I know I know any and everywhere you look for the past few weeks it’s Palm Pre this and Palm Pre that. Being the gadget junkie that I am I must admit that I, like so many others, feverishly watched all the videos, read all the articles and entered all the contests to get my hands on it.
So now after spending over 48 hours with it, is it all it’s cracked up to be? Is it the greatest phone ever? I have to say yes and YES. Now I will be the first to tell you I have never ever been a Iphone fanboy/girl so I can’t make any comparisons between the two, but I have always owned a smartphone for the last several years (excluding the Samsung Instinct). I thought about doing a review of each and every detail of the Pre but there are sooo many and I really have nothing additional to add that hasn’t already been said. What I can share with you are my opinions and feelings about the phone after using it in the real world for 48 hours as a regular customer. So let’s dive in shall we?
I am a very busy person. Corporate collar popper, super mom and a light packer. I need all my daily necessities to be able to fit in the palm (no pun intended) of my hand. This phone definitely fits that mold. It’s small yet not cramped I can set several different alarms, keep my calendar categorized and my personal and business contacts conveniently on hand. I can truly multitask finally!! My Pre is like my own personal assistant.
It took some getting used to but after 48 hours I’m a pro at navigating through the different activity cards. It definitely has a Minority Report feel to it. You can drag them, switch the order their in, toss them off the screen and zoom them in and out. It took me about 10 hours to figure out I didn’t need to close and reopen a window to return to a previous screen I can just swipe my finger across the gesture area and I’m back to where I started. When you touch the screen it has a raindrop rippled effect which is very cool. The Pre is very intuitive I found it neat that when I made a phone call and brought the phone to my ear the screen blacked out but as I took it away from my face to dial numeric options the screen lit back up. I also dig the keyboard being back lit when the lights went out.
I was a little bummed out to find out that there is no option to forward my text messages. I know it seems simple but until you don’t have the option you don’t realize how often you actually do forward text messages. I was told by Sprint that it will most likely be sent as an update in the near future as it seems this option was simply “left outâ€. So now I can’t forward any messages to 8 people to get a big surprise by sundown..bummer. There was also no clock initially which meant no alarm. There is an alarm on the calendar but I am a little particular about my alarm being in the clock section. Fortunately, there is a software update for the Pre and voila!! I now have a clock and an alarm that actually woke me up on time for work today.
There has been much talk about the Facebook and Google contacts; etc and yes that was my nightmare BUT had I not had to deal with that I may not have experienced the full joys of Synergy. Let me explain, if for some reason Jane’s phone number ends up listed under Joe’s info or Joe’s Google account has different info than his Facebook account, you can manually merge or a manually the info. Synergy also combines your text and IM conversations into one chat window, so you can text someone while they’re out and about and then hop onto over to IM when they get to a pc or laptop. Or if your like me and just enjoy alternating because you can that’s cool too.
Web browsing is the fastest I’ve ever experienced on a phone WiFi or otherwise. Obviously WiFi is much faster but even in areas where it’s not available my pages loaded quickly and were easy to navigate. I loved the ease of bookmarking pages and the option to share the page I’m looking at via text or email. The notifications are non intrusive which is new for me so it doesn’t interrupt what I’m doing, they sit there and let me get to them when I am able to. Which is great when you’re in the middle of some interesting Tweeting. Which brings me to apps, the App Catalog is Beta and limited which doesn’t pose a problem to me as I am not a big app user-with the exception of Twitter. Pre has 2 options for this, Tweed and Spaz both have their pros and cons but since they are both beta versions I will save my real reviews until they are both in full version.
I was also a bit concerned about sliding out the keyboard because I kept reading reviews of people getting sliced and sharp edges. I have to say I’ve experienced none of those issues and found it to be pretty simple. My only gripe after 2 full days with the phone is battery life. I went to work @ 7:30 am and by the end of my shift @ 4pm my phone was dead. This is with minimal use I used it during my 30 minute lunch break to watch a YouTube video and checked a few texts and emails. So tomorrow I will have to remember to bring my charger with me. The phone casing also tends to run a little on the hot side. It’s a bit warm to the touch which seemed to be a concern for a few other users I’ve spoken to. I love the phone so much those minor inconveniences are worth it and don’t bother me so much. I would suggest investing in a car charger if you are planning any road trips. The pros definitely outweighs the cons and for me this phone has been all I anticipated and more. I will end here and will try to update you regularly as I come across new tidbits and if you have any questions about the phone at all feel free to ask and I will be happy to answer to the best of my ability.
