Review: Palm Pre, iPhone 3GS Neck-And-Neck

Pre A Worthy Competitor, But Apple Keeps Improving Its Product; Cost Of Plans A Key Factor

(CBS)  The smart phone wars have heated up over the past few days with the release of Palm's new Pre and Apple's announcements of a new iPhone, a cheaper price for its existing phone and a new operating system for users of all iPhones.

The Palm Pre, which hit stores on Saturday for $199 after rebate (and a two year contract with Sprint) is a very worthy competitor for Apple. Unlike the iPhone it has a physical keyboard which, while a bit small, is quite good. But it also has a touch screen that you can use to launch programs, zoom, shrink or move windows and dial the phone, although there's no onscreen virtual keyboard for entering text.

One of the things I like best about the Pre is that you can synchronize it over the air. Rather than connect it to a PC or Mac to move over contacts and calendar items, you simply sign in to your existing accounts and it brings over all the data via the Sprint network. It works with Google's calendar and Gmail, Yahoo and other web-based services as well as for businesses with Microsoft Exchange servers. Apple does this through its $99 a year MobileMe service but Palm does it for free with a variety of services.

Like the iPhone the Pre has a media player for video and music and it does come with a cable to move music and video files from a PC or Mac. But rather than write their own synchronization software, Palm encourages users to synch their media files with Apple's free iTunes software. When a Pre is connected, iTunes thinks it's an iPod or iPhone. I'm not sure what Apple's legal department will have to say about that, but if Palm can get away with it, it makes life easier all around.

I also like the way Palm organizes windows. The device's Web OS operating system is multi-tasking so you can run several programs at once but to make the most out of the Pre's small screen, each program runs in a "card" and all the cards become visible when you press the Pre's physical button below the screen. You then use your finger to flick from card to card and just touch the card you want to make full screen. To close a program you simply flick the card up and away.

You can dial the phone by punching numbers on the onscreen keyboard or typing them from the physical keyboard but you're more likely to just start typing the name of the person you want to call so the phone can look up and dial the number for you. That's also the case with the Blackberry, iPhone and most other smart phones.

I like the Pre a lot but I do have a few complaints. It's a little sluggish - not terrible, but enough so I notice slight delays. And while it's relatively user-friendly, it's not as friendly as the iPhone. I find myself having to think about what to do and occasionally having to type "help" to bring up the cheat sheet, whereas with the iPhone I don't recall having hardly any learning curve other than getting used to the iPhone's virtual keyboard. Except for typing on the screen (which I'm still not 100% comfortable doing), it just seemed to be obvious right out of the box.

There are some things I like better about the Pre than the iPhone and the opposite is also true so, on balance, if you had to buy a smart phone today, I think the Pre and the iPhone are pretty much neck and neck. But wait - Apple isn’t sitting still. Not only did the company on Monday announce a new iPhone, it also announced free software that will upgrade existing models.

The iPhone 3G S (which I haven’t yet tested) is said to be faster than the existing 3G, have much better battery life and come with a 3 megapixel camera that can also record video. It will come with twice the memory for the same price: $199 for 16 GB and $299 for 32 GB, up from 8 and 16. The Palm Pre comes with jut 8 GB. Also, Apple reduced the starting price of its existing 3G phone to $99.

Apple says that the phone will load applications faster and take advantage of upcoming planned speed improvements in AT&T's 3G network. Apple also says that the new phone will have better battery life including up to 5 hours of 3G talk time or 12 hours if you're on the 2G network. The new phone's 3 megapixel camera will also have autofocus and an automatic macro mode for close-ups. The big news is that it will record video with software that will let you easily send or post the video. Though lacking in the Pre, video is pretty common on phones but the new iPhone lets you edit video from the phone which is very cool.

Catching up with the Pre (and most other smart phones), Apple's new operating system, which comes out on June 17th, will upgrade all iPhones with cut, copy and paste features.

Simply based on memory configuration, the iPhone hardware is now less expensive than the Pre, but it might cost you more to use it. Sprint has some pretty aggressive pricing, including a $99 "Simply Everything" plan that covers unlimited voice, data and texting. AT&T bas a $99 "Nation Unlimited" plan for voice but you must also pay $30 for the data plan plus an optional $20 for unlimited text messages. Before buying a phone, check out the carriers plans to see what makes sense for your usage patterns.

Unlike the Pre, Blackberry and most other phones, the iPhone doesn't have a removable battery which is a problem for existing phones that sometimes run out of juice during a single day. If Apple delivers on its promise of better battery life that will be less of an issue but I still like being able to carry extra batteries just in case.

The new iPhone will be available June 19. Expect long lines at Apple and AT&T stores. The Palm Pre is available now. There aren't long lines at Sprint stores, Best Buy or other retailers, but there are shortages.

[rick1122]

Buy 2units Of iPhone 3gs 32GB And Get 1 Free N97


Apple 3Gs 32GB iPhone
Apple 3Gs 16GB iPhone
Nokia N97
Samsung Omnia HD
Blackberry Storm
Apple 3G 8GB iPhone
Apple 3G 16GB Iphone
HTC Touch HD
Blackberry Pearl
Blackberry Thunder
Blackberry Bold
Blackberry Curve
Nokia 8800 Arte
Imate Ultimate 7150
Imate Ultimate 8150
Imate-Ultimate 9502
Imate-Ultimate 6150
Sony Ericsson R 306 Radio
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
HTC Advantage X7510
HTC P347
HTC Touch Cruise
HTC Dual
HTC S730
HTC P6500
HTC TyTN II
Nokia N96
Nokia N80
Nokia E90
Nokia N86

WE SELL ALL BRAND OF MOBILE PHONES: SAMSUNG,NOKIA,SONY ERICSSON,IMATE,MOTOROLA,IPHONE,HTC,BLACKBERRY,LAPTOPS,PLASMA TV'S.

AND MORE OTHERS:

They are Brand New/Unlocked.

Email us at: [e-mail]


Mr Rick Mantill
Sales/Advert Manager.

[don878]

Brand new Mobile phone Plasma tv , Laptop game at cheap price come with complete accessories with one year international warranty.

Email address : [e-mail]

3G S APPLE IPHONE 16GB...........$450USD
3G S APPLE IPHONE 32GB...........$500USD

PACKAGE BOX INCLUDE:

iPhone 3G S
Stereo Headset with mic
Dock Connector to USB Cable
USB Power Adapter
Documentation
Cleaning/polishing cloth
SIM eject tool

WE MAKE SHIPPMENT VIA UPS OR FEDEX EXPRESS OR DHL EXPRESS IN 2 DAYS AFTER CONFIRMATION OF PAYMENT......

Email address : [e-mail]
[e-mail]

[slapppy]

@paddyhayes

Your full of it. Coming from Unix days and you were enthralled with MS DOS?

Guess what, now that the iPhone 3G S is out, this neck to neck is completely off the mark.

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3587

[au_fait]

Iphone is too gimicky. Sorry for business users, Iphone does not cut it. Additionally I like my mp3s small enough to not weigh me down when running.

[paddyhayes]

iPhone does a better job with iTunes?

No s***! Really?

Wow, you Cupertino fanboyz really need a boost when you have to say an Apple product does better with an Apple product that some other product does with an Apple product.

Coming from the old Unix days, I was enthralled with M DOS. Then came MS DOS and the era of Redmond. Glory!

Sorry fellas.

Apple, like everything else, will pass.

[slapppy]

Let me just clear up why this iPhone 3G S vs Pre is not even close to Neck to Neck. This is what the Pre needed to have to be even a contender. Because of the 3G S speed, apps open instantly, negating the heavily pushed battery draining background multi-task feature. It's not about 1 or 2 things, its about the entire system. So Neck to Neck is just completely off the mark.

Optical Grade Glass Oleophobic Coating Screen - NOT PLASTIC
CPU/GPU same as the pre
Open GL/ES 2.0 Optimized by iPhone OS
iTunes seamless integration
Movies
Video PodCast
Audio PodCast
TV Shows
Music
Music Videos
iTunes University
iTunes Latino
50 thousand apps and growing fast
REAL High End 3D accelerated Games
High End Applications
Dock Connector API and I can't wait to see the 3rd party hardware stuff coming this summer. This alone pushes the iPhone way beyond the wanna bees.
BT API
MobileMe with Locate me and Remote Wipe
Apps open and switch instantly now
Superior battery life by a huge margin
Video Recording ( Widescreen ) and Instant Editing right on the iPhone, Instant Share to YoutTube, MobileMe and eMail
Instantly share pictures to MobileMe Gallery
It's an iPod!!
Safari with AI, Multi-Touch controls
Real Cut, Copy & Paste. Yeah even non editable text can be copied.
Voice Memos
Voice Control and yeah not just English, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (UK), English (U.S.), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), Germanm, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish,, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish
MMS with full copy and paste
Real Universal Global Search
Keyboard with the best predictive intelligence yet. Has 40 international layouts and growing. Nice to have a virtual keyboard to easily add languages.
Dictionary supports international languages also
Character recognition so you can write in Chinese characters!
Digital compass ( hikers/bikers/campers ) will love this
Tethering
Nike + iPod
Parental Control
Autofocus and selectable Focus on the Camera!
Photo and Video Geotagging

[jjp735i]

Both phones sound great, but sorry, AT&T and Sprint are the worst for service in any area. More bars in more places my behind. Of course, Verizon has the better service, but really poor phones, even worse verizon locks out most things built into the phones so you really get less of a smart phone. Poor service or poor phones? Time to go back to land lines. You get taken less often.

[rf35]

Enough with the GD Pre ane iPhone! There just isn't any actual SciTech news this week, is there?

P.S. Somebody knock Larry Magid out and shave that ludicrous moustache off his face. Looks like a dead gerbil stuck to his lip.

[DCataneo]

I'm extremely happy with my iPhone 3G, and look forward to upgrading to the 3GS. 23 of my associates own the iPhone 3G, and 9 own the original 2G - all are extremely impressed with the i-Phone after long months of use, and often rave about its remarkable capabilities and streamlined functionality.

[top4odj]

I went from a Treo 700P to the Palm Pre. I never even considered the iPhone. I was never really impressed enough to buy one. I know a number of people that have it and many of them had second thoughts after the fact. But the biggest thing that kept me from the iPhone is A.T. & T's (and everyone else but Sprints) plan. I really am suprised that no other company has stepped up to the plate like Sprint has with the "Simply Everything" plan. That in itself is worth not having the iPhone.