Gadgetell Roundup: Verizon Palm Pre Plus reviews

The embargo seems to have lifted and that means the web has recently been flooded with reviews for the soon-to-be released Palm Pre Plus. Of course, we already know that the Palm Pre Plus is going to be available with Verizon Wireless as of January 25, but thanks to this selection of reviews we can see if it is indeed going to be worth the money. And I will say that I picked and read these reviews carefully because despite previously feeling like the Palm Pre, or more accurately webOS was stalled I may end up grabbing this once its available. My reason for purchase, not so much to have a Pre or webOS device but because I can have that along with a device that has MiFi like Internet sharing all in one.

Gizmodo

There isn’t enough to call this an entirely new series of Palm phones, or even a Palm Pre 2. The Pre Plus improved on the Pre in a few important regards, don’t get me wrong, but it’s essentially the same phone we’ve seen for the last six months. You won’t notice the increased memory unless you’re a habitual window-opener, nor will you appreciate the keyboard unless you really had a problem with the previous one.

Engadget

As you can probably tell, it’s not a sea change for Palm with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. In fact, it’s barely a bump at all. If you’ve just purchased one of these devices on Sprint, you may feel a little sting, but don’t let it get to you — they’re not markedly better on Verizon — especially the Pixi.

SlashGear

Is the Verizon Pre Plus a must-have upgrade? For existing Pre owners, probably not, thanks to incremental rather than revolutionary changes. Those who’ve considered a Pre – or webOS – but been put off by the keyboard feel or the limited storage, however, should definitely take a look at the Pre Plus. Our typing felt faster and we had fewer concerns about side loading reasonable catalogs of music onto the smartphone. Lastly, webOS is faster and more responsive thanks to the extra RAM doesn’t hurt either.

PreCentral

The Palm Pre Plus is the flagship for Palm, then, but can it legitimately be called a flagship for Verizon? Almost, but not quite yet. The key is Mobile Hotspot, which is awesome and one of the best reasons for recommending the Palm Pre Plus to a business user. Palm already has pretty decent push email and Exchange support – all they need now is full Document editing (and perhaps some battery life improvement) to make the case that the Palm Pre Plus is amongst the best business smartphones on the market.

Laptop Mag

So the Pre Plus is basically a good value, even though we wish it had more horsepower. And this smart phone will get even better once webOS 1.4 rolls out next month, which will offer welcome features like video recording and full Flash support.

MobileCrunch

While AT&T continues to promise that tethering on the iPhone is just around the corner, Verizon and Palm have launched what is quite possibly the slickest tethering solution to ever grace a mobile handset. The $40 monthly price tag seems a bit steep considering the 5 gigabyte cap, but that same 5 gigabyte plan would set you back $60 if you instead opted for a MiFi.

At this price, it’s certainly not for everyone – but if you’ve got a need for multi-person mobile broadband and were already looking to pick up a Pre Plus or Pixi Plus, it’s your best bet.

It was interesting to note that most of the reviews pointed out that this is mostly the same phone as what Sprint already has available. Well, the same phone with the addition of more internal storage and also the fact that the hardware “home” button was removed. And one other noticeable difference is that the Verizon Pre includes the touchstone compatible backing, but of course, you are still required to purchase the Touchstone separately.

All things considered, these reviews read mostly the same as what we have been reading about the Palm Pre in the past. In fact, it seems the one major difference that Verizon can offer with the Pre is that they have that special app for sharing your 3G connection in a MiFi like manner. And just as an FYI, that monthly service is going to be $40 per month, which sounds expensive considering its in addition to your monthly phone service, but at the same time it will save you some money if you have (or want) a MiFi because that service would be $70 a month.