The Palm Pre in Person
I swung by a Sprint store this afternoon to check out the Pre with my own two hands. A few things disappointed.
Sprint rep (who was rude) confirmed that I'd have to switch to one of their new plans in order to use the Pre. This would effectively double our current mobile phone bill, something I'm not at all interested in doing.
The store had two demo Pres, so I had to wait my turn to check out the goods. I'm not certain, but I think the other one wasn't running in a demo mode. The one I was able to monkey with didn't really do anything except run a few demo screens over and over. Not exactly the best way to test drive it.
The hardware does indeed feel "plastic-y" and slightly on the cheap side. I didn't really see the problems with the sliding motion I've read about in other reviews, though. The closed Pre is an incredibly small and sexy device, for what it's capable of doing. That was probably the most impressive bit.
Is this the device that will bring Palm back? Highly doubtful. The only major things it currently does over the iPhone is copy and paste (coming to the iPhone this week) and the ability to have multiple apps open, passive notifications, etc. These capabilities are most certainly in the roadmap for the iPhone, and are largely a function of processing power and battery life.
A note to Sprint reps (and customer service reps in general): When there's a customer in your store and they say they have a question, don't grunt at them and tell them you're with another customer, then attempt to patronize that customer by saying you'll answer any "quick" questions they might have. I've been a Sprint customer for nearly a decade, and they're very close to losing me. Really the only thing going for them is the cost of the current plan I have, and the fact that they're compteting in an industry rich in mediocrity.
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