Palm Pre Plus, Day 1

Day 0:

I got my Palm Pre Plus from AT&T yesterday, and wrote up a blog post about my 'transition' from the iPhone to the Palm Pre Plus.

Today:

It's still pretty early to have any form of 'concrete' opinions about the device... but right from the get go... a few things are already leaving 'first impressions' on me.

1. Size:

I guess one could say that the Palm Pre Plus has 2 different sizes: with and without keyboard open. I like the size quite a bit, smaller than the iphone, and I actually find it easier to carry it around.

2. Screen Resolution

When compared to the iPhone 4's 960x640 resolution, I really thought that the Pre's 320x480 was going to be a major issue for me... I mean, I really thought it was going to suck.

But it really doesn't. GUI still looks pretty sharp, I can 'pinch' the screen to zoom in and out, so other than seeing less information at a time on my facebook wall, I haven't really had an issue with it.

3. The keyboard

I love the 'real' keyboard on the Palm Pre Plus, the buttons are a tad small, but I can hit them pretty well, and somewhat efficiently well. I like the 'real' keyboard, and specifically, the layout of the keys much better on the Palm Pre Plus than the iPhone... Feel free to disagree :-)

On the other hand, I am not a huge fan of having to flip the keyboard open when I need to write something... Maybe I'd prefer the Palm Pre Pixi (at least when it comes to this 'feature'). I always find myself in a awkward position and I haven't mastered flipping the keyboard open with one hand yet w/o feeling like I am smearing the entire touchscreen with my nasty greasy hand! :-)

4. The Mirror

I don't know if other palm pre plus phones have this, but the one from AT&T has this metallic shield behind the touchscreen that can be used as a mirror... Sounds a bit girlie, I know, but I am a bit paranoid about my teeth, and I am constantly checking after I eat something to make sure I don't have anything stuck between them. Kinda lame, I know, but it really will be useful for me :-) I guess the front-face camera on the iPhone 4 would do the job for me as well :-)

5. The Battery

I read many reviews, and virtually all of them said one of the biggest problems of the Palm Pre Plus was the battery life. I am usually really good about not draining out battery in devices, not sure why, maybe because I don't use them as much as I should or maybe because I am not a 'power user'... who knows... but let me tell, the battery life on the Palm Pre Plus is sure a short one. It seems enough to hold up for an entire working day... but barely.

A friend of mine from work will be giving me his touchstone charger so charging up the phone will be a bit less painful... Taking off that little piece of plastic to plugin the micro-USB connector is actually kinda of a pain.

Also considering a car charger, I've always had one for the iPhone and they prove to be quite handy.

6. webOS

I am not going to say much about webOS yet because I know I have hardly touched the surface of what can be done with it, so all I will say for now from the little bit of hacking I've done (to install an 'unofficial' app) is that webOS is awesome!

I've gotten quite a few replies on twitter from people who actually went from webOS to an Android phone and had to go back to the Palm Pre because of the awesomeness of the OS :-)

I also got a tip from a couple of different people to check out: http://preware.org/ and that's what I will be doing over the weekend between F1 qualifying/race and World Cup games!

I will post more soon.

Update:

Ok, I didn't wait until the weekend, I installed WebOS Quick Install and Preware tonight... and it is what everyone has been telling me: AWESOME!

My Palm Pre Plus is flying, I have onscreen keyboard (for quick tweets), I can see more icons on my screen, easier access to brightness and I now have access to a bunch of other stuff, which I will write more about as I get to play with them.