Pre Owner Thinking About Switching

[Capulet]

Hi, I recently bought a Palm Pre. I liked it especially because I was getting a 1400 Family Plan for two people for around 125 dollars a month, and it was just an overall better deal. I was thinking about getting the IPhone but I was sold on the Pre. I've had it for a few weeks now, and the only real problem that I have with the Pre is that the battery life is simply atrocious. I took my phone off the charger around 1:00 PM, used it till about 4 with a little browsing and texting, and it was down to 65% in 3 hours. I charged it to 85%, and used it from 4:30 to 10:00 PM, at which point it completely died. The phone has died on me from moderate use 3 times in the last two weeks. I just think thats ridiculous, and I don't really even think an external battery would be truly worth it in that case.

I was always interested in the IPhone but I went with the Pre because of the plan, but I'm willing to switch if the battery life on the 3GS is worth the switch. Anyone care to give some advice?

[Jellotime91]

I think the 3GS's battery life is better but NOT by much, however with a 3GS places to charge it become much more available, as are battery accessories.

[ctt1wbw]

Plus, customer service is better by a wiiiiiiide margin compared to Sprint. And the build quality if far superior from what I've seen on reports of the iPhones compared to reports I'm seeing of the Pre phones.

Plus, I'm an Apple frakkin addict man. I've used Apple's my whole life. I had a Palm long long time ago and hated it.

[Myself]

I had the Pre for a week and had to get rid of it. I had a few more limitations, but the battery life was definitely a huge issue for me. The iPhone does have much better battery life, though you still have to be careful. I can make it through a whole day with moderate use and be between 30-50% remaining without much issue, even with heavy use I can make it almost the whole day before needing a charge (I tend to base my use on how easily I can get to a charger. If it's easy, I'll use it constantly and just plug it back in, but if I'm away from one I watch my usage a bit more carefully). The Pre, on the other hand, even under light use I would have to plug it in halfway through the day. It was completely unacceptable. Though the iPhone may not have the best battery out there (by a long shot), it is noticeably better than the Pre in my experience.

[jonesyvoor]

Do it. I had the Pre for two weeks and was so glad I returned it within the 30 day trial period and bought the 3GS. The iphone is much more stylish, intuitive and feels much sturdier than the Pre. Add in the fact it has way more functionality at this point and the battery life is better by a decent margin and I don't see how you can go wrong.

[Survivor61]

lol I just returned my Pre also. Two of them, mine and my wifes. We both have iPhones now. Much happier.

[lancer3397]

well I was hanging on for 7 months about the pre, but when it came out, the reports on build quality just turned me right off. you know its not great when some people are on their 4th and 5th phone in a month.

the iphone was my other choice, and it's a third iteration of hardware, the kinks have been ironed out. there's apps galore. so a no brainer once the pre was not up to the standard I was expecting. also, now I have the 3Gs, I think the smaller Pre screen would have annoyed me. the iphones is just about right for me.

[Ardoreal]

I had the Palm Pre and switched. I think WebOS is a more contemporary system, it's solid, but the build quality of the device itself is cheap and chintsy.

Once you get a functional iPhone in your hand you will notice a huge difference. I love it, plus the apps. After two weeks of no new apps in the Palm Catalog I was overwhelmed by all the cool stuff you can get for the iPhone.

If you have a perfect Pre, however rare, this is a good question. In hindsight, I'd still jump ship even if I had a Pre that worked as advertised. iPhone's better. Not to mention the camera. The Pre doesn't have true autofocus, but the iPhone's camera is splendid. The guided focusing and white balance adjusting is also vastly superior. For 300 bucks I would have expected the Pre to be perfect, you shouldn't spend that much on a nice phone and have any deficiency with it. I shelled out 300 and got the 3GS 32GB and I feel like the money is far better spent here.

[jhamilton3]

Battery life on the 3GS is a lot better than the Pre's. I'm a heavy user and still get at least 24 hours out of one charge.

[iMuggle]

I messed w/ 2 Pres in a Sprint store. One of them had 15% battery, in the 20 minutes I played w/ it, it died. The second one wouldn't even let me play with it. Had a red battery icon on it even though it was hooked up to the charger.

To me, that's not a good sign.