Palm Pre Review
Share this page:
webOS is a revolution. Many will look at is as an evolution of Mobile OSX, and it does a great job of picking up where Apple left off, but the thing is Apple left off so short and Palm filled in so much that it is a wholly new experience. While it may not be quite as intuitive as Mobile OSX out of the box, after a few minutes of exploring we felt perfectly comfortable with it and webOS undoubtedly allows both the user and developer to go deeper. It is all about connectivity, and Palm hits the nail on the head.
 |  |
Home screen | Launcher |
webOS is full of gestures like this, most of which are very intuitive. Some are familiar, such as swiping the screen to switch between pages and pictures, others are new such as use of the gesture area. In this are the user can flick back and forth to move between web pages, or simply to take a step back. Gestures make the Pre very easy to use and the gesture area below the screen makes the Pre unique.
To nitpick for a second, when launching an application there is a very slight lag, about a second, before it actually opens. It is noticeable if you’re impatient, but in our opinion it’s perfectly acceptable. The iPhone is no different in this regard, so again we’re just nitpicking here. When closing certain cards there is sometimes a very slight delay as well, but not always. We have a feeling this is because data is saved automatically when you close the card. Everything else on the Pre is virtually instant; animations are smooth and menu transitions are nearly flawless.
By now you’ve no doubt heard about Synergy, Palm’s solution to your cluttered assortment of personal data. Palm has taken a new approach to contact management, and in fact there is no desktop sync for webOS. On first use the user will be able to import data from Outlook, Palm Desktop and iCal, but after that it is all in the cloud. It doesn’t stop there though, the user can also import data wirelessly from Gmail and Facebook, and in the future any other service that takes advantage of this. This data is added throughout the device as well, for instance adding a Gmail email account also adds your Gmail contacts, Google calendar and GTalk. Again, very cool. For those looking for a traditional desktop experience PocketMirror and Mark/Space are available in the App Catalog.
 |  |  |  |  |
 |
Activity cards on Palm Pre |
Notifications are wonderful and unobtrusive. As we said earlier, the display seamlessly blends into the housing. When a notification comes through, such as an IM or calendar appointment, the display shrinks and the notification dashboard comes up from the bottom. It gives enough of a preview and if the user wants to acknowledge it you simply tap, if not you can hide it and be left with just a tiny icon. Lastly, a simple flick of the finger and the notification disappears all together. If you want to ignore them they do not intrude on what you are doing, which is fantastic. Never have notifications been handled so well, though this can be said about much of webOS.
The innovation continues with universal search; according to Palm, “when in doubt, type.” By simply starting to type webOS will begin to match your input from phone features (like Bluetooth or Updates,) contacts, conversations and if what you want is not on the phone you can go out to the web with Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia or Twitter. No doubt more services will write themselves into this handy feature.
The OS has all kinds of cool caveats and we could talk about it for days, but in the interest of your time we’ll stop here. We really can’t overstate how much we love webOS, and how excited we are to see it grow and evolve. It is still very early in Android’s life, but so far it has not lived up to the hype and the debut was a bit underwhelming, arguably because of the buildup. Palm has quietly built even more hype however, and they really nailed it. It’s a wonderful starting point, but even Palm has acknowledged that it is just that and they want developers to help them perfect it. The SDK will become more widely available; Palm has kept distribution intentionally low to ensure quality early on, and with such an easy device to program for we expect to see even greater things.
Share this page:
Related phones
45 Comments
1. AVCOC posted on 20 Oct 2010, 01:55 0 0
9.9!!!! thats too high,the palm pre is a good phone but not that good to be the highest rated one!
6. legionsreturn (unregistered) posted on 12 Jun 2009, 19:18 0 0
Well what do you expect when phonearena accepts cash for good reviews?
8. secondcor517 posted on 12 Jun 2009, 20:28 0 0
i was thinking the same thing legion.... how much did they make from this review.
10. mr. anderson posted on 12 Jun 2009, 21:19 0 0
first off, how stupid are you two? secondly, everyone knows sprint doesnt have the money to pay for anything much less reviews! im a vzw user, but have used my friends pre extensively. i assume you guys have not, because the score is well deserved. this is a game changer, plain and simple.
11. legionsreturn (unregistered) posted on 13 Jun 2009, 08:51 0 0
So how much did you charge for that score? Im just curious, it must have cost all of 20 bucks!
2. legionsreturn (unregistered) posted on 12 Jun 2009, 13:27 0 0
Oh come on! Reallly? Are you really that mallible in the face of corporate sponsorship? We already knew objectivity is a joke to you people but youve really outdone yourselves this time. Guess all you have to do to get a good review on phonearena is pay for it.
3. metalpoet posted on 12 Jun 2009, 15:13 0 0
as a representatitve of verizon i must admit that sprint and palm did a really good job with the release of the pre and i truly hope it shuts up the iphone users!
4. Kiltlifter posted on 12 Jun 2009, 16:35 0 0
I agree... iPhone users are the worst.. has anyone seen the South Park episode where Kyle's dad gets a "hybrid" and then moves to San Francisco and there is a "smug" storm? Everyone I know thinks they are superior and so incredibly hi-tech just because they own it, even though none of them use it for anything more than they would an ipod touch. Let's just hope that Pre users don't fall into the same line of "Smug"... otherwise George Clooney's speech from the Oscars could make a supercell that would wipe out all of what is left of sprint's network... (if you don't get this comment just watch the episode).
28. ser3nitynow posted on 16 Jun 2009, 20:35 0 0
HAHAHA so true... By the way that episode is hysterical.
30. legionsreturn (unregistered) posted on 17 Jun 2009, 01:07 0 0
Southpark is indeed enjoyable.
5. LGVX1993 posted on 12 Jun 2009, 17:17 0 0
Not trying to be an ass but if you average up the scores you get an 8.9. There probably is some different way of calculating the total score though.
13. McMillian posted on 13 Jun 2009, 10:57 0 0
Phone Arena is ignorant and they don't make any since. they obviously choose favorites when it comes to phones and their OS. Don't get me wrong I think the Pre looks like a great phone but I think Phone Arena completely over hyped the Pre in this review.
14. LGVX1993 posted on 13 Jun 2009, 11:43 0 0
After about a while theyll be wanting to change some of this stuff. Any phone that ive had I loved for about a month or two and i got tired of it. One more thing, wouldnt the Pre be a little complicated for the Average Joe?
15. legionsreturn (unregistered) posted on 13 Jun 2009, 15:15 0 0
I got a good laugh out of the average joe reccomendation, this was review obviously a foregone conclusion paid for by the corporate interests that birthed this phone.
23. martycota posted on 15 Jun 2009, 10:20 0 0
Wow, seriously, are you all iphone users bashing the review?! The phone has recieved generally positive reviews from all major reviewers and just because PhoneArena's is super high doesn't mean they were bought off?! Should I say that they were bought off by Apple for giving the Touch Pro a lower score then many sites just because they say that after the diamond it felt old?! And seriously, for average joe, this is probably the best smart phone out there. It offers an easy to use interface and is a smart phone unlike most smart phones that are blackberry or window which offer very little in user friendly handling.!!! Average Joe doesn't always have to be about having the dumbest phone out there, they obviously rated it based on how easy it is to use for a smart phone that offers just about everything, or will offer soon enough!!! Read the reviews before asking Steve Jobs what kind of demeaning comments you can post on the competition's reviews. Yes the iPhone might be a great phone, but it is in no way a smart phone and if you read the review you can see how the phone deserves quite a high rating on its own merits...
25. LGVX1993 posted on 15 Jun 2009, 14:29 0 0
i dont know about everyone else but im not an iphone user and never have been and probably never will be. As you can probably tell by my name im with Verizon. I read the review from here and other websites and i know this is a good phone. I was just saying that the unweighted average of scores is 8.94 to be exact not 9.9. And also WebOS looks a little too complicated to me so i don't think it would be for the average joe. I also never said that average joe had to have the most basic phone around. I just wouldn't see one with a smart phone.
26. mr. anderson posted on 15 Jun 2009, 19:51 0 0
if webos is too complicated for you i dont know what to tell you man. have you taken an iq test lately?
27. LGVX1993 posted on 16 Jun 2009, 05:16 0 0
no but im not stupid ciz i have 5 honors classes in school. The whole gesture bar is a little unnecessary to me.
38. sprntfanboi02 posted on 29 Jun 2009, 19:04 0 0
i was going to take your post seriously but then you used since instead of sense....really? are you serious?
