Has your Palm Pre learned to do the twist?
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 23rd 2009 11:48AM
posted July 23rd 2009 11:48AM
No, that's not a Blurrycam shot of a rumored Palm Pre follow-up with a rotating screen. It's actually one of the more extreme cases of the Palm Pre "twisting" right out of its shell, which, as far as we can tell, still seems to be a fairly rare occurrence. This particular Pre belongs to one Royer, who was apparently able to get it replaced without too much hassle, but other folks are also reporting some slight screen wobble, and even a few cracks appearing here and there. Somewhat interestingly, Royer says that the Sprint repair center he went to said they're not allowed to try to fix the Palm Pre, and are instead instructed to simply exchange it for a new one. So, has your Palm Pre learned any new moves it shouldn't have? Let us know in comments.
[Via Engadget Chinese]
[Via Engadget Chinese]
Software great, hardware not up to snuff. Not the way to get back in the game, Palm.
A twist slider, now Palm Should have done that. Like another peep said, would be great for games/movies/porno.
That's why I love my Iphone. It has no moving parts - the reason I got rid of the Tmobile G1. The screen on the G1 creaked and wobbled all over the place.
yeah, i just bought my Pre five days ago and it slightly turns to the right. The phone feels loose and flimsy like its about to break. I love the phone but this is not what I expected; especially after I shelled out over 300 bucks for it. After reading this, I'm returning it back..now, that I know it must be a defect.
thanks,
one9
They all seem to have the same issue on the left side, slight separation and wobble. Has anyone seen a violent left twisting Pre?
Just a LITTLE bit further and you'd be able to use the keyboard when viewing stuff in landscape mode.
Mine's doing just fine.
Palm FTW
Looks like Palm did release the Roteo after all.
I returned one of my three Pre's already for just this sort of problem. They are all a little loose now, but nothing serious. I had to argue pretty hard with the tech, but he acquiesced.
The one I replaced also started rebooting sometimes when the keyboard was slid closed. That was weird, but not unique. The tech said that we needed to turn off Wi-Fi as a default, because with all the radios on, the unit gets too hot in the battery compartment and gets flaky. After that change in usage, the behavior hasn't recurred.
One did get a pretty serious sand pits from my teenager putting it into her pocket at the beach. That front isn't a durable as an iPod Touch.
Skip
I am kind of curious, that looks like the Pre's screen is just detached completely from the rails. That can't possibly be without some intentional pushing.
I have a sneaking feeling that this new wobble and turning is something that is going to pop up like crazy on the new Sony PSPGO. I think this will be the new face of ugly when more of these slidding devices start hitting.
Nope - I don't buy useless phones that fall apart - I buy iPhone's :)
Yikes!! Glad that's not mine.
For the first week of my Pre's life, it would turn off if it got jostled too hard (like I couldn't carry it in the cargo pocket in my cargo shorts because it would knock against my knee and shut off). Finally, it started shutting off after I slid it closed too hard (it would shut off if you let it shut on it's own. To get it to not shut off, you had to slide it slowly closed). I pulled the battery out and reseated it, and have had no problems since.
mine works great, but i had one from day one that did have an issue and go the same response "we can only replace these right now". The cool thing is that i got all the accessories again.
hmm.... you can either deal w/ a possible loose screen on the Pre or a higher risk of getting a Pink screen as you burn out the iPhone while using the vid camera
the choice is yours
Higher risk? Not too damn likely. I have yet to see or hear of that happening to anybody with a 3GS. But look at the comments here - the Pre wobbly screen is happening to about half the people who commented. It's not "possible", it's "probable" since it's a design flaw inherent to the Pre.
That is not how forums, comments sections or statistics in general works. People who have the problem search it out on the internet and then comment on it. That's like going on MySpace and saying 98% of our country is illiterate.
scld
p.s. or it's like going to MacRumors and saying that buying a Mac is worth it. . . .BAZZZING.
Mine's good.
The floor model at Best Buy here in Columbus, OH had some serious wobble to it... hadn't broken yet, but it couldn't have been more than a few more hands away from it...
The one I used felt a little flimsy, but didn't feel like it would break. Like anything made in a production process, you will always have a defect or two make it through QA. It's good to see any with problems are being replaced
However, if they offered the pre with that feature I would be all over it.
Oh and to the person that talked about "Twitter slander"
Twitter is to the internet, what reality TV is to prime time programming. Dumbed down, short bursts of communication for a generation lacking the intelligence and attention span for real communication. If someone changes their opinion based on what they read on twitter, they are not intelligent enough to hold an opinion in the first place.
Ahh the irony of modern tech
and that screen still turns on? or is that a rendered screen image? I'd be impressed if it swivels that far to the side and the connection to the screen still turns it completely on. I haven't had any problems with mine and I got it the week after it came out.
I haven't had this problem, although putting a little bit of pressure in that direction does reveal a little bit of a 'flex point'. Nothing wrong with mine, but I can see where some people might have a problem. (kind of like 1/4 of the way up the original Rock Band kick pedal. . . .never broke mine, but I can see why it happened)
um, could you imagine how awesome it would be if someone built in a torsion sensor so that you could twist it and have the keyboard usable while the screen is in horizontal mode
I got my Pre the Monday after it came out and 2 weeks later the screen was cracked from the inside and would go spastic launching apps, making calls, etc. I took it back to Sprint and they told me it would take at least a month to replace it. Since I was a new customer and within my cancellation period I explained how I had an iPhone and never had a problem with it (other than software issues). They decided to swap it out with a new one that they suddenly had in stock. I love the phone and think it's a step up from an iPhone in terms of functionality, but now I handle it gently and am afraid it's a little too fragile.
This is why the iPhone is the pinnacle of smartphone design excellence. It has no moving parts, and is made out of a solid construction which uses glass. The Pre is plastic all around, really cheap plastic, with cheap moving parts and cheap keyboard. I'm not surprised by the Pre's hardware failure, really.
wow that's crazy....but like the majority of palm pre owners...no problems like that at all - totallly satisfied
well i would like more apps but the homebrew crowd is cranking them out nicely over at precentral.net
they have more apps than the app catalog LOL
That's what happens when there are moving parts.
No twisting -- but my screen developed the Spontaneous Crack only 15 days into my ownership of the device. A terrible hassle ensued, and I went through many iterations of various Sprint reps, stores, and repair centers telling me they'd replace the device and then "remembering" that, oh yeah, they don't replace broken hardware, you have to pay the insurance deductible.
Finally I made direct contact with Palm, who happily offered to repair my device for no more than the cost of shipping the phone to them and waiting 2 weeks to get it back. I'm still waiting, but I'm expecting my hopefully-nearly-good-as-new Palm Pre back early next week. Thank goodness, its been a long hard fight, no thanks to Sprint and their complete lack of interest in helping their customers.
I guess Sprint figures they've got me on contract 'til 2011, so no sense wasting their time, money or effort to do the right thing and help a customer out.
Yeah, I wanted to report my Palm Pre doing something unexpected. I turned on 2 laptops and 1 printer next to it and interestingly, my Palm Pre can tie all three devices through WiFi. I was able to surf the internet on both of the laptop machines and print my documents across my WiFi printer. My Palm Pre works as a Wireless WiFi Router, I didn't expect it to do this! Amazing!
care to explain further?
Hi, just wanted to say that I'm on my second pre and both have had the wobble issue. The first I exchanged because it was having the headphone jack issue where the phone still thinks its plugged in. To solve that I plugged in the headphones, turned off the phone then turned it back on. That worked twice, but the third time I just decided to replace it. I noticed it did it when I was using the youtube app too, except for the last time it did it on its own.
Also, I bought mine from best buy and last I talked to them the lady told me that the twist doesn't affect the use of the device, so I won't be able to exchange it because of the twist alone, which is pretty much bs, but I didn't press the issue too much. She also said that they can't go through the phones they have in stock to find me one that doesn't twist so I'd be pretty much stuck with whichever one I get, so I'm gonna wait til my 30 days are up and get a new one and the best buy warranty so that I'll be covered I guess. She said I can cancel that anytime too so, if palm announces a fix or something I'll be able to cancel that and feel more comfortable.
All this being said, I like the phone a lot, it being my first smartphone and all.
My Pre has a bit of play, but it isn't that bad. Holy crap. Let's consider this the last slider phone Palm plans on manufacturing.
I'm actually in the process of getting mine repaired...I took the phone out of my pocket to txt someone and noticed spider cracks had formed had gone up to the middle of the screen. I couldn't use the phone since the touch screen was worthless. It wasn't dropped or anything, but Sprint, although it was within the 30 days wouldn't give me a new phone...how ridiculous. So i had it sent to Palm to repair for free... I hear this has happened before. But other than that random occurrence, I love the phone to death!
I think this phone's OS is the best I've ever used. I was let down 3 times by manufacturing defects and issues I felt should have caused the phone itself to remain in testing for a little longer. I had the above mentioned problems and more lol. When a phone is released with the same Web OS in a more sturdy case made of metal, I'll jump ship from Verizon.
Yeah, mine has a bit of twisting motion, but not when fully extended. It's annoying and will take it in for service soon, but otherwise the phone has treated me well.
And here I was thinking I was the only one with this problem.. Pondering if I should go through the work of taking it in and replacing it. :-/
I bought the pre the first day it came out I was rooting for Palm to do well. I ended up exchanging it 3 times then I just got tired of the hardware quality and went back to a Blackberry. I honestly do hope that Palm does well but their hardware is seriously lacking. People are spending hard earned money in this great economy they deserve a quality product. All in all stop producing cheap products or the company is destined to fail.
refer to docomo n-01a http://www.mobile88.com/articles/2009/2/2/docomo-PRIME-series-N-01A.jpg
my *almost* 3rd Pre had a more pronounced wiggle than my first 2. I caught it at the store and the sales guy I was dealing with tried to pass it off as a normal issue. Long story short, I am no longer a Pre owner or Sprint customer for that fact, too bad they didn't want to keep a NEW customer, shame on Sprint... well really shame on that ridiculous sales guy.
I will be waiting for the next WebOS device. Hopefully Palm will VASTLY improve their quality control people by then, or the product materials used.
No issues with mine.
I had the same problem as kingjain. There was a noticeable gap/looseness between the two parts of the phone when closed. I liked it but turned it in for a BB Tour. The Tour is much easier to manage. All touch pad phones IMO can be harder to navigate and require more of your attention when your multi-tasking. I'll take the Tour w/ it's track ball and fast processor and OS over the Pre and it's considerable growing pains.
similar one.
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/product/foma/prime/f09a/features.html
If that was really a feature of the phone it would be nice.
a palm pre with a swiveling screen would accualy be an awesome idea. just thinjk about it, there would be no needto make an on screen keyboard, which wouldnt work half as well as the hardware keyboard. Just a thought for palm.
Mine wiggles a bit, I think ever since I tried my good headphones with a big adapter on it. But its not a big deal. However, what is annoying is the distortion on the earpiece. I think mines got dust or something is loose. The sound quality on some calls is gross. The speakerphone sounds fine though. I might take it back because of that.