Sprint is scheduled to drop the new Palm Pre at retail this Saturday, and while a few individuals appear to be already lining up for the phone due to short supply, early reviews indicate they might find more constructive uses of their time. While saying the OS has great potential and the phone should still sell well, this Boy Genius Report review suggests that the build quality is lacking. Om Malik doesn't seem particularly blown away either, and like the BGR complains of a cheap feeling overall build and a very cramped keyboard. Still, for Palm disciples and those who need the latest and greatest, the phone arrives Saturday for $199.99 after a $100 rebate -- provided you sign a two-year data contract with Sprint.
The Pre is going to be fantastic. Sprint's already an excellent value for the money and the one department it was lacking in, customer service, is better than most of its competitors now.
BGR is an AT&T funded astroturfing machine. And Om...well. he's a curmudgeon...and the worst kind at that...an Apple fanboy.
Give the thing a chance. It will impress you. Don't forget...Palm created the whole smartphone category before RIM or Apple knew what it was ....and they've created another masterpiece.
Not to mention, some of the brains behind the Pre are disaffected former Apple and RIM employees....so the Pre is everything that's missing from devices from Canada and Cupertino.
The BGR review is quite valid. The keyboard is simply inadequate. As much it hurts, the only feature the Pre has over the Storm and the iPhone is half-assed.
I'm gonna wait on this one until I see more reviews. If the battery life is decent, I'll try the keyboard myself at a Sprint store. The missing physical keyboard, and the mixed reviews concerning the "clickity" touch-screen, is not as big an issue to me as the missing Wi-Fi when compared to the Storm.
Sorry for the confusion. I meant that the BlackBerry Storm does not have Wi-Fi or a physical keyboard. I was comparing features of the upcoming Pre to that of the Storm. I can more easily become accustomed to practically any keyboard, but I want my next smart phone to have Wi-Fi capabilities.
The BGR review definitely sounded iPhone biased. Several people on treocentral have played with one and didn't have keyboard problems and said it didn't 'feel cheap'. Kinda sad they only review mentioned is the only negative review - from an obvious iPhone fanboi.
A new keyboard always takes getting used to. New iPhone users often complained about the virtual keyboard - until they got used to it. I couldn't use my Treo keyboard at first but was then typing fast after a couple weeks. Same is even true with netbook keyboards, just take time to get used to it.
I'm thinking of getting one but might wait a bit. They won't be as draconian as Apple on determining which apps can be released but the SDK may not be very open... just have to wait and see. Is a big mistake for Palm to not have the SDK widely available right away.
Multitasking, flash support and one-handed operation is what I'm interested in. And to be able to run most of my old PalmOS apps.
The only 'valid' review for most should be the 30 day trial.
I personally prefer having the option of a 'real' keyboard vs a virtual only. The only thing that I 'like' about the iPhone (vs. say WinMo, or others I've used) is the size of the display, and general response. I agree with you on the apps, multitasking and flash. I currently use pockey PuTTy and IRC client and run tunnels over SSH. Wouldn't work properly on iPhone as it can't multitask.
iPhone is also a little too crippled for me to use - can't pull files in/out, can't add memory stick, can't replace battery.
I am not that impressed. If you want power windows mobile and handsets like the HTC Touch Pro 2 blow the Pre away. Also Sprint is marketing this like the Instinct, forcing higher rate plans, when you don't need those plans for even better WM devices.
Can you tether with the Pre? no. Are there great third party programs like GPS programs such as Garmin and TomTom? no.
Looks like a lot of hype for average hardware. The iTunes sync announcement cracked me up. You can do that on any top smartphone. They, like the Pre, cannot use the DRM of iTunes. But it is no competitive advantage against WM or iPhone with that much publicized itunes "sync."
Tethering will liely be supported by Sprint. PDAnet said they will port over ASAP. Garmin and TomTom could get ported later, but there is already TelNav built in and included with the service. No need to store/update local maps.
See this cool demo (annoying girl in background)...
With out having one in your hands, how can YOU be so sure?
Considering that Apple has had to release a few versions of the software to even get cut and paste functionality, I'd not say that apple has a stellar product yet either. AND, what cracks me up most about apple is that they're making this "new and exciting feature" called cut and paste some MAJOR thing.. same with landscape turning on many programs such as mail and so on.. things that users have been asking for now for a while.
And, "fanbois" are often the first to jump in and defend their their own... smelling one in yourself yet?
With out having one in your hands, how can YOU be so sure?
Considering that Apple has had to release a few versions of the software to even get cut and paste functionality, I'd not say that apple has a stellar product yet either. AND, what cracks me up most about apple is that they're making this "new and exciting feature" called cut and paste some MAJOR thing.. same with landscape turning on many programs such as mail and so on.. things that users have been asking for now for a while.
And, "fanbois" are often the first to jump in and defend their their own... smelling one in yourself yet?
It's not new and exciting obvioulsy, just new and exciting that it is finally going to be able to be done on the iPhone. Nice try though.
With out having one in your hands, how can YOU be so sure?
Considering that Apple has had to release a few versions of the software to even get cut and paste functionality, I'd not say that apple has a stellar product yet either. AND, what cracks me up most about apple is that they're making this "new and exciting feature" called cut and paste some MAJOR thing.. same with landscape turning on many programs such as mail and so on.. things that users have been asking for now for a while.
And, "fanbois" are often the first to jump in and defend their their own... smelling one in yourself yet?
It's not new and exciting obvioulsy, just new and exciting that it is finally going to be able to be done on the iPhone. Nice try though.
My only question is why Apple didn't do all those things in version 1? Apple is supposed to be this better innovative company, right? Apple could have easily blew Windows Mobile out of the water, there is no doubt of that in my mind at all.
With out having one in your hands, how can YOU be so sure?
Considering that Apple has had to release a few versions of the software to even get cut and paste functionality, I'd not say that apple has a stellar product yet either. AND, what cracks me up most about apple is that they're making this "new and exciting feature" called cut and paste some MAJOR thing.. same with landscape turning on many programs such as mail and so on.. things that users have been asking for now for a while.
And, "fanbois" are often the first to jump in and defend their their own... smelling one in yourself yet?
It's not new and exciting obvioulsy, just new and exciting that it is finally going to be able to be done on the iPhone. Nice try though.
My only question is why Apple didn't do all those things in version 1? Apple is supposed to be this better innovative company, right? Apple could have easily blew Windows Mobile out of the water, there is no doubt of that in my mind at all.
If Apple had Flash, it would be much easier for third party applications to run in the browser that would compete with the proprietary apps. This is probably a similar concern for the Palm Pre, which might explain why it won't be available immediately. Just pure speculation on my part, don't hold me to this.
If Apple had Flash, it would be much easier for third party applications to run in the browser that would compete with the proprietary apps. This is probably a similar concern for the Palm Pre, which might explain why it won't be available immediately. Just pure speculation on my part, don't hold me to this.
This is very true and I agree. I suppose Apple won't because they want the maximum profit margin from its app store...imo losing a few dollars and making the customers happy is worth MORE than achieving the maximum profit margin; this is because more customers = more profit and happier customers = more profit.
With out having one in your hands, how can YOU be so sure?
Considering that Apple has had to release a few versions of the software to even get cut and paste functionality, I'd not say that apple has a stellar product yet either. AND, what cracks me up most about apple is that they're making this "new and exciting feature" called cut and paste some MAJOR thing.. same with landscape turning on many programs such as mail and so on.. things that users have been asking for now for a while.
And, "fanbois" are often the first to jump in and defend their their own... smelling one in yourself yet?
It's not new and exciting obvioulsy, just new and exciting that it is finally going to be able to be done on the iPhone. Nice try though.
My only question is why Apple didn't do all those things in version 1? Apple is supposed to be this better innovative company, right? Apple could have easily blew Windows Mobile out of the water, there is no doubt of that in my mind at all.
Same thing I asked when I first got one. That is a gripe of mine that it doesn't support Flash.
Sorry.. nice try doesn't cut it. Cut and paste is being lauded by apple as something great.. meanwhile, my Moto 9Q has been able to do it now for a couple years..
Like you said,
Nice try!
If apple is such an awesome phone, this wouldn't have taken so long..
Have you even used a Pre yourself? Yet you are willing to take for granted a review whose own author admitted (after the offense) was for a pre-production model? And that makes you qualified to speak from experience? Please, son.
Go stroke your iPhone and stop pretending to be objective. No, mentioning the Blackberry does not fool anyone.
Wow, I really don't think you could have packed one more sentence of fanboy silliness into that post.
The Pre, as reported by Gizmodo who love the little device, is hardly anything revolutionary and is subject to the same (if not slightly more) limitations than the iPhone. No flash, no 3G music downloads, internal non-upgradable memory, no video recording, no visual voicemail, no computer sync or backup, and a Palm approved app approval process.
So, seems to me like it's right on par with the current gen iPhone, only missing a couple features. And that's even taking into account the difference in the app stores until the Pre's gets up to speed, the iPhone OS 3.0, nor the new iPhone coming out.
I want it to succeed as much as the next guy, but to disrespect the opinion of the people who have actually held one in their hands, bash the competition and then in the next breath say the disenchanted members of the companies you just bashed had a hand in it is, well, silly.
That's depressing to read; although, Flash is supposed to be coming, along with an emulator that will allow many of the legacy Palm OS apps to run on the Pre.
Who cares about flash? Funny, I brought that very feature up, or lack of, a few weeks ago, and about 40 people came in behind me telling me it was a waste to have it.
Who cares about flash? Funny, I brought that very feature up, or lack of, a few weeks ago, and about 40 people came in behind me telling me it was a waste to have it.
Try going to many, many sites on the iPhone or any other phone that doesn't support flash and it is a pain. So yes, I would rather have a Flash enabled phone.
Who cares about flash? Funny, I brought that very feature up, or lack of, a few weeks ago, and about 40 people came in behind me telling me it was a waste to have it.
Try going to many, many sites on the iPhone or any other phone that doesn't support flash and it is a pain. So yes, I would rather have a Flash enabled phone.
The internet isn't made of tubes flash. I can name many websites that don't rely on flash (cnet.com, dslreports.com, facebook.com, engadget.com ect). The only site that you would "miss out" on is myspace. And I hate myspace with a passion because people like to think that autoplaying anything is "cool". And a reality check my good friend, we are years if not decades from having a device in your hands that has the same web surfing abilities as a desktop computer. 500mhz is simply not enough "juice" for some of the flash applications out there. For example hulu will lag sometimes on my dual core, 4GB of RAM desktop. Although, skyfire is an interesting solution to the processing problem - albeit I don't think that it's good enough. I haven't used skyfire in a long time, but I think once they implement caching in the client then I think it would be great (for example when I was "moving" around a page, I would have to site and wait for it to load).
Who cares about flash? Funny, I brought that very feature up, or lack of, a few weeks ago, and about 40 people came in behind me telling me it was a waste to have it.
Try going to many, many sites on the iPhone or any other phone that doesn't support flash and it is a pain. So yes, I would rather have a Flash enabled phone.
The internet isn't made of tubes flash. I can name many websites that don't rely on flash (cnet.com, dslreports.com, facebook.com, engadget.com ect). The only site that you would "miss out" on is myspace. And I hate myspace with a passion because people like to think that autoplaying anything is "cool". And a reality check my good friend, we are years if not decades from having a device in your hands that has the same web surfing abilities as a desktop computer. 500mhz is simply not enough "juice" for some of the flash applications out there. For example hulu will lag sometimes on my dual core, 4GB of RAM desktop. Although, skyfire is an interesting solution to the processing problem - albeit I don't think that it's good enough. I haven't used skyfire in a long time, but I think once they implement caching in the client then I think it would be great (for example when I was "moving" around a page, I would have to site and wait for it to load).
Tried to go to the XM radio site today. Guess what? Xbox.com was another. It doesn't have to be an application, it can be the basic functionality of some websites whether you care for them or not. Flash is part of the internet.
Lots of things are "part" of the internet.. and? Maybe XM radio and Xbox should come up with a site that is not flash dependent.
Yea know but weren't those iPhone ads saying "not the mobile version of the Internet...just THE INTERNET." Making it sound like it supported everything that's available.
Classic Apple spin. Really funny the fanboi discussions. They're everywhere.
Tried to go to the XM radio site today. Guess what? Xbox.com was another. It doesn't have to be an application, it can be the basic functionality of some websites whether you care for them or not. Flash is part of the internet.
You want XM radio? »www.ismashphone.com/2008 ··· eta.html Funny how a simply google search turned that up . As far as xbox.com is concerned I don't understand why flash is a necessity for viewing the site? There is some Javascript menus that probably doesn't translate (well?) to the iPhone browser because you need to hover over the menu items to see them. The only thing that I see that would be of any real content value is the front flash news thingy that is displaying information that you can easily find elsewhere. If you really feel the need to click on a flash application that has 3 tabs of content that probably wouldn't look good on a handheld screen to begin with, why did you buy an iPhone? If you wanted to view that kind of content, buy a netbook. I have said this twice, that device you hold in your hand is not and will never be a replacement for web surfing on a desktop. For a similar experience grab a 500mhz box with 128mbs of RAM and install some flavor of Windows (Linux could work too, hell through Mac OS X if you really bent on using an Apple OS even though you are really just using a *nix OS ANYWAYS but I digress) on it (probably Windows 2k Pro would be my pick) and then tell me that you can surf normally on it. Put a gigabit card in it too while your at it (just for laughs).
All opinion's aside, by your same logic you claim that Apple should include flash because it is "apart of the internet". Why stop there? Why not include Java? How about Silverlight (we don't want to discrimante against Microsoft )? What about Shockwave? All three of those are "apart of the internet" (some more than others of course....we must be reasonable!) using your logic would one not argue that the iPhone should have Java because it is a big part of the internet?
Um.. how do you know I don't have an iPhone or iTouch already?
And you're right.. however, if you're going to a site that is dependent on Flash, then the site isn't designed very well. There should always be an alternate method to handle a site other than flash.
Pre will go the way of every other iPhone knock-off
It will get a few weekend headlines while being a mediocre seller. And like a movie opening the week before Star Wars, the following weekend it will be completely obscured by the Apple reality distortion field coming out of WWDC.
He was right about one thing, Palm did make the first successful smart phone and in Apple fashion they reinvented it. Now everyone is playing catch up with them again and in a few years they will finally catch up but by then it might be to late. Some will never try or buy anything Apple makes but you have to admit they have done a great job with the ipod and iphone. I for one love it, makes everyone come out with better products. Lets wait and see what type of software updates Palm releases for it and the Pre2
Yes I have an iMac and iTouch but no iPhone. No bashing please
The Palm Pre isn't being released into a vacuum. Sprint has very good pricing. Unless AT&T can do something about its plan costs, my family may well wind up with Pre's over at Sprint.
The cost on a family plan per iPhone unit is a bit expensive compared to Sprint. Sprint has been lacking a PDA which was good enough to get me seriously interested. The Palm Pre may be just good enough to do the job.
The Palm Pre isn't being released into a vacuum. Sprint has very good pricing. Unless AT&T can do something about its plan costs, my family may well wind up with Pre's over at Sprint.
The cost on a family plan per iPhone unit is a bit expensive compared to Sprint. Sprint has been lacking a PDA which was good enough to get me seriously interested. The Palm Pre may be just good enough to do the job.
For 5 iPhones on a family plan (shared 700 minutes per month) AT&T would cost me - $218 with NO MMS or SMS included. Sprint for 1,600 shared minutes per month with unlimited MMS and SMS is $142 per month.
Where I come from $218 - $142 is a savings of $76 per month. Which adds up over a couple of years. Sprint provides 900 more minutes per month and unlimited MMS and SMS, AT&T does not.
I'd buy the pre if I didn't already have a smartphone on sprint's network. Its got good coverage and it can roam 1xRTT onto verizon's network, which means you'll be connected just about anywhere. Considering the general TOS/AUP with cell network usage, Ev RevA is plenty and there's lots of coverage. AT&T's high speed network coverage is lacking, at least in my area. You could say well, I want to stream videos but you're talking about 320x480 on the phone.
I'm still a windows mobile fan because software can be created, modified, and installed by the end user. I hope the Pre allows for more of this than Apple products and that the iPhone fans don't troll the heck out of it, since it has some good hype at the moment. Jealousy? Maybe.
Oh yeah, you can swap out the battery, that's win.
Not a whole lot that hasn't been done before already.
So what if Palm invented the smartphone category? Their recent past and current offerings aren't impressive. All it says is that Palm is a has-been company whose best days are behind.
Same was said about Tivo too.. the company was damn near out of business back in 2004.. guess those critics, like you, were wrong too.
WAY too many people here need to keep their day jobs and not try to venture into the world of analytical work... you'll starve. BBR has become a nice collection of arm-chair never-getting-it-right quarterbacks. (Except those few times they got it right by mistake then say "see!! I told you!")
.. and I'm still waiting for that death of Vonage too.
Not a whole lot that hasn't been done before already.
So what if Palm invented the smartphone category? Their recent past and current offerings aren't impressive. All it says is that Palm is a has-been company whose best days are behind.
Many people said the same thing about Apple years ago. Look at them today, raping their consumers left and right on overpriced products and turning a nice profit at that. Kudos to them.
I've been drooling in anticipation of the Pre since the beginning of the year, so much so that I was prepared to give up my $33 / month SERO plan to upgrade to a Pre. I planned to be the first person I know to own one... but now, I'm going to wait. I want to hold one in my hands and get some playtime with it before giving up my awesome SERO plan. I have a feeling that after I use it for a little bit, I'll end up deciding to wait for the Diamond2 later this year, which WON'T force me to give up my SERO!
I've got the same dilemma. I have a $50 SERO and REALLY not too keen on losing it. I really do want a PRE and I will check them out for sure, but they're going to have to pretty sweet as candy for me to give up the Sero. Almost tempted to have my sis buy it and if I like it take over the account, and if not, cancel it w/in the 30 days.
I've been with Sprint for 11 years and currently on one of the everything plans and have an upgrade available on one of my lines. I'm actually really looking forward to this release. If it doesn't suit me I'll just return it within 30 days and go back to my Blackberry curve and lose nothing. But from everything I've read and the people I've talked to that have had hands on, I have a feeling I'll be keeping it.
Big deal. ( and people waiting in line for a cell phone need there damn head look at because your values are not there)And these people would be a prime example for a Dr Phil show.
Kind of pointless if your in the middle of NO where and you need to make a phone call. OPPS you cant no bars. Im guessing cell phones are still BLING and no show when no bars around EH?