I've had the Palm Pre for over a year and have had a great experience with it. My previous 3 phones were all Palm Treos and they worked really well. The 5-way button on the Treos let you quickly get around and the touchscreen added more function and usability. The battery life was tops and you could go 5 days without a charge. I loved it!
The Palm Pre came along and I figured that it'd would be equally as awesome. And it was! A full browser, great email program, impeccable multi-tasking, Universal Search, Synergy and plenty of other features that put it miles ahead of anything else available at the time. The only downfall was the battery life. You could never go a whole day on one charge. If you turned off all the features, you could get to 5PM on one charge, but barely. You had to download hacks that turn off every antenna (wifi, bluetooth, data/3G, etc) and then the battery would last. This is not good and really hurts.
About a month or two ago, my brother and a friend of mine got a 4G Evo and I spent some quality time playing with it, but the battery life was horrendous. It turned out that his was defective. A few weeks ago my wife got the Droid 2 from Motorola with the Android 2.2 operating system, and I was immediately impressed. A week later I got the Samsung Epic 4G from Sprint with the Android 2.1 system and was equally as impressed and mesmerized.
I didn't want to switch, but I felt the Pre was so underpowered and behind the newest devices. One of the main reasons I switched to Pre from my Treos was the promise that all my old palm programs would work on the new Pre. That never panned out. I also was hoping to preserve my notes, files, and tasks. But now that everything syncs with "the cloud" and google, you don't need to stick to one OS. It was easier to switch.
I searched the internet long and hard on information about switching from a Palm Pre to and Android system and could only come up with a few resources. So I felt that the world wide web needs more information on migrating from Pre to Android and comparing the two systems. I've also played around with the iPhone on numerous occasions and can touch on that experience briefly.
iPhone and Pre |
Pre versus Android versus iPhone
Multitasking:
Nothing really compares to the Pre here. The Pre's WebOS system makes it very obvious what programs are open and running with the use of the card system. Android does not. You may have programs open in the background, and you have to switch between the programs by going back and re-opening them again like you did the first time. If I am in the middle of an email and need a contacts address, I'd have to switch to the contact manager, get the address, go back to a screen where I can launch (or click on email again) and have it re-open. It's not as easy as Palm implementation, where you slide a card over and use the other card. The iPhone is similar to the Android system, where you have to keep re-launching programs and apps to get back to them. The Android multitasks fairly well and multitasking is built into the operating system. The iPhone still doesn't really multitask. Even the new one. Try opening up a program that plays an MP3 in the background, then try to surf the net with the browser. Doesn't work. The Pre wins in this department quite easily, nothing else compares. Some of the newer apps for the iPhone allow you to multitask, but the vast majority of the apps are still on the old programming and only run one at a time.
Battery life:
This is really what did it for me. While, I found ways to make the Pre's battery last longer, it was by turning everything off. What's the point of having a smartphone, if 90% of it's features are disabled. My Samsung Epic lasts all day, and more and only loses about 10% of it's charge by 5PM. Of course, I don't play with my phone all day. It just sits in my pocket and receives the occasional text message, or I look up a drug or two during the day. Sometimes I'll check facebook or twitter, but that's rare. I am sure if I used it more frequently, it would not last as long. But I love this lastability! The Evo and Droid 2 don't seem to last as long as the Epic, maybe the Epic's Super AMOLED screen really does consume less battery life than the other two. Or maybe, my wife and brother use their phones more than I do (they do). But it beats the Pre by a long shot. The Android OS power consumption scheme works a lot better.
Speed:
The Pre has a great software and operating system, but the hardware is mediocre to awful at best. Even if you download the overclocking software and get it to run at the full 800 MGhz, it's still slow. I don't know why. May be it's just the way the OS works. The Android OS is fast and very snappy. You can fly from screen to screen instantaneously. You can scroll through hundreds of pictures, music files at the flick of a finger. You can scroll through thousands of contacts effortlessly. It's pretty awesome. I am not used to this at all. Things open and close in a few milliseconds. If you ever played with an iPhone and thought that was fast, the Android OS is about 5 times faster. The Epic has the 1000 MGhz Hummingbird processor which is the fastest of all the Android systems. The HTC Evo has a similar 1000 MGhz processor, but is a hair slower (not noticeable unless you run speed tests). Once the Epic upgrades to the Android 2.2 (it's still 2.1), you should see a 5-10X increase in speed. I thought my Epic was super fast as it is now, I can't imagine what it'd be like at 5-10X faster!
Lagginess:
This is not the same as speed. Speed is the hardware problem, that can be upgraded and fixed. The issue of lag is a software issue. It seems that the WebOS system struggles to open and close programs. You click on the contact app or browser and have to wait forever for it to open completely. This is inexcusable. When you tap on the screen to activate a menu item, it takes a second or two to register, then you aren't even sure if it did register. It's very annoying to not know if a click or tap registered. The iPhone and Android do not have this issue.
Hardware:
Let's face it, the Pre running at 400-500 MGhz is pretty slow. Nearly all of the new Android phones run at 1000 MGhz. But even more impressive is what else the hardware can do. The Evo has HDMI output. The Epic and Evo both record in 720p HD video, both have great cameras with a lot of resolution, both can give out their 4G connection to other WiFi connected devices. The Pre can't do that. The hardware for Android phones seems to be eons ahead of the overly simplistic Pres. I think Palm needs a serious hardware upgrade and needs to add more functionality to their phone's hardware.
Usability and Simplicity:
The Pre is very, very usable. It's very easy to use. A few swipes and taps and you are using it at full power and functionality. I love the gestures and the fact that a side swipe anywhere deletes things. And the gesture area was brilliant. It's very easy to navigate. If you pull up the call log, tap a contact, it immediately brings up obvious controls to allow you to store that contact, email them or text them. Very, very simple and elegant. The Android is more complicated, but includes much more options. You can customize nearly everything and anything. It's not as simple and easy to use as the Pre. I think the Pre wins on simplicity and elegance, and the Android wins on depth of functionality and customization. The iPhone is easy to use, and falls in between. It's simple and has a clean interface, but doesn't have the depth of options and functionality of the Androids. The iPhone is more of an entertainment phone, rather than something you'd really use to text, type up emails, and edit documents on.
Resets:
Resets on the Pre take forever. I mean, it can take 5 minutes or more to completely reset. The Epic running Android takes 30 seconds at the most to completely reset. iPhones also just take a few seconds to reset completely. There is no excuse for why the Pre takes so long to reset.
Memory:
The Pre has a bizarre memory leak and horrible memory management system. I alway get the "too many cards open" error, when I am only running one program. It won't even let you launch programs at times due to this issue. This requires a full reset. Which can take forever. The Epic has never given me such an error and I haven't read anywhere online that they have such a problem. The iPhone doesn't suffer from such memory issues either.
Applications:
Life is all about applications now. Nearly every iPhone app is now available as an Android app, so the Android has over 50,000 apps available. While the Palm Pre only has about 2000 available. Sure, all the important medical ones are available on the Palm Pre, but many more are available on the Android. In fact, there are 10 different fart apps to choose from.
Operating System:
The Android OS is the number 1 operating system on smartphones in the United States and almost in the world. Nokia's Symbian is still tops world wide. It won't be long before every phone is Android. The Andriod OS is on 70% of phones in the USA. The people at Google are spending a lot of time improving the OS and want it to be the best. It seems like anything Google touches turns to gold. They invest a lot of time, money, and expertise in their products and they want them to be the best. They don't cut corners and compromise. For more examples, just take a look at the search site, email program, document program, and browser. Tops in each category! With Android being so popular, tons of companies will be creating apps for them, and they already have an app catalog bigger than the iPhone's. Pretty impressive.
Epic |
Form Factor:
The Palm Pre is pretty small and fits in your pants pocket without any issues. The Evo is rather large with a 4.3 inch screen, while the Epic has the same resolution in a more densely pixel populated 4 inch screen. I think the 4 inch screen is the perfect balance between size and function. The Epic fits in your pocket, but not as well as the Pre. The rounded corners help as well. The Evo doesn't fit, it's large and very squarish. I'm sure it'd fit if you had large pockets. The Pre was very small and round, and slippery. I can't tell you how many times I dropped it because it slipped out of my hands. The Epic has a rubberized back that helps you with grip. It has a nice chrome line around it as well. The iPhone is more like the Evo in terms of shape and form. The Droid 2 is a hair smaller than the Epic and fits in pockets fairly well, but not as small as the Pre. The Droid 2 and Epic seems to be the best compromise and balance between large screen and size/shape.
Screen:
If you haven't seen the Super AMOLED screens of the Samsung Galaxy S phones, you need to. This is by far the most amazing lil screen I have ever seen. Rich, vibrant colors with great resolution, and a nice size. It's not over-sized like the Evo (although they have the same resolution). It looks a lot like the "retina" screen that the iPhone has, but seems to be brighter and nicer. Plus it doesn't kill your battery. I don't know how Samsung came up with the best screen ever and it uses less battery life. That's really impressive. The Pre's screen was small. You could zoon in and see things well on the browser and in photos, but you can see them better now on the Epic. I really like the Epic's screen. You can zoom in if you need to, but things are big enough to see fairly well without zooming. Watching movies on the Epic through Samsung's Media Hub is pretty awesome. And through the DLNA connection can send it to your HD television and watch. The Evo has an HDMI output, but will not output your entire screen. It will only output videos. So you can't show your kids pics on the big screen.
Keyboard:
I got the Pre because it had a keyboard. I never had a phone that didn't. I could not see myself texting and typing without one. So I opted for the Epic, not the Evo, because the Epic had a keyboard. Well, as it turns out, I've only used the keyboard a handful of times. I got so used to the on-screen keyboard, that I don't care for the hardware keyboard anymore. The only time I'll slide it out, is if I need to type out a long email, which has been only twice. The Pre has a tinly fingernail-clickable keyboard, but you got used to it and it worked. Android comes with a "Swype" interface that let's you slide your fingers across the keyboard from key to key without having to lift up your finger and it figures out what you are trying to type. It works well, but takes time to get used to. I turned off Swype and just use the Android standard keyboard with the predictive text, that works awesome and it always figures out what I am typing. It also adds new words quickly to it's dictionary. Also all of your contacts names and information is stored in the dictionary quickly. So if I start typing "Mohammed" and that isn't in the Android dictionary, it was added because I have a contact with that name. This works very well. Sick of typing? Just click the microphone icon and speak into your phone. It is very accurate and type what you say. More on this later.
Phone:
Most smartphones, still function primarily as a phone. Most people that use smartphones, use them primarily as phones (second was for texting, then web surfing, then email). The Pre and Epic both function very well as phones. You can easily add contacts from the call log to the contacts list and do all sorts of other functions with the phone. The Android system does give you about 100 more options of what to do with phone calls and contacts, and that is nice.
Email:
The Pre's unified inbox was a nice feature. You can have multiple accounts all dump into one inbox. It didn't always work well with MS Exchange email, but you could eventually get it to work. They've tried to iron out the kinks. The Epic and Android system also have a unified email program. I am not sure if this is an Android thing, or exclusive to Samsung's implementation of Android, but it works really well. I can't say that one is all that much better than the other in terms of reading and retrieving email. The Android system lets you flag multiple emails and mass delete them, which I like. The Pre didn't let you do that. You'd have to delete them one by one. It just seems to have more features.
Texting:
Both use threaded texting and both work well. I can't say that either excels here. This is my most used program and I haven't noticed a dropoff yet. I would like to know if anyone has a good Android app for mass texting or group texting, I use that a lot. If you know of a good app, let me know.
Browser:
You can see the browser better on the Epic, Droid, iPhone, and Evo, but that's because the screen is bigger. The Pre let you pull up facebook, and chat right through facebook chat, like you would on a browser on your normal computer, whereas the Android browser doesn't let you do that. If you are on the facebook page and click on the chat thing at the bottom nothing happens. I know there is a facebook chat app, but it should work. Otherwise, every website I have tried works well. I still don't know how to cut and paste on Android or save images from the web. I need to figure that out soon. I am sure there is a way to do it. But you could do that on the Pre using the orange button.
Multimedia:
The Android system supports flash and every video codec there is. iPhone doesn't. If you want to be able to watch anything and have all websites function correctly and look right, the Android is your friend. The Pre plays videos as well, but still doesn't do flash. If you want a phone that does it all, Android is your choice. If you absolutely have to have flash right away, get an Android 2.2 phone like the Droid 2. The Epic 4G is still on 2.1 system, but is expected to be upgraded within the next few weeks.
Account integration:
The Android OS can integrate with your Google account. It can sync with pictures you have on Picasa and display them on your phone, it can connect to your email, calendar, Google Reader, and multiple other services. This is really nice. It can also connect to your facebook, myspace, linkedin accounts and do the same. The Pre implements this as well, but not as completely and it always seemed to need a workaround of some sort.
Universal Search (Just Type):
I miss the ability to open up the keyboard and just start typing into my Pre to find people or programs. That was awesome. Sure the Android let's you do that as well, but you have to click on the Google search box first, which takes time. I like just opening up the keyboard and typing. I guess if all Android's had hardware keyboards, it'd be easier to do that. So for now, you have to click the Google search box first. Also I don't like how you have to type a person's entire last name to get to them on the Android. I have to type "Alo" to get to my contact information, but I also get about 10 family members information to show up as well. On the Pre I could type "malo" and it'd show me only. First initial and last name is a smarter implementation than having to type the whole thing out. If I type "malo" in the Android's search, I get nothing and it will take me to Google's website to finish the search. That sucks.
Application launcher:
Samsung's customized application launcher and interface is really nice. I like it much better than the standard Android interface launcher. My wife's motorola Droid 2 is not as nice. Samsung's application launcher seems to mimic the iPhone's app launcher. Instead of scrolling straight down, you scroll side to side. The applications are surrounded by a very colorful square and it looks really nice. They drop down menu at the top (where the notifications come in) also has buttons that allow you to turn on and off the wifi, bluetooth, and 4G, which is really convenient. Samsung also has an application on the main homescreen that let's you see how many applications are running and you can click on it to quickly turn them off. Very convenient! You don't have to download any extra application killers. If Android had an easier way to see what was running you wouldn't need any of this, but they don't. On the Pre it was easy to see which applications are open, because the card would be open. You could just flick it up to turn it off. Much easier and cleaner. I also like Samsung's 4 buttons on the bottom, which sorta reminds me of the Pre and iPhone. You have a quick button for Phone, Contacts, Messaging, and Application launcher. Very nice and easy. Samsung version of Android tops the standard Android and Motorola's version. Very iPhone and Pre like in many ways. The Pre still wins on knowing which apps are open.
Home screens:
Android uses the concept of "homescreens". There are 7 of these and the middle one is the main homescreen. This is hard to explain, but it's sort of like your windows desktop on your home computer where you can put little short cuts and icons to make it easy for you to open and launch them. You can have one main homescreen (desktop) for your day to day tasks and others for various other implementations. I customized one with shortcuts to all my medical programs to use as my main screen when at work. I customized another one with entertainment and sports programs for when I am at home and want to know more about my beloved Broncos. One homescreen has some "Buddies Now" program that Samsung adds which gives you updates on all your facebook and twitter friends if you choose to refresh it. Another screen gives you a rolodex like program with all your most common contacts so you can quickly call, text, or look up their information. This is pretty convenient since it's nearly impossible to scroll through 1500 contacts while driving, just to call the sitter. Just create a shortcut on one of the homescreens or use the rolodex for common contacts.
Voice commands:
This is pretty awesome! Android let's you speak to type. Not only that, it let's you give it orders. You can say, "Send text to Mohammed Alo Hi comma how are you question mark" and it sends a text to Mohammed Alo that looks like, "Hi, how are you?" That is awesome! The Pre doesn't do that. This alone convinced my father in law to stick with Android. Wow! See Google's Voice Command Web Page for everything that you can do. They have invested a lot of money in voice recognition, and this thing is pretty damn accurate. Wow!
Pricing:
Any of the Sprint plans for either the Evo or Epic are cheaper than their Verizon and ATT counterparts. Unlimited everything for $69 is unbeatable.
Overall Usability:
The Pre is very simple and easy to use. But the battery life, lack of updated hardware, and overall lagginess of the OS put it on the back burner. Android's are powerful, functional, speedy, complicated (if you want them to be) and very useful. The battery life management is excellent and you can do so much more with these phones. The iPhone is a little bit of both, still doesn't multitask completely, and is more app-centric and entertainment-centric than business-centric. The issue that kills the iPhone for most medical people is the poor service inside of hospitals. Apple has really hitched it's wagon to ATT and their service is the poorest of the 4 major networks. Google gives away Android for free and wants it on as many devices and carriers as possible. According to Google, they came up with this new OS so that competition in the cellular marketplace can live on. Multiple carriers, multiple hardware carriers.
If you want a phone that is easy to use and does the basic phone/email/text/web very easily and elegantly, choose the Pre.
If you want the latest technology, fastest and best hardware, and a depth of features and customizability, choose an Android.
If you want an entertainment phone with lots of apps and can put up with patchy service, choose an iPhone.
Pick the one you like! Hopefully this gives you more information when you have to make your decision!
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