Palm Pre Plus

The launch of Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus didn’t come as any surprise to those who follow the world of mobile advancements closely. Rumors to the effect had begun doing the rounds much before the layman had gotten a whiff of the launch. If you are curious about the “Plus” suffix on both the cell phones, it is to give an indication of all the feature they have that helps them score over the competition. Of the two phones, Palm Pre Plus is far more exciting. Let’s see what this phone has in store for us.

When you look at the Pre Plus for the first time, you are hard pressed to find any difference between it and Palm Pre. The pebble like shape, the slider design, and the 3.1-inch HVGA multi-touch screen remind you strongly of Palm Pre. However, in spite all appearances, there are some changes in design that become more apparent as you use the phone.

To begin with, the keypad on the Pre Plus has been revamped. The original Pre had a much softer feel to it, something of a gummy nature, if you know what we mean. The Pre Plus’ keypad has a more “clicky” feel, making it visibly easier to type. Sure, it is small and if you have large thumbs, it may take you a while to master the art of typing with minimal mistakes, but the overall comfort in using it is a lot better than its predecessor. We do have to point out that a virtual keyboard would be a definite plus when using the phone in landscape mode and wish to enter some text.

Moving on to the other features of the phone, the aforementioned 3.1 inch display is quite stunning, to say the least. With a resolution of 480 x 320, the colors are vibrant and rich and the text is as sharp as the point of a needle. A definite plus point is that you can view the screen in bright sunlight as compared to some other phones, where you have to squint heard to see what’s on the screen when you are outdoors. At least, you don’t have to shade the display with your hand when taking photos or writing a text message.

The feature that has everybody raving about it is the Mobile Hotspot. It allows you to create a mobile network on-the-go and you can connect up to five devices. You have to pay extra for it, but it is worth it, since it helps save a lot of time.

If you avoid comparing it to the Apple Safari experience, the webOS web browser is not bad at all. The “index card” feature for the bookmarks is really handy since you can put your most frequently accessed websites on one screen. You can then access them with a single tap. The Web browser is fast enough to load heavy websites within seconds.

Let’s look at the entertainment features on the Palm Pre Plus. The music player is wonderful and with the Amazon MP3 app you can buy new music while you are on the move. You don’t have VCast Music or Video on this phone, but as a consolation, the YouTube app works very well. Gaming is super fun on the Palm Pre Plus and the 3D gaming capabilities are absolutely mind-blowing.  The game graphics pop out from the screen at you and the music gives you an extra high!

On the whole, Palm Pre Plus deserves its position of the top WebOS device. With double the storage capacity and double the RAM of the Palm Pre and some great design improvements, we do have a winner!

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