We’re just a few weeks away from the O2 launch in Europe and the first reviews are starting to trickle in. For those in the US, the GSM Palm Pre is virtually identical to the CDMA counterpart available on Sprint, albeit the GSM models have a SIM card slot. The GSM version will also run an older version of webOS, but Palm expects to bring parity to all models later this year.
The guys at Slashgear have put together a rather comprehensive review.
“There’s plenty to like about the Palm Pre. It’s a compact, attractive handset that doesn’t allow its relatively small display to get in the way of intuitive gestures and a visually-rich UI.”
Like so many, they are excited about webOS, but do question the limited storage and suggest users test drive the keyboard to determine “how well it suites their finger size”.
Times Online’s review reads more like a comparison of the Palm Pre vs the iPhone. In fact, the reviewer concludes his review stating he’ll be “hanging on to his iPhone”.
“This is the real deal, a worthy competitor for the iPhone. Beautiful, easy to use, yet able to do complex tasks, without mimicking Apple.”
The sticking point(s) for the author seems to be the storage size of the Pre and the lack of a huge App Store.
“But if you want to carry thousands of songs on your phone, the iPhone remains the better choice.”
“Its big failing is the lack of a huge “app” store.”
Apple took over a year to introduce their App Store. While Palm has been slow to add applications, the company is clearly taking steps to make it easier for developers to bring apps to the Pre. The expansion of Pre owners that will naturally occur with the release on O2 and Telefonica will certainly add to the growing list of reasons why developers will choose to create applications for webOS.
For those in the US, the GSM Palm Pre is locked to their respective carriers. We’ll have to wait for a GSM model to land in the US. Anyone looking for an AT&T model? If so, can we give it the much needed boost to 16GB?
music player sucks, and there’s almost no apps. it’s a huge problem. And i can’t even add apps. But it’s a very valid criticism. And you can’t expect the argument that apple had a year to make there app store to fly with consumers when they compare the two side by side. Palm must step up the apps and get off their ass. And the app limit is boneheaded and will drive people to the iphone.
I haven’t got the device yet because in the UK it is not out yet. However I have been playing with the SDK since I am writing my own app. I don’t have an opinion about the palm audio player, however as you can see there is already support (in the form of a hack) for more video and audio codecs.
You can’t add apps? Well no offence here, but is that down to your own level of knowledge? There are plenty of homebrew apps out there and the palm store is growing. How many apps did the iphone have 3 months after it got released?
Anyway I don’t want to start a Pre vs iPhone discussion here. However you got to give credit to Palm for supporting open source apps and since WebOS is sitting on a slim version of Linux there will be a lot more hacks to come. Check out the on screen keyboard for example.
Ok I understand that some users don’t or can’t get into that path of hacks, however if you wanted a simple phone you could have bought a nokia. This is the beauty of this device. The potential for customization and improvement.
Before you all criticize the Pre remember that it is not meant to be a iphone killer. It is not meant to be a solely mp3 player either. It is a phone/pda combo and for someone like me that has had several palm pda’s over the years, the fact that they support Garnet apps via the emulator is a major tick.
I do own an ipod as well but although the hardware is great I hate itunes and never use it to manage my music. Oh and what device doesn’t let you delete files from it (apart from the ipod/iphone) without connecting it to your pc/mac?
Seriously…I think a lot of the reports out there are way too bias towards apple products because it is what people are used of, and simply the majority of users, do not like changes.
the pre in germany is offered unlocked!