Palm Pre: Thoughts After Using It a Day
You’re probably getting tired reading about the Palm Pre; news about it appears everywhere you turn. The fact is, the Pre has a lot of people excited in much the manner the original iPhone got folks excited. It is an innovative smartphone, with the potential to break new ground in what has become a jaded market. The WebOS has the potential to become a long-term platform for Palm that can keep the Pre and the phones to come on top of the game. Given the excitement about the Pre, I felt it appropriate to my thoughts out there now that I have used the Pre for a whole day in the real world. This is not a review — it is, rather, a rambling list of things that have become important to me about the Pre.
Hardware stuff
The Pre feels nice in the hand. That is important, as I have used a number of phones and other mobile devices over the years that were actually uncomfortable to use. The Pre is not one of those, and I am still impressed with how small it is.
I am finding it hard to slide the Pre up to expose the keyboard. It may be that it is new and stiff, but it can be hard to push up on the phone to get to the keyboard. Once opened, the keyboard is as easy to use for me as other phone keyboards. I like the rubbery keys and how my fingers hit them firmly and decisively, something I often have trouble with on other phones. I also like how the keyboard is backlit for use in the dark.
The center button on the front of the Pre looks like a trackball, but it doesn’t function as one. It is strictly a button and plays a large role in the operation of the interface. I really wish Palm had enabled its use as a trackball; it would make it easier to spin through lists of things. Instead, you must push on the screen to scroll or select something in a list. The trackball would add good value to this interaction.
I am finding the Pre to be responsive, no matter how much is going on in the background. It can bog down a little doing some heavy things, but not oppressively so. The processor handles normal operations just fine.
The weak area of the Pre hardware is the battery life. This is not that surprising, given how small the battery is, and those who are heavy users, especially of data, should plan on carrying a second battery along. The second battery will have to be charged in the Pre, as there is no external charger available.
Touchstone charger
The Touchstone is freaking awesome. There has not been a simpler way to pop a phone onto charge, and I strongly suggest Pre owners who passed on the Touchstone to change their minds about it. It does take longer to charge the Pre on the Touchstone than it does via direct charging via the USB plug. I had wondered about this before the Pre’s release. Everything I’ve read about wireless charging has touched on how much of the energy is lost via wireless charging like that used in the Touchstone. Palm has done a good job making the Touchstone practical, and it is good for most uses, but if you are in a big hurry and need to charge your Pre as quickly as possible then, you should plug it in.
Software stuff
The user interface on the Pre is the best I have used on any smartphone. I don’t say that lightl. The Pre interface will be the one that others will be measured against going forward. It is simple to get to virtually everything on the system in an intuitive way, and that is the very essence of a smartphone interface. The coupling of gestures with controls that have been thoughtfully laid out make the Pre not only easy to use, but fun. Don’t underestimate the importance of an interface that is fun to use.
So far, I am finding all of the programs on the Pre work well and as expected. The email program was easy to set up and works well. The notification system is extremely well-done — it is nice to get a notice when new email arrives, but it is quietly tucked away at the bottom of the screen. It doesn’t interfere with any active program running, yet is easy to get to via a simple tap on the bottom of the screen.
I am liking the calendar app on the Pre, although I am not seeing that cool accordion in the calendar that hides blocks of free time. I don’t see any way to activate that, either. I wonder what I am missing? I have four different Google calendars being synced, and it’s great to see them all on one screen in different colors. A very cool thing is, when I select only one of the calendars to display, any blocks of time committed not being displayed still show as gray blocks. This prevents adding events for time you don’t really have free, even though the other calendars are not visible.
I had expressed some concern over the Pre’s syncing of contacts to my Facebook contacts. I shouldn’t have been concerned, as I am happy with the way it is handled. I do have some Facebook contacts on the Pre that I will likely never want to contact, but it is very helpful how the Facebook information updated the contact information for those who I do interact with frequently. First up, the Facebook sync added all of those contacts’ photos, which is very handy. It also updated address and phone number information where the contact had included it on Facebook, so my information is now automatically up-to-date without my doing anything. Synergy is a wonderful thing.
The Pre’s media playing is pretty good, nothing amazing, but OK. The YouTube app does as good a job playing those videos as the iPhone’s does, and the Amazon MP3 app makes it a breeze to get new music purchased and added. The speaker won’t win any audio quality awards playing music, but it is loud enough and decent enough to get by.
I use my phones to read e-books a lot with both the eReader Pro app and the Kindle for iPhone, and the lack of these is a big hit to my use of the Pre. I have no word from the companies behind these apps that they are working on a Pre version, but I hope they do. Amazon may very well produce a Kindle for Pre app, as it would go hand-in-hand with the Amazon MP3 app I mentioned that is already on the Pre.
Web browsing
This has to have its own category, as I already made it clear I felt the Pre must do the web well to have a chance. I am very happy to report the browser on the Pre delivers nicely. I find it as good as the Safari browser on the iPhone, but faster — not just a little faster, either; it is much faster at rendering pages and moving around. The multi-touch controls work just as well as they do on the iPhone and, coupled with the speed, it is a nice experience.
I use Google Reader to work with RSS feeds, and the iPhone-formatted version of Reader works fine on the Pre. It’s not quite as pretty nor as slick as it works on the iPhone, but everything works, and it’s nice to use. I also love the bookmark thumbnails in the browser, and off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything about the browser I don’t like. Well done, Palm.
I also am a big Twitter junkie and have been using Tweed that I obtained through the App Catalog. There aren’t a lot of apps in the Catalog yet, but Tweed is a keeper. There’s nothing special about it compared with Twitter apps on other platforms, but it does Twitter well.
I know I’ll get asked what other apps I have installed on the Pre through the App Catalog, so here’s my list so far:
- New York Times
- Pandora
- AccuWeather
- Tweed
- Where
- FlightView
- AP Mobile
- Today Show
That’s all I’m going to get into presently. I am sure there will be plenty of additional coverage of the Pre from both Kevin and me.
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James – You need more than 3 hours (I think) free between two entries to have your calendar show the collapsed time. If you have back-to-back entries or only 1 hour of free time (for example), it doesn’t collapse.
Did you notice that when you run Pandora in the background, an icon appears in the notification area and you can pause/rate tracks, similar to the built-in music player?
I love the phone. I haven’t put it down since I got my grubby little paws on it yesterday. However, I do have two major gripes:
1. When syncing pics from through iTunes using albums in iPhoto it just groups all of the pics together. When you go to the picture app they are not in their respective albums. I synced 312 pics and to find the one you’re looking for you have to search through them all.
2. Picture uploads – only two accounts are available. Facebook & Fotobucket. I want Flickr and don’t want to have to use that stupid Flickr email addy.
I’m sure #2 will be fixed with a Flickr app eventually. #1 means I may have to go to manual picture folders which sucks because they won’t be automatically updated when syncing like my smart albums are.
“You’re probably getting tired reading about the Palm Pre”
Actually, I’m not tired. I’m waiting for these “real” reviews/experiences from people who bought it with their own money and are living with the device. That’s what carries weight. So keep ‘em coming!
Thanks for the review James.
How do you find the application switching in practice? It looks great in the videos but is it as intuitive in real life?
Also, how do you feel about the size of the screen? Too small or just right?
Thanks for the first day thoughts, i cant wait for it to hit the UK, It looks like it will go along side my vaio p nicely.
A couple of questions if you have time:
The music you have on itunes/media player, does it sync the album art also?
Is there a touchscreen keyboard for being extra lazy!?
Thanks and im looking for to your thoughts on the pre over the coming weeks
Regards
JK
Here’s a tip: The accordion calendar doesn’t work unless you have around 3 free hours, but if you don’t have many appointments, it’s a pain having to scroll all the way up or down just to see what’s the 1 thing going on today.
So: set up a daily event called “Start of day” at 12:05 am that last 5 minutes and an “End of day” event at 11:50 pm, and you’ll get your accordion fold (and more compact view)!
Thanks… your tip works great.
That’s the trick. Thanks.
Uhm, Awesome suggestion… Now the calendar works so much better… Thanks!!!
Made my day – thanks for the elegant fix!
Okay, I like the pre so far and I say like only becuause I am coming from the centro. Which allowed me to changed my ringtones by catergories. So How do we catergorized our contacts? My biggest concern is I have not figure out how to change my ringtone for my text message alert. The little peeps are not enough alert for me. I can not hear those when the phone is in my purse. Any ideas…
everything else I completely agree with and like about the phone
I was under the impression from all the reviews that you’re supposed to keep it in your hand at all times.
I bought the Pre and love it….I have one question and that is how do I go about downloading additional ringers?
I downloaded songs from my iTunes onto my Pre and they are now all available as ringtones from the Sounds and Ringtones App on the launcher.
Can you briefly explain how those of us who use Outlook would get our contacts to the Pre?
You would have to get a 3rd party app to sync your Outlook contacts, or setup a gmail account and download the gmail sync to your Outlook, then you can have the Pre sync to gmail. Maybe down the road they will have a easier way to do this, unless James has found another easier way. I don’t have a Pre, I just have read about this in a report that some users didn’t like that they had to do all this to sync with Outlook.
HG is right. There’s currently no native Pre to Outlook sync and no 3rd party Pre software that I know of either. Probably the easiest way (without an Exchange account): export the Outlook contacts and import them into Gmail’s Contacts. Then set up the Pre / Synergy to sync with the Gmail account.
Thats not accurate, palm provides a one time transfer from your outlook, palm desktop etc… It is very simple and does not take very long.
To answer a few of the above from MPOV – application switching is a breeze – and once you get used to the gesture area, even breezier!
Size of the screen seems good to me – I came from a Touch Pro which was 2.8″. Browsing experience is like the iPhone/Touch and what you see on the screen varies little between the two.
Album art from iTunes syncs, but no on screen keyboard..yet.
For Outlook – there a few 3rd party apps coming for desktop sync. In the mean time, Exchange will do the trick or you will need to move everything to GMail and sync from there.
I would like to be able to change the fonts in email – mainly make them a bit bigger. And believe it or not, I would like to change the signature format. The font is a gray color, not black – and it looks different from my Exchange sig.
Camera is excellent – but no zoom.
Pandora and iTunes sync rocks – quite literally!