The Palm Pre for music....don't bother

All,

I was able to pick up one of the new Palm Pre's yesterday. While it's a pretty good PHONE and web device as a music player it leaves a lot to be desired. I didn't get an extensive test with it but I did get about and hour and a half of music time with it.

The only phones I had were my shure e4's and the buds that came with the phone. So the problems:

Hissy: more so that even the original 2nd gen shuffle and small beeps and chirps as the phone syncs etc.

No Gapless playback- the wall had noticeable 1 second sound drops between songs that I never heard on any ipod

No eq: at all, none, zip nada

Overall sound: bass heavy (tubby) with highs a bit lacking

Playback controls: bare bones, start, stop, pause. If a call comes in the song just stops (no fade like on the iphone) and only restarted about half the time

Video Playback: on a par with the iphone except if an email comes in which causes a noticeable pause

Volume: the one possible plus, it can get uncomfortably loud

As a music player it comes in WAY behind the iphone 3g which itself is only adequate to begin with.

So now I have a quandary: the phone and the web browser and email are superior to the iphone and it has a (small) real keyboard. I have never liked the virtual keyboard of the iphone.

One of the main reasons i have the iphone is to have minimal device load when i travel and the iphone while not at the level of the best ipods in terms of sound quality is good enough to allow a one device solution. The Pre isn't.

I'm hoping/wondering if a software update can fix some of these issues. Obviously they could upgrade the player, but I'm not sure if they can fix the sq issues.

So...... that being said, I'd love to know if anybody else has heard one and can comment on the sound. As it is for this crowd, definitely try before you buy (if the sprint folks will let you, they would not when i was in store).

Sprint does have a 30 day trial period so it's not going back yet but probably will :9

I intend to do just that. I do have the iphone 3.0 OS already (our company is a developer) and it's a nice update but doesn't deal with what for me is mostly a hardware issue.

I do expect a new iphone tomorrow however I expect it will be a minor hardware update (video, whoopee!)

I did email Palm's support about the sound quality and they emailed me back with a bunch of specific questions including the model of my phones and the source and type of music so who knows.

You could argue that multiple ways. Jon Rubenstein who is the new CEO of Palm was a big factor in the creation and marketing of the ipod when he was at Apple so you would think he took away some of ideas of what made it successful, nice design, good software good ease of use and good audio quality.

The point I guess I'm making i guess is that if you want to challenge a market dominant player like Apple, you have to be more than "as good". In some ways they have gone past the iphone (for the moment anyway) with the web os and phone call quality.

I am very much the demographic that wants a convergence device. But i dont want to make too many compromises for that. I am an apple fan (but not a fanboy) because of the good design and features of some of their products. In fact the iphone was the first smartphone and music player good enough to be the only device i carry when i want to go light. But again just barely and it was a step back compared to some of the smartphones on the market like the blackberry as a smart phone.

Who knows, maybe apple will release a new iphone today that makes me go "what was i thinking" with the Pre. However the only way innovation truly happens is when there is serious competition in the market place.

end of whine

I still am debating this. As a phone and messaging device it beats the snot out of the iphone. The size and the multitasking capabilities are great

I can live without eq and maybe gapless playback but the hiss and chirps are driving me nuts.

I am going to try some other phones this weekend when I get back home. Hopefully i can find a set that pairs well and be happy enough to keep it.

two main reasons i prefer the pre over the iphone for web browsing.

1. Speed- it's about twice as fast as my iphone (that could be network and/or processor) I have not tried the new 3gs yet which is supposedly faster too

2. The cards interface and multitasking- I tend to have multiple browser windows open and its faster and more intuitive for me to just drag the cards around then page back and forth. Additionally the fact that if they are running even in the background, they still get refreshed where on the iphone they don't.

I have talked to Sprint and Palm about the gripes I have with the music player. They have stated that a firmware update and a new player are coming soon. They even offered to extend the 30 day return policy beyond that so that I can make an informed decision. I guess they want to keep me as a customer.

Still mulling it. Love the phone as a phone/web/email device just hate the media player.

and BTW; there is considerable variation in the hiss and chirps with different headphones. Unfortunately it tends to be worse on my better phones (shures and etys)