Palm Prē mini review
Discussion
A while back someone asked if I could post a review of the Palm Prē. Well, having had it since November and just finished a full day away from base, I think the time is right.
i'm typing this on the Prē while connected to on-train WiFi and listening to Led Zeppelin at the same time.
WebOs multi-tasking works pretty well and the latest release (1.3.5.2) feels slicker than previous versions. The card metaphor allows app switching very quickly and they really do carry on running in the background. Under the skin WebOs is Linux with a full network stack and some network filesystem support. The UI (Luna) is a Java based system on top of Linux. The familiar iPhone style pinches and swipes are all present for zoom etc.
Form factor is good - "soap bar" with a slide down keyboard and capacitive touch screen. It fits comfortably in my trouser pocket. Smaller than iPhone and comfortable to hold.
Built-in apps are good. I particularly like the "synergy" feature that pulls contacts from Exchange, GoogleMail, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. Into a single view and can launch e_mail, SMS, IM or phone for any of them.
Calendar is similarly good, showing all 4 of mine in a single view.
Battery life is the weakest point. Since 8:30 mine dropped to around 30% with normal use. Fortunately, the battery from my old Centro works as a spare.
Mine is an unlocked German spec. (Y and Z swapped on the keyboard) on Virgin Mobile - no issues there. App Catalogue is available, data, Sms etc. all work.
keyboard is a bit small for long text, but OK for SMS, basic data entry and email.
Any questions ? Fire away !
i'm typing this on the Prē while connected to on-train WiFi and listening to Led Zeppelin at the same time.
WebOs multi-tasking works pretty well and the latest release (1.3.5.2) feels slicker than previous versions. The card metaphor allows app switching very quickly and they really do carry on running in the background. Under the skin WebOs is Linux with a full network stack and some network filesystem support. The UI (Luna) is a Java based system on top of Linux. The familiar iPhone style pinches and swipes are all present for zoom etc.
Form factor is good - "soap bar" with a slide down keyboard and capacitive touch screen. It fits comfortably in my trouser pocket. Smaller than iPhone and comfortable to hold.
Built-in apps are good. I particularly like the "synergy" feature that pulls contacts from Exchange, GoogleMail, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. Into a single view and can launch e_mail, SMS, IM or phone for any of them.
Calendar is similarly good, showing all 4 of mine in a single view.
Battery life is the weakest point. Since 8:30 mine dropped to around 30% with normal use. Fortunately, the battery from my old Centro works as a spare.
Mine is an unlocked German spec. (Y and Z swapped on the keyboard) on Virgin Mobile - no issues there. App Catalogue is available, data, Sms etc. all work.
keyboard is a bit small for long text, but OK for SMS, basic data entry and email.
Any questions ? Fire away !
A quick update - over the weekend I picked up a Touchstone inductive charging kit. Now the Pre is making even more sense to me - it sits on the charging station (held in place by magnets in the special back cover) and quietly charges up all the time it's there. While on the base it can be used to make and answer calls in speaker phone mode. Because it's not attached to a cable it's easy to just grab it and drop it into a pocket when leaving the room, and equally easy to drop it back on the stand when I get back to my desk.
This, for me, is the key to understanding the Pre - it's not a phone for a "road warrior" (well, not with the standard battery, although there are some large capatcity batteries available now) - it is a device for access the cloud which can be moved from one location to another when necessary. Ideally, it should be kept attached to a charger for as long as possible.
Fortunately, it suits my way of working.
This, for me, is the key to understanding the Pre - it's not a phone for a "road warrior" (well, not with the standard battery, although there are some large capatcity batteries available now) - it is a device for access the cloud which can be moved from one location to another when necessary. Ideally, it should be kept attached to a charger for as long as possible.
Fortunately, it suits my way of working.
Is the battery that bad? I heard it wasn't as good as the iPhone, but wondering if its usable.
Also, the blurring of the lines between the contacts looks interesting - so you can view things in different ways. Does this work? Not a big user of Facebook or Twitter for example, but interested to see what it is like in the real world.
I am up for an upgrade in Feb and I am a big user, so I pretty much have the option to go for anything that I want, and its not going to cost anything. Currently looking at the iPhone, but to be honest, anyone will throw their phones at me - so could be a Pre, a HTC or a Nexia one thingy.... Just wondering how it all stacks up.
Of course, Apple announcement this week - so it could all be academic.
Also, the blurring of the lines between the contacts looks interesting - so you can view things in different ways. Does this work? Not a big user of Facebook or Twitter for example, but interested to see what it is like in the real world.
I am up for an upgrade in Feb and I am a big user, so I pretty much have the option to go for anything that I want, and its not going to cost anything. Currently looking at the iPhone, but to be honest, anyone will throw their phones at me - so could be a Pre, a HTC or a Nexia one thingy.... Just wondering how it all stacks up.
Of course, Apple announcement this week - so it could all be academic.
Battery life is improving as the OS matures - and there's a patch to use SmartReflex to extend it. Current thinking is that WebOS 1.4 will really improve it a lot as the GPU will be enabled properly in that to handle the CSS transformations that are currently being handled by the CPU.
My experience on Friday included a lot of time in places with poor signal, 2-3 hours of music playback and a bit of emailing too. It all adds up.
The "Synergy" aggregation of calendars, contacts and e-mail really works well. It's pretty well seamless and it does a decent job of figuring where the duplicates are the first time each account is set up.
As for the Apple announcement -there is a strong rumour that Adobe & Palm will be making an announcement around the same time...
My experience on Friday included a lot of time in places with poor signal, 2-3 hours of music playback and a bit of emailing too. It all adds up.
The "Synergy" aggregation of calendars, contacts and e-mail really works well. It's pretty well seamless and it does a decent job of figuring where the duplicates are the first time each account is set up.
As for the Apple announcement -there is a strong rumour that Adobe & Palm will be making an announcement around the same time...
Another quick update - battery life is significantly improved by switching off the 3G radio unless it is really needed and using GPRS or EDGE instead.
Using only 2G I got just a 10% drop in battery over a 5 hour period yesterday - phone was checking e-mail every hour and did a bit of web browsing while we were out and about.
Using only 2G I got just a 10% drop in battery over a 5 hour period yesterday - phone was checking e-mail every hour and did a bit of web browsing while we were out and about.
At the risk of a flaming, the only thing that I can't do on my iPhone is integrate twitter onto my contacts 
I'm typing this on wifi on iPhone whilst listening to music as well
Facebook integration is great on iPhone with a direct link from contacts to each users Facebook profile and you can message them from there
Have to say I'm loving having Spotify & Last.fm on my phone as my car stereo does A2DP streaming so I have an unlimited amount of music when I'm out of the house
Calendar sync seems ok as it pulls down my Google Apps calendar, syncs my PC calendar and can be controlled of phone as well...
I do like the form factor of the Pre though!
I'm typing this on wifi on iPhone whilst listening to music as well
Facebook integration is great on iPhone with a direct link from contacts to each users Facebook profile and you can message them from there
Have to say I'm loving having Spotify & Last.fm on my phone as my car stereo does A2DP streaming so I have an unlimited amount of music when I'm out of the house
Calendar sync seems ok as it pulls down my Google Apps calendar, syncs my PC calendar and can be controlled of phone as well...
I do like the form factor of the Pre though!
I now have the WebOS 1.4 update installed and battery life seems to be a lot better. I'll give it a couple of days before making a judgment. Upgrade was easy using the over the air (OTA) system that Palm have implemented, though I had to wait a while before it became available for my handset (an unlocked German unit running on the "unsupported" Virgin Mobile UK network). All data has been preserved or reacquired from the cloud and the Preware system has worked perfectly to upgrade the homebrew apps and patches that needed it. I didn't uninstall any of the non-official stuff before allow the upgrade to happen, and nothing went wrong.
The main obvious change in 1.4 is the addition of video recording with direct upload to YouTube, Facebook etc. now available plus the underlying OS changes needed for Flash when Adobe release it.
Apart from that 1.4 seems, so far, to be mainly bugfixes/enabling previously hidden features that we already knew about through the homebrew patch community and a few cosmetic changes to the UI such as splash screens to give some feedback that apps are launching.
Overall, though, 1.4 feels more robust and slicker - what it should have been at launch.
As a little compensation for the wait , Palm and EA have given us 3 free full games in the App Catalogue too - Need for Speed Underground, The Sims 3 and Monopoly. I'm not a big game player, but NFSU seems pretty good on the Pre - responsive with decent 3D graphics and video clips between "missions".
(ETA - if anyone wants to see a full changelog, it's here : http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/na/pre/p100eww/o2... )
The main obvious change in 1.4 is the addition of video recording with direct upload to YouTube, Facebook etc. now available plus the underlying OS changes needed for Flash when Adobe release it.
Apart from that 1.4 seems, so far, to be mainly bugfixes/enabling previously hidden features that we already knew about through the homebrew patch community and a few cosmetic changes to the UI such as splash screens to give some feedback that apps are launching.
Overall, though, 1.4 feels more robust and slicker - what it should have been at launch.
As a little compensation for the wait , Palm and EA have given us 3 free full games in the App Catalogue too - Need for Speed Underground, The Sims 3 and Monopoly. I'm not a big game player, but NFSU seems pretty good on the Pre - responsive with decent 3D graphics and video clips between "missions".
(ETA - if anyone wants to see a full changelog, it's here : http://kb.palm.com/wps/portal/kb/na/pre/p100eww/o2... )
Edited by marshalla on Sunday 28th February 16:25
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