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.

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[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.

[pw08-2009]

It's so funny what sheep Apple has created out of the population. People are so pathetic with how much they need to text and rely on their stupid phones.....geez, get a freaking life already.

[VisortoPre]

The Pre is everything I wanted in a smartphone and more. I tried to convince myself to buy the Iphone. Went to ATT store three times. Horrible typing experience. Black Storm---3 trips to Verizon. Horrible typing and horrible browsing. The Pre is a gorgeous, elegant, fit your hand and pocket nicely smartphone with all kinds of super stuff. Apps, good apps, are already on it and more are on the way. Battery life has been good. Unlike Iphone, I can change it out. Media player sound quality is better than my Ipod. 3 Pre's, one for me, my wife, and my teenager (who is crazy about his Pre) and all are working perfectly.

[slapppy]

Gosh we all know Magid from many past articles that he has alway been anti Apple. Even if he can't find a real fault on some product, he always downplays it and quickly promotes a competing product. Anything Apple is no good for Larry.

[Vanzant78]

Search arount the net, apple wont reveal the new processor speed

The reason they dont reveal the processor speed is because it is not faster. They simply added 128mb ram. They dont want to go head to head with the palm pre on specs.

If they did, the 600mhz 256mb Pre and the new i phone 3gs would be a virtual tie. The Pres Texas Instruments integrated processor lets it run multiple apps, the apple gives you way more GB. But if you dont need a huge GB hard drive the Pre is faster AND it has a keyboard.

[roadracer9x]

"It [the Pre] 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"

Some tech article... filled with misinformation! Come on Larry do your homework!

The iPhone seamlessly syncs with Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, etc. etc OVER THE AIR AND ALL FOR NO EXTRA CHARGE ON THE DATA PLAN. I have an iPhone that syncs over the air with my work's exchange server and with my home email at no extra charge. I do not need mobileme to sync my iPhone over the air.

[thomderr1]

I'm keeping my Blackberry. At least for a couple more years.
I few of my associates own the I-Phone, three of which want to switch to Sprint/Nextel. They are unimpressed with the I-Phone, after long months of use.