The Palm Pre has just been released and most of these reviews are from review units. This means some of the issues may be resolved with OS updates. Here are some of top reviewers initial problems with the Pre.
Phonescoop.com
When the Pre is attached to a PC to sync media, it cannot make or receive calls or text messages!!! What the what?!? Palm doesn’t provide an explanation, but that’s just ridiculous.
The Wall Street Journal
The Pre’s biggest disadvantage is its app store, the App Catalog. At launch, it has only about a dozen apps, compared with over 40,000 for the iPhone, and thousands each for the G1 and the modern BlackBerry models.
During my testing, one of my downloads from the App Catalog caused my Pre to crash disastrously — all my email, contacts and other data were wiped out, and the phone was unable to connect to the Sprint network or Wi-Fi.
USA Today
I encountered occasional sluggishness and bugs. At one point, the clock was out of whack. At another, I had to shut down the Pre because the onscreen icons kept dancing around.
Gizmodo
The first thing you’ll notice as you slide open the Pre is the absurdly sharp ridge digging against your palm. Nowhere—not on the iPhone, the G1, the G2 or any of HTC’s other smartphones—has a phone been so threatening to the integrity of my skin.
Opening multiple apps at once really does slow down the phone enough to be noticeable. In fact, if you’re doing something particularly intensive, you’ll actually notice your music stutter, which we’ve never experienced once on the iPhone. Ever.
Engadget
Besides the standard issues we had with the construction of the phone, we did spot another peculiar problem we hope is just a one-in-a-million fluke with the test device we were given: it physically broke… There is a small flap that covers the MicroUSB port, and while attempting to get the thing open, a thin piece of plastic which runs along the bottom of the casing just snapped.
The good news for Palm is that reviewers still liked the Palm Pre, at least in theory. But their biggest gripes are with the physical device. There were lots of complaints about the keyboard as well as battery life. Since Palm is a fragile company, it could be difficult for this device to save them. On the other hand, there are plenty of iPhone haters out there and due to the lack of current competition, I’d expect all of them to be interested in the Pre. If Palm can survive and resolve some of the physical flaws of the Pre, a follow-up version could be much more compelling.