Palm Pre 2 User Reviews

Gawain posted on 25 Feb 2011, 08:53

9

Love webOS, but had to send it back. :-(

Gawain has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

WebOS is a diamond in the rough. It is, by far, the most underrated OS on the market. I hope HP continues thorough development of it because if they can solve the problem I was having with the Pre 2 and fix it in time for the Pre 3 it will be a very serious contender for replacing my BlackBerry.

The PIM integration of the OS is unmatched. It was able to aggregate my info from various sources (Exchange, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc) into its contacts and it worked flawlessly. Email worked very well across services I use. All-in-all, the operability, and overall experience with the OS is a 10/10. The keyboard was surprisingly quick to adjust to (coming from the gold standard BB), and the screen responsive without being too sensitive. The size of the overall device is nice.

Middle-of-the-road issues, visual voicemail was is not available for this device from VZW. Also, VZ Navigator will not transmit its spoken directions via bluetooth the way it did on my BB. The battery is small, and heavy data will use it quickly. These were things I was prepared to live with because the rest of the experience was so awesome, except...

The IM client. Completely inconsistent performance (Gchat) and non-functional with Y! IM. Even Palm Tier 3 support couldn't figure it out (they replicated the problem), but apparently not a widely reported problem. I use IM too much for work and social stuff that I could not keep it or keep spending time toubleshooting. YMMV.

Build quality 8/10 The mechanism feels solid. Device has good weight. Doesn't feel too fragile. The mechanism to slide the keyboard in and out felt sturdy and able to withstand one handed operation.

Reception 10/10 No dropped calls or data issues on my end.

Call quality 10/10 Callers sounded crystal clear on my end.

Internet 10/10 Browser is excellent. Flash support. Capable, competent. The browser is good enough that you wish the screen was a little bigger.

Multimedia 8/10 I did not store any music on the device but the video playback I did was excellent.

Camera 7/10 The camera is fast, but it lacks auto-focus. Most pics look great, but some indoor shots would show the limitations of the lack of auto-focus.

UI speed 10/10 webOS is that good.

Everyday usage 10/10 Easy to use and multi-task with. Set-up is a breeze.

Text input 9/10 The keyboard feels small, but it's surprisingly easy to use, even with big thumbs.

Display 8/10 Great renderings, well done. By today's standards, not as sharp as others on the market.

Battery 5/10 This is a device you'll want to have a charger or Touchstone handy for pretty much anywhere you are. This is really the only hardware shortcoming in my opinion.

Pros

• webOS
• Great PIM integration
• Great browser

Cons