So after 4 and a half years of using Palm Treos (first the 650 and then the Centro), I’m about to get Palm’s new Pre - a phone made in the spirit of the Treo, but with the new WebOS (which is based on linux, which apparently makes it automatically l33t) and a complete ripoff/improvement on the iphone. The #1 reason I did NOT want an iphone is because it doesn’t have a keyboard, and the Pre has a slideout keyboard which is exactly the same size and feel as the Centro’s, so I won’t even have to get used to it. The #2 reason I didn’t want an iphone is cuz I don’t want to pay $100 a month on my phone bill, especially since I BARELY ever make calls and mainly have a smartphone for the internet and apps. And with 8GB on the base model, I doubt it will be replacing my 60GB ipod’s place anyway. I managed to keep my old $50 (300 min + unlimited data) Fair & Flexible plan when I upgraded from the 650 to Centro, and hopefully I can slip through that crack again…but if not, Sprint has a $70 450+unlimited data+unlimited mobile to mobile+unlimited texting plan which is still reasonable. The #3 reason I don’t want an iphone is because of the closed installs it has. Like Palm’s previous phones, you can install ANYTHING YOU WANT onto it, without having to go through some bullshit apps store. There aren’t too many official programs out there, but the homebrew apps community is growing fast, and there were a lot of really decent homebrew apps for PalmOS as well. Besides, even though the iphone has thousands of apps, most of them are crap programs like having Kanye West randomly pop up and interrupt what you’re doing. Who needs THAT?
Anyway, as much as I hate to keep making iphone comparisons, there’s the simple fact that the iphone has about 40% of the smartphone market right now, and it’s blatantly obvious that Palm tried to take everything that is RIGHT with the iphone and copy/improve on it. So yeah, I’m excited, even though I haven’t even used the thing yet.
Any other Pre users out there? What do you think of it so far? Any first use advice you want to give?
I am moderately happy. I see a lot of potential in the phone (bought it as soon as it came out). But, it has a way to go. Palm left out features rather than do them wrong. So some significant features aren’t there (no way to forward or multi-post text messages for instance). A few features are in fact buggy. I almost always end up hanging up on a caller when the phone is locked and a call comes in. I just can’t get the gesture perfect. But normally answering is OK. The charging stone rocks. Great idea. Battery life is OK, but I have a charger in my car just in case. Still waiting on interesting apps.
In sum, it is an OK phone now. It has the potential to be great once all the features and apps are written.
Well, it’s listed as out for delivery, so I should have it tonight! Lets hope it doesn’t take 4 hours of fighting with Sprint customer service to get it activated like it did last time…
Ack, you have to slide to answer the phone? On my 650/Centro, I just had to hit the middle button to answer, or press the right arrow key to send to voicemail. I’m not sure if it was that way by default, or if I installed an add-on to do that (I customized those phones like crazy). I’m sure there’s a way around this, because no way do I want to be fiddling around when trying to take a call…btw, does this phone have a light to indicate if I have a message? I haven’t seen anything like that from the photos of it, and I really don’t want the battery getting drained by it having to keep the screen on with a “YOU’VE GOT MAIL” display.
The one scary thing I just read about this phone is that of the 8GB of internal storage, only 256MB is partitioned for apps, and that many users are hitting that limit really fast. Since this phone is NOT going to be replacing my ipod, I don’t need 7.5GB for media files. I do hope the media partition includes data files though, because I’m going to load this thing up with pdfs and ebooks like crazy. Infact the #1 reason I am excited about this phone is that I’ll finally have a decent pocket-sized PDF reader (PalmPDF was barely functional).
Good ole Sprint, still doing what they are best known for. Only took 2.5 hours of trying to work with technical support to get my phone activated this time.
This new interface is going to get a bit of getting used to, but so far I likey. I know this technology is pretty ancient by now, but I’m especially impressed with opening google maps and watching the built in GPS follow me around. I didn’t realize before, but this phone is actually even smaller than the Centro when the keyboard isn’t folded out.
I’ve had mine for about a month now, and I’m liking having a touch-screen phone. Of course, there are little quirks that take some getting used to, but overall I like it quite a lot. It replaces both my phone and the old Palm T3 I used to carry around, so that’s a big plus.
Slide to answer? No, you shouldn’t have to do that; when a call comes in, you just flick the “lock” image on the screen upward, and it’ll answer automatically.
One thing I really am missing from my old phone is the arrow keys. I liked being able to scroll webpage with a tap of a button rather than flicking a finger. I never used the touchscreen on my old phone THAT much and on the Pre, its pretty much esclusive EXCEPT when typing out things. Its also awkward naking this post from my phone since either the reply box is tiny or half of it is cut off of the screen.
Pre users - how do you keep your apps (quick launch and launcher) orgaized? I want to drop contacts and calendar and add messaging and web but I haven’t figured out how to replace them. And is there a way to have useful info (time, date, weather, etc) appear above the quick launch rather than the wallpaper? Lastly; how do you highlight and copy/paste text?
I need a replacement for my aging Palm Lifedrive and the reason I won’t buy a Pre is because of the keyboard. Palm always had this great script feature on their PDA’s that made it so you don’t need a physical keyboard, so why include it? Make the screen large, make room for a larger battery and a stylus by ditching the keyboard. The damn keyboard is designed for Greys anyways, not human fingers.