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Palm Pre review

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Verdict

It's good enough to ensure a devoted following, but this much-hyped phone isn't without its weaknesses

Review Date: 7 Oct 2009

Reviewed By: Jonathan Bray

Price when reviewed: £97, on a £29.00 per month, 18 months contract.

Overall Rating

Features & Design
4 stars out of 6

Value for Money
4 stars out of 6

Ease of Use
5 stars out of 6

"A small soap caddy"
Elsewhere, the Pre boasts all the hardware you'd expect, with quad-band GSM, HSDPA data speeds, a GPS radio, 802.11bg Wi-Fi, 8GB of storage for your photos and music files, a 3.5mm headphone jack, plus a decent 3.1-megapixel camera, complete with LED flash; although there's oddly no ability to shoot video.

The rest of the package, we're lukewarm about. The sliding keyboard hidden under the screen means it's pretty thick, and its profile isn't exactly sexy either. At first sight it looks more like a small soap caddy than an alluring piece of tech.

Build quality feels more than a little rattly too, despite a solid-feeling sliding action. But the biggest irritation is the lip that surrounds the keyboard. One wag has gone so far as to post a video on YouTube using the Pre to slice a piece of hard cheese; we can report that it really is that sharp. So, despite a usable keyboard - the Pre's small rubbery-feeling keys are surprisingly responsive - this isn't the most comfortable phone to tap out messages on.

And, to compound its physical shortcomings, battery life from the 1,200mAh cell is underwhelming, with the Pre coming up short of the likes of the iPhone 3GS. Even in the short time we had our hands on the handset before going to press, we ran it dry with only light use in just over two days.

Final thoughts

So we're unconvinced by the Palm Pre. It has its strengths, and these lie in its ability to combine contacts, messages and calendar information in an elegant fashion, and from multiple sources, plus its fantastic web browsing ability and its neat treatment of multitasking. But it has weaknesses too: stuttering speeds, a less-than-alluring hardware package, an occasionally confusing OS, and poor battery life.

Palm's baby is bound to gain a following, especially among Apple antagonists and those who can't stand the iTunes lock-in. But with an identical pricing structure to the iPhone 3GS, it needs to be better than its opponent; alas it isn't and it fails to topple Apple's finest as a result.

Author: Jonathan Bray

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Comments

User comments

"But with an identical pricing structure to the iPhone 3GS, it needs to be better than its opponent"

Er why? Surely, at the same price, it only has to be as good?

If it was more expensive it would have to be better.

By Grunthos on 7 Oct 2009

@Jonathan Bray: Nice article, incredible that the competition is still finding it hard to complete a package to rival the iPhone. Have to say I'm not even slightly interested in it combining all my calanders in one place, surely anyone who needs to do that can just have them all on their phone in the first place. 8gb is small, and no video capture? :

Piece of mind for me as a 3GS owner ;)

By deejerox on 7 Oct 2009

blackberry multi-task

er, the blackberry has application switching functionality and you can change one of the buttons to show the open applications.

you can easily play music, surf the web and check your email by cycling through the applications. i know i do.

By smokinscots on 7 Oct 2009

If I remember rightly Apple didn't get it right first time round either. What was it - no 3G - I can't remember. The Apple device is a whizz today no doubt - but don't knock the pre just yet. The iPhone has had two years to get to where it is today. Version 2 of the Palm pre will knock the socks clear off any later version of the iPhone - lets hope :)

By nicomo on 7 Oct 2009