My Impressions of Palm Pre Plus

[Southpaw802]

I have had the Palm Pre Plus for a week now. I am very impressed by the Call quality and signal stregnth. This is a huge improvement comming from a Storm 9530. Also, the operating system is stable. I haven't noticed any bugs, lag, or glitches yet. For me, this comes first when upgrading to a new phone.

The biggest selling point for me was Verizon offering Mobile Hotspot for free now. Verizon had been charging $40/Month for this. I can now use my Ipod touch anywhere, and I have internet access on my laptop at home if the power goes out.

On the downside, the battery life isn't good at all. I bought a car charger and a portable battery charger to deal with the short battery life. The keyboard is small. I have gotten used to it somewhat but I will not be doing a lot of typing on the phone until, hopefully, a virtual keyboard is available. App selection is thin. I have the apps I really want and they are high quality but I would have liked to have seen more available. Also, there are no Facebook notifications like on Blackberries.

I love the form factor of the phone, it feels comfortable in my hand, but I had to buy the body glove case because the phone is too slippery.

Overall, I am happy with the phone. Web browsing is very fast.

[Roll-Tide]

I agree...I came from BB Curve, Storm2, Tour, then went to HTC Droid Eris...now with the Pre Plus and I love it. Mobile Hotspot is the best thing ever...I also use my iPod Touch anywhere now...downloaded songs from iTunes driving down the road the other day..too cool! And, there are virtual keyboards available (one I know of for sure) but from what I've read they are even worse than the physical keyboard...I'm getting used to it, but it surely isn't as good as the Tour I had.

[killswitchX13]

Originally Posted by Roll-Tide

I agree...I came from BB Curve, Storm2, Tour, then went to HTC Droid Eris...now with the Pre Plus and I love it. Mobile Hotspot is the best thing ever...I also use my iPod Touch anywhere now...downloaded songs from iTunes driving down the road the other day..too cool! And, there are virtual keyboards available (one I know of for sure) but from what I've read they are even worse than the physical keyboard...I'm getting used to it, but it surely isn't as good as the Tour I had.

So you can use your iPod Touch anywhere? Dang that's awesome.

[Roll-Tide]

Originally Posted by killswitchX13

So you can use your iPod Touch anywhere? Dang that's awesome.

meaning for more than just playing music...did you know it does more than that?

[dwaynewilliams]

Originally Posted by Roll-Tide

I agree...I came from BB Curve, Storm2, Tour, then went to HTC Droid Eris...now with the Pre Plus and I love it. Mobile Hotspot is the best thing ever...I also use my iPod Touch anywhere now...downloaded songs from iTunes driving down the road the other day..too cool! And, there are virtual keyboards available (one I know of for sure) but from what I've read they are even worse than the physical keyboard...I'm getting used to it, but it surely isn't as good as the Tour I had.

The Palm Pre keyboard is underrated. It is a BlackBerry keyboard, but it was good enough for me. The only thing about the keyboard I didn't like was that there was a dedicated button for the period instead of double tapping the spacebar for the period. Coming from BlackBerry, I could never get used to that. The battery life was horrible for me. It only lasted a half of a work day. I liked the browser, it was fast. But it could be difficult to navigate with all of the panning, scrolling, and zooming. BlackBerry is better with messaging too. I got frustrated with the messaging system of the Pre. But it is a new operating system, I think in time a lot of those things will be figured out.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[killswitchX13]

Originally Posted by dwaynewilliams

The Palm Pre keyboard is underrated. It is a BlackBerry keyboard, but it was good enough for me. The only thing about the keyboard I didn't like was that there was a dedicated button for the period instead of double tapping the spacebar for the period. Coming from BlackBerry, I could never get used to that. The battery life was horrible for me. It only lasted a half of a work day. I liked the browser, it was fast. But it could be difficult to navigate with all of the panning, scrolling, and zooming. BlackBerry is better with messaging too. I got frustrated with the messaging system of the Pre. But it is a new operating system, I think in time a lot of those things will be figured out.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Palm pre has awesome software but its battery life is pretty bad. One of the reasons I returned it.

[dwaynewilliams]

Battery life is definitely a drawback. I initially thought that I wouldn't care too much about the battery life because I didn't really appreciate the fact that I could go a day and a half on one charge. When I go the Pre, I couldn't make it a half a work day. When you are at work and you are emailing and putting events into your calendar, etc and you see that your battery is about to die and you don't have a charger with you, it becomes a very frustrating situation. I used my GPS once and my Pre died by 10 am. I didn't like that at all. So I went to the Hero and got the same thing. The battery life wasn't as bad, but still didn't last a work day. I had to go back to my BlackBerry. I use my device for work and for leisure, so I need my battery to last to meet my various needs.

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[Res215dg]

Originally Posted by Southpaw802

Also, there are no Facebook notifications like on Blackberries.

I found this over at Palm Pre Central that I thought you might find interesting!

Palm has let us know via its Facebook Page that the next version of the Facebook app, which is being developed by the Developer Relations team, should be available in the App Catalog sometime next week. Facebook for webOS 1.2 will bring enhancements such as notifications(!), the ability to play Facebook video, keyboard shortcuts, speed enhancements and more

[Res215dg]

Some good feedback regarding the Palm Pre guys.....

I'm eagerly awaiting for At&t to finally get some WebOS love- I'm currently using a Storm 2 unlocked to work on the network, but obviously missing out on 3G is a real drawback in many different situations....

[Southpaw802]

Originally Posted by Res215dg

I found this over at Palm Pre Central that I thought you might find interesting!

I updated last night. I have notifications again! I also downloaded palm preware and have installed some great patches on my phone!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[gaganchow]

Well I made the switch over from my Blackberry Tour to the Palm Pre Plus this morning. There is a learning curve between the two devices but I find the Palm to be more Mac friendly.
As for the rest, it's too early for me to have an opinion.

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[papped]

Originally Posted by gaganchow

Well I made the switch over from my Blackberry Tour to the Palm Pre Plus this morning. There is a learning curve between the two devices but I find the Palm to be more Mac friendly.
As for the rest, it's too early for me to have an opinion.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I give it less than 30 days before you return it =P

[gaganchow]

Originally Posted by papped

I give it less than 30 days before you return it =P

To be perfectly honest, I have never been able to give up my iPhone. You might be right about the Palm but I will try to keep an open mind & give it a fair trial. So far, the 3G hotspot capability of the Palm is very nice.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[gaganchow]

Evaluating the battery life of the PrePlus when compared to my iPhone is about the same but it fails to compare to the Blackberry Tour. I do know that it is not a fair comparison as one device is a touch screen & obviously the Tour is not.

I do remember having below average battery when using the Blackberry Storm I.

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[Res215dg]

Originally Posted by gaganchow

I do remember having below average battery when using the Blackberry Storm I.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I hope your new Palm Pre experience goes well for you!

I agree with you on that where my Storm II I feel has below average battery life, and I'm using the Seidio extended battery (not the super big one)