Palm Pre Phone

How you will feel about this phone depends on what you are used to. I have experience with the Iphone but what I use every day is a Blackberry. This feels like a hybrid between the two. I got the chance to preview this from the manufacturer and also shared it around the office to get a few perspectives.

What I love:
* It's a sexy looking phone. If you want something that looks cool and is fun to use, this is a great bet. It's very slick.

* I love the keyboard. This part is better than the Iphone because you have the option of either typing directly on the screen or using the keyboard. If you are used to the crackberry, this will feel very comfortable.

* Big beautiful screen and lots of fun options to play with.

* The camera is great

What I'm less excited about:

* It doesn't seem to hold the charge as long as my blackberry and I had trouble figuring out how to charge it. Bear in mind, I am not one to spend time with the owner's manual. I expect things to make sense without directions. Call me lazy.

* I found the touch screen navigation less intuitive than I would like. It takes you through a quick tutorial when you first activate the phone, which is a great idea but I still had issues with it. I find the touch screen capabilities of the iphone to be better. For example, it's easier to type a phone number on the iphone than on this one.

Overall, I think it depends what you want in a phone. If email is the most important to you, the Blackberry might be your best option. For internet surfing I prefer this over the Blackberry.

A phone is a personal choice so I'd suggest playing around with this, the Blackberry and the Iphone and deciding which feels better to you.

Let me start off by saying that I don't really have anything to compare it to. I have not joined the 21st century yet which means I have neither a Blackberry or iPhone. I have a slide phone from Samsung. I was really excited to test out the new Palm Pre because it has the best of both worlds: touch screen and a keyboard.

Pros: touch screen (you can zoom in and out)
Big screen (3.1 inch colour screen - viewing internet and photos are really clear)
Takes pretty good photos (3 megapixel camera with LED flash)
Browsing the web and messaging is pretty easy with full keyboard
Automatically pulls from your contacts and calendars
Google maps and GPS app.

Cons: Touch screen - I found it be very sensitive. Dialing a # for example, was very annoying if I pressed a wrong number.

Not very intuitive - I found it difficult dialing a # normally. Usually you can just press a button to dial a # but I had to go to the phone screen each time to make a call. You can dial the # using the # pad but you have to still touch the phone screen for it to dial through. When you're in a hurry, this can be very frustrating.

Received errors when syncing email - I followed the exact instructions and even had my husband try it out and I still couldn't sync my mail properly. I could receive emails but not reply. Google mail does not support the Palm Pre yet either so I had to get my mail manually by going through the web. I also noticed syncing email slowed down my mail when I was checking it on my computer. I eventually had to delete my mail account off of my phone so it would work on my computer.

Sound quality is bad - I received many comments saying that I sounded far away and that the sound was not very clear. When I called back on my Samsung phone they said I sounded much clearer.

Weight is heavy - The slide screen plus the keyboard make this one heavy phone.

All in all, when I am ready to get a new phone I think I will go with a Blackberry. And after hearing other negative experiences from people that have tried the Palm Pre I am not sold on it. The concept of a touch screen phone is pretty cool but I just don't think it is for me. I might reconsider if iPhone comes out with one that has both touchscreen and a keyboard though!