Review With All Features Covered, Yeah Right! Until Now

Screen:
When first booting the device up I was expecting a slightly fuzzy picture since my current device is a touch pro, to my surprise I saw a crystal clear image with a sharp crisp look. The 480X320 screen is just beautiful with support of 16 million colors. My first test that I had to put the device through was how it looked while in the sun, to my surprise (even at noon) the glare from the sun was reflected nicely by the screen and it was still very readable without a lot of strain or stress on the eyes. By the time I had tinkered with it for a little bit I noticed that the greases from my hands and sweat was making a glare when the sun hit it. That was a downer, a easy fix I found for this was to use the case that came with the device as a quick clean cloth.

And My Personal Favorite:

Touch Sensitivity:
I'm not sure about others but on my devices I love having a responsive screen that doesn't take much pressure to recognize a touch. The Pre nailed this no doubt! The screen is the perfect sensitivity meaning you just have to tap very lightly to get a register but not too light in where it's overly sensitive. This is a big factor since I send many texts and emails throughout the day and don't want to waste time having to click multiple since it didn't register the first time. A cool feature dealing with the touch feedback is the ripple effect, every time a touch is registered on the device a ripple effect happens showing you that the touch did go through. Additionally, if you press and hold you will get a halo feature appearing on the device which you can then use to change icons on your launcher.

Phone:
The phone feature on the Pre is very east to access and use. The phone pad has very easy to touch numbers and option buttons. The only thing that I have noticed is that every once in a while when scrolling through my recent calls I get a little lag if I try to scroll through too fast. The use of this feature and the ability to find contacts and lists easily makes this a great device on the call side. (besides the one downer of the lag especially with pictures.)

Operating System/UI:
As many people that know me well realize, I am a true, diehard Windows Mobile FanBoy. When I picked up my first PPC (Treo 700WX) I knew I would love the device and future devices instantly. That served to be true in all instances when dealing with WM devices. With that said I kept an open mind and was really excited to be one of the first people to give this a shot and see what WebOS is all about. From the moment I finished the initial set-up I knew that Palm placed a lot of time into the device and the UI. The swipes are very smooth and they seem to have all the correct drivers in place allowing the device to run smoothly. Upon tinkering further I noticed that there are many new features as well as some that they have adapted from the past palm models and OS. I do like the "Card" feature, but I do have one gripe about it. Why can't the cards be minimized completely but still open?(like use a task manager app to see them) I like being able to leave cards of my commonly used applications (AccuWeather, Infopedia, Tweed, SMS ,Email) open since they do open almost launch instantly compared to the slightly sluggish speeds if they weren't open currently. The one feature I grew to love quickly is the notifications and how they are set up. While I was surfing the net testing the browser I received a text message, only the bottom part of the screen showed that message and I could still type and the same was for when a call came through! This is a great feature that I wish windows mobile had since personally getting cut off while on the net happens quite a bit. The launcher is pretty cool and can hold up to 5 icons which are interchangeable. To change the icons you just have to open up the apps tab (on the far right of the launcher) and then when in there just click and hold the icon that you want to remove until you see a halo form around it. Once you see the halo just drag over to the page and then do the same to add the icon of your choice to the launcher. Last but not least the lock feature is basic, stylish, and easy to use. It consists of a large digital clock and a yellow circle with a padlock on it. To unlock the device all you have to do is slide that yellow dot up and the screen and you DONE|. For the contacts I have a couple complaints, first of all, the user has to scroll all the way through if they don't want to type to get to the contacts at the bottom of the list. I feel that they should have it where you press and hold and you should be able to press the letter and have it bring you to that part of the contact list. The other gripe I have is that the contacts that have pictures with them take a little longer to load than the ones without images. Sound wise the speaker is great and of good quality but why did Sprint/Palm lock down the ability to be able to switch notification sounds? This doesn't make since to me since every phone since the beginning of phones have had interchangeable alerts. Hopefully this gets fixed soon.

Messaging And Email:
The messaging feature on the phone is a pretty cool one indeed. It's laid out in two different forms, you have the conversations and buddies tabs. The conversation tabs is your threaded text message style with contacts from your phone. Buddies on the other hand is your instant messaging programs so one can talk via IM without any additional apps. The only gripe that I do have with the messaging format is that there is no way to forward a text message if needed. Hopefully that will get fixed in future updates. (or application is made.) Email is very easy to set up. All you have to do is click on add new account and fill in the blanks. Many people don't understand what a lot of the lingo that is used means or what the server addresses are. I have found this to be a very helpful webpage that gives you all the domains and server addresses for the top email clients. CLICK HERE

Battery Life:
In my daily life I can easily send and receive over 600 texts and 200 emails a day from various places (especially from the site I co-found (in profile) ) so I need a battery that isn't going to die quickly. Out if the box the device was only half charged, not wanting to damage my battery I fully charged the device before I tinkered. (trust me it was hard not to pick it up and fiddle with it) Once charged it was about noon, I decided to put it to the test and started texting people that this was the number I wanted to be contacted on for the next month for testing purposes. Oh boy! Hahaha, that was a mistake if I should say so myself. Before I realized it I was over 100 deep in text messages, this would have drained my Touch Pro pretty quickly but surprisingly I was still at 94% battery life! Not believing it I decided to setup my email addresses, 154 emails later I still hadn't dipped below 90%. At this point I decided to call a close friend since I know she would put my phones battery to the limit. (she likes to talk  ) After finally hanging up the phone an hour later I noticed my battery life had dipped down to 79%. I tested these results over the next few days preceding this and the battery life hasn't drained any faster as of yet.

Charger:
Prepackaged with the pre you will find a charger, usb cord and little cylinder which plugs into your outlet at home. You can charge your device via usb from your computer by just plugging in or by plugging the usb into the cylinder and then to an outlet. For those that don't like the fact of always removing the little plug and charging the phone via usb can look into the touchstone charger which is wire-free and runs 70.00 at local stores. The cool features about the touchstone is that it comes with a very nice matte back cover that feels better in hand and is less slippery than the stock one when talking. To use the touchstone charger all you do is snap the phone into place and let it be, if a call comes through to the touchstone it will activate the speaker on the device until you pick up the phone when it will than automatically switch back to the earpiece for you. I highly recommend one of these for all users since it is also a nice docking station so you don't have to worry about the device falling or getting knocked off from the table.

Camera:
The camera feature (3.2 MP with flash) on the Pre is very basic which in a way is a good thing. The speed of the camera is the strong point. You can take the picture and take another one right after without lag or delay to save or view the image. The negatives about it that I have noticed so far is that the image clarity isn't the greatest (not as clear as on my pro which has 3.2 MP also) and that they don't have different settings to change, such as mp's, sports mode, rampage mode, etc. The mirrored back of the slider is a great idea making it very easy to take the picture of you and a friend from your phone without guessing. the biggest downfall to the camera is that the Pre doesn't have video capabilities at this time.

App Catalog:
The app catalog doesn't have too much in it at the moment but will grow in the near future. There are some very good apps in it including Connect 4, Fandango, Tweed, Pandora, etc, already included in the app catalog. ( which is still in beta but very nicely laid out making it easy to find what you want.) The most impressive feature is that you can search by the type of app that you are looking for. I can't honestly wait until the app store starts to grow some more and see what fellow developers are coming up with for this device.

Keyboard:
I don't have the biggest of hands but don't have the smallest either so the keyboard was my biggest worry about this device. I have owned other devices in the past such as the Treo Pro and after some times the keyboard not only cramped my fingers it also cramped my hands. To my surprise the Pre's keyboard doesn't cramp my hands too bad. I found when I feel my hands getting a little tired that I can just hold in one hand and use my thumb to press the keys on the keyboard. The keys are a harder (yet still soft) rubbery feeling key with a nice texture, this makes the Pre a lot easier to type on than if it had the hard plastic keys with no give to them

Internet:
The net feature on the device is up and down. When you are in good signal areas I haven't used a faster browser, but when you get down to one bar or so it tends to slug more than other devices like WM per instance. One thing I don't like is that in WebOS there is the ability to add tethering to the device but sprint already stated that it wouldn't be allowed with this device which I honestly don't understand. Smartphone and PPC users through sprint have became accustomed to being able to tether with our devices and could be a huge turn off to many people looking to make the switch from a different Smartphone or to a Smartphone for the first time.

Speaker Quality:
The speaker on the device during in talk is pretty descent overall. In wind it tends to fade down to lower levels but still overall easy to hear. The speakerphone if crystal clear but could get a little louder in my opinion. When playing music through the devices speaker it is very clear and understandable, there isn't too much bass that comes from it and it doesn't get overly loud. For a phone it gets the job done and is usable at least.

Nifty Features/Design:
Synergy- This is a cool feature that is very useful for a device user like myself. When I set up my Gmail account on the Pre it will sync and then ask me if I want to sync my contacts and calendar from my account. This saves so much time since I now can have my address book with me quickly and efficiently since I am a on the go emailee.

System Updates:
The system update feature is outstanding. Most of the Pre's were shipped out with 1.02 and a new 1.04 update just came out. Updates are completed by over the air (OTA) downloads straight on the device itself. The update only takes about 5-10 minutes to complete (depends on size so will differ as new updates are released) and surprisingly doesn't affect anything on your device such as programs, contacts, email addresses, and so on. The other eye catching feature about the update tab is that at the same time it is updating your phone it will update your programs if there is a new version released. The only worry about the auto update of apps is if the developers are going to make it so the registration key sticks or will the person have to activate the program again or even pay out of pocket again.

Design:
The design of the device is very smooth and elegant with a pinch of sport. The slide out keyboard on an angled cut Is a great addition to help shield from the sun when texting outside. The phone is made very solidly and quality wise have no major problems. The things that bother me about the design is the battery cover, no status lights, and the cheese slicer angle under the keyboard. The battery cover can be taken off by pressing the little tab in on the bottom of the device and then sliding up. Ha, easier said than done. The easiest way that I have found to get it off is to get my nail under the cover and then work it to the top when it will than pop off without any troubles or damage. (hopefully will be fixed in future models) For status lights, I've always been a fan. I set my phone down at work quite often and go do something on the other side of the office, I can't hear the phone over there since it is louder in my area. (other phones ringing non-stop) All I have to do on my pro is glance over and see if the icon for a notification is flashing or not. I can't do this on the Pre which means you have to physically turn the screen on to see if you have anything missed. It's a small turn off (but not killer) but we do have a led circle on the front which I'm sure in no time will have script wrote to make it work as a status indicator.
Expandable memory is always nice to have. Unfortunately the Pre relies on the 8gb internal memory as its only source. 8gb is plenty on a device for some but what about the ones that want to add music or movies 8gb really isn't too much. I would have loved to see even an 8gb and 16gb version, this device is supposed to be the Iphone killer so why not give the option for the extra memory to help make it happen? This could turn off many people and have them go with or stick with the Iphone over the Pre.

I would like to thank VenumX, Sh0wNuF, TlPalmer, Jr5416, Cyber Weesje, and Puertoblack2003 For The editing help of this tutorial.