One other thing is, sure the App Catalog only has 30+ apps in it, if you check out http://www.precentral.net, they have a terrific group of guys that have a “Homebrew Apps Catalog” running with 120+ apps already. These are guys that have the SDK but have not been allowed to submit to Palms App Store yet. Check it out, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Great honest review! I couldnt help but notice tho your area codes on your contacts. Columbus? I’m living there for the next couple months, and yes its a sad story for evdo there. However a sprint store rep informed me that by next year evdo will be in the area.

I was going to cancel my contract and sent a letter to Sprint re my Instinct concerns and was put in touch with A corporaate execuctive assistant, who asked me to contact a Sprint store. The store convinced me to pay $50 and get a new Sprint phone which i did and none of the issues were resolved. I was about to cancel my Instinct contract when the Pre was released a few days before I went to Canada for 2 months. In my opinion the Pre hype will be short lived and we will see the demise of Palm.

The Instinct was so bad that the Pre looked like a miracle.

I firmly believe however, that the Palm pre will never catch up with the iPhone and the gap will widen. iPhone will probably be a good choice when it’s available from a carrier other than ATT.

When you are in another country and even purchase a roaming plan for that country you had better be aware of how much you use the GPS etc or you may incurr horrendous bills.

I agree with Julie and i would have returned my Pre but that was impossible due to my travel plans, so I am stuck with the pre for another 2 years.

Again, thank you.

Thank you

I am really attached to using a stylus, a keyboard, a 5-way button and dedicated phone buttons, along with true backup (to a disk not a cloud), 80% one-handed operation, and all my great apps NOW. I do wish PalmOS got updated (or fixed) as often as it appears WebOS may get updated to keep customers happy (and Palm alive).

Kinda surprising, really, Sprint is pretty big in Omaha, I woulda thought we would have gotten enough units to last a couple days.

BTW, I decreased my google sync to 30 minutes and my other email acct to 1 hour…left exchange to ‘as mail comes’, turn off screen after 30 seconds, wifi ON (yes, ON), BT off.

Amazingly, after 13 hours my phone has 53% (before it was dying after 8 hours. I think the email syncing is killing these batteries…I am going to change it tomorrow to see (google 15 min or maybe ‘as it comes’, other eml acct 15 mins, screen after 1 minute)…see how long it lasts.

The PIMs still suck, the rotate screen is not available everywhere it should be…oh, never mind, I better not get started. Everyday I find something else dumb. But some neat apps are coming.

However, since you can attach a USB cable and transfer back and forth from the Classic folder to your PC, you can at least back up the updated PDBs. Not sync, but better than nothing.

No, I don’t have a Pre. Haven’t been able to molest one yet, so reviews like this are very helpful. Thanks.

Given your bias for phones with buttons, I think it is unfair of you to review phones like the Pre that, out of the box, you know you are not going to like. Given the fact that your everyday phone is such a brick, I’m not so sure I can give your review of this, or any other phone, much credence. But, thanks for trying anyway.

Palm Pre is good for what it is, a small beautifully designed phone with a usable QWERTY keyboard and a nice OS. Thats all! Its not an iPhone killer nor its gonna kill the iPhone’s app store. If people keep in this mind then Palm Pre is worth every penny.

I have read almost all the major reviews and they give the same impressions like Julie.

I have made my decision, I will get the Palm Pre as I think its a dman good phone even though it still is the early version but its a dman good first attempt.

Battery life hasn’t been great, but I was used to shortened battery
life from my Treo. The first couple of days were pretty awful, but
now that I’m doing a little bit less playing with the device, I’m able
to get through a workday and low-usage evening without needing to
recharge.

The OS is fantastic most of the time. Multitasking works remarkably
well and has some great advantages over what most competitors have to
offer. Switching between apps is really efficient and it is easy to
switch between multiple tasks without getting lost. The “Synergy”
linking is great: many of my duplicate contacts from multiple data
sources were automatically linked together and it presents a great
unified seamless view. However, I’ve had some serious issues with the
Calendar either locking up temporarily or just not displaying things.

The “universal search” feature lets you do some thing much more
quickly than searching/scrolling though multiple screens of icons. If
I want to search for someone, launch a new application, or search the
web, I can easily pop open the app switcher and just start typing
something util what I’m looking for is displayed. It really
simplifies the workflow. The web browser is, for the most part, about
as good as the iPhone’s, but there are a few rough edges here and
there. The OS has crashed on me a few times and I’ve rebooted it a
couple of times too.

Media works fairly well. I sync it with my iTunes (somewhat sparingly
due to the USB annoyances), and my music and Podcasts loaded up after
configuration. I primarily do podcasts for media, and it doesn’t have
a good organization scheme for that like iPods do. YouTube works well
albeit in the dedicated app rather than integrated into the browser.
My iTunes videos (QT and podcasts) sync to work fine.

The Spring GPS navigation program worked pretty well, though it
requires a data connection and it does kill battery life. I wouldn’t
plan to use it for a 2+ hour long trip without a car power adapter if
I didn’t have a chance to recharge at the destination.

Apps, for the moment, are pretty sparse. There just aren’t a lot of
them yet, but then again the SDK hasn’t been released to the general
public yet so this is not unexpected.

Accuweather is great, and easily beats the iPhone’s Weather. The most
important apps available so far are: Classic (emulator to run old
PalmOS apps), and some Sync apps (like the Missing Sync).

Classic works well with some apps but not others. For example, I run
HandyShopper on it and it works great. However, on my Pre, Bejeweled
2 and Patience Revisited “blue screen” the emulator (doesn’t reset the
phone, just locks up emu). Hotsync doesn’t work so it’s not trivial
to keep your data loaded. Also, the trial period is an absurdly short
7 days and it costs $30. WHen it does work, and so far it works for
my “I really need this” apps, it works very well. According to Speedy
7.1, it is finally a palmOS device that’s faster than the T|C.

I haven’t messed around with Missing Sync yet. It’s designed to sync
your Pre with your own PC/Mac rather than the cloud, and it has a few
features that mitigate the USB connectivitiy issues by providing
replacement services via WiFi.

Accessories are pretty rare so far, but that’s to be expected in a
brand-new device. The most notable one is the Touchstone charger.
This let you charge the Pre just by putting it on a magnetic “stone”
which works really well, much better than fumbling with the USB port.
However, it is quite an expensive option. The normal $70 kit only
comes with the stone itself and the replacement back for the Pre. You
have to use a USB AC adapter (computer ports won’t work) and the
Palm-branded microUSB cable that comes with your Pre in order to
actually make it work. You’re forced to use the Palm cable as the
stone’s USB port is recessed into a narrow channel and most microUSB
connectors won’t fit. Palm sells a kit that comes with a Touchstone,
cable, and AC adapter for $80. I think they’re gouging us on the
prices here.

It is actually a phone too, and call quality and reception have been
plenty good enough.

Sprint service has been fine for me. Historically speaking, reception
has been pretty weak a my house, but the Pre has been about as good as
my Alltel phone. (AT&T and Verizon have been problematic there: I
don’t know what to expect with the Alltel/Verizon merger.)

Overall, it’s meeting my needs pretty well, with the glaring exception
of the calendar issues. Battery life has also been a bit
disappointing, but so far I’ve been able to manage.

@Lex & Greg My Sprint coverage problems are not the primary reason why I’m not going to keep my unit. Even if Sprint had wonderful coverage and 3G here in my town, I don’t think I’d switch carriers. It’s the actual phone and its features that are keeping me from wanting to switch right now. It’s the same reason why I don’t use the iPhone full time. For me personally, I find it somewhat difficult to use a full touch phone. I want buttons.

As for using the Pre as a phone (making and receiving calls), I would say that call audio quality is a lot better than AT&T. I’ll certainly miss that aspect of the phone.

I did not play with the google mapping features…

I appreciate your honesty in the review. I want to get the pre but am hesiatant and your review reinforces my view of 1st generation devices, wait for gen 1.5 at least. Having said that I wonder if your experiences would be different if you had good 3G coverage. I find many of my use and issues have to do with Sprint coverage, rather than the device (i.e. delayed messages, going to voicemail direct, etc.). Two things I wonder if you had time to play with, GPS using google maps, and the actual voice quality, dropped calls, etc. Everyone touts the applications on a phone, but I find in most cases it does the primary function, being a phone, quite poor. How is the pre as a phone within Sprints 3G? Anyone have any experience?
Great series, Thanks