I was out running errands and figured I'd pop into local Sprint and get a peak at PRE. Pulled up expecting to see many people, but there wasn't. I was able to walk in, ask if they had working model, of which they did and no one was using it. There was a customer buying one and when I was done, someone I knew was coming in to purchase. I'm a 16G 3G iPhone user by the way, so wasn't looking to jump ship, but satisfy curiosity.
The first thing I noticed as I placed in my hands was the lightweight / cheap feeling to it. Definitely would want to place that in a case of the Otterbox type, it's going to need solid protection. From there my focus was on the screen; colors were vibrant and screen looked good, however, it's size was a negative. The keyboard keys are really small, but I was able to type with ease and the stickiness to the keys kept slippage from happening as I typed. However, not having a pop up keyboard is a negative.
Moving around the interface was solid and responsive, albeit a tad slow, just enough that I notice it. I really liked being able to have several apps open at once, very nice to go back and forth between them without re-opening. Didn't make a phone call to anyone nor play any audio. Went into it's version of app store and appears you're able to try apps before buying, so I tried NYT, looked very very nice and was fast in rendering various pages. The web browser loaded quickly and pages looked very good also.
The productivity apps; calendar, contacts etc have a very nice look to them and the interaction between is awesome, works as advertised. I wasn't thrilled when viewing the map app, can't quite nail down what it was, but something is lacking there, I typed in pizza and seems I wasn't able to move about the results on the map page easily, could be my non familiarity with the device.
Overall, I'd say it's a nice device for those not with AT&T and want a diverse smartphone. It didn't wow me though. When I put hands on the 1st generation iPhone, it wowed me. My review while in the Sprint store with iPhone on hip was not to compare but have open mind.
I think that timing will affect immediate success of the PRE, tomorrow, as we all know, Apple will grab world attention and stamp out any momentum PRE garners. PRE should have been introduced some months ago, mid stream Apple announcements.
Lastly, if PALM and others want to get on the same or higher playing field than Apple, they should take a page from a company called Hyundai.
The first thing I noticed as I placed in my hands was the lightweight / cheap feeling to it. Definitely would want to place that in a case of the Otterbox type, it's going to need solid protection. From there my focus was on the screen; colors were vibrant and screen looked good, however, it's size was a negative. The keyboard keys are really small, but I was able to type with ease and the stickiness to the keys kept slippage from happening as I typed. However, not having a pop up keyboard is a negative.
Moving around the interface was solid and responsive, albeit a tad slow, just enough that I notice it. I really liked being able to have several apps open at once, very nice to go back and forth between them without re-opening. Didn't make a phone call to anyone nor play any audio. Went into it's version of app store and appears you're able to try apps before buying, so I tried NYT, looked very very nice and was fast in rendering various pages. The web browser loaded quickly and pages looked very good also.
The productivity apps; calendar, contacts etc have a very nice look to them and the interaction between is awesome, works as advertised. I wasn't thrilled when viewing the map app, can't quite nail down what it was, but something is lacking there, I typed in pizza and seems I wasn't able to move about the results on the map page easily, could be my non familiarity with the device.
Overall, I'd say it's a nice device for those not with AT&T and want a diverse smartphone. It didn't wow me though. When I put hands on the 1st generation iPhone, it wowed me. My review while in the Sprint store with iPhone on hip was not to compare but have open mind.
I think that timing will affect immediate success of the PRE, tomorrow, as we all know, Apple will grab world attention and stamp out any momentum PRE garners. PRE should have been introduced some months ago, mid stream Apple announcements.
Lastly, if PALM and others want to get on the same or higher playing field than Apple, they should take a page from a company called Hyundai.
