Opened Pre showing off the Keyboard
I managed to get my hands on a Palm Pre bright and early on release day, June 6th. It was easy to pick up and the line wasn’t very long, though they seem to be selling pretty well. So now, with phone in hand, I can offer a few thoughts on some aspects of this new smart phone challenger.
First off: the problems with phone. It certainly isn’t perfect and has some serious flaws from hardware design down to software execution. Although the phone looks quite nice and sleek when you first see it, the keyboard does not have the same quality craftsmanship. It looks cheaper than the rest of the phone, feels a little flimsy, and is far too hard to slide out. Struggling to get it open is also a hassle and makes any time you need you to enter text feel like a burden. It just doesn’t slide out easily enough. While people have been complaining that the keys are too small to be used, I’m not sure I agree. It took a little getting used to, but now I’m quite happy with them and I can type fairly quickly. If it wasn’t such a hassle to open the keyboard to get to them, I wouldn’t have any problem with the typing. The other main hardware issue I had was with the cover of the micro-USB slot for charging and connecting to your computer. It’s literally impossible to open without extending the keyboard. I certainly don’t plan on opening that port too often (especially if I manage to pick up the Touchstone), but I found myself considering breaking off the piece that covers it so I didn’t have to deal with it. A minor issue, but still an annoyance.
On the software side, things are generally good, but there are a few issues. Opening up new cards seems to be a little sluggish and requires you to stare at the background waiting for an app to start up. This isn’t a huge issue when you’re opening up most apps, but when things like settings and the phone pad itself are cards in of themselves it’s rough to wait a few seconds just so you can start to type in someone’s number. Of course you can leave it open, and save yourself the boot up time, but that means less memory and faster battery drain. The other really big issue I have is with the way contacts are handled. The Messaging app built in has room to control AIM and GChat as well as your SMS and MMS messages. This is great for keeping your interactions with someone together, but as soon as you choose to sign into AIM or GChat it adds everyone on your buddy lists to your contacts. Synergy is supposed to carefully integrate this with your other contacts, but this is just really frustrating given that I don’t really want my AIM buddies in my contacts. I’d rather prefer a standalone AIM client at this point to keep my contacts clear and not have to deal with sorting through them. It’s frustrating that it assumes I want them all added, and is something I’d much rather not have to deal with.
However, this leads into what the Pre does right. Firstly, the universal search is great for quickly making a call, sending a text or emailing a contact. Just start typing in a contact’s name when you’re not inside another app and you’ll be taken straight to the contact with handy little button. Underneath their name will pop up buttons to instantly go to email, a call, or the messaging client. The card system, is also really great. This is where the Pre really shines compared to other popular smart phones. It looks very sleek and it is incredibly convenient to be able to see exactly what you have opened. There’s no wondering about what programs are running and you can easily sort through open apps, get a quick snapshot of what state they’re in, and move between them. Navigating within apps is also pretty fun. The gesture area is a great addition that lets you control things without touching the actual screen. You can move back with a small swipe, move between apps with a large swipe and bring up your quickbar with a quick swipe up. Giving so much control over your apps and being able to run apps in the background really makes the Pre stand out in the crowd. Like Android, it allows for apps to produce updates that appear neatly in the bottom corner, but it also allows for small control over the apps. Pandora and the Music Player let you have basic controls from within any app, which is an awesome addition. I can imagine plenty of developer’s taking advantage of this added functionality in great ways. This also shows off the one area where the Pre really has Apple beat. Swiping between apps with ease and having multiple things happening at once really show off the restrictions Apple has in terms of letting apps run in the background. It seems much more active and flexible, and it really is.
Cards in action
That of course brings me to my final point. Because Palm hasn’t released the SDK yet the app store is barren, with only 18 apps on the market as of its release. Hopefully when the SDK is finally available we’ll see lots of cool apps flood the marketplace, but as of now you are missing out on lots of cool apps that the Apple Store, the Android Marketplace and the BlackBerry app store give you access to. I suppose that’s the cost of early adoption, but I would’ve hoped Palm could have provided the kit early so we could see apps flooding in right from the get go. And I have to say I’m eager for the SDK to be released so we can dive and get to playing around with it.
The only thing left to add is the Pre’s greatest strength. Closing apps in WebOS is the more fun than closing apps on any other platform. Flipping cards away to the top of the screen to dispose of them is great. It will make you want to exit things just for fun. Seriously.
Tags: palm pre, review, smartphones
I thought it seemed like a good phone, but now I am really going to have to give some thought to the ease of keyboard extension and size and facility with the keys. I too get easily frustrated by micro-usb connections that are hard to access. When will they get it right!