Palm Pre: A Review

Hopes are high regarding Palm Pre; it has been like this since the phone was introduced at the CES 2009. For past many months, Palm Pre is being discussed in the tech world with a lot of anticipation. It is right that no phone got so much publicity and speculation as Pre after the much-talked-about-iPhone. Let us look at the specs of this highly anticipated handheld.

Specs:

• Dimensions: 100.5 x 59.5 x 16.9 mm
• Weight: 133 g
• Display type: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Display size: 320 x 480 pixels, 3.1 inches
• Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• 8 GB on board memory, no memory card slot
• GPRS: Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
• EDGE
• 3G: HSDPA
• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth: v2.1 with A2DP
• USB: microUSB
• Camera: 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, enhanced fixed focus, LED flash
• Video: no
• Operating system: Palm webOS
• Messaging: SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email
• Web browser: WAP 2.0 / HTML (PocketIE)
• GPS
• Cellular technology: CDMA2000 1X
• Service provider: Sprint Nextel
• Price: $199.99 (subject to variation according to time and location)

Features:

The design of Pre is nice, with rounded edges and smooth black finish. It is a slider phone, and has only one physical control on the front side of the phone when it is closed.

Credit: crackofdawn.wordpress

This control is only a button that takes the user back to Deck of Card view, but looks like a trackball navigator. There is a power button, a silent button and a 3.5 mm jack. Right side bears microUSB whereas the left side has a volume rocker. When closed, the phone is of quite fit-in-palm size and fits the pocket more snuggly than the non-slider iPhone.

3.1” screen is smaller than the 3.5 inches iPhone display, though possesses a great quality. It has a vibrant 24-bit color HVGA display that works wonderfully with images, text and browsing. The multi-touch functionality of Pre is another advantage where pinching, tapping and swiping give different results.

Slide the phone and here comes the full QWERTY keyboard, which has closely spaced little keys. There isn’t any on screen keyboard option. Multi tasking is an area where Pre acts as an expert. Multiple apps can keep on running in the background with the Deck of Cards feature. Notifications bar is surprisingly nice, too. Multimedia and browsing features are good.

Pros:

• Great notification system and multitasking capabilities
• Solid web browser
• Nice solid feel, though made of plastic
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Very nice display screen with multi-touch functionality
• Nice call quality
• Wireless connectivity

Cons:

• Cramped keyboard
• Can be sluggish at times
• Not impressive battery life
• No expansion slot
• No video recording ability
• No onscreen keyboard and flash support

Final Words:

Though there are some hitches attached to name of Pre, this is indeed a phone that has threatened the iPhone well due to the functionality level it has. Pre has an edge over iPhone in many areas, and is a good performer.

Source: reviews.cnet