Palm Pre 48 Hour Initial Review

If you don’t know, I am a Palm power user since the days of black and white handspring Treo’s. Most people have owned fewer palm devices in their lifetime than I had to replace from heavy use last year alone. The advent of the Palm smart phones was a huge breakthrough for mobile professionals that have been using palm devices for years prior. My last phone, the 755P was an amazing device and many of its nuances I have gotten used to, some of which i am missing in the Pre, yet other advances make the Pre a phenomenal device. If you have never owned a Palm, and are looking at the Pre… I highly advise it, you will not miss any of the cons, because you have never used the older Palm software. There are many people that have called this device and “iphone killer” and as much as I can say it competes heavily, I will say they both have their pros and cons, but it is a direct competitor with a suave edge and more universal compatibility than the iphone (as well as a real keyboard and interchangeable battery unlike the iphone!). The Web OS is fast, and easy to use as long as you know the gestures. Lets get on with the list.

Pro

1. Small and lightweight
2. Interchangeable battery
3. Real keyboard
4. Versatile charger that works with a USB cable to charge anywhere.
5. 8GB internal storage doubles as a small hard drive
6. Combined chat log makes sms and IM communication a breeze
7. Contacts are fully integrated into all other apps, making everything very simple from GPS to IM to E-mail.
8. Push e-mail, saves on battery life and no more compulsive pressing of the “get message” button.
9. Fully drag and drop photos and music when in hard drive mode (create a new folder, it makes a new directory. drag a song to ringtones, you have a ringtone.)
10. itunes sync when in media sync mode
11. great camera with a great flash and no limitations to the size of file you can send via text (MMS)
12. Full data plan with unlimited voice and SMS for Sprint costs MUCH less than those other guys

Con

1. No menu button on the keyboard
2. There is currently no way to copy and past text conversations
3. Battery life is terrible, and I mean terrible (new battery expect to release in a few days)
4. Far less menu items than previous phones, no “select all”
5. No way to change sound for text messages and e-mail, hopefully this will be changing with a future update.
6. No visual voicemail yet, but rumor has it this will be changing soon as well.
7. No card slot (but they way the phone acts as a drive, it doesn’t matter too much)

I sent an e-mail to the good folks at Trapster, and they will have a version of their software for the Pre very soon.The very first thing you should do when you get the Pre is turn the screen brightness all the way down, and set the e-mail for push, both will help save battery. If you are a Sprint customer, this is a no brainer… If you belong to anyone else,  switch.