Palm Pre 2 WebOS 2.0 smartphone
Refined rather than revamped
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Review This is the second upgrade made to the Palm Pre since the original version appeared almost two years ago, and the first since the company was acquired by HP. The last tweak, the Palm Pre Plus, made a few changes, but this latest version raises the bar considerably.
Palm's Pre 2: refined design
The Palm Pre 2 looks much the same as its predecessors, retaining the tactile rubberised plastic casing that improved on the glossy slickness of the original. It now has a glass screen too, and when you open it, the highly polished back makes a very effective mirror. It’s compact yet still incorporates that curved sliding mechanism to reveal the Qwerty microkeyboard.
The sides are minimally populated with a volume rocker and micro USB power/sync slot, with a mute switch, power/lock button and 3.5mm headphone jack on top.
The 3.1in, 320 x 480 capacitive touchscreen is acutely sensitive, responding accurately and quickly to brushes and presses.
Fan your apps into stacks
The keyboard still uses those love-‘em-or-hate-‘em squishy keys which feel a bit weird. They’re on the titchy side too, so you’ll need to use the tips of your thumbs. They take a bit of getting used to, but you can get up a decent head of steam from the 35 keys with a bit of practice.
Next page: WebOS refined
COMMENTS
On par with the Desire HD is about right
Having used equal measures of Pre and Desire HD, the equal rating makes sense.
The Desire HD has great hardware but the software is lacking as some of the HTC "improvements" aren't very well thought out, a bit buggy or missing something small which makes the experience a little frustrating. As in, loads of features but the polish isn't quite there.
Case in point, you cannot read a contacts address if it is too long because it scrolls off the end of the screen and doesn't word-wrap. Or if you start the calendar, flip sideways three days, hit menu and then "Add Schedule" that the date pre-populated isn't the one you're were looking at when you added the appointment. Yeah, both of them are minor and there are workarounds - but that isn't the point, it is the small things like these which show the difference between a user interface that has been carefully thought through and designed with how people use the device in mind and one which, well, hasn't.
On the other hand with the Pre, the software is really slick, has a great look and feel and is very intuitive. What lets it down is the poor quality hardware (case and the low resolution screen) and the fixed keyboard with tiny keys - which may be loved by techies the world over but not by the rest of the phone buying public.
HP could be onto a winner here if they get the hardware right. Of course, that is a big "if", but fingers crossed for them...
They missed a trick with the name
It should have been Pre++.
Nope
I'm still waiting for a smartphone* where I can have it on me, USE it's many functions, and not have to keep in the back fo my mind where I might find a suitable charging point if I need it...
* I'm don't include iPhones - hate 'em!
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