My New Soulmate Smartphone

This giveaway is closed.  The winners are announced in this post.

If there is anything I like more than a sleek new pair of jeans or a sassy new handbag, it’s a shiny new gadget loaded with all the latest technology.  Lately I’ve been hankering after a new smartphone that better suits my needs and I’ve been avidly following the chatter over the newest offerings in that realm.  I even bought a new phone a few weeks ago that I was hoping would be my electronic soulmate and promptly returned it when it fell short of my expectations.

And I’m so glad I returned it because last week I was offered the opportunity to participate in a campaign with the fabulous ladies of The Motherhood to test drive the Palm Pre Plus on Verizon for one month. 

I’ve been using the Palm Pre for a few days now, and it’s my new BFF. Just ask my friends from Blissdom. I kept shoving my phone in their faces to show them one more cool trick I’d discovered.  In fact, right now I’m typing this post on my Palm because I got on the plane headed back to Philly only to discover that my computer was dead and I packed my book in my checked baggage.  Yeah, NICE.

When I made that discovery, I thought I was destined to go stir crazy during the two-hour trip home, but then I pulled out my Palm Pre to see if there was some sort of notepad where I could jot down some post ideas, and I discovered a great little Memo app.  I can even email this memo to myself when I get back on the ground.  What was going to be a few ideas turned into this entire post.

Here are my first impressions of the palm:

It is sleek and stylish and comfortable to hold.

I wish it came in cute colors, but it does come with a chic little brown and orange felt case, which is a good thing because I was absent the day grace and coordination were handed out and my phones tend to take a beating.

The pull-out keyboard is functional and easy to use. I like how it comes out from the bottom rather than requiring me to turn it on its side like some, ahem, other brands.  It took me a few minutes to get used to using the period button rather than a double space, but it’s located in a convenient spot, and I also like that you don’t have to shift for it or the @ sign (or switch to another screen) — that makes typing email addresses that much easier.

I find the touch screen a breeze to use. It’s responsive and intuitive. It uses gestures much like my iPod Touch so I was pleased with that feature.

My favorite part is the multitasking. I can have many apps open at once and it’s simple and fun to move between them. I’ll show you what I mean in a video next week.  I also love the notifications that appear at the bottom of the screen.  They don’t interrupt what I’m doing, but I know instantly when I have a new email or text message.

It has a nice little camera that takes remarkably good pictures. And bonus, it seems to hold a ton more photos than my old phone.

I am pleased with the free twitter app. I’ll write more on the apps in another post.

I do wish it had a gmail app, though. I’ll just put that out there. I’m used to having a gmail app that integrates with the features that I love about gmail. Perhaps that is something they can add. My work-around, for the time being, is to go right to mail.google.com in the web browser.  I was able to put this page into my Launcher (you can put any web page you want into your Launcher) so that I basically have a shortcut to it.  And that’s how I’m reading and managing my email on the Palm.  It actually works out okay.

The graphics are sharp, and I’m absolutely loving the web browsing. That was my biggest beef with my old phone.

You notice I keep saying my “old phone.”  I would love to make the switch when this campaign is over, but I’ll have to do the math and figure out what to do with the remainder of my current plan.

And since it is, after all, a phone, I should tell you that the phone works great too. The reception is clear, and I’m getting better coverage with Verizon than I have with my other carrier.

As a participant in the Verizon Palm Pre Plus campaign, I’ll be hosting a giveaway with each of my four posts. The first three giveaways will be a $25 Verizon gift card, and the last week will be a Palm Pre Plus!

To be eligible to win the $25 gift card this week, leave a comment telling me why you may want to win a Palm Pre Plus.

Fine Print: I wrote this review while working on a Verizon Palm Pre Plus campaign by TheMotherhood.com on behalf of Verizon Wireless and have been given a Palm Pre Plus (and prizes for giveaways) to facilitate my review.”

About Jo-Lynne Shane

Jo-Lynne Shane has written 2858 posts..

I'm a transplanted Virginian living in the suburbs of Philadelphia with my husband and three lively children and author of this mom blog. When I'm not buried under piles of laundry, you will mostly likely find me with my nose stuck in a book or hanging out on Twitter: JoLynneS.

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