 IN DEPTH REVIEW: I went from Blackberry Curve to Palm Pre, now back to Curve...
(please excuse all grammatical errors or nonsense in my writing...it's late, and I've been pushing back writing this review cuz I knew it was gonna take a LONG time to write...so read, bare with it...and if you have any question, ASK)
My phones: Samsung SPH-M610 -> Palm Treo 700wx -> Blackberry Curve 8330 -> Palm Treo 800w -> Blackberry Curve 8330 -> Palm Pre -> Blackberry Curve 8330
My first Palm was a 700wx that I had for about 2 years or so. Prior to that, I was carrying an Ipaq in my car and my regular cellphone (Samsung SPH-M610 by Samsung) in my pocket. It was a pain lugging that PDA around, but at least my phone was “slim” right? Anyway, I then realized what you can get out of a PDA phone (yes, there was once a class of “PDA phone” vs. “Smartphone), so I got my first Palm 700wx. It was great; it gave me the best of both worlds. I was able to surf the web, send emails, yada yada with my PDA phone. And the touchscreen was one of the first. WinMo was, well, great for what it was back then. I used the 700wx for about 2 years then I started getting annoyed by the glitches in WinMo and wanted to give a smartphone a try.
I was skeptical about getting the Blackberry Curve 8330 at first because it was not a PDA phone, aka no touchscreen. And it didn’t give me the apps that a PDA had (calendar, personalized alarm, ability to work my documents and spreadsheets, the touchscreen). The 700wx was a true business device. It didn’t have the pizzazz of a Blackberry. It was meant for what it was, a business device. Even though the battery wasn’t that great, but it was doable. It also had a great speakerphone. I was able to put the phone on speaker and have 3 or 4 people sitting around joining in a conversation and everyone was clear.
Anyway, WinMo was starting to get on my nerve, and Palm was running slow on updating their device, and I wanted something new. I didn’t really want to go to a different O/S, I actually wanted a new WinMo version to fix the bugs and the glitches in the current one in the 700wx. In any case, I was long overdue for a new phone, considering prior to that I was changing phones out every 3-6 months or so. In any case, I started eyeing the Blackberry Curve 8330 that Sprint had just got, and thought I’d give it a try to see what the buzz was all about. I got my first Curve 8330 somewhen June of 2008. I liked it, but I didn’t like the fact that it didn’t have a touchscreen. But it was stable; it was a great solid device. It had its shortcomings, such as the weak calendar and appointment apps. It didn’t give you much of an option of setting multiple alarms either. And I hated how I couldn’t get the phone to vibrate and ring at the same time. In any case, I did like the Curve, but I still longed for a touchscreen WinMo. And a few months after that, the Palm 800w came out.
I was first in line to get the Palm 800w. I was excited about the new WinMo. I was excited about the fixed bugs and glitches (I don’t remember much what exactly they were now). But I was excited that it was a new Palm. I got it, it was exactly what I wanted, a touchscreen PDA phone, with all the business apps, but better than the 700wx. So I thought. In any case, I sold my BB Curve after I got the 800w.
I used the 800w for a few months, liked it, but didn’t like how the battery life was worse than the 700wx. The speaker phone was weak in the 800w too. Anyway, by fall of 2008, IKE hit Houston, and Sprint got most of their towers knocked down. I started to increasingly find glitches in the 800w. And it didn’t help much that the aftermath of IKE made Sprint worse. I was on roam at all times. I couldn’t use my phone to its full capability, and the new WinMo starting having its symptoms. I couldn’t use any of the apps for too long without worrying about battery life. And forget running any messenger apps in the background. That was almost impossible if you want your phone up to speed and power. Anyway, that’s when I decided to go back to the Blackberry Curve.
I bought a new Blackberry Curve 8330, and sold my Palm Treo 800w.
When I started using the Curve again, I started appreciating it for being so stable, and so much personalization options. I started using Blackberry Messenger when my girlfriend got me onto it. I was able to have all my messengers running, along with downloading all my emails at an instant. Those were some of the things you just couldn’t do on the Palm without shorting yourself the phone’s full capability.
I started setting my phone on vibrating more because I can actually feel the phone. And in my line of work, it’s kinda rude when my phone goes off while I’m with a client. The phone was so personal, you can almost customize everything you want to your liking, and there so many shortcuts that made this phone so much friendlier. I was loving my Blackberry, it was a solid device. I didn’t have to worry about it draining on me with all the apps I was running in the background.
I loved the Blackberry, but I still had a thing for a touchscreen phone, and the iPhone just didn’t really impress me because it was just too much of a toy rather than a true PDA. I told myself that if Palm will update their Palm O/S, I may give them a try again. I was DONE with WinMo. Well, at the beginning of this year, the Palm Pre was announced, and it was a “breakthrough” for 2009. I wanted it, I waited for it. I yearned for it. I wanted it so bad that I couldn’t sleep nights before it came out.
On June 6, 2009, I was one of the first 5 people to line up outside my local Sprint store. They finally let us into the store and while waited in line, I didn’t even notice that the Pre Demo model was right in front of me. My first impression of the look of it was “Oh, it’s THAT small?”, but nevertheless, I grabbed it and checked it out. It was pretty cool, very responsive and very accurate to the touch. Well I got my phone, and took it to work.
First thing I did was set up all my email accounts, my AIM account, Google Talk account, I was disappointed that it didn’t have a Yahoo Messenger, but oh well. I had it plugged in at my desk at work, and waited for it to charge to 100%. However, every time I had a client, I had to unplug the phone and I noticed that it was draining quickly every time after I took it off the charger. In any case, I didn’t think anything of it, updated the software, and figured it was cuz the battery needed to be conditioned.
The next day, Sunday, I left my house at about 3ish, and by 6, my phone was DEAD. I took me an hour to recharge it (from my laptop) to a point where it would turn on. When it finally turned on, I kept it plugged into my laptop wherever I went just to be sure that my phone won’t die. That night, I found out the battery was crappy due to a glitch in the AIM app, so I shut down AIM and Google Talk. The next day, the difference was like night and day. My phone’s battery life was a lot better, but still not “good”. I told myself to wait a few more days like most people and see if it gets better before I panic.
However, as days went by, the battery life didn’t increase much. I couldn’t set my hotmail accounts to push, which pissed me off cuz it was draining more power from my battery. I even contemplated changing and making my Gmail account my primary email account, and change all my credit card logins, all the website logins and change everything over to my Gmail account just so I can be satisfied with the Pre and Gmail’s push email capability. I pondered that for days (and it’s hard knowing that for the past 12 years, I’ve had the same email account). Also anytime I tried to use it to surf the web or run a few apps at a time, battery was draining. I had to keep the phone charged at all time when I was at my desk. It was starting to annoy me how I was afraid to use my phone because I was afraid it will not last. As more days went by, it wasn’t getting anything better. I started missing the functions and features of my Blackberry, and I started noticing things I couldn’t really do without that was on my Blackberry.
I took the phone the following Thursday to return it, but the rep told me to try it a bit longer and “here’s a car charger cuz you’re gonna need to charge ‘this phone’”. I was like, DAMN IT, ok, I’ll try it some more. I kept it over the weekend, and finally on Monday (9 days after I got it), I went and just returned it and took the $35 hit for restocking. It was just wasn’t working out for me.
Palm is just too different now, too mainstream. I wanted to go back to my Blackberry so bad; I couldn’t wait to return the Palm just so I can have my Blackberry back. When I finally reactivated my Blackberry again, it was like a new high.
Here’s my breakdown of how the Palm Pre compares to the Blackberry Curve 8330:
-The shape of the Palm Pre is very nice. The way it was designed is very attractive. Very sleek, very snazzy. However, that sleekness and snazziness are a design for the mainstream. Not that anything’s bad with going mainstream and attracting buyers from all aspects. But when you increase in your mainstream-ness and forget to build a solid business device (which Palm had been known for), well…you kinda change your image…I was never a person to care for a glossy device. It just makes it a lot uglier looking when it’s getting a lot of use and the glossiness will scratch easily. I was actually very disappointed when I first saw the Palm Pre. I guess it did look a lot bigger in pictures and in videos. I wish it was a little bit wider and a bit more—what’s the word---palm-ier (?) in your hand. Meaning a better fit inside your hand. The BB Curve fits perfectly, and it just feel solid. The Palm is a solid device, but somehow by making it a slider, I just couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy. Why? Because pretty much anytime you want to type something in, you will have to slide the keyboard out. But then again, how else will they get a solid keyboard without making it a slider and have a full screen at the same time? Oh, I know: a virtual keyboard. It’s great to have a solid keyboard, but when you have to slide it out for almost everything, small or big, it’ll be nice to have a solid grip on the device and use a virtual keyboard. But this is something that an update (or a new app) can fix, so I’m not gonna say much about it. It’s just that when you have 2 solid pieces of the phone sliding back and forth, at least for me, I don’t feel it as solid as one whole piece. Be having 2 solid pieces on top of each other, it also make the phone a lot bulkier due to the width and length behind so narrow. Of course, if they made the width and length a bit longer, then the thickness will be great.
-Keyboard of the Pre: Yup, it’s a smaller keyboard. But that can be adapted to, for me. However, when it’s your own source of input for most, then it’s harder because of the way it’s stacked below the top slider piece. Like I said, an app or an update can add a virtual keyboard to the phone. However, if I’m going to write a long email, I wouldn’t want to type on a virtual keyboard. I’d want something solid. And with the physical keyboard already being so narrower and smaller, putting it underneath the top slider piece, it kinda gets in the way. Again, to fix this: make the phone wider and longer to accommodate a nice keyboard layout. Another thing about the keyboard that I don’t like is the rubber buttons. First off, it’s hard to type fast moving your fingers about the keyboard and then to rub across rubber gel and get slowed down. It’s not like the Curve or the Treo where it’s a place surface to move about smoother. Second, I notice that with these buttons, you will have to press down a bit more to type, and if you do a lot of typing, then I think your fingers will actually get tiresome cuz you have to use more energy just to press down into the button and get a sort of shock absorber feeling press up at you. Again, this is MY review, so that’s what “I” think…hehehe…And also, it’s very hard to use this keyboard with one hand. At least for me, with my wide palm. The keyboard back is too slim, making it harder to hold on to with the weight mainly distributed up top. And the slimness of the keyboard also makes it harder to hold when trying to type even with 2 hands cuz your hands have too much places that it can’t go.
-Touchscreen of the Palm Pre: Very VERY responsive. Very VERY accurate. I love the accuracy of the touchscreen and sliding your fingers about it. However, by making it a touchscreen and out of such a small(er) device, I’ve noticed that it’s harder for people wide or larger hands to use the phone one-handedly. I have a wide palm, and I noticed that sometimes when I tried to use the phone with one hand, a small part of my hand might touch the screen at a different location, and thus, canceled out what I was trying to press. Or if you have smaller fingers, if you try to reach across the screen, then you will definitely touch another part of the screen at the same time or prior, or maybe not even since the screen is not that big anyway.
-Vibrating mode: This is a joke. Try setting it on vibrate and ring, you feel a vibration for no more than a MILLI-second and the vibration is not that “strong” to start with, then well, you will gain no benefit from it. If you are one to carry your pound in a pouch or if you’re one who have your Blackberry on vibrate mostly, well, do NOT depend on the Palm Pre to alert you for anything if it’s important. The ringtone is already not so loud, and **** the you don’t even get the standard ringtones with the phone, and I hate polyphonic style crap tones. Of course you can re-edit the mp3 and increase the tone, but you will hear cracking from the speaker. Yeah, the vibrating hardware is a joke. They could have just not included that in the phone. I depend on my Curve’s vibrating mode to alert me cuz I don’t want to hear my phone ring unless if I have it set down somewhere, and even when I set this phone down NEXT TO ME on my desk, I can’t even feel it vibrate on my desk. Yes it IS that weak.
-Charger: it’s a pain in the *** to charge this phone, at least to me. It just doesn’t feel so good knowing I have to dig out the door and then plug it in. It’s also in an awkward place I think, right in the middle of the right side. Most people in this world are right handed (nothing against you lefties, but this is MY review), and it’s hard using this phone then you have to try to put the wire between your fingers and try to use your right to its full capacity. And something about the charger being on the right side of the phone, which is the opposite side to all my outlets at work or home.
-Personalization/Cut&Paste/software &app related: Well, the Palm is still new, and many of the software shortcomings can be fixed with an o/s update or an app. Being the first to buy this phone, you cannot whine that this program can’t do this, or you can’t do that with this phone due to programming. Remember, this is the first device of this sort on this new O/S for Palm, so being the first, you will have to wait for “new” stuff to come out for it. But, I will list a few things that do not come with this device that bug, and I’m sure one day will be ummm…solved
*Personalized tones: You cannot set your tones for text, voicemail, alert of any sort. There is one tone, and one tone only, and that’s the tone that is set by default and you cannot change it.
*Cut&Paste: You cannot cut and paste just anything. If you didn’t type it on the phone, chances are, you can’t copy it. Yes, you cannot go onto a website, and copy and paste text. And if I remember correctly, you can’t even copy emails. And the one I hated the most? You can’t copy incoming texts if you wanted to change a bit and forward it. The copy and paste method is not so bad. It will take a little practice, but I’m sure in time, it can be somewhat perfected.
*Personalized settings: I loved that the Curve has some many options for you to make it to your liking. For example, font setting. You can set you font to the largest or smallest (if you want to see more on the screen), you can set it in different font, bold or italic. Well with the Palm Pre right now, you’re the first test subject, so you have to life with factory setting ONLY now. I have my Curve set to the smallest font size so I can more on the screen, you can’t do that with the Pre (yet). I’m sure with O/S updates, by next year, this phone will be a lot more personable to its distinct owner
WOW, I just spent over 3 hours writing this and I do not know if it makes any kind of sense…sorry, it’s approaching 2:30AM and I started writing this before 11pm, so I’m sure most of my writings don’t make sense. I apologize, but I don’t think I covered much as far as a comparison to a Blackberry Curve. I will try to add on more as I go when I can remember the smaller details why I didn’t like it.
If you have any question of the Pre vs Curve, PLEASE PLEASE ask me, and I will answer in this thread.
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