Unpacking the Pre, you get the sense that it is designed for fun and not as much for business, with an artistic design flare for the box and included materials. There's an earbud headset and a USB charger, plus a small manual.
Palm also offers the Touchstone Charging Dock – the phone sits on a magnetic cradle and charges using inductive charging technology. You can't charge the phone on the cradle and connect it to your PC, so you have to do one or the other.
SNUG: The Pre fits nicely in your hand
The Pre weighs 135 grams, which is a hair heavier than the iPhone 3G and exactly the same as the iPhone 3GS. Strangely, the Palm Pre feels lighter because the slide-out keyboard adds some overall length and the fact that the plastic feels a little...well, plasticky.
Sliding the keyboard out, you will notice a slight curve to the device. One of the first oddities of the phone: the edge of the keyboard is actually quite sharp.
CURVE: The device is slightly curved with a sharp end
When you close the keyboard, you have to be careful because you can ever-so-slightly pinch your hand in the side of the phone (it happened at least twice during our tests). Overall, the Pre looks sleek and stylish, matching the sparse buttons of the iPhone and HTC Hero.
There's a 3.5mm headphone jack, power button, a call lock switch on top, a side mini-USB port (with a cover) on the right side and volume controls on the left side.
The phone just feels right in your hand – resting right in your palm and not quite as elongated (with the keyboard closed) as the iPhone or as thick and bulky as the T-Mobile G1.
SMALL: The Pre is a smaller device than the Apple iPhone
It's also smaller and more portable than the HTC Magic. In fact, no other phone quite matches the size and shape – it is thicker than most slide-out phones like the Sidekick II, but not as tall as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
That said, after using the phone for 72 hours, we found the plastic construction to be a little worrisome – it feels as though after a few tumbles the enclosure could crack, and we were worryingly able to twist the screen a few degrees from the keyboard.
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Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
pablo
Wednesday at 20:07 GMT
3. Palm forgot [or are incompetent] to load the right settings/application to get the information off the ms Exchange software and on to the Palm. Blog or forum it if you dont believe me. This is a massive downfall as I have MS exchange and even with that it needs an enormous brain IT guy to fix the trail and destruction this leaves.
4 hours on the phone to Geek squad - who couldnt sort it. Hours of my time on the forums and all because Palm cant load the right software on the phone.
This has put a MAJOR downer on this purchase. And left me with post-purchase trauma like no other.
We all love a new gadget but this experience is the worst it can get. Great product ruined by stupid incompetence that renders it near useless.
p.s. sim to sim transfers dont work anymore.
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carlossantana
October 31st
2. I got a Palm Pre in a O2 store in London. I was expecting a much better experience from a phone that have an average ownership cost of £700.-. Among an unstable/beta operating system and standard applications I would like to mention that:
- The phone’s plastic case is cheap and fragile. Even more, the entire phone looks (and is) fragile. I would like to see how many if these palm pre phone will be around in a year time.
- The standard microUSB port for both data transfer and charging needs you to open a plastic flap on the phone every time that you need to plug it to your PC. This flap is very cheap and it has the impression that it would last days attached to the phone. Therefore, think about adding a Touchstone Wireless Charger (another £40?)
- The phone stopped from working a day before I got it. When I slider closed the keyboard, the screen whet blank and the phone was not responding any longer.
Conclusion: I return it after 24hs and got another phone (not a palm pre this time). I have to say that the current Palm pre is a nice phone. But, there's no doubt that there's plenty of room for improvement in the webOS and its devices. My independent advice is: Wait for the next Palm Pre version.
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irwinhugh
October 29th
1. Purchased the Palm Pre from O2 store after explaining my requirements but when I tried to sync with my MS Outlook it failed to connect. The sales person was absolutely convinced that it would but when I spoke to the O2 techie in Scotland, he eventually confessed that I needed to purchase another package from a 'carrier' who would decode the info and forward it to the phone from my ISP. This rendered the 'fantastic' (sic) Palm useless for me and I ended up buying a Blackbury instead. Sooooo much more efficient and user friendly. So, my view is that Palm need to sort our 1. the connectivity without people having to have/obtain MS exchange and the outlets need to train their staff, properly.
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