I would like to preface this hand’s on review of the Palm Pre with a special thank you to Mr. James Stephen, the area’s Business Solutions Specialist. James had kept in touch with me since early 2008 when I wrote my letter manifesto to CEO Mr. Dan Hesse (and others within the company hierarchy), regarding my concerns over the lack of quality Smart Phone handsets Sprint had to offer. The letter made the rounds of managers and sub managers and James was appointed to me by the higher ups at Sprint to handle my concerns. I wasn’t even close to blogging about anything at this point, but I was upset with my phone choices and I got sick of being envious of all of my friend’s cool phones. I even had a friend tell me that I should get a Tattoo on my ass that with the Sprint logo because I was loyal to the quality of their network. Sprint has always seemed to get the hand-me-downs of phones and that made me quite upset. James had told me he heard about my letter manifesto and that he would help me out. James consistently followed up with me about my service, even though he was not the retail division. He introduced me to the Instinct which I felt was lacking true smart phone capability, so I decided to wait and see what was around the corner before I bailed on Sprint.

I recently had a problem with my current handset which kept rebooting while I was on the phone, amongst other problems. I explained to James that I did not want to purchase a new handset since I was waiting for the Palm Pre. The retail store I spoke with decided I should buy insurance for my crappy phone and then file a claim after 24 hours. I thought that was just cheating the system. James called me to say he located a slightly used Treo by a former employee and within a couple of weeks, made arraignments to meet me near my office to give me the newer handset. We spent some time going over success of Boost and Nextel’s IDEN network it uses, and the customer service direction of Sprint but he had no information on the Pre but to say it was a hotly anticipated device and that Sprint was really looking forward to this relationship with Palm. James in no way whatsoever offered me any information on the Pre. If he knew anything, he was the best poker faced player I’ve ever met because James emphatically stated he did not know anything except that the device was coming out soon. Trust me, I grilled him.

James should be an example of how the customer service division has changed at Sprint. Yes, we have all heard of the problems in the past and dealt with them too, but this was a great example of when a company listens to its customers, what it can truly accomplish. With the lure of many free phones, including the Blackberry Bold, in which my girlfriend just got one and loves, I am loyal and holding out for what I believe is the best device to come on the market since the iPhone, only better in several ways. Mind you, I left Sprint for the iPhone and switched back after a few days later when the iPhone crashed on me three times in one day. It is my business phone and I couldn’t afford to lose calls and messages.

Again, thank you James for taking the time out of your busy days to answer my calls and track down a phone I can use until the Pre comes out. You demonstrated a remarkable customer service work ethic. You are the poster boy for how Sprint customer service is and this should be an example to the rest of the company of how to take care of your customers and to win over market share.

Now, on to the good stuff.

By not getting a phone call or email on May 8^th, 2009 notifying me as the lucky recipient of the new Palm Pre for my review, I had to resort to sleuthing tactics to locate an opportunity to get my hands on this phone. Well, the sleuthing worked, and I had a meeting yesterday with an individual that had access to a fully working Palm Pre. This took lot of convincing on my part, and I had to agree with many conditions set forth regarding the review of this new handset for Sprint.

First off, I was not allowed to take any photos, which I heard happened in Canada at Sequentia last week with several people who were chosen in a Customer Service survey to get a preview of the Palm Pre. Secondly, I was not to discuss certain specifics (apps and other things) of the device and all its capabilities. This review also cost me a few rounds of drinks $$$- with the little time I had hands on with the phone.

Feel in hand:

The phone feels solid, just as they advertised like a smooth river stone. This particular phone had the Matte back cover and I was told that the owner does have a touchstone and loves the  charging device. The overall feel is solid. The slider was responsive and not loose, which is good. I had opened and closed it several times to see if I could get a feel for how the Pre could become loosened over time, but I have to say that the slider mechanism is solid as a rock (no pun intended). Time will tell how this hold’s up to the daily grind but to my understanding, this particular phone has been through some heavy use  as text messages were popping up like crazy (busy owner of the Pre I guess). The guys keys are small and a little rubbery but in a few minutes, I had no problem with blasting out a couple of text messages. They work fine. Yes, the qwerty works fine. If you know how to type, you know the Pre.

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