In a nutshell: Palm's
first phone to run the webOS operating system is a funky touchscreen
multi-tasking gizmo designed for the facebook generation. With a
slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 8GB of memory, built-in GPS and a great
web browser, the Pre has many attractive features. But we feel that
it's too early for mainstream users to rush out and embrace the
webOS platform. Check out the top 10 independent deals for the Palm
Pre below, or click to read the full review and
user reviews.
Top 10 internet deals
Palm
Pre Review
Review:
December 2009.
The
Palm Pre is a newcomer to the world of mobile
phones. The Pre is the first smartphone to run the Palm webOS operating
system. The first of anything often turns out to be lacking in a
few ways (remember the first iPhone, the first Android phone, etc.)
So we'll be sniffing around to see if there are any "beta-testing
areas" of the Pre.
The first thing to say is that the Pre is exclusive
to O2 and it's expensive. This definitely isn't going to be a mainstream
phone. It's intended as a snazzy business phone with knobs on. The
webOS was designed from the bottom up as a multitasking interface,
and the Pre just positively oozes with the desire for you to multi-task.
Go on, it dares you, open up yet another application. I can handle
it. And what's more I can make all those apps talk to each other
too. So its various calendars talk to each other, the calendars
talk to your contacts database, and the whole lot (Palm calls them
"activity cards", which sounds a bit pre-school) constantly
interact, update and send you notifications. There's a whole social
whirl out there on your Palm even when you're not using it! The
Pre is a phone designed for the social network age. It integrates
Facebook, Twitter, email, texts and all your Google stuff, and lets
you keep track of everything in an easy to use and responsive fashion.
It works best if you have plenty of contacts and an active online
social life; otherwise you're missing out on what the Pre has to
offer. The user interface is very responsive, and you've no doubt
seen the pretty TV ads with stuff zooming all over the Pre's screen
at breakneck speed. It's fast, it's intuitive and it gets the job
done. And with a choice of a virtual touchscreen keypad or a slide-out
real QWERTY keyboard, you can talk to your Pre just as rapidly as
it talks back to you.
The Palm comes with a media player that supports
most common formats, including MP3 and AAC audio, and MPEG4 video.
The camera is rather poor though. It's just a basic 3 megapixel
camera that would be fine on an entry-level phone, but not on a
device that costs this sort of money. The Pre has good connectivity,
including USB, Bluetooth and WiFi, and comes with a GPS receiver
too. It's quite chunky in size and fairly heavy, but not too big
for a smartphone. The disappointing factor is the smallness of the
screen. At just 3.1 inches across, it could really do with being
larger.
We can't really find any areas where the new webOS
platform falls over. It seems to be as well designed and capable
as say, Android or OS X. The range of apps is limited at present,
but that's to be expected for a new OS. Where the Pre does fall
down is in the hardware that supports the OS. It doesn't offer the
best value for money, in our opinion. The QWERTY keyboard, though
welcome, is a bit small and plasticky, and in fact the whole phone
construction is a little on the flimsy side. We don't like the camera
one bit, and the battery life isn't impressive either. The pre certainly
isn't an iPhone killer, or anything like it. It's the first of a
kind and is best suited to technologically-minded early adopters
who like the touchscreen gizmos, the multitasking and the social
networking features, or who just fancy a change. mainstream users
should approach the Palm Pre with caution. It will be interesting
to see whether Palm can do what Apple managed, and release a mature
product with a wealth of third-party apps. At the moment, this is
not it.
Features
of the Palm Pre include:
3 megapixel camera with LED flash
Display: Touchscreen with 320 x 480 pixels (3.1
inches)
Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV
formats supported)
Stereo FM radio RDS with Visual Radio support
Built-in GPS
Messaging: SMS, MMS, IM, Email (support for
Microsoft Exchange)
Memory: 8GB
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB, WiFi
Web browser, EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA
Quadband plus 3G
Size: 60 x 100 x 17 mm
Weight: 135g
Palm Pre Consumer
Reviews
Love
your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review
this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a
forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear
words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!
Average rating from 25 reviews:
Reviewed by bongo from uk on
6th Feb 2010
This phone is a joy to use, really superb screen and operating system
is fantastic. Yes it is different and takes a day or two to get
used to, but it's worth it. The screen is pin sharp and I find the
camera really really good. It takes sharp clear pictures in most
situations. The latest update is free and wireless from Palm (ie
the phone will auto update to the latest software automatically...COOL
!). I cannot see the problem with the slide out keyboard being flimsy,
I just dont see it..it works just fine, overall the build quality
is excellent. The keyboard is not a problem either and I have fat
thumbs..again, it takes a very short while to get the hang of it...then
you're away !. Overall I love this phone, I enjoy using it....the
internet is great, you can pinch the screen to zoom etc, really
nice operating system...and the apparently you cant forward on text
messages ? Wrong ! you can on mine...just tap the text you received
and a small mini menu comes up with 'delete' an d 'forward' options
on it. There is one fly in the ointment, the battery life is poor
and needs charging daily...but already there are a number of aftermarket
batteries the are double the capacity, for about £20, so problem
solved. Give this phone a try, for a day if you can and you will
love it....Ima not going to end by slagging off the Iphone, because
the iphone IS a good phone and is very popular for good reason...but
this is a match for it in mmy opinion...and its that little bit
different..Iam looking forward to some good apps to come. Hoipe
this review helps you decide...but I love it, its superb. Rating:
Reviewed by JL from UK on 30th
Jan 2010
I LOVE MY PALM PRE! I did a lot of reading around which 'smart phone'
to go for as I didn't want to be an iphone sheep and get one cos
everyone else had, so I opted for the pre. I'm glad I did. As the
review rightly says the first of anything is bound to have teething
troubles and, with the limited number of apps and other issues this
was the case. But with the advantage of the ongoing development,
open source software and and over the air updates to the OS issues
are readily identified and seem to be addressed when you look at
the Palm support forums. The phone does take a while to start up,
hardly an age, but then if you don't let the battery run out this
shouldn't be an issue. Along with the recent update adjusting the
network settings also improves battery life e.g. turn off 3g when
reception is poor. I was concerned about the small keyboard but
again this is something I have grown accustomed to and I too also
find my messages are longer and less abbreviated. No more nasty
predictive text! The screen is clear, operating system responsive
and touch sensitivity spot on. It took a while to work out the contacts
as my contacts from Gmail and my SIM were imported but with synergy
you create contact profiles and group them all together. I'm looking
forward to the coming Adobe Flash Player due out soon, making BBC
iPlayer and all the other site that use Flash accessible from the
Pre. This will be the cherry on the cherry on the cherry of a very
very nice cake for me! www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/mobile_demos_fp10.1.html
If you're considering a Palm Pre try one out in the local O2 store
first, I did and was hooked. Rating:
Reviewed by RC from UK on 21st
Jan 2010
I had this phone for 24 hours before returning it. It takes an age
to start up and the battery lasts less than 6 hours even with all
features switched off. Nice idea, but doens't work in practice.
Rating:
Reviewed by Jon from UK on 19th
Jan 2010
It's a great phone, not without flaws, but I love using this. I
use it for business and social purposes - the internet browsing
is outstanding and set to get better once they release Flash onto
the phone. The phone will also have video player capability from
February and slowly maturing app catalog access from March. They
have also made improvements to the way the system works so it doesn't
run down the battery so fast. The keyboard is tiny but you get used
to it fast and I type far longer messages now than I used to, so
not losing patience with it. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but
I think it has good BB/iPhone crossover appeal. It looks good too. Rating:
Reviewed by Rachel from UK on
18th Jan 2010
My Palm Pre only lasted 24 hours before I decided to return it,
and in that 24 hours, I had nothing but issues with it. Even though
its advertised to sync with Gmail, they fail to mention that you
are limited in how much can be sync'd, and if you use labels in
your email, it will fail to sync anything that comes in after that.
The keyboard is far too small for anyone bar a child (though even
my 6 year old struggled with it), and it feels flimsy when you have
the keyboard out. The camera produces very grainy images, even in
good light. Apps were very limited (I knew this prior to purchase,
but I was suprised as to actually how limited they are). There are
also issues with the clock (have a search on google), and I was
forced to reset it every an hour as it was at least 5 mins out each
time, which makes the phone nearly unusable. The phone takes over
a minute to start up and shut down, and battery was also incredibly
poor, and lost 25% battery power even when the phone was switched
off. If you are wanting a smart phone, go for an iPhone. If you
are wanting an email phone, go for a blackberry. The palm pre does
not seem to know what it wants to be, so fails miserably at doing
either. Rating:
Reviewed by Nathan from Peaks on
17th Dec 2009
iv had the iphone 3gs for just over a year now, and tried this a
week back and loved it! Its a bb and ifone in one! 5/5!! Rating:
Reviewed by Catrin Frame from Wales
!!! on 30th Nov 2009
I think this phone is great if you are looking for a nice touchscreen
phone but you still want your little slide up style, and it has
a very tiny QWERTY keyboard when you slide it up. Its great for
multi-tasking and internet. When your on the phone to someone it
curves around your face which makes it one of the most comfy phones
to ring people on. If you want an amazing camera, this ISN'T the
phone for you. I was going to get it but i looked at a couple of
reviews and it stated that it has no flash (not to bad) but if your
like me, and love your different colours and so on, it doesn't have
the option for black and white, sepia, negative, etc. It also has
no video recording or voice recording. Palm have made this phone
very shiny, small and cute, but it is only made from plastic. It
doesn't have the quality i'd want. I recommend this phone to people
who aren't too fussed on the camera, voice recording or the plastic
cover. The packaging is very eco-friendly, and by that i mean its
small packaging. it has exactly the same things as normal phones,
but other phones waste space. I like the eco-friendlt packaging.
The phone also has an easy and responsive touch screen. It has a
touch screen, as good as the iPhone ! Isn't that great? :D hope
i helped. Rating:
Reviewed by jonny from england on
29th Nov 2009
On top ten phones this is meant to be the best phone on there so
are you sure you've got the palm pre or the palm 5. If you've got
the right phone check again . It's meant to be the best!!! Rating:
Reviewed by Grant from England on
29th Nov 2009
Cute phone. But that only last for a gimmicky few hours. Battery
is more than terrible and App are limited in number and basic in
use. I'm stuck with this phone for 24 month. That is hell! Rating:
Reviewed by Dave Gregory from UK on
23rd Nov 2009
This is one sweet little phone. Had it for about a week now and
must say I'm enamoured. It ain't the most feature-rich phone on
the planet right now, nor is it brimming with apps, but there's
time a-plenty for all that. But what it does, it does very well,
very prettily and with the quiet assurance of quality. The big issue
I agonised over before jumping in with the Pre over the iPhone was
the teeny keyboard... And.... Well, it's actually fine! I'm a big
fella with big hands, but I find that typing on the Pre is fast
and accurate... I can whizz round the clever little keyboard faster
even than I could on my old predictive text Nokia... And the issue
of it missing predictive text: who needs it when you have QWERTY?
You don't use it on your computer, do you? Other things: music is
good, if basic; SMS is efficient and now fully-featured; web is
fine, but sorely needs Flash; calender, contacts, email - all tasty
and slick. Nah - never mind the naysayers, this is a funky little
phone - gets my vote! Rating:
Reviewed by Rob from UK on 23rd
Nov 2009
I upgraded from an O2 xda which was fine but a little dated. Suffice
to say it was a joy compared to the Palm. It looks cool and once
I got used to it the keyboard was fine but it just has too many
niggly things that should have been thought through better before
launching. The battery life is hopeless for anyone who wants to
use this as a business phone, it needs charging twice a day. I finally
gave up after 10 days and returned to O2. Sadly I think its going
to be an iphone for me, and I was so hoping the Palm would be a
keen competitor Rating:
Reviewed by Mickfb from England on
21st Nov 2009
I have had my pre for 3 weeks now. I had to change it once for another
one because of weak signal. This one is fine and I live in an low
signal area. It took me a good week to get use to it, this is only
because the system is so different to the Nokias I have used I.e.
N95 8gb. The pre system is a joy to use easy to use no trouble finding
what you are looking for unlike symbian 60. The screen may not be
as big as the iphone but it is bright and clear to use. Yes the
keyboard is a little small but I have no problem with it. I am writing
this review with it. The up side of this is that the phone is pocket
friendly. The battery last a day with email and web use. You can't
tell me the iphone last any longer, my touch does'nt. The browser
is a joy to use. Stick with the the phone you will love it. It do'es
have some sort comings but they should improve over time with updates.
Rating:
Reviewed by james from uk on
19th Nov 2009
got one, it didn't work. Got another worked ok. keyboard terrible.
Screen accuracy very poor. worse thing was battery life or should
i say lack of it. sent it back now deciding wot to go for instead.
avoid this phone !!!! Rating:
Reviewed by Nick from UK on 16th
Nov 2009
The more I use it the more I hate it. I just think this one should
be left to the techno geeks. I spent most of Saturday afternoon
trying to copy and paste music over to the Pre using the USB. Depsite
numerous tries and tagging albums and songs the only album work
that seemed to get carried over were attached to that music i'd
actually downloaded, very poor when I have a large amount on CD's.
It did actually carry over the album work and out it in my Photo's
file, 4 copies, which I then had to individually delete. Nothing
about the phone seems to be easy, everything you look up on the
net seems to involve a further download or an adjustment of settings.
There really is a limite number of apps for the Non US market, for
all the hype it really isn't that great. Rating:
Reviewed by John Freeland from England
on 14th Nov 2009
I was advised by o2 to upgrade from my HTC S710, which was still
perfectly good after 2 years but battery gone and felt the need
for 'new' technology. What a mistake!! QUERTY keyboard unusable
for all but those with tiny fingers. No predictive text - no voice
tags for contacts, making hands-free outgoing calls impossible.
Touch screen very hit & miss. Dreadful user guide. Charge port has
very flimsy and hard to open flap. AVOID THIS HANDSET AT ALL COSTS.
Seriously thinking of buying a new battery for my old HTC. Rating:
Reviewed by vwman from UK on
11th Nov 2009
I've had TWO of these in the last week what a nightmare, they would
not work they froze up even the rep in the shop could'nt get them
to work only my opinion but leave them well alone Rating:
Reviewed by joe gellenbeck from us on
7th Nov 2009
this phone does alot but it can strech your patience pretty thin.Going
from letters to numbers is a PAIN.The letters and numbers are way
to small.The lack of instructions on how to work the phone leaves
you guessing alot and useing trial and error.I love what i can do
with it but hate what it takes to get it done. Rating:
Reviewed by Mimz from america on
6th Nov 2009
It is a nice phone although it lacks space for music. Rating:
Reviewed by Brian from UK on
4th Nov 2009
The Good: A great looking phone with an outstanding touch screen.
Easy to set up. Quick internet access and GPS. Huge internal memory
although a card slot would be a useful addition . The Bad: Applications
are very limited, but no doubt this will improve with time. Palm
really need to look at the free demos of games such as Connect 4.
Users get a miserly 30 seconds to try the game before it stops.
Why bother? Currently the full version isn’t available to
purchase. Basic SMS facility. No group texting or forwarding for
instance. Limited options in respect of SMS alerts. I wasn’t
able to get the Palm Synergy software to install so cant comment
on the sync facilities. The keyboard is very small and mistakes
in typing were common. I can accept that was down to my poor texting
skills however placing the cursor to make corrections was very fiddly
and ultimately extremely frustrating. I did find the keyboard very
creaky with a little too much flexing in the body of the Pre. I
had more dropped calls than normal and found the reception a little
marginal at times. The Very Very Ugly. Battery life is abysmal -
rarely more than 24hrs. I got reacquainted with a pay phone yesterday
for the first time in several years! Redialed calls made to “missed
calls” from the notification area can’t be cancelled
as the screen goes blank. Pressing the power button doesn’t
work either. Very frustrating, particularly as I didn’t intend
to make the return calls on most occasions. This phone shows promise
, but I think it is far from the finished article. I’ve returned
mine and will go down the Blackberry route instead. It was worth
a try , but I couldn’t recommend the Pre yet. Rating:
Reviewed by ED FOUNTAIN from UK on
4th Nov 2009
I Got my first Palm Pre last monday, 2 faults, faulty screen and
light shining through the casing on the upper left front cover.
O2 replaced the handset on the door step the very next day, faulty
again, black mark under the screen and flashed on and off, everytime
I made a call, once again O2 replaced the handset on the door step
next day. So am I happy with it, not as good as the Iphone I had
before, in respect of build quality and the buttons are too small
I keep having to go back and check the spelling and have sometimes
hit the send button befor I have finished typing, also the lack
of copy paste for texts and no predictive text let it down Otherwise
very happy love the features Rating:
Reviewed by Ben M from UK on
29th Oct 2009
I really do rate this phone. It is really cool and fun to use. However
like the last review it takes a while to get used to. The battery
life isnt the best. It doesnt even last a whole day without needing
charging. Rating:
Reviewed by francois moochos from scotland
on 29th Oct 2009
think of a jigsaw puzzle with 2000pcs. the age group would be 12+.
think of a jigsaw with 100pcs the age group would be 5+. i went
from the blackberry pearl 8120 o the palm pre and unfortunatly its
in the 5+ catagory. I sent mine back after 10 days. like many I
waited months for it to come out as I thought it would be equal
to the iphone and for me, having an actual keyboard would split
the 2. How dissapointed I became when I spent most of my time correcting
spelling mistakes because the buttons are just so small. Don't get
me wrong in terms of multi tasking it's better than the iphone.
However, don't make the mistake of running google searches comparing
the pre with iphone. Especially if you've had a blackberry because
the blackberry can multi task also. The hardware is poor also and
run you tube clips to understand what I mean. The screen wobblingis
unerving for 10 days into a 18 month contract. My 6 year old daughter
loved it but she doesn't pay for it so it went back. My advice go
to an o2 store and try before you buy. ps luxuries like text forwarding
and changing of sms tones don't exist on this phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Tony J from UK on
28th Oct 2009
first use of the palm pre has been a little clumsy to be fair, a
great looking phone with lots of additional expected features but
not 100% sure this is the finished article yet, lots of promise
from palm about upgrades and new apps etc so will reserve judgement
for now. Very easy to set up email with corp. MS Exchange account,
calendar & contacts a bit of a problem though and still not synching
despite recent upgrade, be prepared to do a little digging around
from user forums and community sites to find out how to use your
palm, really lacking in user guides. Accessing the interweb was
really simple and at a decent speed, lots of cool features that
make playing with the web fun again Using apps can really eat into
battery life and be prepared to pay additional money for the touchstone
charger, which is un ashamedly cool. Overall I would recommend the
phone to a friend Rating:
Reviewed by Javid Hafeji from UK on
24th Oct 2009
Phone is brilliant Rating:
Reviewed by James Webb from UK on
19th Oct 2009
The Palm Pre is simply amazing. I have been waiting with baited
breath since it's announcement back in January 2009, and it has
been worth the wait, I can't believe it has finally arrived. The
thing that caught me be surprise was how small the Pre is, it's
smaller then I thought and from a front on view it make ths iphone
look like a brick! The build quality is very good in my opinion,
I have no concerns with the slide screen (I have seen worse but
not seen much better!) I love everything about this phone, the screen
is brilliant, crisp clear, easy to use and to navigate round. The
keyboard is small but not unusable and doesn't take long to get
use it, typing emails isn't a chore and I have a lot less miss types
on the Pre then phones with soft keyboards. WebOS is the cherry
on the cake, it is fantastic. Setting up email is as easy as putting
in your email address and password and you are done, linking contacts
from other sources is easy thanks to Synergy. Currently syncing
with Google Calender isn't happening but an update from Palm will
sort that (US had similar trouble early on!) The App Store is limited
at the moment to only free stuff but again an update from Palm to
enable paid for apps will open the gates to lots more brilliant
apps, just need those programmers programming!! Anything bad to
say...?...not really, there is 1 thing that would make the Pre even
more perfect and that is removable storage (micro SD card or something)
I've had the Pre since Friday 16th Oct and still lovin' it! 5 stars
from me and well done Palm. Rating:
