The First Palm Pre Review

PhoneNews was able to get their hands on a Palm Pre and have provided a full review of it. They like the fact that the Pre comes loaded with Sprint TV and Music Store and other Sprint customizations (the things we generally call ‘bloat’ and try to remove from AT&T). They note that copying to the device over USB was slow. Otherwise, the pre-installed apps were either neutered or will be updated before a final release as the YouTube app doesn’t play videos and Facebook had limited functionality. And regarding the keyboard and general operations

Still, we aren’t alone in thinking it takes some acquiring to get acquainted to typing and messaging on the Pre. Every early user we’ve talked to agreed that the interface requires jumping through menus in an odd manner… especially when toggling between windows and apps.

Many apps were not usable because it is prelaunch and they could not tinker with services that aren’t live yet (including the app store). Overall they were impressed (even though most items noted were negative in tone)  but warn Sprint to not require users to upgrade to a new ‘everything’ plan. The complete review can be found here.

Thanks to Chapmeister (a/k/a the Original Flashing Whore) for dropping a note about this.