We know how the iPhone 4 sizes up against the aging 3GS — but how does it fare against its fiercest competitors from all the major platforms? We wish we had some production Windows Phone 7 kit to check out here, but in the meantime, take a look at the results against the gruesome foursome of the EVO 4G, N8, Pre Plus, and HD2. You might be surprised by some of the results — and sorry, RIM, you don’t get to play until you bring some fresh, media-heavy hardware to the table. Nothing personal!
If you bundle the original Pre in with the Pre Plus — and you pretty much can, considering how closely related they are — this is quickly becoming one of the most protracted, phased mobile product launches in memory. Yes, that’s right: as promised, O2 UK has now launched both the Pre Plus alongside its scrappier little sibling, the Pixi Plus, and you can get either one for as little as zero quid depending on how you play your cards. The Pixi Plus goes in your pocket for free on any plan, while the Pre Plus stays free as long as you spend at least £40 ($58) a month and scales up to £99 ($143) on the cheaper plans. We’ve got to believe there’s some awesome new (like, legitimately new) hardware in Palm’s pipe at this point — but a free webOS device is always a tough offer to pass up, right?
The method ain’t new — it’s the same jictechnology developers offering the same code over at NextGenServer — but it will yield different results when used on the latest and greatestwebOS device. Yep, that Palm Pre unlock that enabled international GSM Pre units to work on AT&T, Telus and T-Mobile is now officially certified for use on AT&T’s own Palm Pre Plus. That means your shiny new smartphone can now hop onto T-Mobile and Telus networks with a functioning SIM card from either carrier, but unlike other unlocks, this one will cost you $35.79. Or, you know, you could pick up Verizon’s Pre Plus, nab a free mobile hotspot along the way, and pocket an old Nokia candybar for those overseas jaunts — your call, broseph.
You didn’t think Germany was gonna have all the Palm fun, did you? The UK is keeping pace with its longtime nemesis by matching the May 28 launch date for the Pre and Pixi Plus on O2, and has even supplied us with a handy reference sheet containing all price plans available for the handsets. You’ll find it after the break, but sadly it’ll only be of interest to true WebOS enthusiasts. There’s nothing south of £25 ($36) per month available, and if you want a reasonable call allowance, you’ll have to get on into the £30 and above bracket. All contracts do at least come with unlimited texts and data, but overall the cost seems too steep to entice us, what with all the Desires and Bolds floating around at better price points.
UK carrier O2 and Palm have announced that the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be arriving on the network come May 28th. The handsets – which will be the same as their US brethren, only supporting O2’s UMTS/HSPA network – will be priced from free, tariff depending. Full details after the cut.
The Palm Pre Plus has 16GB of internal storage, a slide-out QWERTY thumbboard, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and GPS, together with Palm’s own webOS operating system and Synergy email, calendar and social network integration. The Pixi Plus, meanwhile, has much the same functionality but half the internal storage, a candybar form-factor and a slightly smaller screen.
Both will be supplied complete with the Touchstone back panel, though the inductive charger itself will be offered separately. They’ll go on sale May 28th online and in O2 stores.
Press Release:
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus Available Soon for O2 Customers in the UK
LONDON, England, 19 May, 2010 – Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that the Palm® Pre™ Plus and Palm Pixi™ Plus phones will be available in the UK on O2 from 28 May. They will be available from free, depending on tariff, in all O2 stores and online at www.o2.co.uk.
“We are excited to bring Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to the market for O2 customers,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “With the choice of these two new Palm webOS phones, customers across the UK can stay connected, so they never miss a thing.”
With a slider keyboard, a larger touchscreen and a high-performance processor, Pre Plus is Palm’s full-featured Palm webOS™ phone. It’s designed for people who want an easy-to-use phone with advanced features to help manage the different aspects of their lives, both personal and professional. The keyboard makes for quick and easy typing, while the unique gesture area provides a sleek look and intuitive navigation. Customers also get 16GB(1) of storage (~15GB user available) for applications and media. Pre Plus comes with the Palm Touchstone™ Back Cover, so it’s compatible out of the box with the revolutionary inductive Touchstone Charging Dock (sold separately).
As Palm’s thinnest phone to date, Pixi Plus fits easily in your hand or pocket and offers a host of powerful features. It’s great for social communicators and first-time smartphone buyers who want an affordable phone with a full QWERTY keyboard instantly accessible for messaging and web content. With the color Palm Pixi Touchstone Back Covers and the Palm Pixi Artist Series Back Covers, which are compatible with the Touchstone Charging Dock, you can easily switch covers to suit your mood and style (all will be sold separately at www.palm.com/uk).
Pre Plus and Pixi Plus showcase the defining features of Palm webOS, including the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously and easily move between them; the power of Palm Synergy™, which brings customers’ information from the many places it resides into a single, more comprehensive view; unobtrusive notifications; and universal search.(2) Palm webOS also has a unique model of over-the-air software updates that delivers new features and performance improvements directly to a user’s phone. Past updates have included support for 3D games on Pre Plus and video recording, allowing webOS customers to use their phones in fun, new ways.
A significant advantage of Palm webOS applications is that they can be integrated into the core webOS experience, including linked contacts, layered calendars, notifications and GPS, providing a rich catalog of innovative and unique offerings for Palm webOS users. The growing Palm App Catalog offers some of the best apps in the market, such as rich 3D games like “Need for Speed™ Undercover” and “James Cameron’s Avatar™.” E-commerce is available for the Palm App Catalog for Europe, allowing end users to purchase applications using a credit or debit card.
Pre Plus and Pixi Plus include the following features and specifications:
Palm Synergy, a key feature of Palm webOS that brings your information from all the places it resides – including Outlook(3), Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and LinkedIn – into one logical view that links your contacts and calendars, so accessing them is easier than ever
The ability to run multiple applications simultaneously and easily move between them
Unobtrusive notifications
Universal search
Over-the-air software updates delivered directly to a user’s phone
High-quality applications from the Palm App Catalog
High-speed connectivity
Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
Full QWERTY keyboard
High-performance, desktop-class web browser
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Integrated GPS(4)
Robust messaging support (combining IM, SMS and MMS capabilities)
Multimedia options, including music, photos, video recording and playback, a camera with LED flash and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email support (Google Mail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP)
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
USB mass storage mode
Charger/microUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touchscreen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
Light sensor, which reduces power usage by dimming the display if the ambient light is dark
Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
Removable, rechargeable battery
A complete list of features and specifications for each phone is available at www.palm.com/uk
Availability and Pricing
The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be available from May 28 on O2’s range of smartphone tariffs which all offer unlimited data(5), unlimited public Wi-Fi at The Cloud and BT Openzone and unlimited texts as well as a range of included minutes to suit every pocket.
The boardroom drama behind the HP acquisition wasn’t the only Palm news today — the company also launched the AT&T Palm Pre Plus. No surprises here — it’s going to $149, decidedly more than Verizon’s $29 with free Mobile Hotspot service — but hey, at least it’s out there, and you get a free Touchstone in the deal, so that’s nice.
Palm’s App Catalog appears to have suffered a meltdown of sorts, with users of Palm Pre, Pixi, Pre Plus and Pixi Plus handsets reporting that after having downloaded a new title – whether paid or free – no aftermarket software will run properly. The issue remains even after fully erasing and restarting the phone; in fact, the apps are still installed even after that process is completed. However core functionality – calls, messaging and data – are all unaffected.
At the moment, a workaround appears to involve setting the date of the smartphone back to some point in April, but the official Palm blog is suggesting that an official fix will be appearing in short order. They also say that any purchases you’ve made through the webOS App Catalog have “been properly recorded and as soon as this issue is resolved, you’ll be able to access all apps you’ve purchased” so you shouldn’t have to worry about losing money.
AT&T has finally sent out the rundown on when (and for how much) its customers will be able to saddle themselves with a Pre Plus and matching two-year contract, and the wait isn’t a long one: it launches this coming Sunday, May 16, just as we’d expected. It’ll run $149.99 on contract after rebate — the same that Sprint is charging for the Pre, and $100 more than Verizon is charging for its own Pre Plus — but buyers will be getting a free Touchstone charging dock along with their purchase “for a limited time” when the phone is picked up in a corporate-owned store. There’s no word on the Pixi Plus yet, but hey, at least this gets Palm back on the network after an extended vacation. No word on a free mobile hotspot add-on, but hope springs eternal, we suppose.
You’ve waited long enough AT&T customers. So long that the Palm Pre is now the Palm Pre Plus and Palm, well, isn’t even Palm anymore. But you just never mind all that, what’s important is that AT&T subscribers will finally have dibs on the Palm Pre Plus starting May 16th, nationwide. No mention of a free 3G mobile hotspot capability like that offered by Verizon, but you will have free access to AT&T’s 20k-strong network of fixed hotspots. Now we just need a price — an interesting dilemma after VZW lowered the PPP to just $30 on contract.
Our tipster also tells us that AT&T will be rolling out its 3G MicroCell from coast-to-coast on the same day. Makes sense since AT&T already gave us a mid-April date for its little signal boosting wonder.
[Thanks, D.]
Update: We just spoke to AT&T about this whole ordeal; they wouldn’t confirm or deny the Pre Plus situation, but we were told that there’s “no change” in the MicroCell plans — May 16 won’t be a nationwide rollout, and there will be more rollouts in the weeks after.
Looks like Verizon is having a bit of a blowout on the Palm Pre Plus: it’s fallen to just $30 on a two-year contract. That’s the same price as Big Red’s Pixi Plus and a pretty substantial discount over Sprint and AT&T, both of which will charge you $149 — and man, AT&T hasn’t even started selling the thing yet, so someone’s going to look awful silly on launch day. No word on whether this cut-rate pricing will last or whether the Pixi Plus will fall to free, but if you’re looking for a cheap way to get in on the future of HP, well, now’s your chance.
