Palm Pre Battery Life Average Use Test for one day (Chart)

I've performed some testing of the Pre's battery, which is more or less me using it like I normally would for one day, and noting the battery charge whenever I had a chance.

Overall, I made several calls throughout the day, probably talking on the phone for about 1 hour.
I used a combination of EVDO and wi-fi browsing, but nothing too crazy and wi-fi was only for a short time. Visited all in all no more than 10-15 websites all day. Data usage for the day was at least 10 MB, if not more. Total texts sent/received was close to 30-40, with several being pictures. I downloaded 1 application.

I also played around with some of the apps, but did not play any music or video. Chat was signed off most of the day, and email was not being checked (I sit in front of a computer at work, so I don't need two notifications for each message).

GPS was off, but I don't think this does anything. I was only asked for my location once during the day, when I opened Google maps, so I think it is probably safe to keep GPS on, as long as you aren't using anything that will activate it (such as the camera for geotagging).

Onto the numbers, and these are very preliminary results.

The above chart started at 7:10am and ended at approximately 11:20pm. With my moderate/light use, the battery fell by approximately 3.1% per hour. I'd imagine for a heavy user, this would be closer to 5% per hour, which would still give you a respectable 20 hours per battery charge, definitely enough to get through the day.

The majority of the calls that I made were between the 1-5 hours and 10-15 and it is noticeable in the chart. Palm rates the battery at 5 hours talk, which would mean 20% drain per hour, or approximately 1% every 3 minutes. This seems to be on the mark.

I don't have too much experience with smart phones other than this one (pathetic, I know) but from what I've read this compares pretty well to the iPhone 3G.

VA Gov Endorsement

Tomorrow in the VA Democratic Primary for governor, I'll be voting for Creigh Deeds.

Between the three contenders, I think that he offers the best experience, and will appeal to both Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.

Phone Wars Heat Up

Things are getting interesting.  

The new iPhone has a lot of improvements, including voice dialing, MMS, and supposed improved battery life.  It also supports tethering, but NOT on AT&T. 

Meanwhile, Palm has the Pre, which multitasks, features very tight integration with Google services and Facebook, and (very importantly) has a hardware keyboard and removable battery.

As you all know, I have the Pre.  One thing that most consumers will not compare is the total cost of ownership.  I calculate that my plan will cost me at least $1200 cheaper over the next two years versus the iPhone.  This is not an insubstantial amount.  

Some things the iPhone has that the Pre does not:

Video recording (for now, the Pre is definitely capable of it)

Compass (who cares)

Voice dialing (for now, the Pre could definitely handle it)

A large App Store.

Supposedly good battery life (Pre lasts about a day, same as the current iPhone)

Some things the Pre has that the iPhone does not:

The ability to multitask, to run multiple programs at the same time

Unobtrusive notifications

Synergy, which connects all your data

Ability to add multiple exchange accounts

Much cheaper data plans

Additionally, people who have had a chance to touch and see the Pre have said it is superior to the iPhone - and this includes at least one Apple fan, and another current iPhone owner, who wishes he'd waited.

iPhone tomorrow?

I've been busy playing with the Pre all day, so I haven't kept too much tabs on the other news, a new iPhone.

Apple may be releasing one tomorrow at the developer's conference.  Rumors include the ability to take videos and possibly have video chat.

Taking videos sees logical, but I'm not sure how videochat would work on such a small device, unless it was in its dock.  Would be way to shaky.  

Pre Numbers in Northern VA

The Best Buys all had 12 or less Pres in stock.  These are definitely all sold out now.

I was told by someone at the Fair Lakes Best Buy that they were sold out before the store was opened, at about 9:30.

My experience in at the Chantilly Sprint Store was that they were not sold out immediately, but within the first hour of the store opening.  They had about 40 in stock.

Heard through a source that the store in Reston sold out of their stock of 80 Pres by noon.  Overall, pretty strong sale numbers, as long as Northern VA is representative.

Palm Pre - First Impressions

While my own phone is inoperable due to a 1 in 10,000 number port issue, I was able to successfully setup my wife's phone today.  I also spent a good time playing with it.

Battery life:

As reported, battery life could be better, but is acceptable.  We used it pretty heavily today, including downloading a massive 60MB download from Palm.  The phone lasted a good 12 hours before the battery got into the red, it will definitely get you through the day.

Display:

Absolutely beautiful.

Gestures:

Worked very well, everything responded well to touch and one handed operations is a cinch.  

Overall speed:

Opening applications could be faster but is definitely not a huge problem.  Web pages loaded very quickly and accurately.

Contact Synch (Synergy):

Would work much better if everyone put their phone numbers in Facebook!  It worked well enough, but we had to manually link a lot of contacts which is to be expected.

I'm very impressed overall, I just need to get mine working.

Palm Pre Number Port Problems

Apparently this morning, Sprint fucked up my number port.

Their servers were overloaded and sent Verizon two requests to move my number, which triggered some type of manual intervention.  I'm being told anywhere from "now" to 2 days to get my number transferred.  In the meantime, my Pre is a brick.  

The other number transferred fine, and the phone is great.  

Update: 11:30pm: Port is still fucked up.  My number belongs to either Sprint or Nextel now, but they cannot transfer it to my phone for some reason.  They offered me a temporary number, which is not accepted.

The Sprint retail rep who sold me the phone is pissed off at his own company it seems; he was yelling at the Sprint corporate reps today, and said that he will handle this problem tomorrow.  At least someone is taking ownership of this issue.  I've heard estimates ranging from "any minute now" to "3-4 days".  Who knows what will happen, but you can bet I'm going to get some free shit out of this.  So far, my activation fee ($54) has been credited to my account.  Working on getting a free month of service ($150) and another $100 of accessories.  We'll see.

Palm Pre Buying Experience

I'll be updating this throughout the day...

Yesterday I did some reconnaissance, going to the Best Buy and Sprint Store in Manassas, VA.  No lines at that time.  

Woke up today at 5:30.  Decided against Best Buy, because their stock is limited (~12 units per store) and they do not open until 10am.  The only downside is that instead of an instant rebate of $200 for the 2 phones, it would be mail-in.

Drove to the Sprint Store in Chantilly, VA.  Arrived at 6:30.  There were already 4 people in line.  The Sprint rep was there and bought a jug of coffee for everyone.  We waited for a while and more people showed up.  By 7:30 there were 18 people in line.  At that time we were each given a number.  I got 5 and 6.  

They asked who was porting from another carrier, we were the only 2 that I heard.  At this time we could also get a Touchstone charger and leather case.  I only opted for the case; they did sell out of Touchstones, so they had less of those than Pres.

We were served immediately in the Sprint store.  Total came up to $675 - $200 mail in rebate.  This includes tax, activation, etc for the 2 phones.

Unfortunately, their network was jammed for porting, so we were unable to leave with our phones.  I'm switching from Verizon to Sprint, a process which will take 1-4 hours, but they could not even start that process yet.  

I'm heading back to the store shortly, at which time the port process should have started.  I'll have to wait until my Verizon phone is dead before activating the Pre.

More updates will be coming later.

Update:  Heading back to Sprint now.  Verizon phones are not working so port hopefully is all done.

The Cairo Speech

Today President Obama gave quite a speech in Cairo, Egypt, in which our country's elected leader finally confronted the gorilla in the room: our relationship with the worldwide Islamic community.  

Weaving together personal history, as well as religious principles contained in at least three separate faiths, the President did his best.  While no one speech can make world peace, it is an important first step towards building trust with the world.

President Obama both praised Israel as well as the history of Islam, which has historically been a very tolerant religion.  Overall, very well done.

Pre getting good reviews

Many Pre reviews came out today.

Cnet

Engadget

Wired

NYT

Overall, the consensus seems to be that it is a kick-ass phone, that meets or exceeds the iPhone.  Battery life is a concern (apparently, the phone will generally last no more than 1 day on a charge with normal use), but unlike the iPhone, you can change it out.

Equality in NH

The steady march continues.

Cheney and Gay Marriage

Well what do you know, there's actually one thing I agree with former VP Dick Cheney on: support for gay marriage.

Dick Cheney has said, rightfully so, that marriage is an issue regulated at the state level, meaning that states should be free to make their own decisions. Obviously, many bigots (if you are against gay marriage, you are a bigot by definition) on the right wing do a bit of doubletalk when it comes to this issue and states' rights.

The recession is nearly over

You heard it here first. You may still think the economy is garbage, but 4 months into the new administration, things are going well.

General Motors declared bankruptcy today, something that generations of Americans would think was never possible. You know what happened after that? The market rallied.

Houses are being bought so quickly that mortgate rates are going up.

Ford* is going after market share and increasing production, while others shut planes. Yes, Ford will probably be the largest automaker in the US very soon.

*I'm long F-S

GM Enters Bankruptcy

Today something that was unthinkable even a few years ago has happened. General Motors is bankrupt. What's good for GM will likely still be good for America, we will own at least 60% of whatever is left.

Did Bill O'Reilly instigate a murder?

We'll probably never know for sure, and even if he did, it is protected speech, but a doctor who Bill O'Reilly repeatedly attacked on his show was gunned down, at church, likely by a very religious person.

As Andrew Sullivan correctly points out in the link above, this is Christian terrorism, which is just as bad as Islamic terrorism.