Are You Interested in the Palm Pre?

The Palm Pre is set for release Saturday June 6, 2009.  Are you thinking about upgrading to one?  If so, here is what the reviewers are saying.

By and large the initial reviews are favorable.  David Pogue for one is pretty impressed with it:

You’ve seen that movie, right? The one where a pair of lovable sad-sack losers team up to defeat the smug athletic golden boy?  If not, you’re about to. It’s called “Palm Pre vs. iPhone.”

For Pogue's full review:  Palm Pre, Elegant Contender

If you want to see in some fair detail what the Pre looks like, check out Gizmodo's review by Jasen Chen:  Pre Review.

I have to say, I'm finding this tempting.  My iPhone contract has been up for a couple of months.  I've been waiting for Apple to upgrade the iPhone, at least to add more storage and hopefully to give the 3G better batter life when running GPS and all the other cool gadgets it has (I have the original iPhone but have heard enough friends complain about batter life on their 3Gs to be quite content waiting for an upgrade).

But before the iPhone, I was a Palm guy and had been using Palms from one of the first versions up through the Treo I recycled when I got my iPhone.  I have a real soft spot for Palm and I do hope the Pre is the success that saves them from the demise that has seemed all too inevitable of later.

But I'm ready to make the switch back.  I'm just not excited about moving to Sprint (maybe I'm crazy on this one; maybe I just like the devil I know, AT&T better than the devil I don't, Sprint).  Neither am I longing to get back to a physical keyboard since I've adapted to typing on the iPhone glass.  The Pre requires CDMA so you are pretty much limited to the US (not a huge deal, but it was sure nice to have cell phone access in Italy last year to handle a couple of emergencies that came up).  Battery life...it sounds like that's even more an issue on the Pre than the iPhone according to David Pogue.  But there is enough here, I am definitely going to check out the Pre and consider it, though, I am waiting to hear what Apple announces next week at WWDC 2009 - you've got to think there's going to be a new iPhone.

For some other Pre reviews:

• Walt Mossberg from the Washington Post:  Palms New Pre Takes on the iPhone
• Joshua Topolsky from Engadget:  Palm Pre Review
• Bonie Cha from CNET News:  Palm Pre Review;  Does it Live Up to the Hype?

Leave a comment if you are looking at the Pre (or not looking at it) with your thoughts.

Peter H. Berge

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