Mayberry Gets Smart – Day 3 of the Smartphone Switch

I wanna hold your haaaaaand …

The Palm Pre Plus really does fit in the palm of my hand. It’s a little smaller than an iPhone or my ancient old Palm Pilot, but the screen is large and clear enough for me to see easily. The phone can be held horizontally or vertically. I do sometimes have trouble switching from horizontal mode back to vertical, which can be frustrating; when I rotate the phone, the view doesn’t automatically follow along with me.

The Palm Pre Plus has a QWERTY keypad, which is revealed upon sliding the phone’s screen gently upward. (Flip the phone over onto its back when it’s in this open position and you get a mirror on the other side–handy for applying lipstick or, as my friend Leighann noted, attracting kids’ attention when you’re trying to take their picture.)

If you prefer a separate keyboard to an onscreen one, you’ll appreciate its availability on the Palm Pre Plus. I’m still adjusting to the thumb-typing style, but I’m improving rapidly. I find it awkward to key in the forward slash, important for typing browser addresses, because it’s on the lefthand side along with the function button that has to be keyed in simultaneously–I have to hold that button with my left thumb, then reach over to the slash button with my other hand. If the browser auto-filled the “http://” part of a web address, that would largely resolve this problem.

The phone comes with a soft, faux-suede, pillowcase-style carrying case. Although I haven’t had any problems with it, it doesn’t seem to offer much protection, so I’ll probably look for something sturdier to protect the phone from the dangers lurking inside my purse.

The phone comes with earbuds and a charging cord that also doubles as a USB cord (the USB cord basically plugs into an A/C adapter that then plugs into your outlet)–a clever way to combine two important functionalities. With heavy use, the battery lasts about 8 hours. If I switch the phone all the way off, it takes awhile to reboot when I turn it back on, so I prefer to keep it on. Then the phone can live up to its “right in the palm of my hand” reputation.

*Disclosure: I received a free Palm Pre Plus phone and one month of service from Verizon Wireless so that I could test them out for this series of reviews. These opinions are my own.