I've been using my Palm Pre since the day it went on sale back on June 6, 2009, and for the most part I've been very impressed and happy with the phone. There are a few things that keep me from giving it a full five stars and I'll cover those below.
The first thing I noticed when I finally got the Pre in my hands was just how "natural" it felt. I hate to sound corny in a review but it really has an almost organic/nature feel to it. When the screen is off the face of the device has a solid black, glossy look that draws the eyes to it. I've had several friends and co-workers comment on just how much they like the look of the phone.
The case has minimal buttons to obscure the look; volume buttons on the left, power and ringer switch on the top right, and the select button at the bottom. That's it, no other controls until you slide up the face of the phone to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard. Speaking of the slider, for me it works great! I've read on various boards how some people have been having problems with theirs but with mine it works just as well as the first day I had the phone. About half way up the spring loading mechanism kicks in locking the keyboard open and it does the same when closing the slider.
The 3.2MP camera on the back of the phone takes some of the best pictures I've seen on a cell phone but it still doesn't come close to replacing a real digital camera. Instead I've found it's best for snapping pictures on those times when you either don't have your digital camera handy (or with you at all) or you don't have time to take out a camera. There's an LED flash but it's not really good much beyond about 3 feet. Also there are NO controls for the camera other than selecting flash on, auto, or off. That's it. Zoom or even white balance would have been nice. On some pictures there is a bit of purple fringing depending on the lighting conditions.
The real star of the phone at this point is probably a tie between the web browser and the Synergy features that combine all your contacts and calendars. The browser is FAST, even on EVDO and wicked on Wi-Fi. It's handled just about everything I've thrown at it and then some. A draw back is that you cannot download any files via the browswer. Adobe is slated to bring Flash support around October to the Pre browser. The Synergy features sync your Outlook, Gmail, and Facebook information to your phone "stacking" duplicates under the same contact as well as syncing your calendars from both Facebook and Google. That last has come in rather handy on several occasions so far.
Palm and Sprint have included several applications on the phone when it ships. Sprint TV is the best on this phone that I have seen yet from them and this is my fourth smartphone with Sprint since Feb of 2008. Also included in the mix from Sprint is their Telnav program, NASCAR, and via a recent OS update their NFL Live app. Palm has preloaded Google Maps and the Amazon.com MP3 store. One problem I have with the Amazon MP3 store is that you can purchase music on your Pre but cannot download it until you're near a Wi-Fi connection. GPS acquisition on any of the apps that use it, whether pre-loaded or third party add on, is the fastest I've ever seen on a phone. Scary fast!
As with any smartphone there are bound to be some drawbacks and the Pre is no exception.
Battery life on the Pre has gotten better since the first day via three OS updates and some battery break in time but it's still no where near where it should be. Thankfully I have a portable charging battery pack that stays in my backpack so I can top the Pre off during the day if I don't have access to a power outlet. At this point I really don't know if Palm can do anything more to improve the battery life and I have a feeling I'll be looking at getting a spare battery or an extended one at some point in the future.
On the day the Pre went on sale there were 18 apps available via the App Catalog on the device. Within the first seven days that number jumped up to 30 apps and then stopped until the last week of July when two more were added. The Homebrew community is now at around 100 apps available and growing almost daily. I hope that Palm gets to cracking on getting more apps out, and soon or I can see this being the one thing that keeps the Pre and WebOS from really taking off. Of course one can pay $30 for the Classic App that will enable the Pre to run most PalmOS applications but to me that is a crying shame. Palm should have included this with the Pre instead of offering it as a paid for add on option, or at least got the price around $10. The biggest limitation I've run into with Classic that it will NOT recognize any file types other that PRC and PDB files. This means that if you have a program that can read other types of files, like Mobipocket Reader (.MOBI) those programs cannot "see" those files. This is a glaring shortcoming there!!!
Here's the quick and dirty check list...
Pros:
Beautiful physical design
Multi-tasking
Ease of syncing and backing up contact information
Great web browser
Excellent email and messaging options
Easy to read screen
Cons:
Poor battery life
Poor app selections at this time
Lack of camera options and video recording
Serious limitations in the Classic app and it's high cost
I like the Palm Pre and I want to love it because I can see just how much potential this new platform from Palm has. In the future I hope that Palm can address some of these short comings via updates to the OS and expanding the number of apps available for download. That being said I have to honestly say that if I had known back on June 6 what I know right now about the platform I would have stuck it out for a bit longer with either my old HTC Touch Diamond or BB Curve 8330. I paid the full price for the device at a Sprint store but I am due an upgrade in February 2010 and if the Pre has not made some improvements by then I can see me leaving this phone for something else. However, that is six months in the future and by then there should be more apps available and quite a few more OS updates so I'm willing to stick it out a bit longer.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
HTC Touch Pro2 Phone, Mocha (T-Mobile)
PROS:
Huge hidden keyboard (iPhone & Blackberry do not). Vibro-feedback on touch screen keys (iPhone does not). Many "open source" customizable screens (iPhone does not). Removable battery (iPhone does not). Tilt screen (iPhone & Blackberry do not). T-Mobile's more flexible/affordable plans (iPhone does not). Built-in removable stylus (iPhone & Blackberry do not). MicroSD card for up to 32Gb additional storage (iPhone does not). Great battery life (iPhone does not).
Plus easy email, Facebook integration, amazing quality video, clever dual microphone/speaker "auto-conference calling" enabler, thousands of free apps, Accelerometer for smooth finger integration, updated software for a much faster response than Touch Pro (1), and much more.
CONS:
Decent audio, no standard 3.5mm headphone jack (surprised). Heavier and bulkier than Blackberry and iPhone (but so what). May have trouble with "TomTom Navigator 6" support (at the time of this review).
Sure iPhone & Blackberry have some other cool features, but overall, the HTC Touch Pro 2 is my "best pick" for coolness, function, reliability, expandability, cost, and support - hands down. GET ONE.
Huge hidden keyboard (iPhone & Blackberry do not). Vibro-feedback on touch screen keys (iPhone does not). Many "open source" customizable screens (iPhone does not). Removable battery (iPhone does not). Tilt screen (iPhone & Blackberry do not). T-Mobile's more flexible/affordable plans (iPhone does not). Built-in removable stylus (iPhone & Blackberry do not). MicroSD card for up to 32Gb additional storage (iPhone does not). Great battery life (iPhone does not).
Plus easy email, Facebook integration, amazing quality video, clever dual microphone/speaker "auto-conference calling" enabler, thousands of free apps, Accelerometer for smooth finger integration, updated software for a much faster response than Touch Pro (1), and much more.
CONS:
Decent audio, no standard 3.5mm headphone jack (surprised). Heavier and bulkier than Blackberry and iPhone (but so what). May have trouble with "TomTom Navigator 6" support (at the time of this review).
Sure iPhone & Blackberry have some other cool features, but overall, the HTC Touch Pro 2 is my "best pick" for coolness, function, reliability, expandability, cost, and support - hands down. GET ONE.
Samsung Behold t919 Phone, Brushed Espresso (T-Mobile)
Ok, I normally don't go this far when I do/don't like something. But there are some very frustrating things about this phone that I think a lot of people are failing to mention. Maybe the people that have given reviews thus far haven't had the phone for long, but I find it very hard to believe the fact that no one talks about technicalities of the phone. Also, I don't like the whole "--/5" stars thing, so I'm doing my own scoring system, and breaking it down--how a review should be.
PRICE--6/10
Ok, everyone knows that phones are cheap when you purchase a two year contract. But what about users who already have T-mobile and want a new phone? For you, the phone will probably cost about $368.00 plus tax. No, not $400, but T-mobile might tell you how you get a partial discount. What that might NOT tell you, however, is that the partial discount means you are agreeing to renew your contract for another two years. I don't think $368 plus tax is too bad of a deal, I'm willing to pay that. However, when two companis (T-mobile and Samsung) both have steep claims, I expect those claims to be met with likewise results. See more about what I mean as I review the rest of the phone.
LOOK AND FEEL--9/10
This is one of the greatest selling points of the phone. I really like the phone as soon as I picked it up, simply for it's look and feel. It's small, sleek, smooth, but has a very nice weigh that makes it seems like you're actually holding something that will last a while. It has a brushed metal backing that looks really nice, and it's a great fit in any pocket. I've been a Sidekick owner since the Sidekick 2, and the biggest reason I purchased a new phone was to have something smaller. I work in business as well, and a big chunky Sidekick doesn't look professional.
INTERFACE/NAVIGATION--6/10
This aspect of the phone is kind of on a fence. Overall, the interface is really cool, and super fun. However, when you NEED to send a text, when you REALLY need to access a web page, the phone can be extremely irritating. For a female with small fingers, or anyone with longer nails, perhaps this may not be an issue for you.
1) Despite the fact that you can enter text with either a vertical numeric pad (usually T9) OR a horizontal "full" touch/QWERTY key pad is a really good idea. Naturally, I choose the QWERTY over the numeric pad almost every time. But, there are some really, really annoying design flaws on the pad. Mostly, because the QWERTY is a touch, it's difficult to design it to be able to make shift+ options available. So, when you need to enter additional text, such as numbers, and different punctuations, you actually have to press a button in the corner of the phone, which selects an entirely different keypad of multiple characters; including, numbers 0-9, ",',<,> etc... This can be really frustrating when you just want to enter something like the number "1"
2) The space bar is not centered on the QWERTY keypad. When trying to hit the space bar with your right thumb, you will hit the "?" character if you're not careful, often resulting in sentences?like?this.
3) When entering a password into a website block, you can only use the numeric keypad. This is REALLY frustrating to me, because this forces you to turn off the CAPS button, AND turn off the T9 if you want to use freestyle input. Most of my passwords do not begin with a capital letter, and none them can I use T9 on. If I could just use the QWERTY like with everything else, I would be happy.
Other than these few issues, navigation isn't too bad. The touch screen is actually pretty decent and responsive. However, those crucial flaws, when entering text, make me feel that the phone deserves no more than 6 out of 10.
CALL QUALITY--10/10
This part is simple. All calls made were heard very well on both ends, and the speaker phone is very loud and works very well. I don't think it's fair to judge the phone based on network problems such as dropped calls, but I've had only one dropped call with the phone, which is pretty normal.
CAMERA/MEDIA--10/10
A pleasant surpise on the phone. Picture quality is very good, at least for a camera phone. Also, the phone features some really cool shooting and filming modes. My favorite, the panoramic, automatically shows you where to point the camera, and stiches 6 photos together to make a panoramic photo. Forwarding the phone through emails also worked very well.
Music and Videos--both internet and taken through your phone--are heard very well. No complaints here.
WEB BROWSING--2/10
This is single handedly the most frustrating and disappointing aspect of the phone.
Bottom line, the phone uses a 3G network, costs $400 retail, and the rate plan from T-mobile is $25 or $35 a month. For all that, I expected lightning fast internet, and FULL HTML BROWSING CAPABILITY, just like both T-mobile and Samsung claims the phone to have. Well, after using the phone for only 30 minutes, I noticed that something strange was going on with the browser. If I never had a phone that had to use mobile browsing (aka WAP) I wouldn't have recognized it so quickly. The phone kept automatically reverting my URL requests to mobile versions of almost every website I went to. If the browser didn't switch me to a WAP url, then it chopped the page up into a single column.
At first, I was calm, and thought that surely Samsung had already, or was going to come out with a firware update. My sidekick THREE could view real pages, OR mobile pages, whichever I wanted. Even though they're only on a 2G speed phone, c'mon!
Now, that's not the worst part. I was so certain that it be fixed easily. The phone had no settings to change this. So the first thing I do is call t-mobile and tell them the problem. It took longer to explain to them my complaint than it did for them to tell me their answer. Basicially, there's nothing they could do.
Over the next few days, I contacted Samsungs mobile support. Let me preface this by saying they are awful, awful, AWFUL. They were rude, impersonable, and didn't show the least bit of concern about my needs. Through four phone calls, I got the same bit of useless information each time. Apparently, Samsung has no current software updates, and do not plan on making any in the future. Yes you heard that right, and yes that came directly from Samsung Supervisors mouthes.
This really makes me mad. The phone is everything I want except for the mobile browser. I was willing to overlook all the little stuff because I like it so much. However, I can't afford the unlimited data rate, and recieve ancient services. Needless to say, if it weren't for this, I wouldn't have returned the phone.
BATTERY LIFE--3/10
The battery will not last more than 8 hours if you plan on playing games, or using the internet. I wake up at 6am every day, after charging for almost 12 hours, the battery will not last until I get off work, which is 6pm. Well, actually, the battery retains enough enery to actually make the phone work, but from about 3 till when I got home and plugged the phone in, the phone vibrates for a total of 10 seconds, about every 3 minutes. This is extremely annoying, can not be turned off, and wastes even more battery! Very bad design.
In total, this comes out to about 6.6 out of 10. Pair that with how much I dug into the phone, and I don't think that's a good score.
I hope this review is helpful.
PRICE--6/10
Ok, everyone knows that phones are cheap when you purchase a two year contract. But what about users who already have T-mobile and want a new phone? For you, the phone will probably cost about $368.00 plus tax. No, not $400, but T-mobile might tell you how you get a partial discount. What that might NOT tell you, however, is that the partial discount means you are agreeing to renew your contract for another two years. I don't think $368 plus tax is too bad of a deal, I'm willing to pay that. However, when two companis (T-mobile and Samsung) both have steep claims, I expect those claims to be met with likewise results. See more about what I mean as I review the rest of the phone.
LOOK AND FEEL--9/10
This is one of the greatest selling points of the phone. I really like the phone as soon as I picked it up, simply for it's look and feel. It's small, sleek, smooth, but has a very nice weigh that makes it seems like you're actually holding something that will last a while. It has a brushed metal backing that looks really nice, and it's a great fit in any pocket. I've been a Sidekick owner since the Sidekick 2, and the biggest reason I purchased a new phone was to have something smaller. I work in business as well, and a big chunky Sidekick doesn't look professional.
INTERFACE/NAVIGATION--6/10
This aspect of the phone is kind of on a fence. Overall, the interface is really cool, and super fun. However, when you NEED to send a text, when you REALLY need to access a web page, the phone can be extremely irritating. For a female with small fingers, or anyone with longer nails, perhaps this may not be an issue for you.
1) Despite the fact that you can enter text with either a vertical numeric pad (usually T9) OR a horizontal "full" touch/QWERTY key pad is a really good idea. Naturally, I choose the QWERTY over the numeric pad almost every time. But, there are some really, really annoying design flaws on the pad. Mostly, because the QWERTY is a touch, it's difficult to design it to be able to make shift+ options available. So, when you need to enter additional text, such as numbers, and different punctuations, you actually have to press a button in the corner of the phone, which selects an entirely different keypad of multiple characters; including, numbers 0-9, ",',<,> etc... This can be really frustrating when you just want to enter something like the number "1"
2) The space bar is not centered on the QWERTY keypad. When trying to hit the space bar with your right thumb, you will hit the "?" character if you're not careful, often resulting in sentences?like?this.
3) When entering a password into a website block, you can only use the numeric keypad. This is REALLY frustrating to me, because this forces you to turn off the CAPS button, AND turn off the T9 if you want to use freestyle input. Most of my passwords do not begin with a capital letter, and none them can I use T9 on. If I could just use the QWERTY like with everything else, I would be happy.
Other than these few issues, navigation isn't too bad. The touch screen is actually pretty decent and responsive. However, those crucial flaws, when entering text, make me feel that the phone deserves no more than 6 out of 10.
CALL QUALITY--10/10
This part is simple. All calls made were heard very well on both ends, and the speaker phone is very loud and works very well. I don't think it's fair to judge the phone based on network problems such as dropped calls, but I've had only one dropped call with the phone, which is pretty normal.
CAMERA/MEDIA--10/10
A pleasant surpise on the phone. Picture quality is very good, at least for a camera phone. Also, the phone features some really cool shooting and filming modes. My favorite, the panoramic, automatically shows you where to point the camera, and stiches 6 photos together to make a panoramic photo. Forwarding the phone through emails also worked very well.
Music and Videos--both internet and taken through your phone--are heard very well. No complaints here.
WEB BROWSING--2/10
This is single handedly the most frustrating and disappointing aspect of the phone.
Bottom line, the phone uses a 3G network, costs $400 retail, and the rate plan from T-mobile is $25 or $35 a month. For all that, I expected lightning fast internet, and FULL HTML BROWSING CAPABILITY, just like both T-mobile and Samsung claims the phone to have. Well, after using the phone for only 30 minutes, I noticed that something strange was going on with the browser. If I never had a phone that had to use mobile browsing (aka WAP) I wouldn't have recognized it so quickly. The phone kept automatically reverting my URL requests to mobile versions of almost every website I went to. If the browser didn't switch me to a WAP url, then it chopped the page up into a single column.
At first, I was calm, and thought that surely Samsung had already, or was going to come out with a firware update. My sidekick THREE could view real pages, OR mobile pages, whichever I wanted. Even though they're only on a 2G speed phone, c'mon!
Now, that's not the worst part. I was so certain that it be fixed easily. The phone had no settings to change this. So the first thing I do is call t-mobile and tell them the problem. It took longer to explain to them my complaint than it did for them to tell me their answer. Basicially, there's nothing they could do.
Over the next few days, I contacted Samsungs mobile support. Let me preface this by saying they are awful, awful, AWFUL. They were rude, impersonable, and didn't show the least bit of concern about my needs. Through four phone calls, I got the same bit of useless information each time. Apparently, Samsung has no current software updates, and do not plan on making any in the future. Yes you heard that right, and yes that came directly from Samsung Supervisors mouthes.
This really makes me mad. The phone is everything I want except for the mobile browser. I was willing to overlook all the little stuff because I like it so much. However, I can't afford the unlimited data rate, and recieve ancient services. Needless to say, if it weren't for this, I wouldn't have returned the phone.
BATTERY LIFE--3/10
The battery will not last more than 8 hours if you plan on playing games, or using the internet. I wake up at 6am every day, after charging for almost 12 hours, the battery will not last until I get off work, which is 6pm. Well, actually, the battery retains enough enery to actually make the phone work, but from about 3 till when I got home and plugged the phone in, the phone vibrates for a total of 10 seconds, about every 3 minutes. This is extremely annoying, can not be turned off, and wastes even more battery! Very bad design.
In total, this comes out to about 6.6 out of 10. Pair that with how much I dug into the phone, and I don't think that's a good score.
I hope this review is helpful.
Motorola W376 Prepaid Phone with Double Minutes for Life (Tracfone)
I am pleased that Amazon has seen fit to return this fine phone to their stock, even if it comes from Target.com. This phone has many features for the just under $30 price and I highly recommend it. In addition to the description, the camera has a 4X telephoto lens and produces acceptable pictures. The "phonebook" holds 500 entries and talk time is closer to 8 hours. To access the owners manual, go to TracFone.com and select this model. From there you may download and print the Motorola manual.
This is my second cell phone from TracFone and have never experienced a problem with reception or customer service. Their coverage is as good as the "big" networks without the need of a more expensive contract. Now, this phone comes with double minutes for the life of the phone. For a modern looking phone with lots of extras, this is a very good buy. Get one.
This is my second cell phone from TracFone and have never experienced a problem with reception or customer service. Their coverage is as good as the "big" networks without the need of a more expensive contract. Now, this phone comes with double minutes for the life of the phone. For a modern looking phone with lots of extras, this is a very good buy. Get one.
LG Neon GT365 Phone, White/Green (AT&T)
LG Neon GT365
Pros:
- Medium size, slick appearance and sturdy design.
- Sliding QWERTY keyboard.
- Bluetooth enabled.
- MicroSD slot.
- Easy navigation.
- Threaded messaging*.
- Shortcut button to Create New Message located on keyboard.
- Conference calling.
- Inexpensive.
Cons:
- USB cable costs extra.
- No voice-dial feature.
- Keyboard takes effort getting used to.
Features:
- 2.4 in LCD screen
- Touch screen phone dialing.
- Easy access to Instant Messaging (IM) such as AIM, Yahoo! Or Windows Live.
- Easy access to Email such as AT&T, AOL, Yahoo! and Windows Live.
- 2 MP camera and video.
- Yellow Pages application.
- Music player.
- Tools: calendar, notepad, calculator, world clock, stopwatch, unit converter.
- Automatic key-lock.
- Call speaker.
- Flight mode.
- Call waiting and call forwarding.
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE network
Overall the LG Neon is a good value. It is easy to use and only takes a couple of minutes to set-up and get started.
The sliding keyboard is great for better SMS-ing but the keys could be a bit larger, in my opinion. The USB connection cable is offered as an extra accessory and it will set you back $30 to $40. The LG Neon does not have voice dialing built-in, although AT&T offers a similar service for a monthly fee.
The salesperson referred to the LG Neon as a hybrid touch-screen phone. The only touch-screen feature available is the numerical phone dialing screen which is conveniently accessible from the main interface.
Reading and sending email is quite simple if you have an AT&T, AOL, Yahoo! Or Windows Live account. Internet browsing is provided by AT&T Media Net application, but I immediately downloaded the Opera Mini browser. The Yellow Pages application could be useful but I also recommend downloading the Google Maps for mobile phones.
The Music folder contains limited trial subscription to Music ID and Make UR Tones applications. Demo games include Ms. PAC-MAN and Bubble Bash. The Neon has 14MB internal memory capacity and also features a microSD slot which supports cards up to 4 GB for extra storage. The Bluetooth wireless connectivity supports A2DP technology which can stream audio in stereo directly to the headset.
Aside from the touch-screen dialing pad, the two little features I enjoy the most about this phone are the "threaded messaging" and the "Create New Message" button on the keyboard. The threaded messaging displays full conversations and not just fragmented replies, while the New Message button is conveniently located on the keyboard.
I can get used to the LG Neon GT365 and for my particular needs this is a good phone. I do believe that the voice-dialing should be a standard feature and the USB cable should be included. With that said, I would recommend this phone for those who want simplicity and reliability for e-communication and quality voice calls.
Pros:
- Medium size, slick appearance and sturdy design.
- Sliding QWERTY keyboard.
- Bluetooth enabled.
- MicroSD slot.
- Easy navigation.
- Threaded messaging*.
- Shortcut button to Create New Message located on keyboard.
- Conference calling.
- Inexpensive.
Cons:
- USB cable costs extra.
- No voice-dial feature.
- Keyboard takes effort getting used to.
Features:
- 2.4 in LCD screen
- Touch screen phone dialing.
- Easy access to Instant Messaging (IM) such as AIM, Yahoo! Or Windows Live.
- Easy access to Email such as AT&T, AOL, Yahoo! and Windows Live.
- 2 MP camera and video.
- Yellow Pages application.
- Music player.
- Tools: calendar, notepad, calculator, world clock, stopwatch, unit converter.
- Automatic key-lock.
- Call speaker.
- Flight mode.
- Call waiting and call forwarding.
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE network
Overall the LG Neon is a good value. It is easy to use and only takes a couple of minutes to set-up and get started.
The sliding keyboard is great for better SMS-ing but the keys could be a bit larger, in my opinion. The USB connection cable is offered as an extra accessory and it will set you back $30 to $40. The LG Neon does not have voice dialing built-in, although AT&T offers a similar service for a monthly fee.
The salesperson referred to the LG Neon as a hybrid touch-screen phone. The only touch-screen feature available is the numerical phone dialing screen which is conveniently accessible from the main interface.
Reading and sending email is quite simple if you have an AT&T, AOL, Yahoo! Or Windows Live account. Internet browsing is provided by AT&T Media Net application, but I immediately downloaded the Opera Mini browser. The Yellow Pages application could be useful but I also recommend downloading the Google Maps for mobile phones.
The Music folder contains limited trial subscription to Music ID and Make UR Tones applications. Demo games include Ms. PAC-MAN and Bubble Bash. The Neon has 14MB internal memory capacity and also features a microSD slot which supports cards up to 4 GB for extra storage. The Bluetooth wireless connectivity supports A2DP technology which can stream audio in stereo directly to the headset.
Aside from the touch-screen dialing pad, the two little features I enjoy the most about this phone are the "threaded messaging" and the "Create New Message" button on the keyboard. The threaded messaging displays full conversations and not just fragmented replies, while the New Message button is conveniently located on the keyboard.
I can get used to the LG Neon GT365 and for my particular needs this is a good phone. I do believe that the voice-dialing should be a standard feature and the USB cable should be included. With that said, I would recommend this phone for those who want simplicity and reliability for e-communication and quality voice calls.
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