Tweaks here, tweaks there
Palm has done a bit of work on its email functionality too. You can now view all of your accounts together or separately, and if you have a lot of messages you can also search through them by tapping in a few letters on the keyboard. There’s push email with support for Microsoft Exchange but you still can’t view threaded messages.
Plenty more apps in the store
The camera has been beefed up to 5Mp and now has a flash as well as an extended depth of field and geotagging. That’s about it, however, with no controls besides turning the flash on and off. Picture quality’s not bad, though it deteriorates quickly in lowish light and the position of the lens, effectively in the middle of the phone if you have it open, seems to be just right for covering with your finger.
Palm’s App Catalog is building up nicely with more than 4500 programs on offer, according to Palm, and it's now easily browsable by category. Quickoffice is pre-loaded so you can read, but not create, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Same goes for the PDF viewer.
Sample Shots
Click for a full-resolution crop
Click for a full-resolution image
Next page: Hardware hiccoughs
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!
exactly
for a 4-day battery in a smart phone, it'd weigh a ton and be the size of an 80's mobile phone brick. and while you might be willing to buy it, i'd suspect you're the only one
Turds
I agree wholeheartedly. The Pre2 with webOS2 pushes way in front. I'd also point out that, in my book, 200000 turds are not better than 4500 diamonds.
And moving on to the review... page 3 makes it sound like unified email inbox, Exchange push mail and a flash for the camera are new. Eh, no.
