OK so the Pre finally became available in the US on the 6th June and certainly the majority of things said about it are good. Although it has been highly praised I’m afraid it lost me during the first few days after release. If people are actually following this they’ll know that the Pre came to my attention back in January when I started looking about getting a new phone. Since then the Pre was looking good but just a few things have put me off it now and I have to go on what I’ve heard and read on the web as my demo model must have got lost in the post *cough*.
The build quality isn’t what I’d expect from what is suppose to be a high end phone. There seems to be a very plastic look and feel about it and really wouldn’t stand out against and iPhone or one of the new HTC phones. Also the edges of the slide out keyboard are sharp which doesn’t give a nice feeling in your hand.
The keyboard was the main reason I was attracted to the Pre to start with but even that seems to have flaws. The keys are awkward and your thumb bumps against the top half of the phone when trying to use the top row of keys.
The last thing is the applications or rather the lack of. These days it’s the applications that sell devices which Apple have proved very well and currently there are no applications that would make me consider getting the Pre.
Saying all that from what I can gather the Pre will not appear in Ireland until later in the year sometime between September and October depending on what reports you read, so this does give them time to sort out some of the issues and even fill out the app catalog. Telefonica have signed up as one of the operators in Europe so that means the Pre will be available on O2 in Ireland and the UK, who knows I might get my hands on one then to see what it’s really like.
I’ve put together a playlist of videos from PhoneDog.com showing what the Pre is like and what it can do
