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View Full Version : Palm Pre... surprisingly good


unity04
01-19-2011, 05:48 PM
I purchased an HTC Desire Z last week and sold it this week for a Palm Pre. Most people I told this to said I was crazy, but read on.

I bought a Desire Z off contract and was hyped to use the phone. After a week of using it, I found that it was a great phone for browsing the web and multimedia stuff, however, it failed to do the basics of a phone. When I would make a call to people it would sometimes hang up after a few seconds, and if it did go through, I would sound like a demon on the person's end of the line. Too many people told me that I sounded distorted and heard random noises, sounds, and my voice sounded like an mp3 file below 96kbps. Very bad. I talked to some other Desire Z owners and some of them are on their 4th device and experience the same issue. I don't see a point in having a phone if it can't make a phone call properly (this was happening frequently through out the day btw). Also, I found with the Desire Z there were too many bugs that HTC has yet to fix from previous versions such as things like the alarm going off x amount of minutes late, mms threading scrolling up by itself when typing a message, etc. I decided to sell the phone and get an in between device I could use until the Motorla Atrix is released and decided on the Palm Pre.

First off, the Palm Pre off contract is $149. This has to be the cheapest data phone I found, and is actually very good. The only thing I don't like is the hardware build quality- extremely cheap and way too much plastic. The phone's slide out QWERTY keyboard is surprisingly good. When I first bought the phone I thought the keys were WAY too small.. amazing keyboard (better than the Desire Z and LG Optimus Quantum (owned before the Desire Z- LG dropped the ball on this phone btw)). A lot of people said the CDMA network is bad, but I found that the call quality is amazing and the data speeds aren't that much slower. I also use WiFi in my house and on my school's campus, so when using WiFi you don't notice a difference between Desire Z and Pre (flash obviously is missing). The phone's OS is quick and responsive even though it's rocking a 600MHz processor, and everything seems to work great. Camera is very good, has video recording, flash, push e-mail and social notifications, notification alert light (Quantum failed to have this essential), and overall is a solid phone and great multitasker. The phone obviously does have some cons- no flash support, screen isn't that large (3.1 inches I believe), no Twitter app (still yet to find one), no on screen keyboard. If anyone has had the chance to use a Pre 2 please do post your experience with it.. might purchase it on Rogers and unlock it Bell. Possibly.

Why am I posting this? I've read a lot of people bashing the Palm Pre, and I had to drive to a few Bells because a lot of them no longer sold the phone. Compared to high spec'd tech phones like Desire Z and Quantum, this phone (besides hardware), has done if not on par but a superior job if you can believe that. It does the basics of a phone (which Desire + Quantum failed to do) and is wicked with apps (great app market), data processing and multimedia. If you're looking for a device to use as a back up or in between phone get the Palm Pre before all Bell stores drop them. Yes it's CDMA, but it actually isn't bad. +1 for the Palm Pre and being less than $200 after taxes off contract.

Meadus101
01-23-2011, 12:40 AM
The palm pre is actually required Stock for all Bell Corporate stores. They have them, but alot of reps refuse to sell them due to the amount of hardware failure. Some Managers even have one hidden in back to meet their Compliance guidelines, and don't tell the reps they have one. It's still Required to be on display in Bell stores even.

If you get a good one, the Palm pre is an amazing phone. WebOS is great.

There's even an update for WebOS to WebOS 2.0 for Bell Customers, You should research that and see if it's possible for you to update.

jaStrom
01-24-2011, 05:09 PM
I've wanted a WebOS device for a while, but I vowed never to go back to CDMA every again. I think it's great you got one though, they are truly awesome phones. I was thinking about the Rogers Pre 2, but hopefully we'll see some new WebOS devices soon. I really hope they come out with some awesome hardware to complement their wonderful OS!

Full Mountain
01-25-2011, 10:38 AM
While I really like WebOS, the Pre hardware is really starting to get to me, I'm on my second one and it's been repaired once already and now the sliding mechanism is going and the front cover is starting to crack (14 months in)

I'm really hoping that HP comes out with some really good hardware come Feb 9th

Stuntman
01-25-2011, 03:55 PM
I'm sorry the Desire Z did not work out for you. One thing that I experienced was that there were some calling issues the first week I had it. After the first week, it was quite stable. At least for me, the same issues affected 3 different phones on 3 different networks. I was told later that all three major carriers were doing some upgrade to their networks that week. Since you got your phone this week, it does sound that you had the same issue.

I appologise if my comments lead you to purchasing a phone that did not suit you. I personally use it primarily for web browsing and it does do an excellent job at that. The voice quality is OK as other phones I used were better in that respects.

I'm glad you were able to find a phone to use while waiting for the Atrix. I don't know much about the Palm other than its OS is not that popular right now.

TH8MA3
01-30-2011, 07:46 PM
I had a Palm Pre and loved it. What really put me down was the battery life. I had to charge it 2+ times a day but otherwise I would without a doubt take a look at the new WebOS headsets

JPenguin
02-06-2011, 05:15 PM
I'm still quite happy with my Pre, I got it the day after release on Bell and haven't had too much trouble hardware wise. I do have a hairline crack forming from the button on the front but no oreo effect.

I do also have absolutely terrible performance with the GPS on it, it is extremely slow to get a lock.

The battery life definitely does leave something to be desired though, without 2 Touchstones it would drive me crazy (1 at home, 1 at work). I do often have a 2nd battery with me too from my development Pre.

I'm really hoping Palm announce a bunch of exciting stuff on Wednesday, they really need to attract more developers and get noticed otherwise I'll probably be looking at moving to Android.