Palm Pre Plus Review — Good Enough to Switch From the Pre?

palm-pre-plus

It came as no surprise when Palm said it would partner with Verizon after Sprint with the Pre and Pixi. How could it be when Verizon’s CEO let the news slip even before the handset debuted on Sprint? Unexpected, however, were the hardware specification bumps. Verizon’s removal of the center button found on Sprint’s version wasn’t a shocker — it’s quite common to see minor or cosmetic tweaks for the same handset on different carriers. But who was counting on double the memory and twice the storage capacity?

PreCentral took an early look at Verizon’s Palm Pre Plus to see if these changes improve upon the original. When it comes to memory and storage, how could things not be better? More is good. In fact, the extra memory makes the phone fly a little faster when opening apps, although in-app use didn’t seem to vary. That extra RAM helps with multitasking, however — 50 apps opened simultaneously in testing, which is nearly a full deck of cards. C’mon Dieter — you couldn’t open two more for the Jokers? ;)

Another huge Verizon differentiation is the Mobile Hotspot option. With it, you gain Mi-Fi-like functionality as the Pre Plus becomes a mobile hotspot for sharing 3G over Wi-Fi. The service tacks on another $40 to the monthly bill, but it’s a sweet option and provides you another 5 GB of monthly data for the phone. I wish more handsets — and carriers — would offer this. At the end of the day, Dieter tackles the question that current Palm Pre owners on Sprint are asking: Is it worth it to switch? For Dieter’s needs, it is, but for people happy with their current Pre on Sprint, probably not. My take — if you’re in a good Sprint coverage area and don’t need the Mobile Hotspot functionality, it’s probably not worth the cost to switch.

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