Ladies and gentlemen; please strap-in your seat belt, girt your loins, and hold on tight to something, because we've got not just one but eight and a half Palm Prē™ reviews coming up right now. Just in two days before Sprint officially launch the most awaited smartphone of the year: Palm Prē™ on June 6th tomorrow, tech blogsites are all in race to release their own hands-on, we are literally flooded with reviews of the Prē™ and all I can say is they're just going to make us want more to get the Prē™.
"Think of it like this. The software is agile, smart and capable. The hardware, on the other hand, is a liability. If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware—someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market.
I'm bored of the iPhone. The core functionality and design have remained the same for the last two years, and since 3.0 is just more of the same, and—barring some kind of June surprise—that's another year of the same old icons and swiping and pinching. It's time for something different. The Pre may have hardware that's worse than the G1/G2, but the whole package—the software and the hardware—isn't bad. It's good. It's different. That's something we can get behind. I can't wait to see what Palm gets dealt in their next hand."
"There's no question that Palm has built this phone on the foundations laid by numerous devices before it -- most obviously the iPhone -- but the Pre clearly carves out its own path as well. Some of the ideas and concepts at play in webOS are truly revolutionary for the mobile space, breaking down lots of the walls that separate the experience of using a dedicated PC versus using a handheld device. ...
To put it simply, the Pre is a great phone, and we don't feel any hesitation saying that. Is it a perfect phone? Hell no. Does its OS need work? Definitely. But are any of the detracting factors here big enough to not recommend it? Absolutely not. There's no doubt that there's room for improvement in webOS and its devices, but there's also an astounding amount of things that Palm nails out of the gate."
"The long-awaited Palm Pre lives up to the hype with a responsive touchscreen and an engaging interface, but a few hardware design flaws keep it from being the perfect smartphone.
Hardware flaws aside, the Palm Pre made a solid impression on me. Its eye-catching design and smooth operation make this smartphone the most exciting device I've seen in a while."
"So what's our verdict on the Palm Pre? Simple: The Palm Pre is a stellar 1.0 product. ...
The Pre's hardware is very good and it's obvious how much thought went into making it feel organic. More importantly, the merging of the software and the hardware is as close to seamless as I've ever seen on a device. Heck, the status bar at the top with your signal strength and what not is designed to look like it's part of the hardware. Having the touch-sensitive zone extends below the screen into the gesture area isn't just a gimmick, it actually improves the experience of the device, adds functionality, and helps to make the Pre feel seamless."
"The Palm Pre delivers on Palm's promise of a bringing a next generation differentiated product to market. WebOS is a powerful and compelling new mobile platform. Despite being a 1.0 product, the Pre is pleasantly functional and it users in new level of simplicity and ease of use. Coupled with the attractive hardware design and charming display, this adds up to a distinctively agreeable experience for mobile phone users. Palm has a lot ridding on the Pre and it now appears to be fully back in the game with a superb combination of software and hardware."
"I consider the Pre to be potentially the strongest rival to the iPhone to date, provided it attracts lots of third-party apps, which it sorely lacks at launch. ...
Whether the Pre is better than the iPhone depends on your personal preferences, though I’d note that the new iPhone to be unveiled next week will have lots of added features that could alter those calculations. ...
Unfortunately for Palm, Apple has both a new iPhone operating system and new iPhone hardware coming, likely available within a month, that could obviate many of these advantages."
"The Pre is full of the sort of mind-expanding innovations that make you greedy. Take Synergy, for example: Every device should work like this. Why don't I have one address book and one calendar comprising everything I've scattered around? But now I want complete synergy. ...
Still, the Palm Pre has the magic that the iPhone has, that Android doesn't have, and that the BlackBerry Storm might have had if it had worked properly when it was first introduced. It's far cooler than any other phone on Sprint, or even any phone on Verizon Wireless... Overall, though, webOS is the most exciting mobile platform I've used in quite a while, and the Pre is pretty impressive, so it nabs our Editors' Choice for smartphones on Sprint."
"I've been playing with the Palm Pre for the better part of a day and you really get the sense that if a product could be designed that said "screw you Apple" this is how you would build it. It is very much like they took everything folks have complained about regarding the iPhone that folks at Apple said couldn't be fixed and fixed them.
...This is one hell of a test for Apple. But until they respond, the Palm Pre sets the new bar as the best phone I've ever had the honor to carry. Congrats, Palm! Incredibly well done."
"All right, then: the Pre is a spectacular achievement. Zero to sixty in one version. But is it an iPhone killer? Silly bloggers! The Pre will be a hit, but the iPhone isn’t going away. First of all, Apple’s 20 million-phone lead will only grow when the new iPhone 3.0 software (and, presumably, a third iPhone model) comes out shortly.
Second, Palm’s audience for this model is limited to the United States. It requires a CDMA network, so it won’t work overseas.
Third, even the Pre has its annoyances. Opening certain programs can be very slow—sometimes 8 or 9 seconds—and there’s no progress bar or hourglass to let you know that it’s still working. There’s no memory-card slot to expand the 8 gigabytes of storage, and no Visual Voicemail (where messages are listed like e-mail). The onboard search function won’t look through your e-mail or calendars. There are a few bugs left to exterminate, too.
Finally, the Pre is not quite as simple as the iPhone. All those extra features, by definition, mean that there’s more to learn."