HP Palm / Reviews

It definitely is a good iteration on the original but I still don't think that it has enough to stay competitive in the 2011 smartphone market. Consumers generally think that good quality hardware = good product, and if Palm/HP continues to produce phones that are lacking in the hardware department, despite the great software, I feel like the Pre 2 will go the way of the original Pre, that is dead on arrival.
So, original Pre owners should you upgrade to the Pre 2. NOOOOO!!!! With the Pre 3 just around the corner I simply cannot recommend the Pre 2 to anyone unless you can get it  dirt cheap or if you don't want any of the new features that are on the Pre 3.
Like many people who have used webOS, I think that Palm/HP is onto a winner with webOS but until they offer a compelling app platform for developers, good hardware for users and market the hell out of the handset, I cannot see webOS ever being a success.

Read original review at Tracy and Matt.

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Overall, there is a lot to like about the Palm Pre 2. We like its overall shape, though its design is a bit dated now, but it’s easy to hold and feels comfortable in the hand. The improved webOS 2.0 software and 1GHz processor makes the Pre 2 feel faster and more powerful than the Pre Plus. But at this point, we’re not sure if the Pre 2 has what it takes to attract any new users to is, since Verizon’s big sellers are Android smartphones, and they are now also carrying the iPhone 4. The Palm Pre 2 is currently selling for $149 with a 2-year contract, which is the same price as the Motorola DROID X, and only $50 less than the 16GB iPhone 4. Because of this, the Pre 2 is a tough sell and is mostly targeted to current Pre Plus users that are looking for an upgrade and want to stay with the webOS experience. But new smartphone users will probably be attracted to other devices.

Read original review at PhoneArena.

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After several months of delays, HP's Palm Pre 2 is finally available on Verizon. Like the first version, the svelte Palm Pre 2 is a finely crafted smartphone with a beautiful operating system. But the Pre 2 suffers from a thin app catalog, a cramped design, and last year's hardware. It compares poorly with the Apple iPhone 4 and Motorola Droid 2 Global, not to mention Verizon's upcoming 4G LTE devices like the HTC Thunderbolt and Motorola Droid Bionic.

Read original review at PC Magazine.

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First off, it's been a while since we've had a WebOS device in for review, so it was really great to have one back in our hands. It reminded us how much we love the mobile operating system for its multitasking abilities, data management, and search functionality, and the new enhancements only make it better. That said, it's really a shame it took so long for the Palm Pre 2 to land with a U.S. carrier given that the HP Pre 3 is just a few months away.

Read original review at Cnet.

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The Palm Pre 2 is a hidden gem of a phone buried beneath thick igneous rock layers of Android interfaces. The Pre 2's WebOS 2.0 integration and 1GHz OMAP processor are its main entrees, and those features boosted an already great phone even higher to the smartphone gods. We loved Palm's interface—it's the best multitasker on the market.
However, there are a few caveats about the Palm Pre 2. First off, the phone's battery was a real damper on our overall experience, demanding frequent charges. Then, the discovery of another no-frills camera really dated the phone in comparison to the competing camera phones out there. And lastly, the Palm Pre 2 really did not specialize in mobile entertainment due to its less advanced and smaller screen.
For those reasons, the Palm Pre 2 will only apply to a select crew—the rabid multitaskers who operate via physical keyboards only. If you find yourself constantly sending emails, messages, chatting, or playing with moderate applications, then look no further than the Palm Pre 2 for Verizon Wireless. Besides, the phone has a VPN client for corporate network access!

Read original review at InfoSync.

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Hats off to Palm for carving a place for itself in the crowded smart phone market, with its brace of handsets that manage to combine cute good looks with powerful smarts and a uniquely different OS. This latest version of the QWERTY-packing Pre series raises the bar again with its beefed up processor, superior camera and extra functionality from webOS 2.0.

Read original review at Wired.

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On the whole, I’m still really impressed with webOS, and the Pre 2 seems to answer most of people’s concerns about Palm’s hardware. You aren’t ever going to see app selection on par with Android, what with multiple hardware manufacturers pushing the platform, but with HP behind Palm, at least webOS will have a chance at growing sustainably for the foreseeable future. For now, be sure to check on the availability of your killer apps before taking the plunge and buying a Pre 2, and even then you can always nab one and urge devs to bite the bullet and make a webOS version of your favourite application.
Despite a few gaps in the software, the Palm Pre 2 still manages to deliver a mostly-complete experience with an excellent balance of style and function. As such a well-rounded device, there are few people I wouldn’t suggest the Pre 2 to; even folks who put emphasis on apps will find the meager selection is often offset by the high quality of professionally-made apps.

Read original review at IntoMobile.

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I know a lot of you would want to wait for different hardware to even consider a webOS device and I don’t blame you.  I’d love to see a slim, large screened webOS phone as well but the Pre 2 does an excellent job for what it is.  Looking at webOS, I occasionally feel like it is too...cartoonish, if that makes sense.  It’s a great OS but looks like it’s made for a younger audience.  Nothing wrong with that but perhaps that will keep many from taking it as seriously as it deserves.
The Pre 2 is a nice refresh of the line but it is mostly going to appeal to current Pre owners, meaning no net-new customers.  Perhaps that’s all Palm is looking for right now, but they do need to follow up with new and interesting hardware.  If you like the form factor, you will love the Palm Pre 2.  I’m going to be sorry to see this review unit go back, but such is the sad existence of reviewers.  Phones come into our lives, we love and care for them but eventually we...ok, enough of that.  Sorry.

Read original review at Phonedog.

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The Pre 2 is a pleasant phone to use, don't get us wrong, but it needs to do more than that in the cut throat smartphone world.

Palm's selection of apps remains paltry next to the rest, and the hardware is slowly being left behind - perhaps that's why it's yet to be picked up by any of the networks. If you want one you'll have to pay £340 for a SIM free handset, and we wouldn't advise anyone does that.

Read original review at PC Pro.

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We like the Palm Pre 2 a lot, and while we aren't convinced it's going to be a market hit, would very much like it to be. It is a well sized, ergonomic handset with a great UI and an incredibly intuitive phonebook experience thanks to the Just Type functionality. It also offers enough fun to keep you entertained on a commute home and is very well connected. Our experience of it was let down by instability and a lack of apps that we use on a day to day basis, however, with fantastic onboard Facebook functionality it also has a huge advantage over competition such as Android. We can only hope that with future updates, the manufacturer will take care of those stability problems.

Read original review at PhoneArena.

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Both my wife and I got this about two years ago, thank goodness that we got the warranty because my wife has had to send hers in three or four times and I have had to send mine in twice, for screen issues, button issues, and both for just randomly deciding to not work in any way shape or form. Right now we are counting the days till we can get our phones upgraded. Actually some of the buttons on my wife's phone are not working right now but she has only a month to wait so she decided to live with it. Today, my phones screen randomly cracked, truly it was random, I was sleeping because I work night shift, and my wife and two little ones were in town. Anyways the place that I have my warranty through are on back-order with them so needless to say they must be a very poor phone if the warranty places can't even keep them in stock. Thanks for letting me vent, I needed that, haha.

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I got this phone because i liked the look of it, and it worked great for a while. Then suddenly after 5 months, it kept freezing, then the phone went "offline" and would not start back up. I read that a lot of people are having this problem, and the only solution is for the company to give you a new phone. It might be better if they could sort out the problems before releasing it. Also would not open PDFs like it said it was able to do, without crashing the whole phone on me. I decided to just ditch it and save some hassle.

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Pro: NONE.

Con: Every single thing about this "phone" is horrible and does not work.

Using experience: 2 years

The phone goes offline for no reason, shuts off, deletes contacts, freezes, and simply DOES NOT WORK. NEVER get the palm pre. STAY AWAY. I am just waiting for the contract to end so I can switch to AT&T

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Cheap brittle case. cracks easily. Long time speaker issues which Palm has never fixed . check the reviews. palm service wants to charge for everything . wish I had checked the reviews. never would have got it. missing common features , no voice activation. screen is skitzy.will not accept a lot of apps.

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I am very disappointed with the Palm Pre and the service I've got. This phone is not compatible with alot of apps .I don't know why Bell would sell a phone that isn't even compatible with Bell mobility to get Ringtones off of or some other apps. When I went to change this phone for an I-Phone 4 I was told I couldn't because I haven't had it long enough. I feel if I'm not happy with it I should be able to change to something I would be happy with!!!!

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I tried this phone for 7 months. Phone locked up and froze constantly. Every reboot one must endure a 5 minute boot up. As it has been in repairs 3 times, now it resides in the bottom of a sock drawer. Dropped phone on carpet, and screen shattered.
Phone returns from repairs with something else wrong. Camera doesn't work, touch screen not responding. Had high hops for 'leading edge technology', but this phone will drive you to the edge of the cliff.
If you want a phone with a horrendous repair record, the Palm Pre is for you. One may just get to know the cute sales clerk quite well..... "oh you again?"
The repair clerk (Bell) said 95% of the Palm Pre phones end up in the repair cycle.

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The Palm Pre was launched to early with an OS that required a complete about face for users accustomed to plugging their phones in to sync with a computer. 6 months after its release and 5 OS updates later, the phone is now the most underated smart phone on the market. The contact management system on the phone is superior to anything else out there and the multi tasking is simple, intuitive and once you are used to it, impossible to give up.

I have been using the Palm Pre for over a year now and would be hard pressed to switch now that I am used to flipping between my email, calendar, contacts, google maps, all while talking on the phone.

Contacts sync from online sources (not over a wire from your computer) and you can have multiple sources including multiple exchange accounts. Contacts from all sources (Gmail, Yahoo!, Exchange, Facebook, Linked In and Twitter) all sync seamlessly and combine so that every contact has only one entry in your phone rather than multiple entries. This also means that work contacts live on your phone with personal contacts without any personal information every having to be stored on your office computer.

The keyboard is small but I am used to it and efficient on it. The processor could have been a little better and the phone hangs every once in a while if it is syncing some particularly large chunks of data. But the universal search (just type while in the home screen and choose, Google, Wikipedia, etc... or search the phone) is much more useful than I first thought and is now available on several Android devices.

I would recommend this phone very highly. It does take some time on the blog sites to figure out all of the ins and outs of the phone when setting it up, but once set up it runs very smoothly. The Palm Forums are a great source of tips and comments that will quickly let you know how to do something or whether or not it is possible.

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Overall, I'm delighted with the Pixi. I was a Centro user and while researching, found that very few reviews focussed on the issues a Centro user might face beyond data transfer.

So here goes:

Pluses

Ability to see multiple Calendars (iPhone friends drool at this one) and all your Contacts.

Ability to charge from any computer using the USB connection.

The AC connection is ingenious ie much smaller than most chargers one has had to use over the years.

Ability to play You Tube videos

Value is hard to match.

GPS and Google positioning services.

Minuses

Speed - most actions were far more instantaneous on the Centro

No ability to search the Calendar

No ability to edit documents or create a new one. Documents to Go has been bought by RIM. (You can view Word, Excel, Pdfs.)

Battery life is miserable but the charging options are certainly flexible.

No text only option for web pages.

While it does take a little time to learn WebOS, it is certainly worth the investment.

A really useful review can be found at:

[...]

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In case you couldn't tell by the title, this phone is not my friend. I *hate* it. I had a Palm for two years before this and *loved* it, so I thought this would be an easy transition. Not so.

Pro: I love how it syncs with Google Calendar and Contacts. It's nice to be able to update either of these sites and see the changes almost instantaneously on my phone.

Cons: I hate to sound like a whiner, but I really hate this phone. Talk to any of my friends and they'll tell you how they've heard me curse it more than once. *Sometimes* when I make a call the touch screen will automatically go black, requiring me to hit the power button to get it to light up if I want to use speaker phone or just hang up the call. And the power up button doesn't bring up the touch screen fast enough so there's been more than one misdialed call recipient I've heard repeat "hello". PITA. This has got to be my biggest complaint - the lag and issues I've had with the touch screen. I even took it back to Sprint got the run around (don't get me started).

Some other (mostly negative) comments:

- Camera: The picture quality had been quite good, but lately the pictures are turning out quite dark.

- Sound: It's hard to hear on speaker and the volume isn't loud enough on handset. It doesn't come with enough ringers.

- Battery Life: TOO SHORT and doesn't give ample warning when it is running out. The plus is that it charges up quickly, but if you're only filling a thimble I suppose it wouldn't take long.

- Other features: + There's no timer or countdown app. + When downloading Free Apps it will often time out and I think it didn't complete, only to find that I have a new app on my phone. + There's no easy way to delete a text conversation and the phone will store strings of texts indefinitely; to delete a text conversation you have to delete the message from him then the message from you then the message from him then the message from you (and so on) until the entire history of texting with this person is deleted. + There's no mouse, directional keys or select button; *everything* has to be done on the tiny touch screen. Imagine typing an IM and wanting to fix a mid-word typo. You have to keep touching the screen until you get it just right. PITA.

I have been waiting four months to write a review on this POS. You see, I was in labor with my daughter when it started showing it's true colors and although the tech said he replaced it with a new one I'm pretty sure he gave me another busted one from the back cuz while at the hospital the next day I saw there was a shadow on the screen that wasn't there before. And it only got worse from there. I can't wait to get a new phone and be rid of this awful, crappy phone. Like another reviewer commented, I think I'll go with a Palm.

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Switched from a BlackBerry and love this little phone. Even though it is smaller than my BB, the screen is larger.

Pros: good keyboard; very nice display; webOS is incredible; nice apps; push email excellent; browsing great; multitasking fun; touchstone charger is GREAT idea; very responsive touch screen; 8GB internal memory (6.8 available), faster access than a card; very nice music player; camera and video recording is what you expect at this level.And it was FREE from Sprint!

Cons: these are rather minor but should be listed:

No WIFI, blame Sprint; occasionally freezes up for short duration (what smart phone doesn't?); sometimes tells you too many cards open when only 1 open; emails sometimes reappear after deletion even though sync to delete from server is active; need to reboot after installing 2 or 3 apps or else it may freeze up a little; not used to such short battery life so I have chargers for car, computer and a/c outlet...solves that.

This has been called everything from a starter smart phone to a girlie phone..don't believe it. Crushes for the non-power user, probably not robust enough for geeks with no life. You want music, buy an mp3 player, you want pictures, buy a camera, you want power surfing, buy a laptop. This is a TELEPHONE, albeit with (great) benefits!

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