Me and my Palm Pre

Eons ago, I wrote about how excited I was to get a Palm Pre.  Well, with finances, being busy and just being comfortable with my Palm Treo in the way, I didn’t do it, till now.  I’m really glad I did.  Here is a mini (well, as “mini” as I get) review of my first impressions:

Built for Business

I love how the Palm Pre lets me, a business professional, be more effective.

• The screen is incredible.  Graphics are beautiful and easy on the eyes.  Text, despite the small screen and form factor, are easy to read and work with. 
  • I thought that Copy / Paste was going to be weird & awkward, however, it works great – kudos to Palm on coming up with an intuitive way to do this.

• While you are focusing on the task at hand:
  • I love being able to have other items quickly at hand.  For example, it is fantastic that I can be in an IM and quickly jump to my calendar to look something up with the “slide of a card.”
  • I REALLY LOVE that if something “happens” while I’m doing something, you are not rudely interrupted like other phones (iPhone included) with a popup.  The Pre simply displays a quick notification at the bottom of the screen which does not interrupt what you are doing.  You can either ignore it (which after a few seconds the notification full text goes away and an icon stays at the bottom of the screen so you can act on it later), or, tap on it and act on it then.
    • Again, being a multitasking operating system, whatever you were working on is simply put to the side, allowing you to quickly resume it after you are done.

 Call Quality is INCREDIBLE

• This is the best sounding phone I have ever heard.  When you are on a call, it’s DARN CLOSE to the quality of a land line.
• I have yet to drop a call.  And, I’m in a low signal area.  My old Palm Treo was challenged all the time at keeping the call quality reasonable, let alone not dropping the call.

The feel

• This phone feels great in your hand.  I was always intrigued by Palm’s “river rock” persona for the phone – and they hit a bull’s-eye with this one.  I love holding and working with this phone.
• I looked at the Droid and used my daughter’s for about two hours.  My hand hurt after that; with the bulkiness and sharp corners.  The Palm Pre, on the other hand, is a joy.

I even love the Task List

• This has been hammered and taunted by many on the web.  But, just like the “river rock,” this simple task list has a great feel to it.
• It opens with a Moleskin cover listing all of your lists (perfect for GTD).
• Going into a list, it gives you a great punch list of what your next actions are.  And, is very easy to work with via Palm Pre’s touches and gestures.

I love the concept of the Touchstone!

• Being that I work out of a home office, the Touchstone is a perfect companion.  I can quickly set the Palm Pre down to keep it topped off.  I can quickly answer the phone just by picking it up.
• A Negative: After the Palm is “full,” there is a slight hum / buzz.  I found several reports about this on the web.  Very disappointing as it sure is anti-Zen!
• Update: Sprint swapped my Touchstone and charging cover and the buzz seems to be gone.

Synergy

I love the Synergy database; I have it tying together three sources and it does it flawlessly!

My only other negatives (besides the Touchstone comment above):

• It sometimes gets slow.  But, the Zen of the phone makes me very accepting of that.
  • I installed the 1.3.5 update and it seems better.
• I found a bug in the calendar for accepting appointments that are sent from Gmail and accepted by someone from Exchange.  (Palm sent me a Kudos for finding the bug.)
• Battery Life – Many have written that battery life on the Pre is poor.  At first, especially after installing the 1.3.5 operating system, that seemed like a non-issue.  But then I headed out on a trip for work.  I didn’t * think * I was using it more than usual.  I made a few calls, surfed the web some and used the GPS a hair.  I was in a major metropolitan area (Denver).  Yet, by 1:00pm, the phone was dead, which was not a good thing.  I have bought a car charger from Palm.  The cable is short, but, it * is * a USB cable, which I can use to keep the Pre topped off by connecting it to my laptop.

Comfort with my Treo was one of the reasons I delayed getting a Pre.  Yet, many times you have to force yourself over that hump of change, get uncomfortable for a while and finally reach a new level of comfort.  In this case, I am much more comfortable with the Pre; it is a great companion.  And, I’m willing to live with the slight discomfort of the battery issue above as the rest of the benefits of the Pre far outweigh it, especially for a busy business professional like myself.

Question: Are your mobile tools allowing you to have the relaxed productivity you need?

Tags: GTD, Relaxed Productivity