Palm Pre Review
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Synergy is in full effect here, as the Pre pulls contacts from your Gmail, Facebook and Exchange accounts. On first use it also allows for syncing with Outlook or Palm Desktop, making importing your existing contacts a snap. Of course you’re likely to have overlap between these accounts, but no worry as webOS recognizes these and merges them into one. In case it misses a contact the user has the option of merging contacts manually. As you might expect you can store pretty much anything you want about a contact on your Pre.
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The phonebook of Palm Pre | |||
Fully embracing cloud computing, the Pre does not have a desktop sync program. All information is backed up to your Palm profile daily over the air. When adding contacts to your phone some services like Gmail sync these, whereas others like Facebook do not. This shows a fundamental understanding by the designers, and we can’t tell you how slick it was to create our profile and see all our contacts download in minutes. This cloud approach allows for remote wiping should you lose your device, and easy OTA restoring if a reset is necessary.
One big drawback in our opinion is the lack of voice dialing. To be fair no Palm device has had this out of the box, and the iPhone took three generations to get such a simple feature. Still, we are amazed that in this day and age a flagship phone does not have this basic feature while Sprint’s entry phone- the Samsung m220- does.
Organizer:
Synergy again plays a big role in the calendar. Like your contacts, the Pre brings all of your calendars together and offers a layered view. If you prefer to see them separately the Pre allows for that as well. The calendar is as full featured as you would imagine, allowing for recurrences, reminders and everything else. Like the contacts app, the calendar is backed up daily OTA.
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Calendar | ||
Apps can access the calendar as well. For instance, Fandango will add an event when you purchase movie tickets. This just drives home the connected nature of this device and webOS. Very cool. Very, very cool.
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The Pre features Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, and has support for the HSP, HFP, PBA, A2DP, AVRC and PAN profiles. As had been reported, the Pre does not support tethering, though this is a moot point as Sprint’s Everything plans do not allow for the phone as modem add-on anyway.
Messaging:
Palm has taken a new approach to messaging as well, unifying all forms of communication into one conversation style view. This allows you to start a conversation over IM and continue over text when the user leaves their computer. Using Synergy, the Pre integrates with Google Talk and AIM, and we’d expect to see support from other major IM providers soon. To view your discussion simply bring up messaging and choose the contact you’re conversing with.
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Using Synergy, the Palm Pre integrates with Google Talk and AIM | |||
The Pre supports IMAP IDLE, allowing for nearly instant email notification from providers (such as Gmail) which support the technology. The user can of course configure several email accounts, and like the calendar can choose a unified inbox or view each account separately.
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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?
