Palm Pre Plus Cell Phone Reviews

by Beth -- January 26th 2012 -- Neenah, WI

I am very disapointed. I liked it at first but it constantly shuts off, sometimes freezes, and I cant use my flash because it makes everything white. Frustrating and I dont want to go through 5 phones before they finally give me the option to get a different kind.

by Tina -- August 11th 2011 -- Dallas, TX

This phone is awful....

by jm -- August 3rd 2011 -- Canton, MI

This phone has many options. However, there are many that are not available such as no app for Skype, camera does not have zoom in/out option.

by Jeff Gaither -- September 16th 2010 -- Southside, AL

Being a long time customer of Verizon I will say they do work hard to try and resolve customer problems. But that said, my third Palm Pre Plus in five months has turned into a huge disappointment like the first two. The only dependable feature is its unfailing ability to imitate a paperweight. When it works I love it, the hotspot was the deciding reason I chose the Pre Plus over the Droid. What a mistake. All three phones show the same hardware errors, and this last one also has lost the hotspot capability. If you desire one of these phones, please talk to someone who actually owns one and not just a reviewer.

by Tim G -- June 5th 2010 -- Knoxville, TN

Great phone. Highly innovative & interesting design. However, Palm needs to provide the user with a way to increase FONT SIZE. Notwithstanding the tiny FONT size for nearly all software pages, and assuming you have unaided 20/20 vision, and enjoy very small fonts, this phone is for you. I have 25 more days to evaluate. The small font however, is killing me.

by Ivan -- May 3rd 2010 -- Bronx, NY

by Barry Allen -- April 15th 2010 -- Palm Springs, CA

I switched from the iPhone 3GS on ATT. After a few days I really got the hang of the Pre multitasking ability. After a week it was second nature to me. I really like the "gesture" concept to move and close apps. Very cool! The PALM. Like the iPhone, has a great selection of apps in its catalog. The 3D gaming is amazing on this screen. One thing I failed to compare to iPhone before I switched was the camera ability. Pre is far and away better! It actually has a flash, picture quality is amazing and upload of your videos to YouTube couldn't be easier. I have never owned a phone with slide out keyboard I was reluctant. I love it! Makes for something as basic as carrying the phone in your pocket take on a whole new ease. And I am happy to have the same keyboard design that I had on my Treo 680 back. Personal preferences I know, but QWERTY for me. And then of course, Verizon. Unlike ATT I can actually make and hold phone calls. I actually receive my voice messages! Imagine.

by Sunil Nair -- April 12th 2010 -- San Jose, CA

My last phone was a Palm Centro which I really did not have much liking for. As soon as completed my 20 months with it I started to look for another phone to replace it. I have a Blackberry curve which happens to be my work cellphone. Since Blackberries are known for their smartphone capabilities I decided to look at the Blackberry Storm2. But it was as good looking as a blonde babe and equally dumb. I thought the touchscreen system was a gimmick and the interface was nowhere near to what I would call appealing. The other Blackberries (curve or bold or whatever it is called now) were not really appealing to me. They do emails fine but when it comes to browsing or any sort of entertainment they are plain horrible. The new Motorola Devour was out of my little list even before I took a look at it due to Android 1.6 (old OS droid has 2.1). So the obvious choice was the Droid and the Palm Pre. The Pixi was also out because of smaller screen and slower processor/less memory (it costs less too but i wanted a powerhouse smartphone). The Droid has a terrible keyboard. The keys are so flat that it does not give me any confidence while typing. The Pre although not as good as a Blackberry keyboard was still much better. After entering a few contacts I was able to type at a reasonable speed. (reasonable with respect to cell phone levels; Almost as fast as with my BB). So the phone I chose? The Pre Plus of course. And what was that I liked about this phone? 1) It has a large touch screen "AND" a physical keyboard. I use my phone for emails and to take notes a lot and need the physical keyboard for that. I also use it for web surfing and therefore the large screen. 2) The hardware is quite good quality. This is a subjective thing so I suggest you go and check it out. It also comes with inductive charging back cover which is cool (you will need to by the touchstone charger additionally but get one from amazon if you need it since its cheap here). 3) Good screen resolution and very vibrant colors. I think this screen is quite up there in terms of quality. 4) Well placed buttons and minimal buttons on the phone makes up for a clean look. I don't have to worry about having to press the wrong button while on a phone call. 5) The operating system. This is a long list since this is by far the best OS I have seen in any of the smart phones. The webOS is the reason I called this phone a MICRO LAPTOP. I can be writing an email and if I need to refer some info from another email I do not have to save,close and access the other email. I can do it on the fly. It just makes doing thing much faster. You will realize this when you spend some time with this phone. I can record a video crop it and save, email or upload it on the web right away, same with pictures. The way it saves my contacts is just amazing. All the contacts can be accesses in a single place without any duplicates. I also like the way you close apps with a flick towards the top. The left to right flick gesture in the gesture area to go back a menu or the tap to get the app to a card view are all such refreshing changes. I was literally hooked on to this phone for the last three weeks. The web browsing experience is also amazing. I have stopped using my laptop at home and use this (with wi-fi) to browse the web now. No need to wait for the laptop to turn on or set mouse or anything. From my personal experience with the webOS I suggest you spend some time with it in a store and see it for yourself. I don't have words to explain the full potential of this operating system. It is truly amazing. 6) The notification system is amazing. You should definitely check this out in the store. Ask the sales rep to show about the notification system. Basically it let you know that there is an email or text or anything else without taking you out of your current environment. Whether you are browsing the net or just checking email you will be give just enough information in the notification bar so as to let you decide if you want to respond to it or not. 7) Palm thanks for not underestimating my technical ability and letting me change the battery myself. Yes you can change the battery. You can also get a high capacity battery for about $50. Some of you who like toy around with your gadgets will need this. The reason for this is in point number 9 below. 8) App catalog. Yes I like the app catalog. It only has about 2500 apps. But the reason I like it is that palm allows you to download and install apps on your phone other than from the Palm app catalog. You can get a bunch (about 700 in total as of this writing) of web distribution apps or Homebrew apps at www.precentral.net and install them on your phone. The webOS is the easiest platform to program on so you can expect tons of apps for this to be released in the very near future (next 3 to 4 months). 9) Overclocking your phone. The Pre Plus comes with a Texas Instrument OMAP processor which runs at 500 Mhz. The processor is actually designed to run at 600 Mhz. The reason palm underclocked it is to save battery (more on that below). You can unofficially overclock it to 720 Mhz or 800 Mhz. Check out youtube videos of the overclocked phone and you will see the difference in the speeds. It literally blazes through apps. App launches are instant. There is hardly any delay or lag. This is the reason for the larger battery. So every phone has its negatives. What are the negatives for the Pre Plus? 1) The battery is a bit underpowered to run the entire day with heavy use. For me not much of a deal since I keep it plugged into my laptop at work. You can do that or get the larger battery which is only $50. I say "only" $50 since other batteries for other phones cost quite a lot than this.(yes I am talking about the iPhone). Thats it I really have no other issues with this phone. I suggest you go to a store and check out the phone for yourself. Be sure to spend at least 10 minutes with this phone before you make a decision on this phone. This is truly a gem in the sea of smartphones out there. If you have already decided to buy one I suggest you get a Zagg invisible shield on. I got one on mine so I don't scratch the display. FYI Best resources for learning more about the phone and the apps are 1) precentral.net 2) webosroundup.com P.S. I am in no way affiliated with any of the websites or companies named in this review. I provided you this information so that the research I did during the process of buying the phone could help you in your decision whatever that may be. Good Luck!

by LA6507 -- April 11th 2010 -- Lexington, KY

This is as close to the ultimate phone experience as one can get at present! The OS is still maturing and I knew that before purchasing this phone but for the amount I paid (I would have paid alot more for it, though), it was the best deal I've seen in the last 10 years, at least! OK, on to features. This phone has lots of little "Wow, it can do that?" type features like: The Wifi Mobile Hotspot. OK college Students - let's say you get together on a Saturday night at Starbucks for a study session and you all have laptops. Whomever has the Pre can set it to be the shared internet connection on Verizon's 3G network! Awesome! (There is a 5GB limitation, though - read the fine print). Next is that the addresses in the address book and Calendar are linked to the GPS Nav app (whichever you select) - Nice. Next, A2DP in the Pre not only allows you to use Bluetooth speakers/headphones but it also allows you to pipe the Audio from your Pre (Navigation commands as well as music) into you Bluetooth Car Audio System (Luxury Car Owners). Very nice! Next, The entire alphabet on the QWERTY keyboard can be set to a speed dial. I also love how my address book entries across all of my social networking accounts are automatically grouped (at my discretion) to a respective entry, then as I update info on that contact, it is synced automatically across all accounts! I also love how the phone separates ringtones by directory location and not by filetype - and it does not pull in my audio collection until I initiate it which makes so much more sense than other phone implementations (Nokia pulls everything down, making you search GB's of music for one ringtone and Apple makes you pay for your own music - how stupid is that?) I also love how it auto-manages multiple calls and missed calls, then auto-expands and contracts them as I browse through them, also allowing me to respond by SMS or phone call, or just delete the entry. Very nice. The battery life is not great but it is still much better than my last 3 Windows Mobile Phones and I have to say that the call quality is hand down the best experience I've had on a non-Nokia handset. Lastly, I can never say enough about how incredibly rock solid the Bluetooth Headset profile has been on my Pre Plus! For me, this was a non-negotiable must-have and Palm delivered in Spades! BT is bare-bones on this device (Headset and A2DP are all you get.) but it is ROCK SOLID. I would have gladly made this trade for the stability that WebOS has provided! I still want OBEX and Hands-free Profiles but I will patiently wait for them if it means that the stability of their currently enabled BT profiles does not suffer. The only thing this phone really suffers from is a lack of availability of WebOS applications (there are around 1500 right now, not counting the 1000 or so of home-brew apps) but the phone is IMHO the best PDA you can buy AND you get an incredible phone for FREE! This is one of those devices that you pickup and try for 14 days and allow it to rock your world! Check it out!

by JJQuin -- April 6th 2010 -- Corvallis, OR

The Palm Pre Plus is the best smartphone available. I've had mine for two months. I did a lot of research and nothing compares. The 3D games are awesome, but the best feature is the multitasking. I usually have 20 programs open at once and can pause multiple games with no speed impact. My only complaint is the battery life, which was fixed by purchasing a larger battery online.