Palm - Pre Mobile Phone - Black (Sprint)

Over all a great phone. Got one on the ninth of Sept. 09 and not even a week later I turned it off and it would never come back on. Replaced it and its been great. Would recomend to anyone wanting a new smart phone. This has all the great features most other phones have including high speed downloads using EVDO Rev. A via the EVDO Network (available in most areas Sprint Voice coverage is available). The EVDO Rev. A makes it a breeze for surfing the web or downloading apps. It can be done in a 1/4 of the time it takes on the 1x network or EVDO Rev. 0 phones. Also Sprint Navigation is also a cool feature. Its suprisingly more accurate than the iPhone at keeping track of where you are. It pinpoints your location almost to the exact (within maybe two or three feet) spot. WOW for a cell phone. Great memory (8GB Internal/non removable), 3.0 Mega Pixel high resolution camera, big touch screen, slide out keyboard, IM like messaging, Sprint TV, Web, Music (MP3 Player), and a lot more stuff. If you want a cool smart phone and want something other than an iPhone, you have to get this. Its an iPhone killer. And to make your shopping experience better, Please buy at Best Buy or Best Buy.com. I have had bad experiences buying my phones elsewhere. Best Buy will help in any way if something is wrong with a phone you have purchased from them. Take my advise serious, buy your cell phones (no matter what carrier) from Best Buy. You'll be glad you did.

All I can say is Synergy. The phone works marvelous. You can have multiple windows open at the same time. The phone isn't locked down by a company with a big head that feels the need to think for me. Most of all the little things like removing my battery, getting to use my internet whenever I want, and not being on a terrible network.

The Palm Pre (Sprint) and Palm Pre Plus (VZ and AT&T) brought the most elegant means of true multitasking to the mobile phone market when introduced nearly a year and a half ago. Getting to understand the interface, and then actually Using the phone, is a quick experience and a pleasure. Most new owners will find the phone responsive, with a bright, visible and sharp screen, and intelligent access to all most-used apps like the Phone, Contacts, Browser, Email, Calendar, Texting, etc. HIGHLIGHTS: One of the best innovations of the new webOS operating system introduced in the Palm Pre (and sibling Pixi devices) is the Synergy system for synchronizing contacts and calendar events from nearly any possible source you may already have for such things: Microsoft Exchange, Google GMail, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and more-- all seamlessly integrate to your phone in a very elegant way upon a single setup using your login and password for each service you wish to integrate. Should you wish to remove one at any time, remove the login, and whoosh...a few seconds to minute later, they are gone. Having phone numbers of Facebook friends immediately accessible removes forever that silliness of posting "hey, got a new phone, please message me your cell and home numbers again!" since if they are in your friends' profile, they are instantly on your phone. Voila! Calendar events are just as seamless--making sharing calendars across the family with Google Calendar through GMail accounts a no-brainer event, and avoiding countless arguments with the teenagers about where they are and when they will be home. The updates for the phones have been routine and have offered relatively substantial new benefits without cost: video recording, 3D games, have all come, and (soon) Flash is also promised to arrive. The phone's keyboard is ample, and even my largish fingers, used to using the previous Palm Treo models, had very little time adjusting, and actually move confidently across the keyboard now without looking most of the time. LOWLIGHTS/DRAWBACKS: The phone hardware does have some nagging spots that need to be considered: Battery life is a primary area that dogs the phone, with use of the Bluetooth transceiver, WiFi, and phone transceiver all simultaneously in a dodgy coverage area (esp for CDMA on VZ or Sprint) likely to VERY rapidly send a battery from 100% to 25% in a matter of a few short hours. You'll want a charger for your car, one for work, one for the desk, one for the bedroom, -- you get the idea -- since your new Pre/Pre Plus will be doing its darnedest to be at 8% power when ever you want to pick it up and use it. Second: The phone build quality is not stellar. It's solid for use by someone who has been able to keep the same phone looking new for two to three years, but don't dream that your teenager will be able to keep this phone in good working order for more than a few months before the inevitable drop (as little as a few feet) has it searching for serious tech support or warranty coverage. YES: buy repair/replacement warranty coverage on this handset -- you will undoubtedly use it. All that said, I love my Pre -- but, alas, after six months, the GPS chip sometimes seems to stop working for hours, the touchscreen recently has stopped responding when I plug the phone into a charger, and my battery seems to have lost about 30% of it's initial juicy "umpff", leading to even faster death. I'm hoping to get it fixed or replaced, and looking forward to something new from Palm to fix my eyes on near the end of this year--hopefully...

So far this phone has done everything that I've needed it to. - Phone Good call quality, simple on screen dialer, caller id with pic and custom ringer, simple silence switch on top + ability to ignore call by double tapping power button or using on screen icon. Conference call capability and quick access to contacts. Advanced dialing with pause and timeouts for entering extensions or pass codes. Speed dial from both the on screen dialer and from the slide out keyboard. Proximity sensor keeps you from cheek dialing when you hold the phone to your face. Missing: Voice dial, extended conference call features. - Contacts Synchronize and link contacts from Outlook, Exchange, Google/Gmail, and Facebook. Minimal effort required if your friends maintain their own data on Facebook. Simple interface to edit contacts and to get to pertinent information. Universal Search accessible so you can find contacts just by pulling out the keyboard and typing in the first few letters of a name. Synergy is awesome. Missing: Advanced contact management; groups, color coding, ability to hide Facebook acquaintances. Easy sync method to other sources (Thunderbird, Plaxo, or other contact/e-mail tools) - Tasks Simple task manager to help prioritize tasks with reminders. Missing: advanced nagging, more priority levels, advanced categorization - E-mail Unobtrusive push notifications, simple slide to delete without a nag prompt ("Are you sure you want to"). Full slide out keyboard with simple spell checker/substitution. Ability to use either POP or IMAP accounts. GMail works flawlessly. Missing: EAS/SSL Exchange still needs some work, some POP accounts seemed to be eating into battery life, sync to Outlook requires software download. - Text Beautiful texting app with threads, color coding, avatar/photo and date/time stamp. Allows MMS and the ability to click links to launch a browser card or dialer.Pull up a contact from universal search and click the SMS icon. No hidden menus or needing to find the right app in the list. No unnecessary confirmation messages when sending a test ("Message Sent") message just shows on the screen as gray until its sent and then turns black. Get a confirmation message only when the message can't be sent. Same slide to delete method used with e-mail. Push notification alert you to new messages. Messages are grouped in history according to person and date/time. Missing: Ability to put each conversation in a different card. Forwarding text messages to other recipients. Copy an existing text message to paste elsewhere. - Camera/Photos High quality 3.2 megapixel images with good focus and helped by an LED flash. Images are crisp and well lit. Minimal delay from time clicking button to time picture snaps. Choice of flash, no flash, or auto flash. Very simple interface. Ability to easily upload to Facebook, e-mail, or MMS images. Easy to browse images using gestures tap or pinch to zoom, slide left or right to browse through. Save GEO code info with image. Missing: Autofocus (hardware limitation), image resolution options, ability to send to flickr (other than through e-mail) or blog, quick preview (I always turn that off on any phone/camera I have anyway), macro shot, camera zoom, video capture. Security settings for images/folders. Ability to organize photos from phone and not have to organize them via PC/USB link. - Music Built in music app similar to iPod. Good quality and syncs with iTunes easily or drag and drop music via USB. Doubletwist sync also available. Search enabled, pull up songs by artist, playlist, podcast, album, genre, etc.,. Shows album art, play, pause, rewind, fast forward, shuffle, and progress. Music controls show up in notification area or as minimized icon when viewing other application cards. Pandora application is also available for download. Hard volume buttons on side of device, also controllable via bluetooth headphones. Auto pause/resume on incoming call. Missing: Last.fm, progress bar on main play window have to go back to list view to see progress, doesn't support all streaming sites, occasional skips when multiple cards open. Built in speaker tinny and low quality for regular use. Sync with Windows Media player or other media software - Messaging Instant messaging matches ease of use for texting. No surprises, it just works. Easy to set up. Missing: Not all services are available yet. Some incorrect instructions available in the help file suggest that more services may be coming. Only used with google messaging so far. - GPS Location services are used with Google Maps, Sprint Telenav, and downloadable apps like AccuWeather and Where. GPS is quick and responsive. No issues with accuracy. The Sprint Telenav comes as part of the bundle and has turn by turn directions, traffic and road delay info. Missing: realtime Google Maps directions, better contact support for Telenav, landscape mode for Telenav. Ability to turn GPS on/off from main pull down menu similar to Bluetooth and WiFi toggle. - Calendar Easy synchronization with Google Calendar including merging multiple calendars and color coding. Editable entries will sync back to choice of location. All standard calendar features are available (time, reoccurring, attendees, etc.,.) Missing: advanced calendar features, iCal support, ability to customize display or color coding for certain events. Some issues with syncing to exchange/outlook have been reported. Overall this phone will be good for people new to smart phones, casual users, early adopters who don't mind a slight wait for the product to mature, people who make heavy use of gmail and facebook, and users who don't have serious business needs from their phone (e.g. categorization of contacts, advanced calendar features, heavy exchange requirements) I think the phone will eventually get there for the serious business user, but it's still a 1.0 product with room for improvement. The app catalog has 30 apps as of June 21st but they are all high quality apps and this is only two weeks into the initial roll out. Expect many more apps in the future. Remember that iTunes didn't even have an app store until a year after launch.

Everyone! Here is the true breakdown of features to take advantage of with this product: -Slide out QWERTY Keyboard is HUGE -Weather Channel Download App (I know, I know! But it works great!) -Adding contacts is a cinch -LOVE the mobile hotspot (like having a router all the time) -Phone touch-screen goes off when holding to face on a call -Switching from messaging to calling or emailing is One-Button easy -Setting up email accounts for personal AND business is cake -Calendar very simple and automatically updates with Outlook Here are the downfalls, WHICH can be devastating ofr saome: -Battery life is have-to-charge-every-day LOW -Web browsing is not the fastest -Cannot set up pauses to automatically dial when you-ve called a # -Unnecessary apps you don't want are a beast to get rid of -Touch screen goes off often when you try to push on-screen buttons -If you select buttons rapidly the phone can have trouble catching up The battery life can be extended by turning off the bluetooth searching and wifi searching options in the top right hand menu. In my opinion, this phone's pros outweigh the cons.

Negatives: Touchstone charger is cool, but failed within 2 weeks. No mechanism to block calls by Caller-ID. Can't send/receive files via Bluetooth. No synch with Macs (what were they thinking with iTunes?!?). Weird back-swipe gesture with the track-ball. Finger-print magnet (most phones are). Unable to configure to send E-mail using ISPs mail server (receive ok, Sprint Mogul works fine with same config). Awkward cable-based charging - have to open keyboard and swivel out a flimsy cover. Over-priced, short-lived Touchstone inductive charger - should be included, especially since Verizon has a better version of the phone. No tethering (most likely a Sprint shortcoming). Positives: Interface is a pleasure to use, responsive and attractive. When phone is not in use, it displays a very handy 'dashboard' (calls, emails, facebook updates, etc). Bottom-slide out keyboard design allows for one-handed typing, unlike on side-slide devices. Overlapping calendars is a very handy feature - similar to Apple iCal concept. Address book integrates nicely with other applications. Over-the-air software updates. User-replaceable battery. Touchstone inductive charger makes charging much more convenient. Hopefully the replacement will last longer. Palm has a quality OS here - leaps above the ancient PalmOS from previous devices. If it keeps maturing, there'a a chance it will survive a world of iPhones and Android 2 phones.

I've had the phone for a little over a month now and I have to say that even though the new factor has worn off a bit I still spend an hour or two a day playing with the phone. I love that it runs multiple programs at the same time but I wish this wasn't at the expense of the batteries life. I have a feeling that Palm is going to be coming out with a Centro replacement in the next 6 months that is going to directly compete with where the (sigh) Iphone is today. I'm not going to compare the two like other folks here seem to love to do. I'll just say that I have multiple friends with Iphones, a couple of friends with T-mobile's G1. I would say all three to these phones are on the same level when in comes to style, function, and usability. If you have T-mobile, you probably aren't going to switch just to buy the Pre or Iphone so I don't think it should be about which phone is the best. All 3 of the above mentioned phones have thier appeal level. I'm happy with my Pre but I could be so much happier with a larger keyboard and better battery life but being able to read my email, listen to Pandora, order MP3's off amazon.com all at the same time on the same device is truelly incredible. Do I like that it integrates all of my gmail calendar information as well as all of my Facebook contact information. Honestly, not really. Especially since there is no way to delete the Facebook contacts after they've been added. I should be able to choose who I want in my address book. I don't need the contact info for the 50 plus people I haven't seen since I was in high school ten years ago. My prediction is that this is the phone to resurrect Palm. The ad campaign is excellent. The phone is getting good reviews and it's just a matter of time before Palm tops the Pre with it's next device. I don't think any phone will ever over take the Iphone's place as king of consumer mobile devices, but I think that there is a market for the Pre. If someone is looking for the sexiness of the Iphone with the business and multitasking functions of the somewhat dull Blackberry. I suggest this phone for that person. Apple seems to have become somewhat of a monopoly and I'm just glad that companies like HTC, Palm, and RIM are here to compete for a share of the pie. Competition creates better products for the consumer. Now let's get on to Round 2 Palm. Ding, Ding, Ding!

I have been beta testing this phone and it is really awesome !! Multiple apps just work .. exactly the way you've been seeing them in demo's .. email and calendar is great, I love the way notifications are not ever in your face. The device has a cool and stony touch to it. Sure it looks a bit like the iphone but it actually gets better ... I love the way Pandora goes into the background and the way you can browse multiple windows ... also the way the phone becomes a clock when you put it on the touchstone .. I've tested Sprint Navigation on the Pre and its awesome. I like that I'm able to see my facebook, google and exchange contacts in one place ... what I want to see is more apps being made for this phone ... did see some software snags but Palm was always quick on updates ... in the end I have to say this - Yes it works, and it works amazingly well !! Go for it !!!