Six Months with the Pre: Real Review 49
This week marks six months since I received my Palm Pre as one of Palm's 10 Real Reviewers. Since then, I've been writing about the Pre on Twitter (where I tweet as PalmPreLawyer), on Facebook, in person and (thanks to an invitation from Dieter Bohn) here on PreCentral. While I've published some shorter Real Reviews over the past months, I thought it might be useful to provide a more complete story of my experiences with the Pre and webOS.
First Impressions
I've been a Palm customer and strong supporter since 1996, when I got my first Pilot 1000. I'd outgrown and replaced a number of Palm devices since then, but they had always been PDAs, not smartphones, although the final three (the solid Tungsten C, the horrid LifeDrive, and the incredible T|X) were all Internet-enabled. Before the Pre was announced, though, I was becoming a bit concerned about where to go next, since my T|X was aging, Palm had essentially discontinued selling them (or designing replacements), and neither the iPhone nor the iPod Touch fit my needs anywhere near as well as did my T|X, even without smartphone capabilities. The launch of the Pre at least gave me hope that I could remain within the Palm family, and its physical keyboard and Bluetooth (more on that later) were very much to my liking. Unfortunately, I didn't have the budget (or the willing employer) to get a Pre and data plan on my own, but Palm came to my rescue when it named me a Real Reviewer.
By the time I got my Pre from Palm in mid-June, the earliest adopters had already begun using, raving and complaining about their Pres, so I had a bit of warning about some of the issues that people were facing. Happily, I was not given a Pre with a too-small battery or dead pixels (no surprise, I suppose, given the source), and was quickly able to set up my work Exchange account, my personal IMAP account, and my Gmail account. My Pre had issues with another outside IMAP account because of a non-standard SSL certificate; once I figured out how to download the certificate to my PC, move it manually to the USB volume of the Pre, and import it through the Certificate Manager option in Device Info (far from intuitive, to be sure), that account came in as well. My home WiFi router settings (with WEP encryption) worked well also. Having read the first reviews, I knew not to enable AIM (not that I used it anyway) and to keep the GPS off when unused to save battery life, and I was up and running. I was also able to work with Palm to quickly port my own Verizon cellphone number to the Pre, rather than having to give everyone a new one that might change again in six months.
Almost immediately, my Pre showed its power, when my oldest son (who has Asperger's Syndrome) began freaking out on the way to his middle school graduation because he'd forgotten a line in the pop song his class was to perform. As we pulled into a parking space, I took out my brand-new Pre, typed in the song name and "lyrics," tapped "Google" to search and had his answer in about 3 seconds. Crisis averted. The Pre continued to come in handy that day, taking really nice pictures of my son and his friends at graduation, which I was able to immediately e-mail to his grandparents.
My first impressions of the Pre, particularly when comparing it to the T|X, weren't entirely favorable. While the Pre's browser, e-mail client and Internet speed blew away the older T|X, the lack of an expansion card slot meant that the Pre had less than half the storage capability of my T|X (which I'd patched with Dmitry Grinberg's PowerSDHC driver to support a 16 GB SDHC card), so some of my music and many of my videos had to be left behind. To this day, I question why Palm missed the opportunity to beat Apple by incorporating removable storage into the Pre and Pixi, especially given how tiny microSDHC cards are.
More seriously, after using a combination of PalmOS Memos and Outlook Notes to take and carry a few thousand notes over 13 years, I was suddenly unable to do so, since neither Exchange ActiveSync nor Google Sync (Palm's chosen technologies) support notes, and the bundled Notes app in webOS was all but useless (no categories, sync, search, etc.). There wasn't even a way of getting editable text files onto and off the Pre, which was astonishing; Evernote was a possibility, but never worked well for me. I created a partial (non-syncing) workaround by purchasing MotionApps' Classic (a great program for what it offers, although Palm's webOS updates have periodically crippled it) and manually copying the memo file from my T|X to Classic, but it was still clumsy and worked only when Classic didn't crash. I also missed (and still miss) my frequently-used Bluetooth keyboard from my T|X, which was inexplicably not supported on the Pre (another chance to beat Apple, which still does not support BT keyboards, although someone announced a jailbroken iPhone solution this week). I've written before here about my need for an external keyboard, so I won't belabor the point yet again, but it remains a sore spot.
Road Trip
After using my Pre fairly extensively at home in July, I had the first opportunity to truly test its functionality and usability during an extended family road trip to New Hampshire during the first week of August. I of course made sure to pack both wall and car charging solutions (the microUSB cables from Monoprice were a particular help in this), and purchased a belt case with a top flap from Radio Shack (and a second one from Walmart when the first broke quickly) to protect the Pre while we were "out and about." I had also checked Sprint's coverage in the area; while the voice coverage was solid, the data coverage was roaming with "limited access to some services." I considered trying the unauthorized tethering solution to use my Pre as a modem for my laptop, but in the end obtained a Verizon wireless USB modem for the trip. This turned out to be a wise decision.
From a features perspective, the Pre was a star. Sprint Navigation helped us find our rental house when my Magellan GPS got confused by a planned-but-never-completed road on its map, Google search found us museums, supermarkets and other necessities along the way, and the camera helped with some great shots (including this one of my fellow Real Reviewer Craig Froehle, whom I'd never met in real life; I discovered on Twitter that Craig coincidentally was staying in the next town over doing a rally driving course, and we arranged to meet one evening). One subtle advantage of my Pre over my wife's otherwise more capable digital camera was the Pre's accelerometer; it can automatically detect the orientation of the camera and rotate landscape or portrait photos accordingly, while my wife's camera occasionally saves sideways or upside-down shots that must be manually fixed on a computer.
In contrast to the features, though, was the problematic battery life. While the Pre's signal reception was reasonably strong everywhere but deep within the White Mountains, it was almost always roaming for both voice and data. Craig and I both discovered that continuous data roaming (especially for the available Verizon 1X network rather than faster EVDO) severely reduced the Pre's already challenged battery life. A few hours away from my car with data turned on could completely drain the battery, requiring me to choose between connectivity and any usability. I found myself focusing much more on battery life than I ever had at home, and worrying whether I'd be caught short at a critical moment. (Immediately after the trip, I purchased a Seidio 2600 mAh battery from the PreCentral Store, which has all but removed any battery life concerns I had.) Battery life notwithstanding, though, the Pre was of tremendous assistance during our trip, in a way that my T|X would not have been (given how sparse WiFi hotspots were along the way).
PIMs and Palms
Beyond the lack of desktop Memos (and Tasks) sync, perhaps the biggest disappointment for me (and many of my fellow PalmOS veterans) was the seeming lack of attention to basic usability in the Calendar app and other PIM functions, given that one of the strongest features of PalmOS right from the start in 1996 was fast, efficient and easy access to the Datebook and Contacts. While it has improved sharply since webOS 1.0, the Pre's Calendar is still painfully slow to load and accept data at times, making it difficult to quickly check or schedule appointments. I do appreciate the ease of background synchronization with my Exchange calendar at work, but the app is still far less efficient than the Datebook app on my Palm T|X. (I considered shooting a side-by-side video of the two for this review, but didn't want to humiliate my Pre in public that way.)
It was the design of and problems with the Calendar app more than anything else that convinced me that, irrespective of whether the developers and testers of webOS had been part of the team that developed PalmOS (and they probably weren't, given the years and turnover), they weren't users of PalmOS devices. Had they been, they would have seen the issues with the Calendar app long before the Pre was released, and would likely have spent a greater amount of development resources on making it work well. Instead, it appears that they devoted their obvious talents to the (very cool) Synergy integration aspects, and all but ignored the day-to-day use of the app.
Similarly, the less-than-Universal nature of Universal Search seems derived from the previous generation of the iPhone, rather than the simple, fast and powerful search feature of PalmOS, and Palm's offering only the (limited) cloud backup versus even the possibility of a desktop backup solution like that built into Hotsync and improved upon by products like BackupBuddy has led to some tragic information losses (and even a lawsuit). Hopefully, as webOS matures, the Palm team will keep in mind that famous misquotation, "It's the PIM apps, stupid!"
Homebrew and Patching: The UpUps and DownDowns
As a decade-plus long PalmOS user, I have a great deal of faith in the talents of the independent developer (aka homebrew) community to help maximize the abilities of my device, and was pleased that Palm chose not to follow the "our way or the jailbroken way" path that Apple took with the iPhone. The open source/Linux-based nature of the Pre made independent development possible; the discovery of the Konami code as a way of enabling Developer Mode made installation and patching accessible to us mere mortal non-coders; the creation of cooperative standards for clean installation/uninstallation of apps and patches by Jason Robitaille, the webOS Internals folks and others made customization safe and friendly. My only hesitation in trying it for myself was that my Pre wasn't really mine; I needed to get at least informal confirmation from Palm that I wasn't violating my Real Reviewer agreement by trying homebrew and patches. Once that confirmation was in hand (along with a warning that anything I did was at my own risk for replacement cost), I jumped in with both hands and a mouse, and haven't looked back since. I also haven't hesitated to recommend homebrew apps to other users.
That's not to say that my homebrew experience was entirely without incident. Like many others, I tried some patches that didn't work out (two trials of the 500 Mhz Powersave SmartReflex patch both failed, requiring repeated webOS Doctor reinstallations), and others that have been incredibly useful (the 4x5 icon screen, percentage charge icon and hidden launcher bar on my launcher screen as just a few examples). I've also been grateful for the Emergency Patch Recovery Linux app to ensure smooth updates of webOS.
The biggest homebrew/patch problem I had, though, turned out to be caused by something else entirely. At one point in late July soon after the release of webOS 1.1.0, I installed and uninstalled the tethering app to see what it looked/worked like. After uninstallation, something got screwed up in my OS and my Web browser no longer worked (although other Internet connections on the device seemed to). "No problem," I thought, "I'll just download and run webOS Doctor to reset my Pre back to factory." Wrong; it was a big problem, since as soon as I tried to do so, my Pre first wouldn't successfully run webOS Doctor, and then even when I got it to work (with the volume-up-with-battery-out trick to force my Pre into "recovery mode"), I was unable to fully activate my Pre. I could get the phone to work, but the data indicator (1X/EV) never appeared, nor could it connect to the Sprint network to either restore my profile or create a new one. The result? An essentially-dead Pre, because (I thought) of my patch attempts.
With some trepidation, I reached out to my contacts at Palm and explained the situation. They were stern but sympathetic, and worked with me on various efforts to restart the data connection, without success. We were close to a hardware swap (which I would have had to pay for) when a bit of internal research on Palm's part discovered an interesting (and unpublicized) fact: the downloadable version of webOS Doctor was not the 1.10 already loaded on my Pre, but the earlier 1.0.4. It wasn't my patching, but the unintentional downgrade, that caused my data issues. *Whew!* It wasn't my fault after all. Ultimately, I was able (with the use of the MSL code provided to me from Palm) manually activate my Pre with webOS 1.0.4, and after a few tense moments, the EV icon popped back up, and I was back in full operation. Since then, I've been very careful to wait until others confirmed that webOS Doctor was updated to the most recent version before using it whether for full reinstall or to drive webOS Repair Utility.
Hardware Wars (and Pieces)
While I did get my Pre directly from Palm, it appeared to be in a standard retail package, so I think my hardware experience has been relatively typical. Overall, I've been pleased with the hardware quality. Yes, I see a bit of the "Oreo" flexing between the screen and the lower portion, and my USB cover is long gone (as is the replacement one Palm quietly sent me after the first one fell off), but I have seen few if any defects. Even better, my Pre has been sturdy enough to survive a fall down some cement steps and suffer only a few nicks. As careful as I am with it (especially after the cement steps!), though, it has sustained a few subsequent falls, one of which resulted in a temporary locking of the keyboard slider, and a more permanent faded yellowish spot at the bottom left of the screen, just above the gesture area (somewhat similar to those discussed in this thread). (You can see it most clearly against dark backgrounds, like this shot using Preware.) It doesn't seem as though the yellow spot has affected usability or sensitivity of the touchscreen, though, and I quickly learned to ignore it. Beyond that and the common scratches a frequently used device gets, my Pre has withstood my (ab)use over the past six months quite well. One final advantage over my previous devices: since there isn't a specific input area and since a standard pointy stylus won't work on the Pre, I don't have the standard scratches over the bottom left of the screen (the Graffiti text area) that all my Palm PDAs developed over time.
As for the ergonomics of the Pre hardware, count me basically satisfied. Even with my large fingers, I had no trouble adjusting to or using the Pre's thumbboard, although it is too small for true touchtyping, and the screen is sharp enough for my past-40 eyes, and much more so than that of my beloved T|X. If anything, I found the Pre with the standard battery a bit too thin for comfortable holding; the extended back of the Seidio battery and the tiny bit of additional weight actually improved that for me. Earpiece, speakerphone and headphone jack volumes are fine, and while I do still occasionally hang up a call by accidentally touching my cheek to the Pre before the proximity sensor can blank the screen, I've mostly learned to avoid that. I've had no real issues with pairing or using either of my Motorola Bluetooth devices (the H700 headset and T305 speakerphone), nor with the Bluetooth speakerphone feature of my Magellan GPS, absent an occasional issue with automatic detection (a quick manual selection of the right device solves that).
I do not generally use the voice direction of the Sprint Navigation system, both because I have bigger (and louder) GPS units in my cars, and because I've found the directions to be occasionally wonky in some of my travels, but I'm thrilled to have it as a backup, along with Google Maps and some of the other GPS and mapping options available via homebrew. I also successfully implemented the GPS hardware "upgrade" discussed in this thread (and reimplemented it after installing 1.3.1), and have been pleased with the speed and accuracy increase it generated.
Conclusion: Real Reviewer, Real Satisfaction
When I received my Pre, I had two key questions in mind: could it replace my constant companion T|X in day-to-day use, and what would I do if/when Palm asked for it back. Six months in, the answer to the first question is a clear "yes." Other than a few times when I have needed a portable solution to type something (see my frequent Bluetooth keyboard rants above and elsewhere), and especially with my Outlook notes now happily loading, syncing and searchable via Chapura's PocketMirror), my T|X has remained in happy retirement, while my Pre is now my everpresent assistant.
As for the second question, while I put up at least token resistance at first ("Well, maybe I'll keep the Pre after six months..."), it's no longer a question: I've been assimilated to the smartphone collective in general, and the Pre in particular. My work habits now assume not only constant Internet access, but multitasking and full Web browsing as well. I'm more comfortable giving my cellphone number out as a contact method, because I know that whenever I have my Pre, I'll have my phone (as opposed to my old Motorola e815, which was frequently but not always with me and turned on even, although I always had my T|X). I've become spoiled by the ability to search anywhere and anytime, and feel even closer to the kind of networked power I envied in the MILLIE-connected users from Oath of Fealty by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
So I'll see you all here on PreCentral, on Twitter, and even in the real world. You'll know me if you see me; I'll be the tallish, dark-haired, geeky looking guy using a Palm Pre.
49 Comments
Good review!
Great review, thanks for sharing with us. For me, as a first off product for a new company in the industry, the Pre is a nice start with a lot of potential and a lot of things done right for allowing quick development. I'm not sure the development is moving so quickly with some fundamental weaknesses in missing resources. But with a few more parts developed, things could blossom quite quickly.
As a follow-on product for the PDA's and Treo's of the company formerly known as Palm, the Pre is nearly a total disaster. All of the strengths of the Treo have pretty much become the weaknesses or non existant on the Pre. The lack of data carry over, the lack of hard synching, weak battery, terrible calendar, awful phone interface, weak contacts, poor custimization (sounds, cues, images) and the inability to pull forward most of the productive Garnet apps, all have worked to destroy the customer loyalty foundation of professional that made Palm the front runner in the industry.
From this point, I can see bettered resourced companies more likely to match the WebOS strength's, rather than Palm develop WebOS to match it's Garnet glory or keep up with better developed O/S's. WebOS would be a great asset to a Nokia or BB who's architecture has just about been developed out. To me, a merger/acquisition is the only way we'll see WebOS's true potential, and even then, it will need a good culture to really show it off.
Thanks for the great review! I've had my Pre since July, but I love to know what other people think. Enjoy it!
Excellent review! I'd been debating how to divvy things up for a "6 months" post. Your method gives great detail but is still quite accessible. Well done!
Thank you.
Great Every Man Review!
Really great review, thanks.
I too would really like a full size keyboard. I enjoyed one with numerous Palm devices over the years. (I know, fat chance going forward though. Sigh.)
I'd also really like true Universal search. Palm really missed the boat on this one. I used to search often based on keyword. That's totally out so far. Look forward to someone homebrewing this.
The calendar does suck. Sorry Palm. Palm OS Datebook ('turbo'ed' with DateBk) runs circles around the WebOS attempt. Using Classic with DateBk thus far, and though it's not a long term solution, it's still better than the WebOS option.
Look forward to DataViz updating Documents to Go for WebOS.
That being said, this is a very nice smartphone. Yes, there were a number of tradeoffs from the Treo/Cento (Palm OS), but as a first generation OS, this is a great start.
You really, really need to be using at least WPA, or WPA2 for your home wireless network. WEP is not a secure protocol, and while it's better than no password at all, it's not much better.
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2002/07/security.ars/2
I know, and I appreciate the advice. That said, the vast majority of devices in my home use the wired connection, and I figure that between my hidden SSIDs, WEP and the reality that no one would want to bother intercepting my connection when there are plenty of open ones around, I'm probably okay for now. {Jonathan}
"You'll know me if you see me; I'll be the tallish, dark-haired, geeky looking guy using a Palm Pre."-- Hah, that narrows it down! :)
Great review. You really have me perplexed, though, because my reasons for wanting to stay with Palm are the same as the ones you listed: PIM and PIM. If the calendar is really that poor, I might wait another six months for them to correct this before I finally cave in and dump my Centro.
To clarify, calendar performance on the device (i.e. how long it takes to see and manipulate data) is sluggish, but syncing and Synergy work extremely well. Also, my Pre handles changing time zones for appointments *much* better than did my T|X. {Jonathan}
Wow, thanks for replying to my concerns! I wasn't expecting that.
Thanks back for taking the time to read and comment. {Jonathan}
Have those concerns been addressed by 1.3.5?
I use Quick Event and Google Calendar from my PC to enter meetings and appointments, but never really noticed what most people were complaining about with the Calendar.
The sluggishness issue seems to be for those of us who sync to Exchange, and yes, 1.3.5 does further improve the situation. {Jonathan}
Thanks for an excellent review - as someone who is waiting for the Pre on Verizon, I found your review very informative and helpful
Great review, i'll print it cause i'm spanish and have a little english, i get a dictionary ;-)
If you can't figure something out, please let me know and I'll translate into *clear* English. :) {Jonathan}
One comment on the calendar: the speed issue seems to depend upon the kinds of calendars you are synching. Exchange calendars seem to be a huge performance hit.
I have 2 google calendars, the palm profile, and the local QuickEvents calendar and the Calendar launches in 2-3 seconds. Firing up Agenda to get several days of info happens in 4-6 seconds.
I never used the categories feature on the calendar, but my wife misses her color coding. If you didn't use categories, you will probably be fine with the new calendar.
I suspect someone will create a homebrew calendar app that supports splicing categories onto entries but until Palm officially supports reading the Calendar db from other apps, it won't be a commercial product.
And I *HIGHLY* recommend everyone go get the homebrew app ClassicNote. It is an excellent equivalent of the PalmOS Memos app.
Build quality of my Palm Pre (not given to me by pre) prevents me from enjoying its so many pluses in the OS. If I was to give a review since I've had this device it would included multiple returns because of hardware failure, multiple replacements of protective cases and belt clips, loss of message logs and call logs during 1st hardware exchange was unforgivable, forcing me to purchase Missing Sync because I like to control my own data, the unusable phone app, and all the complaints all my other friends who love palm but completely dislike this phone's hardware failures... Oh, but we've heard it all...
Review was longer than it needed to be. Precentral should do a month long segment of gathering 30 or so fellow members to write up a review of what they thought of the Pre after 6 months. Without having it littering the main page, it could be a featured article to the review links. That would be cool.
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Great review. I'm glad you have had a postitive experience with the Palm Pre. I had one for four months before the problems I experienced became too much and I had to switch to Android.
That being said, I think that the Smartphone Round Robins are more relevent. Especially for people who are looking to purchase a Pre or have been wondering what it would be like to have another smartphone. If the Pre were the only smartphone choice (I know the implications that would have and the "if" situations that would arise), then it would be a fine choice. It is functional and has some great features and is progressing fairly well. However, I think the other smartphone choices available are smarter (Android, BBerry, Nokia, etc). The Pre, when compared to other phones, falls far short. The hardware is wanky, and the operating system is jittery and limited. Android, BBerry, even Windows mobile all have their own problems but are much more useful in every day life given their features and the host of different hardware configurations available (and carriers). I think that the Pre is still a guinea pig phone, an experiment, and wont really be a viable smartphone option until Palm gets their motions in gear and really makes it competetive.
I do hope the Pre does well and becomes mainstream, I love the way WebOS looks and I see the potential, I just think that it's currently the lowest option available for a Smartphone (save for maybe Windows mobile, which despite it's features, is just rubbish).
I find your review very interesting. I am also an iPhone user and my wife traded a BB for the Pre. Is there room for improvement for the Pre, yes. But it is far ahead of BB and s60 as far as system software. As for hardware, ask BB 9630 about build quality, and curve users about trackballs. The Pre is mainstream, it is doing well in Europe where Nokia is king and is selling here in the US. You state that other smart phone choices are better. You claim that the OS is jittery and limited, how? I know about the app limit problem, it will be fixed. You are right there is not 1000 fart apps or even 100. But the apps that are available are excellent and the number is growing. Android is great, but this is the true experiment. Will Google put out their own phone and hurt HTC, Moto, and Samaung? Is a particular model Android phone even going to get 2.0 let alone 1.6?? How long till a phone is updated once the user interface has to be updated? Android is not picnic unless you are a techno person who does not mind working things out. Seems that there are problems all around with the smart phones you named as superior to the Pre, they don't shine as brightly now and the Pre looks better.
I think that WebOS is slow, jittery and limited CURRENTLY. However, I do see that there is potential to grow and unlock the hardware in the Pre, but if you had to buy a smartphone today, the Droid with Android 2.0 is a better choice. More apps, faster, better build quality, etc. Same with Blackberrys. They are established, and polished. The OS isn't as pretty but I think that it has better options especially considering what he complained about in the review (calender, notes, etc) though the Web browsing on bberrys is terrible. I'm not much of an iphone person, but even that is more stable, faster and better right now. I love the look and feel of WebOS, when it works well. But its too slow on the pre and pixi right now. I'm hopeing that in the near future, palm will make enhancements that will put it ahead of competition.
The brokenb array of Android OS versions is a problem, but I think that's a problem with carriers,and manufacturers, not android. HTC takes their time porting sense UI.
Spot on review, also a former PalmOS user and im also astonished that Palm didnt put more work into contact handling and calendar functions. Still love the Pre but it needs to get better at these basic functions to survive.
You really dropped your pre down a cement staircase?
Yep--note the grey hair in my pic! :) {Jonathan}
Great review. Thanks for taking the time to compose your thoughts. I agree for the most part. The most glaring shortcoming, of both the Pre and the review incidentally, is the state of the App Catalog. Six months in and it is still in Beta and I'm seeing little activity from the broader business and retail community to develop WebOS apps. As iPhone races towards 120k apps and with Droid already well ahead, it is frustrating to be stuck with such a promising device.
Wow, you must have really hammered iPhone for that first year they didn't even have an app store.
You're allowed to come out of the blocks slowly when you're creating the market. No one knew then what was lacking because nothing like it really existed before. If, however, you come into the game after the fact - and market yourself as an "iPhone killer" - be prepared to live up to the claim. There's already a viable model to emulate. Get on with it.
Believe it or not, multitouch, touch screen smart phones, app stores, 3G service and mp3 onboard all existed before Apple invented them. iPhone came out of the box slowly, because they held developers and users back.
Absolutely. I'm not crediting Apple with having pioneered the technology, but Apple did create the market. Now that the market exists, with demonstrated demand and a successful delivery and licensing model to emulate, I have a difficult time giving Palm a pass. It's been 6 months since the device hit the market. The project itself has been underway for significantly longer, long enough to have figured it out by now.
Sorry, not sure what "market" they created. Smartphones were around a long time before the ineffective 2G showed up. What Apple did succeed in "creating" was transitioning their loyal iPod clients into a combined device that included a functional phone and a slow internet experience. Palm, BB, Motorola and others already had a firm and growing smartphone market established. What Apple suceeded in doing, was convincing late-adopters that yes, they too, could handle a phone that did more than ring when called.
+100
Err...wait.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN??! HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!! Steve Jobs invented mp3's, the mp3 player, cellphones, smartphones, the computer chip, apps, pda, AND the "internets". HOW IGNORANT ARE YOU TO SLIGHT THE POWER OF STEVE.
/disgust off *sarcasm off*
/reality on
@PreDogs - you really nailed that. Backup in time, take away the "auto-client" base of iPod users and you'd have the "pretty but mediocre" device that was the iPhone 2G faltering in market share as they are in the PC market. Without the iPod, no way iPhone leads today.
Great Review! Bought my Pre on opening day at Sprint Store. Hardware and software happily chugging along (but many thanks to HomeBrew and Patches!) Dropped Pre many times with no issues except for small scratches on case. Bought a screen protector off Amazon.com about four months ago (not a pure stick on but one where you have to put the chemical spray on the screen). The screen protector came with a lifetime warranty and while I don't expect a lifetimes use out of it I am absolutely amazed that it has shown NO WEAR and screen is in perfect shape (even after the fore-mentioned drops). Another person made the comment that the Pre is on the bottom of the smart phone heap with maybe the exception of WM. I have to STRONGLY disagree and would put iphone #1 (as much as I hate to!) and the entire droid ensemble tied with Pre at #2. Have really been totally unhappy with any and all RIM products I've tried. With my rating system being expressed above.... to each his own. We each have our own particular needs and pet peaves!
Again great review and very fair in my opinion.
Good review. I love my Pre but have to agree on the short comings. I miss my wireless keyboard and calendar. The day to day calendar is good. All color coded and organized. I sync with Google. My wife enters a entry on her phone, it updates her goggle calendar then transfers to my Google calendar and download to my pre in a matter of seconds. The week and month calendars are pathetic. That being said, I would not trade my Pre for any other smart phone.
thanks for the review. I'm glad your Pre is workibg out for you. I haven't looked back from my old Treo. I have love the experience thus far. I have noticed calendar is slower than I would like. I am only syncing to google, and load times are okay. Not unuseable, just not at fast as having locak data.
I had the same note issue you did. Then I realised that while it isn't incorporated into univerdal search you can still search notes from the main note screen. I actually prefere this to the categories. You can kind of creatre a simple category buy making the first or last line in your note the category then just search on that.
I also realised I needed to pair down my notes. I had 100 some odd direction notes, which can all be deleted now that we have GPS.
hope that helps! Thanks again for a great review.
In the latest release (1.3.5) Palm had enhanced the Calendar app. It is much quicker to switch between days now. So the initial load is still slower than my treo, but I hardly notice switching between days now. And you can over come the initial load issue by leaving the calendar open all day, which I do anyway. As I mentioned I am ony synergizing with google calendars no exchange for me.
Nice review. Consider writing up a "how-to" post in the forums for solving your SSL certificate issues and providing a link in your review.
I'm still using a Centro while waiting for webOS devices to come to other carriers. I'm also hoping for Palm to improve the PIM, and a solid solution for Lotus Notes push email.
Quick thank you to all who have commented so far--I really appreciate your kind words and thoughts. {Jonathan}
Thanks for the great review. Very helpful to read from the perspective of a PDA-first (vs. phone) user. As a long-time PreCentral reader, I've been apprehensive about moving my calendar, contacts, tasks & memos from my aging T|X to a Pre -- you give me hope that it's worthwhile (with help from Chapura, of course).
Now -- all I need is to get my hands on an unlocked GSM and I think I'll take the leap! Anybody have any good news/horror stories on importing European GSM phones -- ie: is it worth it or should I wait for an AT&T GSM (assuming it can be unlocked) or unbranded Palm unlocked?
I agree with others here that this review was quite valuable for being more in-depth than any others I've seen. The calendar review was especially helpful.
I've been looking for a phone since my treo650 that would allow setting timezones per-event rather than per-calendar. It's critically important for any international business traveler. (I've recently considered BB, but given all the reviews I've seen, I'm not going to pursue it.)
I'm fairly sure that one reason webOS 1.3 doesn't have this Garnet feature is that Google calendar doesn't support it, so syncing wouldn't work.
I've been very excited about Palm's revamp, and I've been champing at the bit to get a Pre, but I'll probably wait until mid-2010 to see if there's a new version with microSDHC and better PIM.
Great review. I just can't wait when the pre or pixi will enter officially at my country.
Wow, what a great assessment of the Pre. By far, the most honest, accurate and detailed Pre review I've read anywhere.
What I like most is that you obviously have connections at palm. This leads me to believe they might pay more attention to your review than they would, say, to the run-of-the-mill complaint forums (I can still dream, can't I?).
Me--I'm still forced to carry my 755p along with the Pre to get business done, but I'm giving the Pre until the end of Jan'10 to see if palm can turn this thing around.
"Me--I'm still forced to carry my 755p along with the Pre to get business done, but I'm giving the Pre until the end of Jan'10 to see if palm can turn this thing around."
Forced to carry your 755p in what way? As a System Analyst\Engineer I support 900+ servers and 3000+ users using solely my Pre which was upgraded from a Centro, and T650\600's before that.
At work I run two Optiplex desktops, dual proc, 8GB RAM, and one with dual LCD's and I epitomize "power users". My Pre dominates and *I'm* the one in the room asked for data even though I'm surrounded by iPhone users. (Why? because I can retrieve and research data in meetings many times faster than they can and now people know it. ;) Though at lunch they are the conversation "look at this app" champs)
I'd love to hear your reasoning.
Thanks for the review. I've been with Palm for more than 10 years and I ditto your issues with the calendar, bluetooth keyboard and notes. I travelled with my Treo, portable speakers and keyboard. While on vacation I sat in a hotel, knocked out a Motion and sent it to the office for filing. I'd be hard pressed to do that on the Pre. When I'm trying to set dates or arrange appointments, it's frankly embarassing sometimes. However, I love being able to carry 4 different calendars with me (including exchange)on the same device and you can't beat it for its multi-tasking.
I'm on my original first day Pre and all of my complaints have been software related. But for the homebrew apps, I probably would not have stuck it out. Great in depth front page review.
Excellent review.
I guess the reason we don't get removable storage is kind of why we have the Touchstone...Rubinstein is a huge, huge fan of removing exposed ports on a device. The only reason that they didn't ship the device with a touchstone is probably because they realized that building a touchstone car charger would have been expensive for a lot of folks looking for a budget oriented smartphone. Besides, in his mind, the internet is the biggest removable storage device ever, so why not do it that way? It makes some sense, especially if we can get a version of Dropbox for the Pre. Though the access speed isn't going to impress anyone.
I felt like my biggest negative was the build quality of the Pre itself. As a developer, I'm a huge fan of the OS and how they've built it in a purposed manner for communications...much like PalmOS was built for personal organization. The "do-everything" OS's never really did any particular thing all that well on smaller platforms. But I really, really would have liked to see the Pre slimmed down a little and put in a more durable case with a better design for the slider. But you have to admit, the Pre feels really nice in the hand...almost like it's not there. I've used the iPhones, BBs, HTCs, and Droids...and none of them come close to feeling that comfortable in the hand. And since making calls is the primary purpose of a smartphone, you'd think that's a fairly important point.
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Everbright Smile
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