Palm Pre launch party [There ain't no party like an O2 party... Hey... Ho... etc]

October 14th, 2009 by Ben Smith

The Really Mobile Team recently attended the Palm Pre launch party – thanks to JP at O2 who really pulled the stops out for us. These events confuse me – very few people talking much about the device or the launch, but free drinks and an expensive line-up of bands. I’m not complaining, but that bit of marketing and PR is beyond me.

The Really Mobile Project top tip: Always film through foliage.

Whilst I played cameraman for a feature we hope to have ready on launch day (so far unmentioned on Twitter… it’s the N900 causing the buzz) James snapped a few pictures that I love. Partly for their glitz…

Sorry... not sure how that snap of my apartment got in here...

Partly to highlight the site looking nice on yet another device…

The Really Mobile Project: Giving the Pre that little bit extra 'awesome' it needs.

…but mostly for this one image we managed to coax off the Pre itself of James. The image looks OK zoomed-out, but at full resolution the colours and artefacts are pretty nasty. The iPhone’s camera lacks an LED light and feels a bit slower but with the enhancements in the 3GS might still win here. Both are still bettered by the N86 and the Satio, but they’re not aiming to be in that league.

Whatley: Taken on the Pre. Click through to Flickr to see how bad the colour and quality gets at full resolution.

…that’s pretty poor – especially under professional lighting.

First impressions of the Pre from me:

It feels nice in the hand, the software requires more familiarisation time than I expected despite looking very slick
Build quality is OK (but only OK) and as I feared the keyboard is pretty bad – similar to the Treo Pro I’ve been suffering with for some time, albeit with a more web-sensible arrangement of punctuation and special characters.
It’s capable and polished, but it’s taken too long to get out of the US – consumers won’t be wowed by it.

As nice as it is though, with Palm having dropped all their Windows Mobile devices (and hence existing customer-base) it won’t be enough… I call Palm’s time to death (or take-over) as 18 months.

Shame… I loved my PalmOS devices, way back…

Keep watching for a video of the night’s events, first thoughts from the rest of the team and hands-on footage of us with the Pre.

Posted in Text | View Comments

Previous post: Video Diary: Whatley & the Sony Ericsson Satio in Soho
Next post: CORRECTED: Palm Pre (doesn't) win T3 'Gadget of the year'

Anonymous
I’m played around with one and it is as you described it, the feal of the phone is a bit cheap plastic and it does take a while to get used to, but one thing I like about it is the card view feature which similar to windows vista and 7′s switch task feature, this makes it very easy to go from one task to another and “throw away” (with a flick of a finger) ones we want to close!
Nice try Palm but I don’t think you quite hit the mark!
http://thereallymobileproject.com/2009/10/exclusive-palm-pre-wins-gadget-of-the-year/ EXCLUSIVE: Palm Pre wins ‘Gadget of the year’ « The Really Mobile Project
[...] | Recent Posts | Pages « | Palm Pre launch party [There ain't no party like an O2 party... Hey... Ho... etc] [...]
Anonymous
Unfortuantely Palm died in Europe a year ago. The US has always been their main focus and will contiinue to be so … the Pre launches in Europe just as their second gen products launch in the US…
llaadd
I'm played around with one and it is as you described it, the feal of the phone is a bit cheap plastic and it does take a while to get used to, but one thing I like about it is the card view feature which similar to windows vista and 7's switch task feature, this makes it very easy to go from one task to another and “throw away” (with a flick of a finger) ones we want to close!Nice try Palm but I don't think you quite hit the mark!
llaadd
I'm played around with one and it is as you described it, the feal of the phone is a bit cheap plastic and it does take a while to get used to, but one thing I like about it is the card view feature which similar to windows vista and 7's switch task feature, this makes it very easy to go from one task to another and “throw away” (with a flick of a finger) ones we want to close!
Nice try Palm but I don't think you quite hit the mark!
peter4d
Unfortuantely Palm died in Europe a year ago. The US has always been their main focus and will contiinue to be so … the Pre launches in Europe just as their second gen products launch in the US…
peter4d
Unfortuantely Palm died in Europe a year ago. The US has always been their main focus and will contiinue to be so … the Pre launches in Europe just as their second gen products launch in the US…
Mike42
Everybody in da house say MEH !
MEH!
Say M-E-H!
M-E-H!
http://www.sample.org.uk/blog/ dsample
“Both are still bettered by the N86 and the Satio”
You can tell Ben wrote this one )
C’mon, you can’t say this one taken by the N86 is worse than the one taken with the Pre or an iPhone:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatleydude/4005912131/
http://whatleydude.com James Whatley
Not sure what you mean?
http://www.sample.org.uk/blog/ dsample
Sorry, obviously my morning blindness/dyslexia… read that as ‘better than’ rather than ‘bettered by’.
Mike42
Everybody in da house say MEH !MEH!Say M-E-H!M-E-H!<repeat>
Mike42
Everybody in da house say MEH !
MEH!
Say M-E-H!
M-E-H!
<repeat>
http://www.sample.org.uk/blog/ dsample
“Both are still bettered by the N86 and the Satio”You can tell Ben wrote this one )C'mon, you can't say this one taken by the N86 is worse than the one taken with the Pre or an iPhone:http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatleydude/400591...
http://www.sample.org.uk/blog/ dsample
“Both are still bettered by the N86 and the Satio”
You can tell Ben wrote this one )
C'mon, you can't say this one taken by the N86 is worse than the one taken with the Pre or an iPhone:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatleydude/400591...
http://whatleydude.com James Whatley
Not sure what you mean?
http://whatleydude.com James Whatley
Not sure what you mean?
http://www.sample.org.uk/blog/ dsample
Sorry, obviously my morning blindness/dyslexia… read that as 'better than' rather than 'bettered by'.
http://www.sample.org.uk/blog/ dsample
Sorry, obviously my morning blindness/dyslexia… read that as 'better than' rather than 'bettered by'.
http://benjam.in Ben Smith
Sorry. I will use short words in future
http://thereallymobileproject.com/2009/10/underwhelmed-by-pre-launch-buzz/ Underwhelmed by Pre launch buzz « The Really Mobile Project
[...] now only about 7 hours until the Palm Pre goes on sale in the UK. We went to the launch party earlier in the week, but since then there’s been little buzz about the device. [...]
http://benjam.in Ben Smith
Sorry. I will use short words in future
http://benjam.in Ben Smith
Sorry. I will use short words in future