Comments on: Poll: Will you buy the Palm Pre?

With the press giving the Palm Pre favorable reviews, Crave polls its readers to see if more people will now buy the smartphone.

[zoradrac]

I have had such terrible service with AT&T that I am considering breaking my contract, giving up my iphone and switching. The people at customer service are rude and the cost of AT&T is terrible. Apple would do much better to break with them -- in the meantime I'd go with any phone but the iphone in order not to have to deal with AT&T

[CLUTCH1222]

wow... thx for the heads up...
As A premier customer... I got an email at midnight telling me to rush to a sprint store.

How stupid do you think we are. I thought , as a premier customer, I would get a pre release opportunity... This is a slap in the face.

" hurry to ur sprint store, they will go fast.". Don't try to make me feel special, and then give me the same privileges as anyone else.

Who ever planned this "advanced notice to Premier customers" farce should be fired.
I am considering ending my contract that is up on July 1st because of this low level marketing. Your target audience is smarter than average.... thats why they need this phone. The others are happy with one that rings....

Fired

[thriftyT]

UPDATE:
1. I was super excited about the Pre

2. I'm a loyal Sprint customer (a rare breed, indeed) and I'm getting worked over.
My contract isn't up until August, therefore the price of the Palm Pre for me is over $400!!!!!!

The new iPhone is coming into the picture for me....

[Dan7637]

enough with your f**king b**ching about dropped calls and all this other crap, thats at&t's fault not Apple's

[trippendicular57]

Exactly... AT&T = FAIL.

[aesierra7]

I just bought the Pre and someone was asking about having it connected to the computer and charging it. Yes, you can do that but if you are syncing it, it will not work. It gives you the option to do a Media Sync, USB Device or Just Charge.

Hope it helps you.

So far this phone has exceeded all my expectations.

[shakarak]

I think I'm going to stick with my T-mobile g1. I'm a huge fan and I have apps that even my Iphone friends wish they had. Plus I save a lot more money with T-mobile then the other guys.

[polarbebe]

Why are these reviews so one-sided? What about the negatives of the Palm Pre? I played with it today in a Sprint store. The keyboard is small as heck. It feels sturdy in the hand but once you slide the keyboard out, I don't like the sharp edges around the keyboard. The touchscreen feels "plastic-ky" and not like glass. The reason why people buy smartphones is because it can do "smart" things, without apps, a smartphone is just a regular "dumb" feature phone. Palm Pre has an app store with only a dozen apps! On the plus side the interface is pretty good because they stole half of the design from Apple (multi-touch, swipe, acclerometer). Very balanced reporting CNET.

[goober02]

I personally still am quite happy with my Gen1 iPhone - AT&T doesn't seem to suck where I live. Nothing compelling for me to spend another $200 at the moment - Pre, Andriod or new iPhone (whenever that'll come out). I don't see any substantial improvements besides 3G in any of these new devices. Web browsing is pretty much the same, email same, music, photo, movie experiences are also nearly the same as the 1st Gen iPhone. After all, in all of these devices you're still looking at a 3in screen.

[Tim_Liao]

There is no way this can be a iPhone killer with only 8GB of non-expandable memory; especially since the new iPhone that is coming out this week will possibly have 32GB. Also does it bother anyone this phone has no way of inputing text when you flip it to vertical screen mode since the only keyboard is the physical one that works on the horizontol. In fact why is there no virtual keyboard. Great that it has the physical but my HTC Touch Pro has both including a virtual on the vertical as well as a full qwerty physical. All and all I would have to say my first impression I got playing with the Pre at the Sprint store was clearly a disappointment.

[Tim_Liao]

Also Carbine68 it's "their" not "there". Grammer school spelling mistakes just further invalidate your false information

[lorsban]

Definitely getting the Pre when it comes out in a gsm unlocked version. That means next year. Hopefully by then all the bugs would have been worked out. Main issue for me would be battery life. I hope they come up with a battery-only charger so I have a fresh battery available at any time.

[Motyoj]

Nope. Not buying one. Already have a nice mobile device that does more than I need.

[Kiki64]

The Pre has made me a believer again in Palm! I purchased one yesterday (a 3 hour line wait) but it was definitely worth it. I have to say most of my line mates waiting for the Pre were Sprint customers but there were also a few frustrated iPhone users and one Verizon customer (me) who was tired of waiting for Verizon to have more compelling phones. The call quality is terrific and the keyboard (which it seems everyone is poo-pooing) was perfectly useable but I do admit I have small hands. The design is beautiful but even more amazing was the user experience being able to open and work in more than one application at a time. The gestures concept of flicking back or flicking up to get rid of an application is just pure fun. I admit the battery does run down more quickly than one my other phone, but I usually don't spend all day playing on my other smart phone the way I did with the Pre......

[dfkunz]

Ok, Bonnie...

First of all, I appreciate that you listed both the positives and negatives of the phone. It is important to hear both sides. I do however (and this is just my opinion) think you were a little harsh in your review. With regard to AIM you state, "We're glad a fix is coming, but this is not exactly how you want to kick-start your product launch", have you already forgotten what happened with the iphone. People couldn't even activate/use their first gen iphone. The AIM issue is nothing compared to the issues the iphone first faced. If the only issue the first generation pre faces is AIM using a little too much power than I will be one happy camper.

With regards to your statements concerning the the keyboard...it is a physical keyboard. I guarantee with about 10 minutes of practice I can type faster with fewer mistakes than anyone on an iphone. I also think that I could type at the same speed or just a little bit slower than someone using a blackberry curve (which has the best keyboard in the market).

I agree with you when it comes to concern about the battery life. But with a 'verified' talk time of 5 hours, that is very impressive. Most of RIM's devices are right in between 5-6 hours. If you can put the phone through its paces and still have 12% battery life at the end of the day, I am not worried. I don't think I will have 12 applications open all the time with pandora music streaming in the background.

I also think that the pre is going to make a very good business phone. There are no phones in the market right now that can multi-task. There have been so many times when I am trying to write an email and I needed to reference a document or something from the web and I had to close the email, open up the app, close it, and then reopen the email...not with the pre.

I think the pre is a great phone. Is it an iphone killer?...I think that phrase is stupid. Nothing will truly kill the iphone. But the pre is definitely a step in the right direction, not only for palm but for smart phones in general.

As far as it being exclusive with Sprint. I have no issues with Sprint. I have been with them for 5 years. I recently went on a business trip to LA with two co-workers (both of which have the iphone) and they had issues the entire time we were there. Sprint is a good service with good prices.

Sorry, this comment is so long. Its Sunday morning and my wife got to the TV first so I am stuck watching the cooking channel. I have nothing better to do than to post my thoughts about the pre =). I guess if you have read this entire post you don't have anything better to do either =).

[MisterNolan]

To get the Pre i'll have to give up my Free incomming plan that i had from before the Sprint/Nextel merger. Yeah, ancient..... I currently have to HTC touch and the best thing i like about the phone is its built in ability to tether without sprint phone as a modem plan, which is a complete ripoff by the way. Does anybody know if the Pre can do this.

[lunchtimereader]

I like the phones, but hate the expensive plans, so I don't own the Pre or iphone.

[sting7k]

Zero interest until there is a GSM version, no way I'm signing a contract with a CDMA carrier just to try it. If I could swap the SIM from my iPhone then maybe. But after tomorrow it might not even matter anymore...

[seancjans]

i love this phone, its the absolute best. got it yesterday.

[tbolto02]

I could not get one today they were all sold out. I plan on getting one when they have more in stock. Been with Sprint 11 years and no issues with service. The customer service is also much better than what it was when I first got my service. Good job Palm and Sprint with this phone. BTW played with my friends and I really liked the phone ... keyboard and all :-)

[mykick22]

Am I the ONLY one that thinks it's hysterical that there is a huge rubbers ad in the CRAVE blog?