The Tech Herald’s rolling review of the Palm Pre Plus

by Steve Ragan - Jan 26 2010, 11:29

On Monday, January 25, Verizon released Palm’s Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to the masses. The Tech Herald has been playing with both devices for the past few days, and along with pricing details, we’ve put together our initial thoughts in the first part of what will be a rolling review of the Pre Plus.

[Note: This is the rolling review of the Palm Pre Plus. We will continue to test and update this review daily for as long as we have the device in our hands. If you have a question about a feature, the phone itself, or just want something tested, leave us a comment. If you are looking for the rolling review for the Palm Pixi Plus, head here.]

First, some details. The Palm Pre Plus is $149.99 USD after a $100 rebate with a two year contract. The data plan will run $29.99 USD for Unlimited Data. If you want the 3G Hotspot option, that is another $40.00 USD in addition to your voice and data plan costs. The Hotspot option essentially turns the Pre Plus into a MiFi, offering the same 3G Wi-Fi abilities without the need for two devices.

Days 2-4:

Over the last few days, the call quality and battery strength have been tested, as well as the Mobile Hotspot function.

Originally, there was a slight delay on one of the test calls, and since then, each of the calls has been clear. Signal strength has remained constant throughout Indianapolis, and only dipped to one single bar and lost its 3G coverage when inside a school auditorium, but I was still able to access email and make a call with no issues. The delay in the test call could have been caused by a number of things, but so far I’ve not been able to repeat the error.

Another observation on the first day of testing was that the keyboard was cramped. While there isn’t much room on the keyboard, typing with it has gotten easier over the past few days. The trick for me, and what makes it easier to use, is to center the Pre Plus and type with both hands. If you are a one handed typist on a Smartphone, then the Pre Plus might give you fits.

Surfing the Web was another aspect of the testing over the past few days. YouTube, tested using the pre-installed application, performs well. Likewise, ESPN.com was another site that earns high marks.

For this part of the Web testing, we visited this very same article. The test was to see how fast the page loaded on Verizon’s 3G network, and to see if there were any issues with rendering (overall display). In addition, this test was to check the ease of use and the functionality of the gestures on the OS.

When it comes to loading on the 3G connection, The Tech Herald loaded just as fast as ESPN.com and CNN.com. Once the article was loaded, the images were clean and the text easy to read, thanks to the gestures to zoom in and out of the page. Clicking links and moving about the site was easy too, and at no time were the taps to access various links mistaken for something else.

 

 

The next part of the Web testing involved visiting Acidtests.org and loading the Acid3 Test. The upside is that the score was 73, not too shabby for a Smartphone. The downside is that I’m not entirely sure this is an accurate score.

 

 

 

There were various browser errors during this test. One of the errors was a constant loop where the page would load repeatedly, and while this was happening, a message that there are too many downloads would keep appearing. At the same time, in between the looping reloads, the same XML file (svg.xml) would be downloaded. If it wasn’t for the fact the browser was killed, I’m sure it would have been happy to keep this loop going until the battery died. In all honesty, if I simply had to do a pass or fail on the Acid3 Test, I would say that webOS failed it.

Lastly, I tested the Wi-Fi Hotspot abilities of the Pre Plus.

 

 

Once you have had the Pre Plus configured for Wi-Fi Hotspot abilities, you have essentially turned it in to a MiFi for $40.00 USD a month. You can connect up to 5 Wi-Fi enabled devices to the Pre Plus in this mode, but remember that the service limits you to 5GB per month of bandwidth.

Speed-wise, there isn’t much to brag about, but the Wi-Fi Hotspot performed well enough that this little service could be handy in a pinch if one was on the go a lot and a phone browser or data connection wasn’t enough. Pages loaded with ease, and streaming both Pandora and Shoutcast worked fine, as long as the phone wasn’t in use.

 

 

With the Wi-Fi Hotspot service enabled, if you attempt to use the Internet on the Pre Plus, you will slaughter the Internet connection for any connected device. In testing, once the browser was launched on the Pre Plus, the Shoutcast stream on the connected laptop stammered and stuttered, and at one point lost all Internet connectivity. Likewise, if you use the Pre Plus to make a call while the Wi-Fi Hotspot is active, you will lose the Internet connection until the call is complete.

Another drawback with the Wi-Fi Hotspot is the battery drain. Once connected and streaming, a fully charged batteruy used 50-percent of its charge in just over an hour. At the rate things were heading, the laptop would have just over two hours of Wi-Fi Hotspot access before the Pre Plus lost power.

As a quick note, the more devices you add, the less speed per device. Likewise, the more devices added will impact battery performance.

For now, that is the rundown on the testing for the Pre Plus. The Pre Pixi is next, and will undergo similar stress testing. If there is something you want to have checked out, just leave a comment and let us know.

 

At just under 5 ounces, the Pre Plus has a bit of weight, but not as much as say a Motorola Droid. Overall the device is smooth, and the display (320 x 480 pixels with 24-bit color) has a hardened and polished finish to it. The response to gestures and controls are – so far – error free.

Below the screen is a touch area that can be used to move back and forth between screens, turning the current application into a card, which you can then gesture with and move between on the home screens.

The gestures are familiar to anyone who has used webOS, even an iPhone on some levels. Out of the box it took all of a few minutes to get used to them. There is a guide included that shows each of the gesture controls for reference, should one be needed.

The slide out keyboard has a raised feel to the buttons, but can feel a little cramped at first. After a few emails and a text message or two, the buttons were easier to access and shift through, but you will notice that there isn’t much space for the keys. A positive to the slide out keyboard is that it snaps open and closed with little effort and once closed, it stays that way. While gripping the sides of the device and shaking it with force, the slide remained closed and only moved slightly.

The application store, where we downloaded a Twitter application (TweeFree) and Pandora, offered an impressive selection, considering it is new. Speeds when downloading were rather quick, and install time was nothing to notice. Streaming music offers no gaps, and the sound quality on the headset included with the Pre Plus is actually impressive for a set of earbuds.

One interesting trick from the Pre Plus is how it deals with multiple applications and switching between them. While streaming Pandora using just the EV-DO REV A connection, we attempted to place a call. What happened was that the music played the entire time we dialed the number, however the second we pressed send the music was paused. After the call it resumed exactly where it left off.

We tested call quality on the Pre Plus in the Indianapolis area. During the tests, quality was solid overall, with only a slight delay on one test call. However, there was no echo on any of the testing calls. Signal strength remained at 3-5 bars overall, and aside from the single instance of a delay, there were no real problems. We'll keep testing call performance to determine if this is a consistant issue, or an isolated incident.

At this point, we have a calendar open, Pandora streaming, and Twitter updating. So what happens when you want to play a YouTube video? What application will get the priority? As it turns out, Pandora handed control over to YouTube the second the video started. However, once the YouTube video was stopped, and the application turned into a card, Pandora needed to be started by hand. Despite this, once play was pressed, the song once again picked up where it left off.

YouTube is brilliant. The video display and playback is clean and vivid. Using the headphones, the sound from the playback was clean. For both Pandora and YouTube, you can use the headset, which again is honestly impressive when it comes to sound quality, or you can use the speaker on the handset. If you use the handset you will tell a difference instantly once the music playback starts. Listening to music with the little speaker offers no low or mid tones, and sounds like the playback is echoing from the center of a tin can.

Testing Web functionality on ESPN.com, the gesture controls made browsing easier on the eye. There were no issues with running this one site, but we’ll keep testing various sites to test the limits of webOS and its controls.

For now, we’ll end here and pick up with more testing and thoughts tomorrow. The next page has some images taken of the Pre Plus. If you have questions, just leave a comment and let us know.

 

 

 

 

 

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