The Poor Man’s iPhone?
With the latest price drop the Palm Pre is no longer the same price as the iPhone 3G. In fact, if you go to a Sprint store you’ll have to shell out $300 before a $100 mail in rebate for the phone. Apple will part with an iPhone 3G for just $99 now.
The problem is that the initial cost doesn’t matter, it’s deceptive. The iPhone 3G will cost you much longer in the long run.
Hardly the most generous wireless carrier, AT&T’s cost structure is as follows:
| AT&T iPhone 3G Plans with Unlimited Data | 450 Minutes | 900 Minutes | 1350 Minutes | Unlimited Minutes |
| Monthly Cost | $69.99 | $89.99 | $109.99 | $129.99 |
| Monthly Cost with 200 Text Messages | $74.99 | $94.99 | $114.99 | $134.99 |
| Monthly Cost with Unlimited Text Messages | $89.99 | $109.99 | $129.99 | $149.99 |
A voice plan will cost you anywhere from $40 - $100 per month. The iPhone data plan is another $30 per month on top of that (required for the iPhone). If you want any sort of text messaging bundle that’s another $5 per month, or $20 per month for unlimited messaging. If you want unlimited everything that’s $149.99 per month from AT&T or $3600 over the course of your 24 month contract. Note that AT&T hasn’t announced pricing for tethering on the iPhone 3GS. I can’t wait to see what that’ll be like.
Sprint, admittedly not as popular of a carrier as AT&T, does a lot better.
Sprint’s data plan is unlimited...everything. You get unlimited data transfers (no tethering support), unlimited SMS and unlimited MMS. It’s included with every Palm Pre plan.
| Sprint Palm Pre Plans with Unlimited Data | 450 Minutes | 900 Minutes | Unlimited Minutes |
| Monthly Cost with Unlimited Text Messages | $69.99 | $89.99 | $99.99 |
The only thing you have to choose is how many minutes you want. The 450 minute plan will set you back $70 per month, the 900 minute plan costs $90 and unlimited voice is $100. That’s $49 less per month than the equivalent bundle from AT&T, a savings of around $1200 over the course of two years.
Granted AT&T allows your unused minutes to rollover month to month, but Sprint lets your free nights and weekends start at 7PM instead of 9PM. Even taking that into account, there’s no getting around the fact that for a full featured account - Sprint is a lot cheaper.
If you don’t text a lot however, much of Sprint’s advantage disappears. I would hope that Sprint’s plans could pressure AT&T to include SMS/MMS in the unlimited data package (a SMS is data, isn’t it?), but until then if you want a more affordable monthly plan the Pre is the way to go. And no, Sprint’s SERO plans won’t work on the Pre.
Built in Turn-by-Turn Navigation
Another aspect of the Pre’s tremendous cost advantage is its free, out of the box, turn by turn navigation. The Pre has a GPS just like the iPhone 3G/3GS, but it also has a Sprint Navigation app that can be used as an in-car navigation device.
The nav works well and unfortunately, to get something similar from Apple you need to buy the currently unavailable Tom Tom app. There’s no word on pricing as of yet.
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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.