Hands-on Review of the Palm Pre Shows They Don’t Get It

Palm PreEvery day finds another rumor regarding the release date for the Palm Pre. Palm and Sprint are still not forthcoming about a specific launch. At first, it seemed that both companies were simply building excitement over the Pre, but as time drags on — and believe me it has started to drag — it feels like something else is at work.

Back in January, when Palm first announced the Pre and granted many of us a one-on-one look at the phone, it wasn’t surprising that Palm wouldn’t let anyone actually hold the phone. Most of us just wrote that off to the fact that the Pre was in the very early beta stage and Palm wanted to control the demos to make sure that things not quite ready weren’t fussed over. I can understand that.

What’s strange is that as the launch date draws near — and it is only weeks away, given the constant “first half of 2009″ we’ve been fed for months — is how Palm and Sprint still don’t want anyone really playing with the phone. Many bloggers and reporters have complained online how Palm still won’t let anyone handle the Pre even at this late date.

PreThinking is a Palm Pre enthusiast site that has good relations with Palm since they are so excited in their reporting about the Pre. Yesterday a post was published that is a “hands-on” review of the Palm Pre, making it a first, I’m pretty sure. I was excited to give it a read to see how the Pre stacked up in the reviewer’s mind, but talk about a letdown when I read it. You have to wonder what the point of it all is when a “hands-on review” starts like this:

First, I was not allowed to take any photos, which I heard happened in Canada at Sequentia last week with several people who were chosen in a Customer Service survey to review the Palm Pre hands on. Second I was not to discuss certain specifics (appz and other things) of the device and all its capabilities. This review also cost me a few rounds of drinks $$- with the little time I had hands on with the phone.

Hmm, no photos, no discussing the apps nor the capabilities of the Pre. You have to wonder why Palm even granted this “reviewer” this brief time with the Pre that he can’t detail. Maybe the conclusion was what they were shooting for:

Overall assessment:

The Palm Pre is going to one of the best phones for 2009 in its class. It is truly a Smart Phone and not a dumb phone made to look smart by overlaying appz upon appz on a system that was not designed for Multi-Tasking. This phone will be your phone, a communication device with email and phenomenal text messaging, music, movies, camera, calendar and a whole slew of other applications I am not at liberty to mention.

Don’t get me wrong, I have big kudos for the PreThinking folks for getting to play with the Pre. I do have a problem with Palm or Sprint — whoever set this up — for restricting what can be said about the Pre at this late stage. It does seem that they’re trying to make sure that only good things are said about the Pre, and not very specific things at that.

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