My priority (after hardware and software reliability, without which none of the rest matters) is exactly that: how is it as a phone!
This has three parts: 1) how strong and steady is the carrier's coverage, 2)how well does the phone hang on to a signal, and 3) how good is the call voice quality. On #3, there's this, and others: http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/wireless-call-quality-ratings-(volume -1)/west The two carriers that carry the Pre get the highest rating for call quality. In case you wanted objective evidence that AT&T and TMO are, shall we say, not quite as good, that's a good starting point. On #'s 1 and 2, I've reported that in the 11,000+ square mile area in which I do most of my calling (centered just north of Denver), Sprint is superior to all the rest. I continue to test and verify that this is true, year after year, since switching to Verizon (and then Sprint) from TMobile. Anecdotally, I tried the Verizon Pre Plus for a few days early last week. In #'s 1-3, above, it was comparable to the Sprint Pre. It was also comparable, as is the Pre on Sprint to the Blackberries and Treo/Centros I've had (all of them!), which is to say, very good. Of course WebOS is MUCH more reliable than PalmOS, having been built as a multitasking OS capable of juggling real time (phone) and other events simultaneously. PalmOS never had the multitasking capability it could have had, and so struggled (and often failed) to meet the demands of real time event management (phone) and other stuff at the same time. Notably, the Pre and Pre Plus are both superior to the Verizon Storm (haven't tested the Storm 2), which surprised me given the excellent phone quality of the other Blackberries I've owned. HTH! Cheers, Don From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ralph Alvy Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 12:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Treo] Palm Pre as a phone My wife is considering a Verizon Palm Pre (I currently am very happy with my Sprint Centro). She asked me to find out how it is as a phone. She sees online how it seems to be as a computer. Specifically ... 1.How's its speaker and microphone quality? 2. Does the call get interrupted by the phone touching the human cheek? She has this problem with her Verizon Samsung Saga, and hates it. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
