Pre reviewed in Germany and UK 22
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 2:00 pm EDT 
The fine folks over in Europe are finally getting in on the review fun that we had over here during the summer. Over at Golem.de they got some extended quality time with the phone, long enough to write up a 20-page review that covers just about every aspect of the phone. The conclusions are pretty much the same as ours, though there seems to be little difference between webOS 1.1.3 on O2’s Pre phones and the 1.1.0 version that we had on Sprint and Bell before webOS 1.2 hit. It is worth noting that webOS 1.1.3 does not come with the iTunes sync fix that 1.2.1 brought, so the Pre will be hitting Europe sans out-of-the-box music synchronization. An update to correct that and “bring parity” with the North American Pre is expected some time next month.
Heise.de aren’t the only ones that got their hands on the GSM Pre, as Trusted Reviews also put the phone through its paces. Their extensive review covered a lot of nitpicky items, but it’s the sign of a good product (or at least a product with good potential) when nitpicks are what take up space on the page and not huge glaring problems. Strangly, O2 sent United Kingdom-based Trusted Reviews a QWERTZ (i.e. German) Pre for their review. Slashgear did take a look at the UK edition and found no surprises.
Generally the reviews have come to the same conclusion as most stateside observers: the star of the Palm Pre is webOS. The build quality still leaves something to be desired, though we can easily point to the moving parts slider design as the culprit in the feels-flimsy category.
Thanks to Gizmo21 and Terry for the tips!
22 Comments
Just because the phone doesn't work with iTunes does not mean it is "sans out-of-the-box music synchronization". You would think people on this site would know better than anyone else that there are many more options for music synchronization than iTunes. Winamp works fine...Mediamonkey....WMP...probably a lot of others.
iTunes is one of the few proprietary packages that tries to lock itself to one brand of hardware. Locking their software to their own brand of hardware is Apple's modus operandi with OSX and their PCs as well.
If you want to use Apple hardware, use their software. Otherwise there are plenty of other packages just as capable and some that are more so.
"Over at Heise.de"
how do you come to this conclusion? you are not linking to heise.de in your article, but to golem.de -- that should be obvious, you just have to look at the url.
fixed
btw... heise.de also has a review of the pre
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2...
Link to Heise:
http://www.heise.de/mobil/artikel/Palm-Pre-fuer-UMTS-Netze-kommt-nach-De...
Interesting statement:
Die Version 1.2.1 aktiviert iTunes wieder, soll aber in Deutschland nicht erscheinen, sondern erst Anfang November eine Version 1.3.
The current OS version 1.2.1 (which reactivates iTunes sync) is not planned for Germany. For November an update to 1.3 scheduled instead.
So, uhm, maybe a dumb question, but will this FW ver be able to work with the newest Preware version? Will we be able to install homebrew apps and themes with this version?
I really dont care about itues, i care about the apps and patches that make this phone better! :)
tomorrow we will know. i will get mine at about 9:45 AM ;-)
@Church Punk: At least what i heard from a o2 shop owner the german version won't install the patches via 'webOS Quick Install' or 'Preware' (don't remember which) correctly cause at one point in the install process there should be made a choice between "Sprint" and "Bell", which is both wrong on an "o2 Germany" device.
well, if there's a "bell" option, there should be an "o2 option" soon too :-)
man, i cant wait to have my own pre on my hands! Here in Mannheim the shop opens at 10am, but ill be at 9:45 when you get your pre :D
3 hrs left!!!!!!!
here is an editorial column on heise.de by damian sicking about the need for sales:
http://www.heise.de/resale/artikel/Palm-Pre-vor-dem-Verkaufsstart-in-Deu...
There is some truth in the lines, altough here in germany at least you can use the pre with other providers, cause it's sim/netlock free. That's different to all other countries the pre is or will be launched, but will this be enough to sell it big time?
That "wow-effect" he talks about is more a "hype-effect". The iphone was hype, i mean, come on, touchscreen? My palm TX had the exact same resolution and came out 2 years before the iphone... they just used better technology, but didnt really create a wow-gadget as he describes it.
Now, why would palm want a wow-effect now, if the wow-effect came when they first invented the digital agenda back in the 90s (nobody knew about the newton ;D ). What the really want/need is a hype effect now, which, as the editor correctly states, should make the pre a commercial success, and achieve the same results for their sales as the iphone did. This will not, of course, count as the iphone killer in terms of sales, but for certain users it will make the iphone disappear and move (back) to the palm side.
This is probably the dumbest question, but when is launched this week in Spain Im trying to buy also the Touchstone.
Im going to a dedicated Movistar store... but based on your experience: were you able to buy The Touchstone or any other accesories directly in the Sprint/Bell stores? or you needed to buy it from any other place? (online Palm store, Best buy...).
Well, what I don't like about palm besides that the pre will cost 481 EUR that is sth. about 700 dollars, is that the touchstone bundle will be at 69 EUR (about 100 dollars!). It should be 49 EUR (about 72 dollars).
Yeah but we europeans almost always suffer that with any gadget. Prices are set at a 1:1 between dollars and euros usually, not the real exchange rate. That happens with consoles, videogames, tvs, phones... is not only Palm... There are also a lot of taxes in between too.
Edited: I wanted to reply above, not myself.
to hell with worrying about iTunes. No need to use the sync option. Folks, just DRAG AND DROP! If I was blind, I'd still think people, even the editor is still comparing us to Apple. The only thing Apple has going for itself are the applications. THAT'S IT! Our video cam and audio recorder app is coming soon. What's Apple gonna do when we have our programmers bust in and duplicate and make their 70,000 apps better? Will they still have our keyboard, card multi option, Flash 10.1, live streaming TV, an open source, many developers working together as one and a damn good community? No, they'll just be starting to upgrade to true 3G which us as Sprint have. Haha, and as we head into 4G with a Simply Everything plan, they'll still be figuring out why calls are being dropped with Communist ATNT with the same model phone at a puke price. Its going to be so funny when Apple "Once again" comes out with a new phone only to be dethroned with their new device. Ohhhhh, don't eeeeevvveennn get me started on the Android phones. Not a Pre, not for me. By the way, an Android can't survive on ice and Penguins eat Apples
You had me until "communist ATNT". AT&T is a private company, not a publicly funded one. If anything they have benefited from the very capitalist tradition of using their wealth to buy deregulation that keeps their profits high.
by the way, what ever happened to Crackberry? The only competition we will really have is the Nokia N900. Its a badass phone
to hell with worrying about iTunes. No need to use the sync option. Folks, just DRAG AND DROP! If I was blind, I'd still think people, even the editor is still comparing us to Apple. The only thing Apple has going for itself are the applications. THAT'S IT! Our video cam and audio recorder app is coming soon. What's Apple gonna do when we have our programmers bust in and duplicate and make their 70,000 apps better? Will they still have our keyboard, card multi option, Flash 10.1, live streaming TV, an open source, many developers working together as one and a damn good community? No, they'll just be starting to upgrade to true 3G which us as Sprint have. Haha, and as we head into 4G with a Simply Everything plan, they'll still be figuring out why calls are being dropped with Communist ATNT with the same model phone at a puke price. Its going to be so funny when Apple "Once again" comes out with a new phone only to be dethroned with their new device. Ohhhhh, don't eeeeevvveennn get me started on the Android phones. Not a Pre, not for me. By the way, an Android can't survive on ice and Penguins eat Apples
"Folks, just DRAG AND DROP!"
and as long as you are in D&D (usb) mode, you can't use your phone as a phone, and can't event get a phone call. or have I confused something?