Multitasking, How We Missed Thee
When Apple launched the first iPhone many pointed out the things it was missing. It had no support for 3rd party applications, no copy/paste functionality, no GPS, no voice dialing, no MMS support...the list just goes on and one. If Apple had attempted, with the first iPhone, to do everything a smartphone should do the iPhone would have been no different than the Windows Mobile devices that were on the market at the time: a cluttered wreck. Instead, Apple chose a handful of important features that any smartphone should have and perfected them.
Apple brought us a beautiful UI, the first truly usable touchscreen interface, an SMS application done right, visual voicemail and a proper mobile web browser. One of Apple’s mantras during the iPhone development must have been interface speed above all, because the platform does its best to preserve UI speed regardless of what you’re doing - something that smartphones before it didn’t do so well. Part of the iPhone’s ability to maintain responsiveness despite its relatively pedestrian hardware is due to the fact that Apple doesn’t allow most applications to run in the background. When you go back to the home screen and launch another application, whatever you were previously viewing is tossed out of memory. There’s some recording of state but there’s no way to switch between two applications (for the most part), you always have to visit the home screen, effectively closing one application, before starting another.
We’re never quite satisfied with what we’re given, and although the iPhone UI works quite well - I’d personally like to be able to do more. I’d like to be able to switch between IM conversations and browsing the web and checking email and I’d like to do it quickly.
The Pre can do just that.
Palm achieves the significant productivity advantage by enabling true application level multitasking. Simply launch an application then, when you’re ready to launch another one - hit the home button, zooming out to a card view, hit the launcher and fire up another app. You can do this as many times as you’d like until the Pre tells you that you can’t open up any more cards.
More importantly, the apps stay fully active and connected while in the background. If you’ve got Palm’s excellent messaging app open in the background, you’ll still show as logged on in AIM/GTalk and you can still receive messages while you’re reading emails, browsing the web or watching a movie.
The latest iPhone update enables background notifications, but nothing gives you the productivity of actually being able to run more than one app at a time. And thanks to the Pre doing a good job of managing memory, the phone doesn’t get horrendously slow if you’ve got a few cards open. There’s definitely a drop in smoothness and response time but not terrible. Plus, if things ever get too slow, just hit the home button and flick some cards off the screen to reclaim memory and reduce processing load. It’s not as hands-off as Apple’s approach, but it’s way more productive.
The multitasking ability of the Pre is honestly one of two features I really, really wish my iPhone had. Multitasking has been done by many smartphones before the Pre or iPhone, but no one has done it as smooth and as Apple-like as Palm.
Obviously if you have a lot of applications running your battery life will suffer. I have noticed that with a number of apps running I can make the Pre easily die before my iPhone 3G, but as long as you’re smart with what you have running in the background and only have things open that you really need open you should be just fine. I’ve found that in general usage, the Pre lasts about as long as my iPhone 3G. I’ve got actual numbers to share later in the review.
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nycromes - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I think Anand did a pretty good job with the review, I was kicking around the idea of picking up a new Pre sometime soon and this review just pushed me over the top. I am going to get one ASAP.All that being said, I am somewhat disappointed in this review. I have to agree with other posters that the article was a confusing piece (Palm Pre Review or Iphone wish list). Certainly the Pre has some room to improve (hopefully software updates can address some of the issues Anand described). I know that the Iphone is a very popular phone and as such it will be one of the top comparison phones, but people still give Apple way too much leeway for cutting out features in the name of a simple experience. I am happy to see Palm doing what it can to put features back into a phone that gives a similar to the Iphone experience.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Thanks guys. I see it this way: Apple set the bar very high with the iPhone, to take a step backwards in anything the iPhone perfected is bound to be disappointing. No visual voicemail? No full system-wide search? Slower app launches and choppier animations? These, in my mind, are unacceptable given that Apple already provided the market with a good blueprint of what to do.If Palm didn't force me to give anything up that the iPhone delivered, I would switch in a heartbeat. I either want Palm to perfect the Pre or Apple to adopt Pre-features, I don't really care which one happens, I just want at least one of them to happen :)
Take care,
Anand
nycromes - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
The article makes more sense when you put it that way. Again, thanks for the great review. It helped me make up my mind on the Pre.Lozil - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Ya, Multitasking, Being cool, Physical keyboard. The Phone just seems Right.I don't understand why Anand is so inclined to iPhone..! Even when the Pre is better, You Just doesn't want to agree on that, Just wants Apple to give those Features...
Man i got confused... It's a Palm Pre Review or iPhone Enhancement Request... :P
bigboxes - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Thanks for this timely (and in depth) product review. Sounds like Palm has a lot of optimization to do with the OS before I'd ulitmately consider it for my next phone.My quick research shows that this device does not have an expansion slot for memory. Does the Pre allow you to install additional codecs? It supports MP4, H263 and H264, but not the XviD codec. Although I encode my videos using the X264 codec these days, I have a lot of DivX/XviD files in my collection. Does it allow users to assign an mp3 as a ringtone or does it require users to use a specific format? Palm's website lists "Bluetooth tethering" as a feature. Any chance that you tested that out? Speaking of bluetooth, how is this device's performance with other bluetooth devices? The security setup? How is the call quality when using the phone with no headset? The microphone? Does Palm have any plans on upgrading the Pre to a metal housing or even offering one in the near future? I'd also like to see support for MSN IM or maybe offer a Trillian-like app (or something like that).
cjb110 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
A lot of the Pre reviews have mentioned the keyboard being ok, but not great. None of them mention the bonus of actually having all of screen space available while you type. Yea the iphone and android's have bigger screens, but so what if you loose half every time the keyboard appears.prophet001 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
absolutely hilarious "dude i just took the biggest poop. wanna see?"strikeback03 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Didn't he use that in his first iPhone review? Which didn't have picture messaging?Rolphus - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
Anand,On the browser performance page, I couldn't spot any mention of which version of the iPhone OS you're using for comparison? I've found 3.0 to be much faster, having benefited from the updated WebKit builds including the "Nitro" JS engine and general render speed improvements (I assume the Pre has this build as well). Would you mind clarifying or pointing me toward the answer?
Many thanks,
Rolphus
ltcommanderdata - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
http://www.rapidrepair.com/guides/iphone-3g-s-repa...">http://www.rapidrepair.com/guides/iphon...one-3g-s...Well the first teardown of the iPhone 3G S seems to confirm that Apple too uses a ARM A8 Cortex SoC with PowerVR SGX as predicted. I wonder if the hardware similarity between the Palm Pre and the new iPhone will put pressure on Apple to implement multitasking. They could argue hardware limitations for the older models, but it's difficult to hold back now that the Pre has shown it can be done well on newer hardware. Sadly, it'll probably be the major new feature of iPhone OS 4.0 next year.
On a hardware note, I wonder what version of the PowerVR SGX is in the new iPhone. The SGX520 as Anand predicts or the SGX530 as the Palm Pre. I'm guessing the teardown wouldn't be informative on this and we'll have to wait for driver analysis.