Sprint Reaffirms Pre Exclusivity Through 2009

So their customers wait, rather than switch to Sprint.

Saturday May 29, I have had the good fortune to do a "subjective" test, back to back, of the iPhone and the due to be released, Palm Pre. I am in the market for a new phone and went to the Apple store, here in Las Vegas, for a test drive. I spent about 45 minutes with a unit and then went to a local AT& T store to test another unit running on the AT& T network (the Apple store unit only ran on WiFi). About ½ hour after the AT&T store test I was ….by pure luck…able to test the Palm Pre. I was asked to, under no circumstance, disclose where I got to test the unit. My views here are purely subjective.
The iPhone is a gem and just about everything I'd heard about it was correct. I was impressed. However, based on my rather limited experience with both devices I would have to conclude that the Palm Pre is superior. I base this "only" on a set of issues I had to have addressed. The first issue was speed. I surf the net, Google etc.…I'm a news hound. The Palm Pre was running on the Sprint network. I went to a number of web sites….The Washington Post is my favorite test. The Pre was not just faster, it was (subjectively) significantly faster. It was faster then the WiFi iPhone and much faster then the network iPhone. Searching on Google was, again, significantly faster on the Pre then on the iPhone. I went on U-Tube and the results were the same….the Pre was much snappier. The second issue was the sharpness of the screen itself. The iPhone has a very sharp screen, and is slightly larger. The Pre screen, however, was….in my opinion "sharper" then the iPhone screen and text was easier to read. I have poor eyesight so the screen is critical for me. Again, I can only say that the Pre screen was the best I've ever seen. The third issue was the ability to enter data…i.e.…typing. I ran a number of similar tests using selected sentences and e-mail addresses etc. on both units. In my opinion, if you need to enter data quickly, the Pre is the unit to get. I don't have large fingers so my tests might not be the same as someone else, but I got "significantly" fewer errors typing on the Pre keyboard then I did on the iPhone. I don't want to get into the what is better, screen entry or keypad, argument, but the speed and accuracy of the Pre was much better then on the iPhone…for me. The forth issue was ergonomics. Which phone just felt better to handle and use. The iPhone is thinner and flat. The Pre is much more rounded…kind of like a bar of soap…but not exactly. I found that the Pre fit into my pocket better…more like a standard flip cell phone. Because of it's rounder shape I found that the Pre was easier to one hand then the iPhone. I thought the slide out keypad would be an issue but it wasn't….it works very, very well. Both phones felt substantial. The specs indicate that the iPhone is slightly lighter…but the Pre actually felt the lightest…..this may be due to the iPhone being hooked up to the counter display. Lastly, there are a number of off hand subjective observations I'd like to make. The Pre "seems" less clumsy then the iPhone. Everything seems snappy and well thought out. My ears believe the speaker on the Pre is superior to the iPhone. However….that may be due to different levels of noise at various locations. Still, the speaker on the Pre "seemed" clearer. The gestures on both units are very good….but…..the Pre seemed "tighter"…i.e. more accurate then the iPhone. I suspect with practice both units would be good…but I feel that the Pre, out of the box, is a bit more user friendly. That's it, I really didn't get into any in depth testing of many apps. The apps I did test on the Pre were excellent…..e-mail, browser etc. I did not get a chance to make a phone call on either unit so I cannot address that issue. Ergonomically, the Pre "seems" a bit easier to use as a phone….again, more like a standard flip phone. I understand that there will be a new iPhone coming this summer that may address some of these issues, but as it stands right now, I believe the Pre is, on the points I have listed, superior.

jca666us makes a very valid point in saying that comparing a new Pre to last year's iPhone may not give the full picture. I agree with that; a new iPhone will be coming out this summer and will, without a doubt, be equipped with a new chipset / cpu with higher clock speeds. This, along with AT& T eventually enhancing their network, should resolve the speed issues. It can also be assumed that Apple will be adding some new features and enhancing older features of the iPhone. My "subjective" review of both units was only covering what I considered to be "fundamental" issues / features of these two smartphones. One fundamental, the speed issue, will most certainly be addressed with the new iPhone. It is the other two "fundamental" design / execution issues that stood out with me in my review. The first issue is the phone itself. One must assume that most people buy a phone / smartphone to, first and foremost, use the….phone. This is one area that I believe Apple made a conscious design compromise. Placing a flat and relatively wide object against the face to talk would probably not be any phone engineers first design option. I was impressed with the execution of this issue on the Pre. While the Pre is about the same width as the iPhone, it is shorter and with rounded features. I tried, repeatedly, taking both units in and out of my pocket and holding them to my ear. The first thing I noticed was that I could tell on the Pre which end was up, front and back, just by the feel….not every time, but most of the time. The iPhone, on the other hand, felt the same; up or down, front or back. More an up and down issue then a front in back, because the iPhone back is somewhat curved. This may be a small issue, and some people may feel it's a moot point, however, if you take your phone out of your pocket or purse many times a day, it could be an issue. Second, the shape of the Pre makes it feel more comfortable to hold, and more comfortable to place against my ear. The iPhone, as I stated before, is a flat surface, and I was not completely comfortable holding it against my ear. The Pre felt better in my pocket then the iPhone. Again, it appears to me that Palm studied the ergonomics of this issue in depth. The second fundamental issue differentiating the two phones is "data entry". I took some printed material with me to test enter into both units. The iPhone uses an elegant and very well executed touch screen keyboard. My first impression was that it was a knockout. I believe there is a reason that the Blackberry Storm tries (not well executed) to give some tactile response to their on screen keyboard. Humans, by nature, are used to feeling something in their fingers and thumbs when an action is taken, i.e. typing. For this reason, no desktop mouse designer would ever leave out the "click". With the iPhone I had no sense of "feel" in the keyboard. I had to stare intensely at it to get any kind of accuracy. Good typing speed was, for me, very difficult. I suspect that with practice, I could get more proficient with it. For me, entering information into the Pre was much, much easier and more accurate. Yes, the keyboard is small; but it took me very little time to get pretty comfortable with it. Each key gave me tactile feedback….I could close my eyes and still know my thumbs were touching ..something. When I closed my eyes using the iPhone keyboard…well. Of course nobody is going to close their eyes, but it does mean that you can focus a bit more on what you are typing then where your fingers / thumbs are on the keyboard. If you do a lot of text messaging, e-mails and blogging then this could be a real issue. I strongly suspect that any future "objective" speed and accuracy test / review of the two phones will bear this out.
It is these two "fundamental" issues that I just talked about that cannot, I believe, be adequately addressed by Apple in the current design of the iPhone. I don't believe it is accurate to call these design issues "flaws". They are, I believe, conscious design decisions / compromises Apple felt were needed to differentiate their product from anything else on the market. I believe that Palm has studied the iPhone's superb visual / viewing experience and added the necessary, but lacking, phone and typing ergonomics. While time and the market will determine who got it right, I believe the consumer is the ultimate winner.

After Sprint screws up Palm will give the Pre to Verizon & AT&T and all the fools who bought Sprint will cry foul because they were fools!