June 17th, 2009
Palm Pre returned, Sprint coverage and Android main factors
As readers know I waited in line in Hawaii to pick up my Palm Pre and then followed up with my one week thoughts on using the device. I am a fan of Palm devices and even though the device has some issues and very few applications available I would have kept it to test out and explore Palm’s WebOS if it was released on a GSM carrier. I would probably have even forked over the $75 monthly fee to keep it as a Sprint device if I was able to get decent Sprint coverage where I live, work, and play. I could have made due with the lack of coverage at my house with the use of WiFi, but I was not seeing good solid coverage in most every area where I commute and travel. Some of these coverage issues may also be related to the device as I was seeing it bounce between no coverage to full coverage in places that were close together.
The Pre was a fun device to use, but there were a few aspects that limited me compared to my other devices. For example, I was unable to enter text into my ZDNet blog fields because the capacitive display kept thinking I was trying to pan on the display rather than scroll within a text box. Even though the keyboard was quite tight, I was able to adapt pretty well to it. I was quite disappointed in the looseness of the display on the device I bought and would have traded it in for a new one if I had decided to keep it. I like the WebOS better than the iPhone OS due to the multitasking capability and think it can rival the iPhone with further developments and support by application developers.
I am still very happy with my T-Mobile G1 and find Android to be more mature and functional for me personally. Even though the G1 hardware is a bit clunky, I can fly on the keyboard and LOVE the capability to assign shortcuts to every key on the keyboard. Even if a non-keyboard model is announced next week by T-Mobile I am sticking with the G1 until another better one with a keyboard is released.
This was my first real experience as a Sprint customer and I have to say I was treated extremely well at the Palm Pre launch and found the store employees helpful. Today when I returned the Pre, the representative was also very helpful and had no questions or concerns about me returning it or cancelling my Sprint service. He actually asked if I even had a chance to use it because I repackaged it just like it came and took extremely good care of it over these last 11 days.
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 06/18/09
