PreCentral, an online community for Pre owners has had many posts from users reporting a wide variety of hardware problems ranging from dead pixels and loose fitting cases that allow dust and light to get in under the screen to a phenomenon known as “The Oreo”. Devices with this issue have keyboards that are so loose they twist when open. Some users are also complaining of overheating issues and balky power buttons.

Frankly such issues are inexcusable for a $550 phone ($200 for new customers). Palm enthusiasts have literally been waiting years for an updated OS and device. The Palm OS was badly outdated. After the Pre was introduced at the 2009 CES, it took Palm another 5 months to finally release it. How they could have such poor quality control after all those delays is beyond me.

I’ve been a Palm fan ever since I got my first, a IIIx,, back in 1996. My last was a Centro. I loved it but got tired of the outdated OS and technology behind it and was eagerly awaiting the Pre, but the long delay after the CES announcement turned me off and I upgraded to an LG Lotus. (The large screen, slick interface and full keyboard are perfect.) After reading about all of the Pre’s hardware issues I’m glad I did!

Palm was once the king of the mountain when it came to mobile devices, but the Smartphone movement knocked it down and it still hasn’t managed to recover. If it can’t fix the Pre’s hardware issues it never will.

Palm Under Fire As User Complaints About Shoddy Hardware Increase is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology