First Impressions of the Palm Pre

What a day June 6, 2009 has been!  Today is the day that the totally new Palm Pre smartphone began shipping.  The Pre is truly an amazing phone and it’s heart and soul is Palm webOS.

The Good

I’m not the first to say it and I won’t be the last.  Throw everything you know about Palm the company, Palm OS, and the the old non-Windows Mobile Treo smartphones out the window.  This is not your father’s Palm, Inc.  There is an entirely new management team at Palm and it comes shining through with the Pre and Palm webOS.

The Pre is smaller than the Treo 750/755p, though the most recent Windows Mobile phone from Palm, the Treo Pro, is thinner and taller.  The Pre feels great in your hand.  I found it much easier to hold than my Apple iPod touch.  When compared with my recently deactivated BlackBerry Curve 8330, the Pre is almost the same size when the keyboard is closed.  (When the Pre keyboard is open, the Pre is about an inch to an inch and half taller than the Curve 8330.)

I was completely and totally blown away by the phenomenal screen on the Pre.  When I picked up the demo unit this morning at the Sprint store I thought that it was one of those plastic display shells…until the Quick Launch bar moved!  Even now, some 12 hours later, I’m still amazed by how bright and vivid the screen is!  My Saturdays are often filled with lots of family activities and today I found myself outside for most of the afternoon.  Direct sun light shouldn’t be a problem for most people.  During a t-ball game, I was able to work with my recently imported Google contacts, read email, and review some Word document attachments.  All in all, the screen is just fantastic and is every bit as good as the screen found on the iPhone and iPod touch.

Palm Pre Day 0: This is the Day

Today’s the day! I’m heading out to my nearest Sprint store in just a few minutes. Hopefully I don’t run into a long line when I get there.

Update: I just got here at the Sprint shop at exactly 7am. They have been handing out tickets and I got ticket #15 — not bad at all. The first guy on the line had been here since 4:15am.

Anyway, today’s also the launch of Pre Switcher, a Palm Pre enthusiast site, and a site for Palm Pre switchers. The site is still work in progress, but feel free to play around. This is the best time to register in the forums, so you can reserve your usernames, and provide feedback to the site.

I’m sure by now, you’ve all heard and seen the reviews online. Just in case you’ve only seen a few, here’s a list of reviews I have rounded up:

• Associated Press
• Boy Genius Report
• CNET
• CNN Money
• Engadget
• FOX News
• Gizmodo
• Laptop Magazine
• Michael Gartenberg
• MobileTechReview
• MyPre
• New York Times – David Pogue
• Palm Infocenter
• PC Magazine
• Phonescoop
• PreCentral
• SlashGear
• USA Today
• Wall Street Journal – Walt Mossberg
• Wired

Stay tuned for more coverage.