Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Palm, Pre, New, iPhone, Launch | Themes: Smartphones
The Pre is here. . .
Over the weekend Sprint and Palm launched the eagerly anticipated Pre. It was a crazy weekend of queues and first impressions. The excitement even saw one elderly lady drive her car through the window of a Sprint store and some heated drama between Tech Crunch’s Mike Arrington and veteran tech journalist Leo Laporte over review units.
Over the last 48 hours, Pre owners have been discovering all the nasty and nice things about their new toy: the edges of the the slidedown keyboard are a little sharp (making it a tad uncomfortable to hold), keyboard edges aside, it feels great in your hand, it still syncs with the new version of iTunes, the keypad is a bit small, Sprint’s 3G is pretty snappy (with equal amounts of “Sprint’s 3G is pretty crappy”) and so on and so forth.
What we want to know, is which of you went out and bought a Pre and what you think of it? Did you wait in line only to be disappointed or did you hand over your hard earned cash, take the unit home and live happily ever after? Leave your thoughts below!
Don’t forget (as if the internet would let you), Apple is apparently all set to launch a brand spanking new iPhone this morning. Rumor has it we could see more than one. Stay tuned and we’ll post about the new Apple hardware as soon as we know anything.
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this iPhone , Zune and whatever phones hype is overrated. My 6500 classic owns all of these "phones" and lasts 3 times mybe even 4 times in battery terms. I use the PC for internet, i dont need it allover.
Darn... the only reason I read this article was to see if the woman who drove her car into the store actually got her Pre or not.
Darn... the only reason I read this article was to see if the woman who drove her car into the store actually got her Pre or not.
I'm guessing she got her license taken away.
The video is a MUST SEE. Watch for the employee who can't get out of his own way to flee the vehicle's path, and takes out the giant Pre display.
I didn't buy one, I wouldn't mind one though. The keyboard is a bit small for my gigantic thumbs, but otherwise it feels nice in your hands. The claims of it being sharp are ridiculous. The same people claiming it's sharp must be scared to death of butter knives. After reading reviews that said it's dangerous, I tried to get my friends Pre to be just as deadly but it's about as sharp as the rim of a coke can and it closes way to easily to cause pain from touching this supposed "sharp" edge.
I can't imagine the prissy people that must have reviewed this phone. My job involves no manual labor, so it isn't like I have hands of steel. The only callouses I have are from golfing.
As for the rest of the phone, I can't attest much as I was just trying to get a feel for it. It's smaller than I felt like it was when looking at it in pictures but the screen is nice and it's comfortable enough to use one handed. I didn't try out any multi-tasking or phone calls or anything, so I'm not going to throw another opinion out there about those. I just wanted to know if I could type with it and how it looked for real.
Haha, the video is hilarious! I love how they don't even go to the car to see if the woman is okay. I'm sure they think it's a potential robbery or something...
She can afford a Mercedes but not senior driver training?
Lucky the store was not full of customers or employees at the door. That was crazy!
Actually I love this phone, I went to best buy that only had 8 phones to avoid the mail in rebate but after two different best buys being sold out I went right over to the next sprint retail store which had 125 phones, I was number 118 they told be (which was still less than an hour into the stores being opened). But i've had good experiences with their mail in rebates before so I didn't mind, there is a few things that aren't the best but my god this phone is just awesome and well worth the money.
I didn't buy one, I wouldn't mind one though. The keyboard is a bit small for my gigantic thumbs, but otherwise it feels nice in your hands. The claims of it being sharp are ridiculous. The same people claiming it's sharp must be scared to death of butter knives. After reading reviews that said it's dangerous, I tried to get my friends Pre to be just as deadly but it's about as sharp as the rim of a coke can and it closes way to easily to cause pain from touching this supposed "sharp" edge. I can't imagine the prissy people that must have reviewed this phone. My job involves no manual labor, so it isn't like I have hands of steel. The only callouses I have are from golfing. As for the rest of the phone, I can't attest much as I was just trying to get a feel for it. It's smaller than I felt like it was when looking at it in pictures but the screen is nice and it's comfortable enough to use one handed. I didn't try out any multi-tasking or phone calls or anything, so I'm not going to throw another opinion out there about those. I just wanted to know if I could type with it and how it looked for real.
I agree, sharp edge on the keyboard? CMON! If that's all you have to complain about in an article then can it. I could say the same crap about AT&T's network in my area about it being completely crappy too (I know because my blackberry for work is at&t).
Apple is hiring elderly hit-woman to take out the competition.
Jobs = Capone
I'll be back. Said the Terminator old lady whom had previously been there.
I'm guessing she got her license taken away.
wrong. this would be considered to be singling out seniors and an uproar would ensure. they don't work so have ample time to protest and no one wants to hear a bunch of whiny old people as it is... that's the reason why retirement homes are so profitable and prevalent.
Overrall, I like the phone. Honestly, it doesn't BEAT the iPhone, but it doesn't lag behind in anyway. So if you are on Sprint or do not want AT&T and are switching from that or another carrier, I'd say the Pre is the best you can do.
Conversely, if you don't like Sprint and are trying to switch, switch to AT&T and get the iPhone.
Countering that, if you don't like either carrier, switch to Verizon and get a Blackberry Storm. Won't have iTunes but meh.
Wish everybody would stop bitching about how small the key pad is. Duh! Isn't it obvious? The thing is a few inches wide and tall. Isn't that the caveat for any small device? It's like owning a Honda Civic and bitching that it has less space than a bus.
I have normal size hands and my Treo 755p which has a small keyboard beats trying to press a standard phone pad three times for each letter. Plus the tactile feel of it is better than a larger button touch screen. If you use an iPhone (I had one for 2 wks), you will realize that a small tactile button keypad is more efficient than a larger button touch screen.
I'd buy an iPhone if it had a slide-out keyboard. It's thin already and adding an 1/8 inch slide-out keyboard wouldn't severely hurt its overall packaging. At least make an option.
I think I got the only bum Pre at launch. It wouldn't power on, tech's had to pull the battery and put it back in. Then it died again the next day. Big Battery symbol with a question mark in the middle. Sprint repair tech the next day said the battery resistance was too high and they swapped it out with a Palm Pre demo unit battery because they had no spare batteries in stock since units were low. It's all working now though and pretty nice. Not too happy about not having a desktop sync but overall not bad device. Low app availability could be an issue. Palm should have released the SDK sooner and got more people on board writing apps.
I bought my xv6700 for the nice big keyboard it's got. I love it. I'm keeping it.
The small keyboard doesn't bother me; I have small hands. The edges being sharp is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard (unless they got the Razor Edition Pre?). I've not had any trouble multitasking while on phone calls so far, everything seems responsive. The update from 0.9.x to 1.0.2 (issued about two hours after I purchased my phone) went seamlessly in the background, and didn't disrupt my use of the phone at all. In fact, I didn't even notice until I checked my version again.
Better than the iPhone? While not identical, the features are comparable. The real proof will be the apps that are released in the next few months.
The phone looks ugly...
Went to the launch party on 6/5 and picked mine up. Had a few unhappy moments trying to get Exchange Active Sync to work because we have a privately signed cert. Once we pulled down the correct root cert, everything took off beautifully. Sprint threw a great party in KC with great wine and hors d'oeuvres. Easy updates to the latest software, if a bit slow. And apps are quick and easy to download. I found the keyboard to be easy to thumb type with just like my Treo. I miss solitaire most of all.
Does it seriously cost $100 a month for the PRE plan?
Does it seriously cost $100 a month for the PRE plan?
Nope mine = 69.99 , with community credit union discount that sprint offers 61.99.
You can watch the security camera footage here. Those Sprint guys looked like they jumped about 6 feet in the air and were gone in a flash. Ha ha ha!
http://mobilitytoday.com/news/009548/pre_drive_by
I'm guessing she got her license taken away.
Having worked in law enforcement, I can tell you that you'd be surprised. We used to sign up elderly drivers for mandatory medical evaluations by the Motor Vehicle department after witnessing some pretty amazingly bad driving feats.
Most of them continued to drive, legally.
I don't need a $300 phone and a $100/month plan to get internet on my phone. I think this smart phone crap is overhyped. The only thing worth it is the iphone.
So did she get a Pre?
I bought my Pre, was like 8th in line 1:15 minutes before the store was going to open, was told by someone in line that they had 25 in stock. I like the phone alot. The keyboard is totally useable for me and my hands are not puny. I guess my only complaint is battery life. With Bluetooth and Wifi on yesterday I was at 43% battery after about 5 hours, I had hoped for more. Now we just need apps, more and more apps!!