Palm Pre Plus review

Review

2010-05-27 16:57

An improvement over the original, but not in the right areas. Lags behind the best of the smartphone pack.

The Palm Pre Plus is very little different to the original Pre, save for the removal of the button on the

The 3-megapixel camera (and associated LED flash) is also fine, call quality is excellent, and browsing quick and generally reliable. In the Acid3 standards test, the Pre Plus scored a creditable 92 and it loaded the full BBC homepage in an average of 11 seconds over a fast Wi-Fi connection - again, it's very good. Note, though, there's still no Flash support.
Not cutting it
But in the cut-throat world of smartphones, all this - nice though it is - is no longer good enough. Battery life, which was poor in the original device, is also below par here. The Pre Plus, in fact, didn't even manage to last the full 24-hours in our test, where other phones last a day with 60% or more capacity remaining.

A year on from its release, the number of apps available from the Palm App Catalog remains pitifully thin - fewer than 1,400 just doesn't cut it when the Android market boasts around 60,000 and iPhone owners can choose from many more than that. And, finally, although equipped with GPS, there's no free voice-guided navigation app as with Nokia and Android phones from 1.6 and above.

It's a shame, because, aside from the odd stutter here and there, we like using webOS and the Palm Pre Plus a lot. But, right now, there's no way we could possibly recommend this over an iPhone or a good Android handset, and high prices seal its fate. When the Palm Pre Plus hits O2 today, it will be free on only two-year contracts from £35 per month and up. Until battery life is sorted out, apps are given a boost and prices come down to realistic levels, we'd advise you give it a miss.