[Aspyred]

Hey guys,

I've had my Blackberry 8800 for 2-ish years now, and being a fan of technology, I'm always keeping a ear to the ground for the next upgrade, whenever that is.

Trouble is, as owners of the 88xx series know, this phone is built like a TANK, with great battery life to boot. It'd be hard to move on, but I've kept an eye on the Pre since its official announcement, as I've never used a Palm device before, and have a friend that had raved constantly about how they make devices that just make sense, and work as you'd think it might work.

As you all well know, the complaints about the Pre are almost overwhelming, especially on a BB forum such as this one. Bell just recently released the phone here in Canada, so I thought I'd give 'er a try, try to cut past the myths, and give it a fair shake (as far as first impressions are concerned) at a cell phone kiosk I just visited.

Color me impressed.

Keyboard: One of the main complaints about the Pre are leveled as its chiclet-like keys on the keyboard, and due to their size/positions, it can make typing difficult.

Now, clearly, while I have not done any long term typing/testing in this regard, I was impressed from the get-go. I opened up the SMS and Memo applications, and was typing away like I was typing on my trusty 8800 keyboard. Some things were noticably missing, like the double-spacebar for a period and the automatic capitalization of your next letter, but a dedicated period button is an absolutely FINE consolation in its place.

Few mistakes, and the typing speed mirrored my own abilites on the 8800, and I had never typed on the Pre's keyboard before.

As for comfort, I LOVED the rubberized keys, they truly do provide some give/comfort and grip as you're typing away. While there isn't A LOT of spacing between the keys, there's none on the 88xx series, so this was something I got used to right away.

Shape/Build Quality: Even before launch, people were already skeptical of the Pre's shape (egg-like) including myself. Playing around with it, it's quite a bit smaller and lighter than my 8800, and even with the keyboard slid out, only just a tad taller. That being said, as sexy as the 88xx series are, the Pre does compare quite nicely. It's a very sleek looking device when held up close and afa
r.

Also, people weren't fans of the supposedly wiggly slider component, and while I only had the one device over a very short time to play with, it was amazingly sturdy from my experience. I gave it a good amount of force just to test, and the two components held their place. No complaints so far, though time will tell.

Also, since that video where the Pre literally cut cheese, many have criticized the sharp 'lip' of the bottom keyboard hinge. I gotta say, no complaints here, it really couldn't give you a cut or anything as people like to exaggerate, and when typing, it poses no real problem that I saw.
I held the phone up to my ear several times just to test if the thing could hurt when talking, and again, no issues. So again, time will tell, but I didn't get what the big deal was with this complaint.

Browser: I know Blackberry will be getting a similar WebKit-powered browser sometime soon, but dang, I can't wait, because regarding the browser, the Pre was essentially a mini-laptop.

In the mall where I was, there was no abaility to surf the web, you had to purchase Wi-Fi time, so when you try an external page, it boots you to the portal where you can purchase time/credits/gift cards/etc.

Usually, these are not the most mobile-friendly websites you've ever been to, but dang, the website loaded up beautifully. It was the REAL internet as far as I was concerned. No holds barred, it would have been pretty well what I'd see on my desktop at home.

Navigating a page was easy, pinching to zoom, and moving to view other parts of the website/clicking on links was responsive, sometimes barely distinguishable from your surfing experience on the laptop.

OS/Cards: Wow. It was easy to bring up the main launcher with the dedicated button, and also the little quick-task bar by swiping your finger and dragging it upwards. Responsive, and no slower than anything I'd be used to on my 8800.

In the Card view, as mentioned in various reviews, it was effortless to flick apps away to close, and change between them.

One thing worth mentioning, is that I've gotten VERY used to what Kevin M. might call the "Blackberry way" of doing things. You know, moving the trackball every which way to select/confirm, using the BB button for context sensitive tasks, and the Back button for back.

I very much disliked how the similar process worked on an iPhone from what I've experienced. Because it doesn't really support multi-tasking, you'd have to close applications constantly at times, and every screen would have its own 'Back' button, because there was no dedicated key for this function. Inconsistent.

So oh no, I thought. BUT, as I remembered from reading Pre reviews, in the little touch area above your dedicated button, you can swipe left and right for forwards and backwards. So I put this to the test.

And dang, as far as I could tell, it works. Brings me back to the Blackberry way of doing things as far as forward/backward movement, and it means one more thing I don't need to change if I were to transition to this device at some point.

Battery Life: The one complaint that seems to hold the the most importance, and also the one I could NOT put to the test.

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[Aspyred]

cont.

And I'd agree. Especially coming from the 8800, no matter how nice your phone may be, when it's dead, it's useless.

Conclusion: My first impressions are exactly that, first impressions. The things leveled against the Pre are largely long-term it seems, so I may walk away with a great impression, it may quickly fade if I were to actually own the device.

But I hope that was a useful read for some of you, and perhaps have de-bunked SOME myths concerning the Pre.

Cheers guys.

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[Jancy10]

Just the Keyboard alone makes me not want to get the Palm Pre...ne looking device tho

[jsanta11]

Am coming from the bold > Tour and now the pre ..am telling you bro ..The keyboard is not as bad as it looks..I have fat fingers and i type as fast as i did on my bold on the pre..( I talked mad sh*t about the pre but once I played with it I was sold... imagine exchanged tour for it.. )

[keepit dry]

If this were a GSM phone I could really be tempted.

[Aspyred]

Yeah. I'm on a GSM network right now (Rogers) and when/if the Pre were to release in GSM, I don't know...

Seems like a worthy phone.

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[Vlad24]

I've had the Pre for a couple months now and it is a nifty little device. I came off a BB 8330 (the sprint goof-up with the Tour drove me to look at the Pre, obviously I liked what I saw). I only had a few minor complaints with the functionality of the Pre, which homebrew and the ability to tweak the phone to your liking quickly resolved.

Issues I had with my Pre and fixes (if available):

*Inability to change the notification sounds as we are all used to on BB's. Downloading a homebrew app called My Notification quickly resolved this.

*Forwarding text messages.
Download WebOS Quick Install and checking off the tweak for this is a quick fix.

*Battery life.
I turned location services to on request and disabled a couple other features that didn't need to be running 24/7. Also, doing a complete battery drain before recharging conditioned the battery and I now have no issues. Keep in mind by no issues, I do not mean I get several days usage without a charge. I pull my phone off the charger @ 6:30AM and don't put it back on until about 10PM. I text, surf the web, use my apps, make my calls and get over 100 work related emails a day. Obviously, I don't respond to all of those, but w/e. I think the battery life is sufficient. I do not have an extended battery.

I love the multi-tasking, notification bars which can be seen at a glance, easier web browsing (much closer to desktop experience than my bb ever had), built in auto backup of all contacts, ability to "hack" and tweak the OS with little to no coding experience, quality of photos and the overall sleekness of the device.

I do miss video recording, but it wasn't a make or break issue for me. I also miss BBM, but again...not a deal breaker. I can see where this phone isn't for everyone. To be honest, the first month I had the phone I cursed it. By the time my 30 day "trial" period was nearing an end, I was still very undecided. There was a lot I liked, but a lot I was unsure of. Within another two weeks after that, it was love. Homebrew helped significantly. I will admit, the Pre does have a way to go to compete with the "big boys" in the smartphone world. But considering it's in its infancy stage I think it's doing quite well.

[Aspyred]

Thanks for the quick review, Vlad.

Another question for you regarding battery life. One thing that I've done on my BB 8800 since I got it was reduce the screen brightness down to its lowest level (ie. 10), and have the Berry auto-adjust as appropriate.

In my brief time with the Pre, I don't think I saw any auto-adjust feature (it's a great feature!). With your Pre, are you generally running at full brightness, or do you have it a few notches below that?

As well, I do know one thing I'd miss is the holster/auto-standby feature. Brilliant feature, and truly another indication of a 'smart' phone. Is there anything like that on the Pre? Though what I'm sure it does have is the Touchstone. That's pretty neat in its own right.

Thanks.

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[Vlad24]

I actually leave the brightness alone. I did have an app called Brightness Unlinked for a brief time which allowed the screen brightness and they keypad brightness to be set at different levels. However, I just found myself unconcerned with it and removed it.

The Pre doesn't have a full standby feature built in from the factory but I dont doubt that it will be long until an app is made to do this. However, this is also a feature I wasn't personally concerned with.

The Touchstone is a nifty little device. I'm waiting for RIM and Apple to latch onto the idea and release their own variation.

[joshwithachance]

i just bought a pre on sunday and i LOVE it! they had this 6 hour period where you could get 100$ bill credit for porting your number and i was lucky enough to get it and then the phone just dropped to $149 so i got ANOTHER 50 bucks back. AND my plans is only $77 with 450 mins and unlimited everything else and that cool new any mobile to mobile feature that allows you to call any cell phone on any carrier.

now onto the phone itself:
battery is OKAY, not good and not necessarily bad either.
screen is GORGEOUS and quite responsive.
i personally LOVE the keyboard, nice feel while typing.
camera rawks, plain and simple.
homebrew makes the phone even better!

[Aspyred]

I actually leave the brightness alone. I did have an app called Brightness Unlinked for a brief time which allowed the screen brightness and they keypad brightness to be set at different levels. However, I just found myself unconcerned with it and removed it.

The Pre doesn't have a full standby feature built in from the factory but I dont doubt that it will be long until an app is made to do this. However, this is also a feature I wasn't personally concerned with.

The Touchstone is a nifty little device. I'm waiting for RIM and Apple to latch onto the idea and release their own variation.

Slightly disappointed there was no factory Standby, but it's all good. Thanks for the reply!

As for the Touchstone, you're right, very nifty, and I am loving the rubberized backplate that comes with it.

As for Josh, the guy that just got his Pre, thanks for the review, appreciate it! Question for you though (and Vlad too, if he wants to jump in), in terms of your normal usage, like phone calls, messaging, browsing, and going between these different processes, how smooth is it, compared to say, your Blackberry or otherwise? Thanks.

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[FaTROBoT97]

I've had my Pre for 3 months now and I have to say its a nice phone. The multitasking is by the far the best thing. To be able to maintain my Fantasy Football picks / Sprint NFL App / Text some trash talk / Play Checkers / And keep track of how many points people were scoring using my Memo App w/o any sign of slowdown is pretty nice.

I had a Storm before it and it would have ran out of memory.

I even dropped it in a pitcher of beer and it still works (True Story, though I did get it replaced just in case but I had to wait 3 days till I got mine and used it)

The UI is slick. The OS is nice. The keyboard is really easy to use. Those that complain about 'fat fingering' keys are the same people that 'fat finger' keys on any other keyboard phone (Largest keyboard i've seen was a Verizon Voyager)

Though I didn't know this until the other day, you can actually rally off photos with the phone one right after the other. Couldn't do that one any other phone cause of the long processing time.

The slider can feel cheap. I agree. But my replacement has a better feeling to it.

I will agree the battery sucks. I have to charge it when I get home but with the Touchstone its not a mess of trying to find my cords. I have two touchstones (one next to my bed, one in my office)

Mind you also it syncs with my iTunes and I can use my mp3's I bought as ringtones w/o any special moving.

The only thing is miss from my Storm is the Blackberry Messenger.

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

The Pre is impressive.

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[Coruptyed]

welcome to the other side, when we got it and i was playing around with it i was quite impressed with it. For the first time release and not encountering problems. I love how fast the internet loads as well