Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The excitement for the Palm Pre seems to building each day as we draw closer to the June 6 launch date. Having been a long time Palm user and Palm supporter I am not so patiently waiting to hear more about how the Palm actually works as opposed to what the features say it can do. Given that I was pleasantly surprised to wake up this morning to find not one, but numerous hands-on reviews of the Palm Pre. Of course, at the same time, it leaves me wondering what happened to my review unit, maybe it was lost in the mail. But all joking aside, the reviews, while positive have not convinced me that the Palm Pre will be a good enough replacement to either my current iPhone 3G or my T-Mobile G1.

Overall, the reviews that I read seem to have been positive, but at the same time it was interesting to see how many people were forgiving of Palm. Most of the reviews had some sort of reference to how the Palm Pre was not perfect but it was good as a “1.0 product” or how it was a “a first-generation platform on first-generation hardware.”

Of course there were plenty of comparisons between some other phones such as the iPhone and G1, which is only natural, but perhaps Gizmodo summed it up the best in saying how they were ready for something different because they were bored of the iPhone. Makes sense, perhaps that is why I have been using my G1 a little more often these days.

Now lets get on and check out some of the verdicts from the early reviews…

PreCentral

So what’s our verdict on the Palm Pre? Simple: The Palm Pre is a stellar 1.0 product. Given Palm’s fractured and foible-filled history, the fact that they were able to pull all this off is nothing short of amazing.

Palm has hit a home run with the Pre. Probably not a grand slam, but a definite home run.

Gizmodo

I’m bored of the iPhone. The core functionality and design have remained the same for the last two years, and since 3.0 is just more of the same, and—barring some kind of June surprise—that’s another year of the same old icons and swiping and pinching. It’s time for something different. The Pre may have hardware that’s worse than the G1/G2, but the whole package—the software and the hardware—isn’t bad. It’s good. It’s different. That’s something we can get behind. I can’t wait to see what Palm gets dealt in their next hand.

SlashGear

Still, these are shortcomings in a first-generation platform on first-generation hardware, and we’re happy giving Palm the benefit of the doubt.

Thankfully they’ve delivered a smartphone not only capable but honestly impressive and distinctive. Improvements to webOS will only make it better, but even in this fledgling state we’d readily recommend the Palm Pre.

Engadget

To put it simply, the Pre is a great phone, and we don’t feel any hesitation saying that. Is it a perfect phone? Hell no. Does its OS need work? Definitely. But are any of the detracting factors here big enough to not recommend it? Absolutely not. There’s no doubt that there’s room for improvement in webOS and its devices, but there’s also an astounding amount of things that Palm nails out of the gate.

Product [Palm Pre]