I am what you would call a power phone user…I wear my devices out with data access and use multiple applications all day long. I have for some time fought against buying an iPhone because AT & T has no 3G coverage where I live and in most the areas where I travel to, but I have used them and see there appeal. In addition, I have been consistently frustrated that Sprint’s smartphone lineup has left MUCH to be desired. Well no longer. The Palm Pre is without doubt the most fundamentally useful device I’ve ever owned. Not simply because it allows me to run my multiple applications simultaneously (avoiding the annoying Apple singularity) with excellent speed, but the way the applications are all integrated make it both incredibly nimble and user friendly. Get an email with a link? Click it and a new window opens without closing out of your mailbox. Find a phone number in a text? Copy and paste it into your contacts. All of the phones functions are controllable through the intuitive gestures, so no matter where I am in any application, I navigate the same way around in it. The Synergy system is incredibly well put together (although it makes me all too aware of how many facebook ‘friends’ I have who I really don’t need on my phone – a way to selectively eliminate contacts on the device would be useful) and makes it very easy to find information when you use multiple sources to store information. Synergy also connects all messaging to the user - regardless of its origin - text someone and get a reply via messenger? No problem…they’ll be in one continuous chat box. I am generally not a camera phone user, due to the generally poor quality of shots, but the auto focus camera with flash takes incredibly vivid pictures with high enough quality to print and share. As an added bonus, the Palm boys figured out a way to convince iTunes that it is an iPod, so it will sync up to your iTunes library (assuming your music isn’t write protected).
The feel of the device is also outstanding, it’s ‘pebble’ shape fits perfectly in your hand or pocket, and while the screen is slightly smaller than the iPhone, it is vivid and functions perfectly well for youtube video playback or internet surfing. The inductive ‘touchstone’ charger is also excellent for the geek in your family (no more wires!), but I’ve found that despite Palm’s claims, charging time is a bit slower than directly connecting the device. The physical keyboard is a bit tight for my fingers, but it is only marginally smaller than the Treo’s and is still easy enough to use one handed or two. The ‘always on’ synergy also seems power hungry, and even on lighter use days I have had a nearly dead battery by evening (however the removable battery alleviates much of this, another of my iPhone issues). In addition, while the physical slide out keyboard is great, the edges when it is open are very sharp and make the device feel a bit unfinished when open. Overall the hardware is very nice but not fantastic. What makes the device is the OS which, in my humble opinion, out performs the iPhone in nearly every way. The one thing most associated with the iPhone tremendous appeal are the applications, which are not a quality of the device itself. While I doubt any phone will catch up in regard to sheer numbers, once Palm has WebOS devices on multiple networks (Verizon and AT&T both appear likely in the next year) they will have a much greater potential audience and should see a boom in options from developers.
In general, my praise is significant and my criticisms are few… and most are likely to be fixed on the next device to come out of Sunnyvale. Palm WebOS is clearly a platform that will attract both business users and social networking types...while Apple and RIM may own the market right now, when it comes to actual innovation, they have some catching up to do.
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