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Head to head: iPhone 3GS vs Palm Pre

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By Maggie Holland, 20 Oct 2009

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The latest in our head-to-head review series sees how the iPhone matches up to the latest so-called iPhone killer, the Palm Pre.

Palm has remained pretty silent of late. The reason for the quietness? It was cooking up the latest so-called ’iPhone killer’ in the form of the Palm Pre. US users got the new handset first, back in June, whereas poor UK users had to wait until Friday last week.

So after many rumours, some of which turned out to be true and some of which were completely made up, the Palm Pre is here to make its mark on the mobile world, offering something solid for businesses and consumers alike. But will it punch the iPhone’s lights out in the process?

Read on to find out.

Looks

Most reviewers spend a lot of time ascertaining just how different the handset in question looks to the iPhone. Interestingly, straight out of the box, it’s actually quite uncanny how similar the Pre and iPhone are. They could almost be from the same family. OK, maybe distant relatives.

Palm has clearly tried not to just serve up another iPhone wannabe like so many other manufacturers, but there are distinct similarities between the two, in addition to obvious differences.

Both put large screens centre stage and prefer the minimalist approach when it comes to hard keys. Each features just a small rectangle above the display and a round, home button at the bottom. The latter is a more polished silver affair on the Pre, which gives it a slight one-upmanship in the class stakes design-wise. To the untrained eye, that is all you see, whereas next to the home button you’ll find touch sensitivity in residence, which comes to life when swiping apps into and out of play.

The Pre’s display is quite curved. It almost feels as if the items on the screen have been laid on a tablecloth and stretched over the surface. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it does take a bit of getting used to. Our reviewer described the Pre’s display as “luscious, with a bright image and vivid colours.” We’d have to agree.

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4 comments

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Multitasking

Not mentioned is the fact that the iPhone on GSM multi-tasks voice and data where as the Palm Pre and other Verizon CDMA phones only allow voice or data. So the iPhone multi-tasks where it counts (plus, you can listen to music, run a program and talk on the phone at the same time).

By rvassar on Wednesday Oct 21

gsm version comming soon

there are already pictures of the gsm version of the pre and pixie... they will come out in 2010... so fear not... pre will have true multi-tasking soon... for a 1st gen to be even close to the 3rd gen iphone says alot...

By qwijjibow on Wednesday Oct 21

Remarkably naive review

Fromt he first sentence on, this review leaves a lot to be desired. To begin with, the entire concept of an "iPhone killer" is nonsensical. The Pre is positioned, as Roger McNamee has said in virtually every interview he has given, to compete among the top few players in the smartphone market. But the larger problem with the review is the attention to small details with a complete misunderstanding of the major philosophical differences that went into the design decisions that ultimately determine user's experience. The reviewer sees fit to compare the volume rockers, yet only mentions the Pre's multitasking in passing. Consider for a second, if you will, whether you would consider purchasing a PC that could only run one program at a time. Oh, want to send an email? Gotta close the browser. Oops, forgot the phone number you need to mention in your email? Close the email. Open the contacts. Note the number. Close the contacts, open the email again. Oh, no! What day was the meeting? I think you catch my drift here. Multitasking is a very big deal. One of Palm's insights is that as the power of these small devices begin to rival PC's, people are going to use them in place of their larger cousins. Kudos to Palm for thinking so insightfully about that. I used an iPhone since its introduction, and I love it. But I've also used a Pre since it was introduced, and would have a very hard time going back to the iPhone. I just can't be productive without having several applications open at the same time. While the hardware differences pale in significance by comparison to the multitasking, I still have to ask if the reviewer ever tried putting an iPhone in a pocket and compared that to the same experience with a Pre. The Pre is a far better fit, in my opinion. Most galling, though, is that no mention is made of Palm's Synergy, which seamlessly merges a contact's information from the built-in address book with information about him or her from Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, presenting it all as a single entry. That's an amazingly good idea. Fundamentally, Palm has made the observation that a smartphone is not just a collection of unrelated information. Time will tell what other insights can be drawn about the relationship between the calendar, the address book, the present GPS location, and the other collections of information that until now have been sitting in their isolated silos. While I may appear to be a big fan of the Pre (which I am), I don't mean to imply that the Pre is the "winner." The purpose of a review should be to help the reader decide for himself or herself which smartphone is best for his or her own purposes. But that cannot be accomplished without a reasonable discussion of the major differences between the machines. This review needs to be scrapped and done all over again.

By remonl on Wednesday Oct 21

Maggie, IT PRO

remonl, agreed, the Synergy feature is both innovative and valuable - we have now reflected this in the article. Thank you for flagging. Having played with both the Pre and the iPhone 3GS, both separately and together many times we like them both very much (as our standalone reviews will show: http://www.itpro.co.uk/616009/palm-pre-review and http://www.itpro.co.uk/612067/apple-iphone-3gs-review ) but the purpose of the head to head is to do a comparison of very specific areas, such as looks, features, vital statistics and any thing else of relevance. Sometimes, these added together will create a 'winner' but that does not invalidate the beneficial features of the 'losing' handset. Indeed, as you rightly point out, it should be up to the user to choose which features are most important to them.

By Ip_maggie_hollan on Thursday Oct 22