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Palm Pre Phone (Sprint) | 
| Brand: Palm
Category: Wireless
List Price: $499.99
Buy New: $79.99
as of 11/21/2009 07:05 MST details
You Save: $420.00 (84%)
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 11
Color: Black
Media: Wireless Phone
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: Palm Pre 100
UPC: 805931036766
ASIN: B002JIO4JY
Release Date: October 28, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Browse the web and access email and messaging with a sleek, full-QWERTY smartphone featuring a 3.1-inch color touchscreen | | • | Palm's webOS featuring Synergy technology automatically pulls your contacts and calendars together into a single easy-to-view screen | | • | Sprint's 3G network provides reliable data services on the road, while Wi-Fi connectivity offers extra speed when available | | • | 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field; 8 GB of storage (approx. 7 GB available for user) | | • | In the Box: Palm Pre smartphone, lithium ion battery, AC travel charger, carry pouch, USB cable, 3.5mm stereo headset. Measures 2.3 x 3.9 x 0.67 inches (WxHxD); weighs 4.75 ounces. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
The revolutionary Palm Pre will make your life simpler by always being one step ahead. The Palm Pre will pull each of your online calendars into a single, easy-to-view screen, so you'll always be on top of your appointments, and it will automatically link all your contacts from different sources, letting you easily find what you need when you need it. Whether you are sending emails or text messages, browsing the web, listening to music, or simply making a phone call, the Palm Pre makes everything easier than ever.  |  |
The svelte Palm Pre slides out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard for fast and easy text input. | | Palm Synergy Brings Your Calendars and Contacts Together
The Palm Pre features Synergy technology, which gathers all your information from different sources and puts them together in one place for you to see. Instead of having your information scattered in different screens, the Pre automatically brings them together so you can easily find what you need. If you have calendars from Microsoft Outlook, Google, and Facebook, Synergy will automatically gather all your appointments and put them into one easy-to-view calendar, so you won't miss an appointment again. The Pre also makes managing your contacts simple -- not only will it gather your contacts from different places such as Google, Exchange, and Facebook, but if you have the same contacts in different places, this revolutionary phone will automatically link them together so they show up just once. And all your conversations with the same person will automatically be gathered into one chat-style view. For example, if you start a conversation via text message with someone, the Pre lets you quickly reply via IM or email.  |  |  |  |
1. Take photos with the 3 megapixel camera.
2. Built-in GPS makes navigation easy.
3. Contacts are gathered into one listing.
4. Never miss an appointment with a universal calendar. | | Sleek, Attractive Design with Easy-to-Use Keyboard
The Palm Pre features a sleek design that looks great and fits easily into your pocket. It measures 2.3 x 3.9 x 0.67 inches (WxHxD) and weighs just 4.75 ounces. The pebble-shaped phone has a beautiful 3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320x480 resolution display that lets you watch videos in full widescreen format. When it's time to write an email, you don't have to settle for a small onscreen keyboard. Simply slide out the QWERTY keyboard for fast and accurate text input. The Palm Pre has 8GB of built-in memory and uses a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack so you can connect any headphone you want. 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS Keeps You Connected
The Palm Pre is smartly connected to the Internet all the time, so you'll always have quick access to your email, calendars, and other information. When you are on the road, the Pre connects to Sprint's 3G network for Internet connectivity wherever you are. Sprint's 3G network is America's most dependable and provides outstanding speed and performance. If you are home or near a Wi-Fi hotspot, the Pre can also connect to it for even faster connectivity. And with GPS functionality built in, the Pre will let you look up directions or nearby points of interest even if you're not sure where you are. Live Email that Connects with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
The Palm Pre features live email, which means that whenever you get a new email, it is pushed directly onto your phone. You don't have to wait manually push a refresh button or wait for a scheduled sync. And if your email has attachments, you can view audio, video, images, and other documents directly on the Pre. For business users, the Pre can connect to your work email through Microsoft Exchange Activesync, making things easy for your IT department. WebOS Operating System Lets You Multitask and Do More
The Palm Pre runs Palm's new webOS, which lets you keep multiple applications open at the same time and move easily between them. Each application is represented by an on-screen card. You can flip through the cards, move them around, or throw them off the screen to close the application. The webOS features universal search capability, so if you need to find anything, simply start typing. The Pre will first search through your contacts and applications to see if it can find what you're looking for, and then it will offer to search Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia or Twitter. No matter what you're looking for, the Pre will quickly help you find it. 
Watch videos in full widescreen format. View larger. | If you receive a text message or have a calendar appointment coming up, the webOS will let you know you with a small, unobtrusive notification on the bottom of the screen. You'll always know what's going on without being completely interrupted. Take and View Photos, Watch Videos, and Listen to Music
The Pre lets you take great pictures with the built-in three-megapixel camera with LED flash. You can also watch widescreen videos on the beautiful screen, or buy songs from the Amazon MP3 store and listen to them with the built-in music player. Download Applications Directly Onto Your Phone
The Pre's App Catalog makes it easy to download new applications by simply browsing for them and downloading them directly to your phone. By downloading additional optional applications, you can do more with your phone. Automatic Over-the-Air Back Up
The over-the-air Palm Services automatically backs up your data and lets you restore it -- all without connecting to your computer. If your phone is lost or stolen, you can even remote erase everything on it. Additionally, the phone will automatically receive software updates so it will always be up to date. * Activating and Setting Up the Palm Pre on First Use
After receiving Palm Pre, it needs to be set up and activated. Activation requires a few steps. First, turn on the phone by pressing and holding the Power button. You will be prompted to choose English or Spanish. The next screen will check for voice and data activation. Once ready, tap Next. You will be presented with a Terms and Conditions page for Palm Services. Tap Accept to continue. At this point, you'll need to slide out the keyboard to create a new profile. Enter your name and password. The next step is entering your email address. You'll enter the same password and email combination you first entered, and then tap Next to continue. The next screen will confirm your profile and you'll receive an email from Palm. You'll have to accept various terms and service, and continue to tap Next when necessary to continue. When prompted, you'll have to choose between two location-based service settings. Either enable Auto-Locate, which provides for seamless use of location services all the time, or tap on Ask Each Time, which gives you a prompt every time an application requests the phone's location. Once done, you'll go through a tutorial and at the conclusion of the tutorial, an onscreen prompt will let you know that you're done. First Use set up is now complete and your Palm Pre is ready to go. What's in the Box
Palm Pre smartphone, standard lithium ion battery, AC travel charger, carry pouch, USB cable, 3.5mm stereo headset.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
 Has a lot of potential but not quite there yet November 21, 2009
F. Reeves (Cali)
I'll try to make this review as short and concise as possible. In a nutshell, the pre out of the box is a good (not great) phone with potential but missing a lot of basic functions. If you've owned a Palm device (i.e.treo/centro) buying the pre is a whole different operating system. The biggest thing you should be aware of before buying a pre is that it is cloud based compare to older palm devices. Cloud means internet syncing as a backup solution. No Palm desktop or local solution.
Cons
* No camcorder
* No virtual keyboard
* No LED notifications
* Cloud syncing - Palm wants you to use google/yahoo etc for free calendar & contacts syncing. Music/Photos sync via itunes until apple once again decides to break that function. There are third party apps that cost $40 for all purpose syncing.
* No DPad for navigating the cursor.
* No Tab key
* App catalog is limited and not a lot of professional/useful apps (at this time).
* No bluetooth file transfer
* Only 8GB of storage with no external storage option
* As of 11/20 there is an app limit to only 300mb.
* Docs2go is read only. However its not due to Palm. Datavitz will release the update early 2010
* No Flash. Adobe will release it early 2010
* When trying to change an existing appt the Calendar & task app don't have a month view with days of the week compared to older palm devices. The calendar is a scroll wheel design.
* No ability to password protect memos
* Not a lot of options to customize system sounds
* Limited to 3 pages (or screens) to store apps
* Slippery back cover. I would recommend buying the rubber matte touchstone charger back cover.
* The process of charging. There is a flimsy panel that hides the USB. You have to slide the phone open to use the USB. The process is so frustrating that it forces you to buy the touchstone charger. Note the touchstone doesn't charge via computer or come with a usb cable so you will have to buy the universal charger too. If you buy directly from sprint or palm thats almost $100. I bought both accessories from amazon for half the price.
* Lag when loading apps. Most of the lag though is caused by the animations.
Pros
* Synergy - ability to merge several calendars & contacts (exchange,google etc) into one
* Multi-tasking - ability to run several apps via card system at the same time. Ive had 10 apps opened at once.
* Slick UI - the recent update fixed a lot of lag
* homebrew app community - This is a group of random developers creating free apps & patches for webos. Most of the apps are reviewed by Palm and later added to the offical app catalog.
* Palm updates. While some may see that as a negative i see it as a plus because that means Palm is constantly working to make webos better. For example i bought the pre at launch and it didnt have full copy/paste and sms forwarding. Now it does because of the update.
* Built-in apps. NFL, Sprint TV, Sprint Navigation with voice directions
* multi-touch screen
* gesture area
I hope you find this review helpful. If the pre is going to be your first smartphone I would recommend buying. But if your coming from palm os or similar smartphone i would wait until they get the bugs out. Unless of course you are into new gadgets then by all means go for it. My experience has been with winmo and palm os, so when i brought the pre I was somewhat disappointed because of the lack of some basic features. But after using the homebrew apps and patches the phone is at 85% total satisfaction compared to 60%. With homebrew apps/patches some of the cons were addressed. I can now manage netflix, stream podcasts & radio stations, tag my car via GPS and locate it later and a lot of other cool stuff.
 Best iPhone Alternitive November 19, 2009
a guitarist (New York, New York USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
First things first, I owned an iPhone 3G for over a year. In that time, Apple decided to basically give iPhones away, and in New York City, where I live and work, my iPhone became an iTouch that sometimes made phone calls.
Looking for an alternative, I found the Pre - the Pre is easily the best alternative to the iPhone, probably above Droid, because it closely mimics everything the iPhone does, has multitouch, and operates on a much faster 3G network. What the Pre is lacking is the polish that you get with an iPhone in several areas:
1) Design: While I love the look and feel of it, the build quality is not quite as good as the iPhone. It's plastic, and not as sturdy as the iPhone. It's subtle, but it feels a little loose sometimes.
2) Polish: While Palm is new to the 'app' phone space, they have been making smartphones for almost a decade, and some very simple things are not done right. Spell check is a joke compared to the iPhone, I would even say it's non-existant, aside from adding an apostrophe here and there or turning "u" into "you." Music App is not nearly as good as the iPhone's, little annoyances are everywhere. That said, I greatly prefer the notification system over the iPhone.
3) Contacts bonanza: While Palm made it incredibly easy to set up gmail and exchange mail, the phone also imports a billion contacts without asking you, and your phone is full of people you never email or call. Worse, you can't use the facebook app without adding the hundreds of friends to your phone as contacts. Thankfully they can easily be removed. You can do things the old fashioned way, importing from outlook, which can be done through iTunes. Tip: to sync "My contacts" instead of "all contacts" in Gmail(like the iPhone does) use the EAS Gmail setup.
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Concerns I had:
1) Apps: I didn't use apps that much, and any app that used the internet was basically useless, so the Apps thing was not a big deal for me. Also, the key apps I did use (Google maps, NY Times, Movie showtimes, yelp, twitter, directv superfan) were all there. For most apps you can visit the actual website faster than the app. The only app I really miss is Shazam, hopefully they are working on that one. In time, any app that was popular will be copied for the pre, simply because it's so easy to program for and it can be just as lucrative.
2) Network: Anything was going to be better than AT&T. Sprint, in NYC, is fantastic. I have been using the phone for 3 months now and NOT 1 dropped call, and the EV-DO network is several times faster than AT&Ts. Downside: you can't google while someone is talking to you.
3) Keyboard: The keyboard is small, and I have larger than normal hands, but I had no problems. It could be a bit bigger, but I have found it to be less annoying than the on screen keyboard. Even tho my thumb is the size of several keys, I can usually hit the right one. All in all much faster than the iphone. Copy+ paste is a little goofy.
4) Battery: People complained of short battery life but I found it was on par with the iPhone. It needs a charge daily, you can probably squeek 2 days out with wifi off and limited use.
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Things that make this phone great
1) Instant search: You open your phone and begin typing, and immediately you are calling, texting, googling, or wikipeidaing. What took 4-5 taps on an iPhone takes literally 1 second.
2) SPRINT IS DIRT CHEAP! I used to pay over $100 a month with AT&T - now, with taxes my bill is $80 for unlimited mobile to mobile, texting, picture texting, internet, and 450 mins to landlines on weekdays. You can cancel an AT&T plan, sell your iPhone, and make up the difference in a matter of months. You save HUNDREDS over after a year.
3) NFL NETWORK: I don't know why Sprint doesn't advertise this, but they have what any NFL fan on Time Warner or Comcast wants. LIVE NFL NETWORK. The picture is ok but the audio is all you really need. Also a bunch of highlights from last sunday's games, news feed, fantasy.
4) Free Turn-by-turn directions: Why pay $100 for some gps app when it's free on your phone?
5) iTunes Sync: Very easy to get your music and photos on the device. It works with any version before 9.01, I don't know why anyone needs the latest iTunes, but it won't work with that.
6) Camera takes great pictures, flash works ok. Camera is arguably better than the iPhone 3G.
7) Background Apps: When you are using a phone heavily, it is really convenient to go back and forth between apps.
In short, if you live in SF or NYC or anywhere else AT&T is terrible and Sprint is good, get this phone.
 Came from an iPhone with high expectations... and they were met! November 19, 2009
amd2
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I owned my original iPhone for two very happy years. I wanted to upgrade to the 3GS but my husband and I agreed that it would be smart to switch to Sprint in order to save money. Well, I wasn't very happy about this. My husband has a Palm Pre, and he's all ga-ga over it, but I wanted a phone with a virtual keyboard, so I initally got the HTC Hero. After two weeks I couldn't take it anymore... it was simply not easy to use and the virtual keyboard drove me nuts. So I traded it in for a Palm Pre (to my husband's secret delight).
I miss being part of the "iPhone club," having a bigger screen, and having virtual voicemail... but outside of that? I'm a very happy customer. The Palm Pre has turned this unwilling recipient into a proud owner.
What do I like about it? EASE OF USE. The HTC Hero was a headache to understand. With the Palm Pre, I was able to figure it out within a day or two, as though I had been using it for years. The cards system of multitasking is genius in its simplicity, and very effective. I can easily flow from the web browser to my emails to my texts and calendars effortlessly.
It also helps that the Palm Pre is a much more open ecosystem than the iPhone, which allowed my husband to install an iPhone theme onto my Pre (for old-time's sake!), to make it look exactly like an iPhone. I know you can "jailbreak" an iPhone to do this also but the vast majority of people don't know how to do that, whereas any average Joe can make the Pre look and sound just like a Pre. My husband actually DESIGNED a Blackberry theme for the Pre and it's one of the most frequently downloaded.
Another thing I really like about the Pre is the screen. It's smaller, but vibrant and beautiful. The HTC Hero had 65,000 colors, but the Palm Pre? Sixteen million!
This may sound silly but another feature I like is the mirror on the back of the Pre's slider. Ladies (and guys, you too!)... this is a very useful feature!
Palm's App Catalog has a growing number of apps, some of which I find really useful, like Pandora, Google Maps, and Flixster. I haven't missed the thousands of iPhone apps quite like I thought I would because to be honest I didn't download that many when I had my iPhone.
I really like the camera on the Pre. Fast shutter times, and great outdoor quality pictures. Indoors the quality suffers in low light... but when there's NO light then we can use the Pre's built-in flash.
Finally, updates. I like how Palm regularly updates this phone. With the iPhone they would only come once in a while. It's good to know that Palm is continually striving to improve their product. The Pre now saves pictures and copies text from the browser and forwards text messages. Full flash capability is coming soon which will make the browser even better. (My husband told me to put that part in!)
Things I don't like? Battery life is pretty bad. My phone will certainly be dead in the morning if I forget to charge it overnight. My husband surprised me with a Touchstone charger and if you get this phone you HAVE to get this accessory. I don't have to fiddle with wires or anything... just set my phone down and I'm done. Another thing I don't like is that things aren't quite as snappy on this phone as on my friend's iPhone 3GS... but it has gotten faster with updates and again I can do more than one thing at once on the Pre.
That's pretty much it! I'm not a very techie person, just an average consumer and smartphone user. I thought I would miss the iPhone more than I am now, but to be honest, the Palm Pre has been a pleasant surprise. I really like it. If you're on Sprint or on another network considering the Pre, it gets my vote.
 Pre - Not Ready for Prime TIme. November 19, 2009
ArthurofChicago (Chicago)
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
As a replacement for a TREO, it lousy especially if you used your TREO in business and liked to synch your calendar and contacts with one or more PC's.
The Pre does not use old PALM method but rather wants you to synch via the internet using Google. The Google app is free and you get what you pay for. You can only sync a limited amount of data points. Forget it if you have a big contact data base with multiple listing per entry. (My understanding is that the Pre is no worse then other smartphones on this issue.)
I spent close to 20 hours with Pre support - no go. Ultimately, I found my way to CompanionLink which Palm contracted with to develop a 3rd party sync app. Great - you now get to pay an extra $50 for what your old TREO did perfectly. And perfect CompanionLink is not. They are on a 2nd round of trouble shooting sync failures with my Pre as I write this missive. It major problem when only some of your calendar entries sync.
Oh - no video yet either but allegedly the phone has the capacity. Why? Who knows, the TREO had a fine video capacity.
Other then that, the Pre has been excellent. The camera is solid, the internet navigable, the screen is excellent and the keyboard lovely.
Bottom-line, the Pre was effectively released with beta software. When the software catches up to the Pre's technically ability, the Pre will be worthy smart phone and a much higher star rating from me
good & not so good November 19, 2009
Seema Vaibhav Dubey (Bangalore, India)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
- I tried Pre` phones for 30 day, as much as possible. Yes phones, since I had to change 3 phones for various reasons. The first one came with cracked screen. I called amazon & got it replaced. The second one would not power at all. So Amazon sent me a replacement again, while I kept using the first one with cracked screen. Was embarrassing to carry in front of friends with whom I have been favoring Palm viz a viz Iphone. Now the third one screen would go blank on making a call & you would need to restart the phone. So Amazon sent 4th one. This one worked well for 3 days. 4th day onwards once everyday I had to restart the phone to make/receive any calls. While wifi & other functions worked well the basic phone functionality will hang once in a day randomly. So I called Amazon to replace the phone again. Mind it all this while I was all happy with the functionalities of the device & loved how it worked when it worked. But Amazon decided that they would not replace this one. They just offered me refund & asked me to return the handset & accessories. I called up & spoke to them but to no avail. Amazon people told me since it's recurring problem they will pull out the phone from their site till pending investigation. But I realized they just wanted to sweet talk me into returning the phone, since I was insisting on replacement. So I returned the phone & closed my Sprint account.
- Dude did Amazon/Sprint realize that if you are living in USA you need to be careful of 'credit history'. That is what makes or breaks a person here, while businesses can thrive on any BS policies they force on consumers. So when I go to purchase a car they will run my credit history & find one additional inquiry from Sprint. Amazon/Sprint would not care how my interest rates jack up because of this. Let me come back to the topic.
- The touch stone charger is kool, again as long as it works. The phone will randomly think it's not good to charge through touch stone now, all this while you were thinking your phone is charging & you would be good to go outside in some time...but no. There are 2 causes for touchstone to stop working...1. Known cause, where back cover may get loose over a period of time & the connectors behind would not make good connection with battery, so remove cover, replace it back & press firmly there you go. 2. Unknown cause, no matter what you do unless you restart the phone it would not start charging through touch stone, there you go again. Those of you who would not mind restarting should factor the time it takes to restart the phone, believe me it's painfully long. I am not comparing it with other phones & I am not aware as well but Pre` takes long to restart.
- On upsides I liked the feel & looks of the phone. I could brag in front of iphone users about it's multi-tasking os till it froze once in front of my colleague when I was showing it. This demanded a restart. I liked the calender & contacts organization. It really is functional & slick. I would say only Palm Pre & Blackberry are serious business phones rest all are style or gaming devices.
- Sprint 3G connection is really fast. Palm would not disappoint in opening apps, web or other things, it compliments Sprints fast 3G connection. Add to this free Telenav on Pre, it's a stealer deal. Only if Amazon lets you keep the phone :)
- If Palm/Sprint fixes the small glitches in the phone they have a pretty descent device up at very reasonable price in the market. Yes Amazon need to be supportive of customer & partners selling on their site.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
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