Palm Pre
So here we have one of the most anticipated phones of 2009, the ultimate iPhone killer. So does it live up to those expectations? Well in some ways yes and in other ways no.
The Palm strikes me as the iPhone’s little cousin that’s left standing in big cousins shadow. All the fantastic things the Pre does seem almost too little too late. However let’s not judge too quickly. Go ahead and read the review and form your own opinions.
Construction and Build:
The Pre really looks the part. It’s small and compact with a great set of features. My problem with this handset is I honestly believe the first moment I drop it I’ll have hundreds of little Palm babies and a terrible scowl across my face. It just doesn’t seem like the kind of handset that was built to last when it comes to heavy usage.
However the slide out qwerty keypad I a lovely touch that many manufactures seem to be leaving out lately. Sometimes it’s nice to have something physical to type on despite this also being one of the most annoying aspects of the Pre, however we will cross that bridge next!
UI & OS
The Palm Web OS feels exceptionally comfortable to use. Lots of time and effort has clearly gone into developing and testing and the outcome is a great OS. Just like the iPhone the Web OS is something you can just have a quick play with and feel comfortable navigating almost immediately. In fact there are a number of features that trump Apple.
Let’s start with Synergy. This little gem keeps everything in sync. Facebook, google mail etc. For example if someone on their Facebook account updates their contact information then the information will be updated on your phone! Genius! No longer do you have to flitter backwards and forwards gathering and updating your information manually.
The touch screen is marvellous and a real joy to use. When it comes to performance on this I’d honestly have to say the Pre stands it’s ground against Apple’s iPhone. Of course this makes the rest of the phone great to use. The web browser performs just like Safari and the latest software update has brought Flashplayer to the handset!
Another thing I found that really brought a smile to my face was the fact that the Pre can handle multiple applications at the same time. Gone are the days of opening one application only to have to close it down to open the next. Yes, you can have your web browser open, searching for information to add into that email you are composing all at the same time! Whiles you’re at it, if someone sends you a message it’s not intrusive. You’ll be notified by a small icon rather than a message displaying across the screen that most smart phone users are accustomed to.
The only thing that really struck me as a disappointment was the lack of an onscreen keyboard. To be honest this actually completely put me off the handset. Here’s why! You’re browsing the web in landscape, find a page and need to input text but at this point you’ve got to turn your Pre, slide the keyboard down, type away, slide the keyboard back, tilt the phone again. To me a simple software update would really solve this nagging little issue but it seems Palm really want you to show off that piece of hardware!
Camera:
The performance of the camera is great for a smartphone. So long as you’re not expecting anything amazing then you wont be disappointed. At the end of the day this is a smartphone, not a camera phone. However, saying that it performs well. The auto focus does a great job and the flash is impressive for an LED.
The lack of video capture however lets the Pre down. We’ve already seen clips taken from modified Pre’s so it’s obviously just a software thing which is really disappointing to see. Look’s like Apple has ushered in the age of restricting what phones are truly capable of!
Conclusion:
To be honest the Pre doesn’t do it for me. Sure it’s got a great feature set and it’s a lovely piece of kit but what I’ve got does pretty much everything the Pre does and a little more. As I said right at the beginning it seems the Pre is just a little too late. Maybe if it had launched before the iPhone 3GS had then it would have really impacted on the market, however timing and pricing have doomed this model to stand in the corner.
If you’ve got some deep hatred of Apple or just don’t want an iPhone then this handset is probably for you. It does what the iPhone does and as I’ve said there are a fair few features that are better than Apples iPhone however I play with the Pre and continually find myself thinking I’d rather be doing this on my iPhone.
It’s one of those thing’s guys, you need to actually nip into your local retailer and have a go for yourselves. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised! So I’ll leave you to form your own opinions but sadly it’s a no for me.
Advantages:
- Qwerty Keypad
- 3.15 Mega pixel, auto focus camera
- TFT capacitive touchscreen
- LED Flash
- ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz
- PowerVR SGX graphics
- Synergy
Disadvantages
- No on screen keyboard
- Off and on iTunes support
- Poor feel
- No expandable memory
- No video record