It looks really cool. Very similar to the iPhone OS, yet better in some ways. But I would bet that Apple has a new iPhone out by the time the Pre is released. Palm said "1st Half '09", which means June. Apple released the first iPhone in June '07, and the iPhone 3G in June '08, so I would expect a new iPhone coming in June '09 as well. We'll just have to wait and see.

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Besides the WinMo, how do you like the Touch Pro?? My wife got me one for Christmas, but they have been out of stock, so I have not gotten it yet.

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2001 X5 3.0i (PP/WP/AP) Traded at 213K miles
RARE White on Black - Why does everyone get Tan??
First E53 with 215s on XOutpost!!

Clone wars

From what I have heard, Palm gave the exclusive on their new device to Sprint. Not a wise choice, in my opinion, given the accelerating decline in Sprint's customer base. So you basically have a phone supplier on their last gasp partnering up with a network supplier on their last gasp. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me

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I bought my Touch Pro from Best Buy during the Christmas holiday for $199. I had one on order from Sprint at $299, but they were out of stock, so I ended up cancelling my Sprint order. The $100 discount from Best Buy made it a no brainer.

Coming from a old Treo 755p, I do like the Touch Pro because it addresses many of the inadequacies of my older phone, but any one of a number of the other phones would have addressed my needs. I wanted a larger, higher resolution screen, Wi-Fi, more addressable memory. Although it possesses a faster processor, it's slower than my 755p in real world conditions, slowed down by HTC's cludgy TouchFlo3D interface which is layered over WinMo 6.1. WinMo 6.1 is actually okay, but I'm just spoiled by the utter simplicity of the old Palm operating system.

I opted for the Touch Pro in order to get the hardware keyboard, but I've gotten pretty adept at using the touchscreen keyboard when holding the phone in portrait mode. The only time I use the slide out keyboard has been for typing out longer emails. That said, I may have been just as well off with a Touch Diamond, although it's 4GB of embedded memory is a huge limitation for my needs.

Cell reception is much better than my Treo 755p, but battery life is worse. I've had to resort to charging the phone while in the office, something I never had to do with my 755p.

Both the Touch Pro and Touch Diamonds are extremely customizable and both are gaining cult status in the hacking community. Custom ROMs are available for both the Touch Pro and Touch Diamond (see ppcgeeks.com and xda-developers.com). Some of the hacks do improve operating system speed and battery life, so I'm contemplating placing the stock Sprint ROM with a custom version.

I would walk away from Sprint if not for an incredibly cheap cell plan and 2 acts of customer service that earned my loyalty. Several years back, my daughter stupidly racked up a $1500 dollar bill in one month. Another time, my son decided to use his cellphone as a modem and ran the bill up over $1200. In both cases, Sprint waived the charges.

Sprint's phone offerings has been horrendous over the past 3 years. The typical wait to speak to a Sprint operator used to be 30-45 minutes, although it has gotten better this past year. Their purchase of Nextel has been a disaster; who carries a Nextel anymore? Their coverage has not gotten any better; the dead zones in L.A. are the same as they were 5 years ago.

Certainly Palm is not going to save Sprint, nor is Sprint going to save Palm. Wimax is going to be Sprint's last gasp if they don't go belly up first.

Unless the Palm Pre comes with an incredibly cheap price tag, my Touch Pro might be my last Sprint phone.

I have Sprint. I would not be unhappy if Verizon bought them, and put us all out of our misery.

My son just got the Touch Pro a few days ago. He is loving it, and I am a bit jealous. Pretty nice.

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I guess I am one in the minority - I have been a Sprint customer for almost 10 years now and have had no issues with them, except as stated above their lack of exciting phones. We get a discount on our service plan thru my wife's employer, so it has really made it difficult to switch. AT&T coverage sucks in our area and Verizon's plans are too expensive.

Asawadude - thanks for your review. In regards to the TouchFlo technology, I read somewhere that this was improved on the new Touch HD (which is what I really would like to get but it is not available in the US yet and not sure who is going to be carrying it) and that there was a software update to help this on the Pro.

My only concern with the Pro(besides not being able to get it right now) is the size. Is this a phone that is easily carried in your pant pocket??

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2001 X5 3.0i (PP/WP/AP) Traded at 213K miles
RARE White on Black - Why does everyone get Tan??
First E53 with 215s on XOutpost!!

Palm doesn't give exclusives like Apple does. Based on past experience with Palm, Sprint probably has a 3 or 6 month exclusive and then you will see it on Verizon. Then if they make a GSM version, which they almost always do, it will make its way to AT&T.

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