For the last seven days, I’ve been testing the Palm Pre, and today, sadly, I must send it back. It’s the first smartphone that’s seen as a true competitor to the iPhone, and it deserves all the accolades it has received. I generally don’t think of myself as a person who gets attached to gadgets because of their design. I scoff at tech reviews that gush over a laptop’s beauty or form factor. But I must say, I became very attached to the Pre,and I think design is a major reason why. It is small enough that the iPhone seems almost bulky in comparison. Plus, it feels more durable than the iPhone, less fragile. I’m afraid I’d break an iPhone within two weeks, while the Pre feels as solid as a regular phone.
And of course, there’s the fact that the Pre can multitask. I had as many as eight programs open at once on the Pre; the iPhone, by contrast, canrun only one at a time. The Pre can also combine your work and personal calendars, so you can look at them both at once, and it does the same for your contacts. Overall, it’s quite a nice operating system; check out my video demo to see how it works.
There is one flaw. As you can see in the video, the keyboard is very small. It was a bit uncomfortable for me, and I wish Palm had included the option of a touchscreen keyboard. But for those business users who hate touchscreens—but still want a decent smartphone—the Pre’s physical keyboard will come as a relief.
Then there’s the price. Sprint’s Everything Data 450 Minute plan costs only $69.99 a month, and includes unlimited data and text messaging, plus GPS navigation—so you can get rid of that standalone GPS device. With AT&T, the plans also start at $69.99, but you have to pay $20 more for unlimited text messaging, or $5 for 200 text messages a month. And it’s unclear what the iPhone’s new TomTom GPS app will cost.
READ THE FULL REVIEW AND WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
(The full review was posted on my professional blog, to which I give precedence.)
