As a technology geek, I always fantasize about what the specifications would be for the perfect device. Over at Engadget, columnist Michael Gartenberg has put his thoughts down on this very subject for all on the internet to see. He pretty much wants everything under the sun in his next phone that -in his opinion- should come out like… NOW.
After reading the article it became quite clear that Mr. Gartenberg could very well have the phone of his dreams as soon as he can mosey on over to his nearest Sprint store to pick up a trusty Palm Pre.
Here’s a quick rundown of his wishlist of specifications:
- It’s got have a great voice capability — I want to make crystal clear calls and never drop them.
- Call quality on most cell phones I’ve used is pretty sub-par no matter what device or network. That aside, the Pre is available on Sprint which has the most affordable smartphone plans with the best included services like Any Mobile, Anytime that lets you call any cell phone in the country for free. And we all know that the iPhone on AT&T drops calls as often as an amateur juggler drops balls.
- It’s also go to have perfect contact and calendar features
- “perfect features” is a pretty vague statement but the Pre syncs contacts and calendars between a number of services. Gmail, Exchange, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. No other platform handles contacts or calendars the same way, Android comes close but doesn’t quite cut it.
- A modern web browser
- Pre’s got a webkit based browser just like the iPhone. Android has one too, but their best phones don’t support multitouch in the browser, the Pre’s does.
- An email client optimized for both Exchange and Gmail.
- Pre does both.
- A robust set of third party applications are a must, including a good RSS reader…
- NewsRoom is about as good as an RSS reader can get (naturally it is our top pick).
- …that syncs to Google Reader
- Scoop, Feeds and other 3rd party apps in the Catalog sync with your Google Reader account.
- A great version of Tetris.
- Pre has two, one using Palm’s new PDK that is identical to the iPhone version.
- A native app for Google Voice.
- iPhone has no GV apps unless you jailbreak. Pre has numerous apps, the best of which are free.
- Syncing your music directly to iTunes.
- Since Apple won’t open the doors to their walled fortress, this one is just about impossible for any phone without an “i” in front of it. However, if you use an older version of iTunes you can use it to sync media with your Pre. If that doesn’t work for you, then DoubleTwist is pretty darn sweet.
- My next phone will be small.
- The Pre is the smallest in physical size of all the modern smartphones, while boasting the same screen resolution as the iPhone. If that isn’t small enough, I can introduce you to the Pixi.
- Support multiple Bluetooth profiles so I can easily link into my car’s handfree system…
- yes
- …connect external keyboards
- Got us on this one, but this is a bit of an odd request if you think about it. Isn’t that what netbooks are for?
- …and tether it to my PC.
- Pre Plus has Mobile HotSpot which you can use to connect to up to five devices with WiFI.
- The ability to run applications in the background.
- Hands down, the Pre handles multi-tasking more elegantly and easily than any other mobile platform.
Mr. Gartenberg goes on to say that he’d like his next phone’s battery life to handle heavy stress for two days without going dead. This is a flat-out unrealistic request and no phone will stay alive for that long until a new battery technology is invented. Until then, you can swap out the battery on the Pre and swap in a fully charged on and keep going strong. For a guy who claims to have up to five electronic devices with him at all times, surely an extra battery wouldn’t be too much of a hassle to keep on hand as well.
Also, our friendly columnist claims that when it comes to multi-tasking, he wants to clearly manage and close which apps he has open, we all know that the iPhone can only run native apps in the background, while Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices can have multiple apps open simultaneously, but aren’t very clear on how to close or manage them (and sometimes they close your apps for you). The Pre presents all open apps to you in card view and lets you dismiss whichever ones you don’t want to keep open. No guesswork involved. And in a final statement about multi-tasking, Mr. G claims that “Almost every phone on the market today fails in this capacity to some degree or another”. This makes me feel as though this New York tech strategist has never even used a webOS device or else he’d quickly be singing a different tune.
So there you have it, a wishlist for a perfect mobile device and almost all specifications are met by the Palm Pre in one way or another. Let us know what you guys think could be a part of your perfect cell phone and how close (or far?) the Pre comes to meeting those expectations.
Other links you may be interested in:
- The webOS Advantage Part II – Pre vs. Android Flagships
- Palm Pre Challenge: Touchstone Charger – The Good and the Bad
- HOUSE DIVIDED! Palm Pre vs. HTC Hero!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brad Shedwick and Jabrilly, webOSroundup. webOSroundup said: Engadget’s “perfect phone” is actually a Palm Pre http://bit.ly/5uaYeK #palmpre #webos [...]
I wouldn’t say the Pre handles Exchange great – it doesn’t render HTML emails at all.
@kyle why would you want html email on that small of a screen though?
Fair enough…but it still allows you to hook into all of the services rather painlessly.
David
@Chris yes I would. That’s why we have a webkit browser on the phone. My gmail html mail renders, I just wish the rocknrollhax hack was made official.
Considering the Y2K10 issue some of us Pre users are still working around (a lot of 2010 events entered before Jan 1 were lost.), I can’t believe you say that the calendar works even close to perfect. Losing events is and should be unacceptable.
I do notice that Yahoo! is mentioned, but I’ve been having issues with my Yahoo! email syncing up and when I talk to Palm tech agents, they recommend not hooking up my Yahoo account to the Pre. To rather use the web interface.
I’ve been a fan of Palm since my Handspring, so I’m not a Palm basher. Just please fix the bugs so we can continue to love our Palm products.
Thanks.
Kyle, that may be an issue with your specific Exchange server. I use Google Apps via Exchange, and HTML emails render beautifully.
I’ve used a bunch of phones in the past and present and handle multiple platforms (iphone, blackberry, winmo, etc) for my clients and personally, and nothing comes close to what the webOS and the Palm Pre architecture has to offer.
Sure, Android is cool…first we had the Droid which is now old school now that the Nexus One is out.
Blackberry has been around for ever and holding it alone primarily in the business world, but BB customers are getting tired of what their phones don’t have…direct access to pop and imap mail, no multitasking, older software technology with terrible web browsing, and the list goes on for older BB phones still in use today.
WinMo does even play in the same park and game as webOS devices. This may change when 7.0 comes around, but till then we’ll just have to wait and see.
And finally the iPhone, sure the apps are great, but the phone and interface is dating itself extensively. They’ve made improvements in the last 8 months, but you’ll have to buy a new phone to get Video, Voice Commands, etc…when webOS upgrades provides enhanced features to all phones old and new capable of running the updates. I guess we could have said the same things about iPhone 3G and 3GS, but Apple’s model seems to be Upgrade or get Left Behind…
I’m hoping Apple comes out with something groundbreaking iPad, 4G on Verizon/Sprint or otherwise next week, because their last couple of presentations have been pretty lack luster and their Apple…they should know better.
Sorli…
The only thing the Pre doesn’t do is Bluetooth keyboard. I haven’t found a platform that is better.
A bluetooth keyyboard *would* be really cool for taking notes!
The email client is NOT optimized for Gmail otherwise it would thread like Gmail.
Synergy is awesome but it does not push contacts to the “perfect”…no groups, no categories. Not quite perfect.
And how any PHONE can be perfect without proper voice dialing is beyond me.
I don’t believe anyone is saying that there aren’t areas where webOS couldn’t use improvements (calendar is definitely one of them).
However, when you look at the requirements of the “perfect phone” that the article at Engadget put out, it does sound awfully similar to a webOS device does it not?
David
hey when you subscribe, does it send me a link to the post, or does the post get sent to my email?
Subscribe how…RSS feed? Comments?
went through every Treo from the 600′s, 700′s, “Pro” and was always frustrated with the slow evolution, now my Pre doesn’t have a camcorder? what the $#%!! And why does it hang sometimes where the touch screen is unresponsive??
@stuart – there will be a video recorder within weeks, so that issue will be a thing of the past.
As for unresponsiveness…the only time I have ever noticed that on my Pre is when I have a ton of apps open or a big one like Need For Speed.
If it is consistent for you, may want to get it looked at?
David
Okay great.. can’t wait to use the video recorder. I am on actually on my second Pre, took the first one back for the same issue. (touch screen being unpresponsive, not being able to get the apps up when you touch the up arrow)
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