play my Mafia Wars turns on Facebook just fine, but the flash animations are missing. It's already on the "Yes we know, it's coming" list so I'm not too disturbed by it, but it's the biggest glaring omission from what is (IMHO) the best mobile browser on the market right now.

Tip: If you want to load your MP3s from your PC down into the phone, the easiest approach that I've found is to go to the Amazon MP3 store (app built into the phone) and buy at least one song. Until you do this, the folder isn't created for song storage. It puts them in a folder called, oddly enough, "AmazonMP3". Once you have that folder, throw all the MP3s onto the phone you want with a direct USB attachment and it works perfect with the Music app. (It picks up the album covers later as you're connected to the MP3 store)

You can plug the charger USB cable into a PC WITHOUT HAVING TO INSTALL ANY DAMN SOFTWARE ON THE PC! (*/rude Blackberry*) Connect the Pre via USB cable to a PC and you get the option to Just Charge, act as a USB drive, or work in Palm Media Sync mode. That gives me a huge grin and a major Kudos to Palm for giving us options instead of shoving a single method down our throats.

Another tip: Charging adaptors are in short supply right now as Palm is packaging all of the basic ones with new phones. You can buy an International power cable with all the plugs you don't need in addition to the one you do, or a car charger but you cannot get the basic 110v to Pre cable yet. The power cable for the Amazon KINDLE and KINDLE DX is a perfect, microUSB fit for the Palm Pre. They're cheap too, readily available and work connected to the phone. They will NOT work for the Touchstone though, as the Palm version of the plug has a smaller surround and the whole thing has to go into the Touchstone. I got a second Touchstone direct from the Palm online store and am using the Car Charger cable to plug into it. The USB connector on the other end I have attached to the Amazon Kindle 110v to USB plug. Looks a little odd, but works perfect.

[Drybonz]

The DB Review:

Form Factor/Build: Launch was handled badly. Screen is beautiful. Device face actually seems larger to me than it did in the pre-launch screenshots. Original back feels a bit cheap, but the replacement back that comes with the Touchstone feels very nice, and actually makes the phone, in general, feel a bit more solid (even though it really isn't). After a couple days, the device develops a very slight side-to-side movement in the sliding face (this has been present in both units I have owned and all demo models I have handled... seems to be standard). Overall size and form is very pleasant. The capacitive touch screen is responsive, and although it actually takes a couple days to get used to how to tap accurately coming from a resistive screen, once you do it is dreamy.

My first unit overheated extremely bad while on a 4 hour trip with the GPS on while on the car charger. After that it was funky and unresponsive and I got a replacement. The second unit has been fine.

Interface: The interface is amazing. No question. Basically, the entire interface is one big task manager. You are able to very quickly and fluidly, with finger gestures, switch between multiple running apps. It is very intuitive, efficient and fun.

Contacts: Contacts are easy to edit, view... nice built-in picture cropper for the contact pics. You can click one letter of the hardware keyboard and easly search for the contact you want.

Calendar: The ability to draw from sync all the stuff you have on multiple calendars (Google, Outlook etc) is wonderful. The calendar interface is simple and effective, but lacks a visible indicator that you have an appointment when you are in "month view", which I find to be an annoyance.

Messaging: One of my favorite features of the phone. The SMS interface is threaded by conversation and message, with a nice pleasantly color coded interface. Although, I am not an IM'er... the ability to integrate your AIM chat into the same interface is there. I love texting on this phone.

Email: Same simple and easy to navigate interface as with most of the rest of the phone. Was very easy to set up my Roadrunner email ac****. It autosends as soon as you go to your inbox. Haven't had any problems with it.

Browser: This is a big one for me. The broswer rocks. I love it. It destroys Opera Mobile. Fast, renders beautifully, silky smooth muti-touch zooming and the double-tap auto zoom is incredibly smart and re-sizes the pages perfectly based on where you tap. The bookmarking system, which I always found to be awful in Opera, is very nice to use.
There is no flash, and you cannot save downloads from the browser. Both of these are non-issues for me as I use a mobile browser primarily for information, but some people may want to take this into consideration.

Camera: The camera takes great shots. Also the prep time for a fresh shot is very fast, so you are not losing shots all the time (like I did with my Diamond, which was very slow). The flash is there so you have access to low light shots. The flash does leave a bit of a yellow tint, but you can edit this out with about 30 seconds of Photoshopping. There is currently no video capture (although it is rumored that this will be added though an OTA upgrade), which, IMO, is the most glaring omission, feature-wise, on the phone.

Music Player: I actually really like the included music player. It is fairly basic, but I find that it has all the functions I need (including shuffle all) and is easy to use.

Accelerometer: Works fast and smooth... you never think about it happening... no lag. Does not work in all apps.

Keyboard: This was the feature I was most worried about before purchasing the phone, having just seen screenshots... but as it turns out, I like it just fine and I am getting to the point where I can type pretty fast on it now. It's going to be different for each person so there isn't much point in me saying too much about this. Find a demo and try it.

GPS/Nav: The GPS works great. Fast locks. The Sprint nav works very well for city travel, but for long trips it is completely worthless because it is internet based. One wrong turn in a no-data zone and you might as well have no navigation app at all, because you are lost. Hopefully, TomTom or somebody will step up with an alternative.
Google maps is also there and is pretty standard, except it doesn't have an arrow by the dot on the map to show which direction you are going so that is an annoyance.

Screen Lock: Having a nice screen lock app is obviously important to us. Look at all the available WinMo screen lock apps, and the amount of time that has gone into development of S2U2... and I think the screen locker on the Pre is a winner. It has a little circle that you can drag up, freely, in any direction, to unlock the screen. It shows the time and a nicely semi-shaded version of your wallpaper while locked. It gives you notifications if something new comes up... all in all very pleasant.

Calling: Call quality and signal strength have been fine. No dropped calls. The dialer has nice big, responsive buttons and easy access to voicemail and call history. If you miss a call you get a button pop-up option to call the person back with one click. The screen turns off when it is close to your head and it reacts very well, no lag or anything, but can get a little annoying if you move the phone around a lot.

Settings: The settings are mostly basic and easy to navigate... not a whole lot of depth of customization at all. You can drag around the icons on your launcher bar and launcher menu and put them where you want them... also you can drag quick links to contacts onto your launcher menu for quick access to favorites. You can uninstall downloaded apps, but not the default ones, which is an irritation. I really, really want to get rid of this Nascar app.

Apps: I won't say too much about this here because there is a whole sticky thread about apps, but right now there are 30 apps in the app store... fairly limited. I'm sure there will be a lot more before too long though. I really like the Where app. It is like Live Search and I have found it to be very useful while travelling.

That's about everything I can think of off the top of my head to talk about, but if anyone has questions, please ask.

To summarize... I really love the phone. Despite some annoyances that I listed, I am enjoying it very much, and sometimes don't want to put it down. That being said... being that this is a very WinMo oriented forum, I would not recommend this phone to the majority of the people reading this... If you love the depth of customization of WinMo, if you love flashing your phone, if you enjoy wading through an ocean of options in a registry... the Palm Pre is not the phone for you. I would caution you to think hard before jumping on the bandwagon because you may miss some of those elements.

For me, this phone came at a perfect time and I am very happy with it.

[pgolsoniv]

I'm deliberating getting the PRE and I've scanned every post.... Most of what I see looks good. I am concerned with connectivity to the Exchange server. I saw that one person posted that they have synched with exchange but it was buggy. Does exchange push email/Contacts/Appointments to the PRE or do you have to check for updates? Do you need special software on the exchange server or will it use active sync? Anyone that has any further intel on synching with exchange as that is my primary source for contacts/email. Thanks.

[Scottcrsi]

Originally Posted by Drybonz

The calendar interface is simple and effective, but lacks a visible indicator that you have an appointment when you are in "month view", which I find to be an annoyance.

At first I also thought this was the case. It does show appointments in the month view, it's just hard to see because it is represented by a light gray shading with diagonal lines.

What I found is that all appointments are grey in "all" calendar view. If you switch to a different calendar, for instance google calendar (lets assume you have google set to green), it will show all of your google appointment shaded in green on the month view and the rest will still be visible but gray.

[Drybonz]

Originally Posted by Scottcrsi

At first I also thought this was the case. It does show appointments in the month view, it's just hard to see because it is represented by a light gray shading with diagonal lines.

What I found is that all appointments are grey in "all" calendar view. If you switch to a different calendar, for instance google calendar (lets assume you have google set to green), it will show all of your google appointment shaded in green on the month view and the rest will still be visible but gray.

None of mine are showing for some reason.

[Scottcrsi]

Originally Posted by Drybonz

None of mine are showing for some reason.

Try looking under "Prefrences & Accounts" in the calendar app. Change the default calendar to the one you want to show all the time, then if you click on your other calendar accounts there is an on/off setting for "show in all calendar mode."

[Drybonz]

Originally Posted by Scottcrsi

Try looking under "Prefrences & Accounts" in the calendar app. Change the default calendar to the one you want to show all the time, then if you click on your other calendar accounts there is an on/off setting for "show in all calendar mode."

Thanks for the tip but it's a no go. No matter which calendar I set as the default, or which ones I set to not show, the "month view" is blank. They only show in the "day view".

[Scottcrsi]

wow I'm at a loss, once I set those options it started showing for me...i know were going a bit off topic here but just out of curiosity, what calendars are you syncing with?

I have google as my default and then my computer through missingsync which has sub catagories of work, home and unfiled, also flixter put in a movies calendar and there is the palm profile one that is always there.

[Drybonz]

Originally Posted by Scottcrsi

wow I'm at a loss, once I set those options it started showing for me...i know were going a bit off topic here but just out of curiosity, what calendars are you syncing with?

I have google as my default and then my computer through missingsync which has sub catagories of work, home and unfiled, also flixter put in a movies calendar and there is the palm profile one that is always there.

Google, Facebook and Flixster.

[defamed01]

Mine somewhat works. If I create an event, the shading will show up in month view. However, none of my all day events or events synced from Google Calendar show up in month view.