Sanford Dickert, Social Engineer: One week with the Palm Pre

Saturday, June 13

One week with the Palm Pre - what's my verdict?

So, I have been carrying the Palm Pre for the past week - and been enjoying it for the most part. You can read my former posts here, here and here on the issues about it - but as my friends comment, it is a Version 1.0 phone.

I learned a couple of other issues that have been demonstrated:

Word auto-correct function has some glitches
I love the fact that you can type "u" for "you" and the Palm Pre will auto-correct it - but couple of issues like it does not retain capitalization or when using it with the email app, it keeps the "u" instead of the "you" that is displayed.
Camera is glitchy
Sorry - this keeps happening - I have been to Sprint - they do not have enough phones to correct the issue yet. And, this time, when I went to Sprint yesterday, they changed the battery - and suddenly, the camera worked. But today, no working camera. Ugggh.
Battery life is abysmal
Again, I have been using the Pre and have had pretty sad battery life. I left the phone home one day - with Wifi off, GPS off - and still the phone went down to 30% battery just sitting there for six hours. Now, the iPhone also has issues (my friends tell me they have to keep their iPhone plugged in every day when not using it), so I guess the removable battery and Touchstone charger are better options that the iPhone. And I learned how to change the brightness on the phone (turns out it is a feature in the Screen and Lock app), which I hope reduces the battery suck.

But, must say once I get my spare battery, the Touchstone and other components from the online stores I ordered them from (yes, Sprint had WAAAYYY too few), I think I will be satisfied with my purchase.

2 comments:

Unknown said...: Do you like the hardware design and materials? I'm playing with one this weekend and I think the keyboard is very poor, the slider is poorly sprung and hard to grip onto to open, weight is poorly balanced for thumb-typing when open, and the scallop around the keyboard is also not so good.

I think software good, hardware not so much.

And software is good, but it's another open operating system. Who needs another open operating system -- especially one with such little volume of devices running it...; 1:30 PM
Sanford said...: I like the hardware design - while everyone gives the edges some issue about "cutting cheese", I can tell you that 1) the cheese was soft and 2) the iPhone/iTouch can do the same.

As for the mechanics - I find that, when not with my face grease, it opens very easily (why I am looking for a protectant), and I would not do this with a single thumb - it is designed for two thumb action.

And the scallop is just fine. Allows for cupping my voice for the mic (which is on the faceplate).

And - more I play with it, the more I am happy. Gotta get over the minor annoyances (like battery issues) but talking with my iPhone friends - not a problem.; 12:31 PM