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Palm Pre Reviewed
mlingojones writes "The Palm Pre doesn't come out until June 6th, but the Boy Genius Report not only got their hands on one but also posted a review of it. They liked webOS, but not the hardware (especially the keyboard). Overall, they feel that 'once people are able to play a real unit themselves, there will be more than a lot of happy Palm Pre customers.'" On the downside, this review says the keyboard is lousy.
After reading the review and watching this video I'm disliking my iPhone even more. Mulitasking alone sets it above the iPhone; it's very frustrating having to close and reopen applications anytime you want to do something, however I frequently have iPhone apps crash due to memory shortage so I have to wonder how stable it is with multiple apps open. The keyboard does look like a deal breaker though, granted the iPhone's keyboard isn't perfect and even less so when the iPhone assumes you're a moron that can't type and "corrects" what you meant to type with a completely different word (if I wanted the word it suggested I should have to press what comes up to select it, not the other way round). I doubt it will be an "iPhone killer" though, not because it's an inferior product but because the iPhone already has a hugely established userbase.
Looks like the information overload is deliberate. Probably a bad message since the trend nowadays is towards making your life simpler, but it's not just a matter of amateur hour design.
the world of cell phones there's _always_ something about the device that doesn't measure up to expectations. It probably the reason why no cell phone has ever managed to achieve perfect review scores across the board. However one thing can be certain, a solid software platform gives this thing at least some promise, as the hardware can be improved fairly easily as opposed to taking an entirely new software direction after the fact.
What do you mean "at least there's a physical keyboard"? Are you talking about the iPhone? Because that's pretty much the only phone with a non-physical keyboard. Yeah the iPhone sucks but most people use better phones like Nokia N63 (and friends) or Blackberry.
the iphone doesn't win on features
It wins on features hands down - the features people actually use.
Just the other day I was asking to see someone's Storm, and asked where the browser was- they didn't even know! And after using it for a few minutes I could see why, there was hardly any point.
The iPhone makes things usable that a lot of people would otherwise never use - and the same goes for apps, I think Apple probably has surpassed the old Palm V installed and use app count at this point.
You can decry the iPhone as a creature of marketing all you like, but you're only deluding yourself and will never understand the real reason why anything succeeds or fails.
That said the Pre looks like an excellent phone and I think will do very well. This is because they understand the iPhone is about building a great phone and not about marketing, and the Pre looks to go into the same space with a different take on it that I think can carry a large bit of the market.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
> A 6-month exclusivity on Sprint means many people won't purchase one right away.
> why limit it to a single CDMA carrier?
Um... think about what you just said for a few minutes. The iPhone is *STILL* exclusive to AT&T. Didn't seem to kill the iPhone. The G1/Android is effectively exclusive to T-Mobile. There are lots of phones that are introduced to a single carrier for a while after launch. I am not saying I like this behavior- I think phones should be completely decoupled from carriers, completely (and without subsidies and contracts). But this is certainly nothing new or unusual. Sprint has always been Palm's greatest champion, so it is only logical they would work out a deal for exclusivity for a while (most people think it will be less than a year).
Sprint needs Palm just as much as Palm needs Sprint- they are both "gambling" on each other. Hopefully they will both do well for taking the chance.