Whew! Lots of questions about the Verizon Palm Pre Plus! I’m going to answer as many as I can, but this post will focus on basic features of the phone.
Q. Does the Palm Pre Plus have a QWERTY keyboard?
A. Yep! Here’s a picture of it open.
Verizon Palm Pre Plus with the Keyboard Open
Q. Is there a space for a micro SD card?
A. No, but the Palm Pre Plus comes with 16GB of storage.
Q. How is the battery life on the Verizon Palm Pre Plus?
A. The battery life is mediocre. Compared to other smartphones with touch screens, I think it’s about on par (but I don’t have scientific evidence to back this up!). If you’re used to a more simple phone, or even a smartphone without a touchscreen, you’ll find the battery life significantly less. With moderate use (when I’m outside of the house and checking regularly throughout the day), I get about a day of use (one full “Mom day”). You’ll want to get in the habit of charging it each night. Using the Mobile Hotspot feature will dramatically decrease your battery life, so keep the charger on hand when traveling. Also, the Palm Pre Plus (unlike the Palm Pre) has a matte black backing that works with inductive charging units.
Q. Are there any apps that help extend battery life?
A. I did some digging and found info on a homebrew app that allows you to schedule the activation/deactivation of airplane mode. Airplane mode turns off WiFi, Bluetooth and cell connections, all of which consume battery life. For more info, read this BNET post on extending battery life on your Palm Pre.
Q. Is the Mobile Hotspot a feature that you can turn on or off each month? This sounds like a great travel tool, but I don’t travel often enough to have to pay $40 every month.
A. Not yet. Right now, you have to add it as part of your overall phone plan. I think we’re all hoping that Verizon provides some a la carte options that allow us to buy chunks of time/data as we need it.
Q. How difficult is it to navigate from one app to another?
A. It’s SO easy! This is one of my favorite features on the Palm Pre Plus. Each time you open an app, it opens as a “card.” You can scroll through open cards, close one, select one, etc., all while using intuitive gestures on the phone. You can keep your several of your favorite apps open at the time time!
Q. How are the free ring tones?
A. The free ringtones aren’t anything amazing, but they’re nice. They are polyphonic tones, but they are relatively simple. Adding your own ringtones is a breeze. You’ll go into the phone app and click on the menu button in the upper left hand corner. Choose Sounds & Ringtones. You’ll see a list of installed ringtones (which you can preview). On the bottom left, you’ll see a music note symbol with a “+” on it. Click on that and you can browse any music you’ve added to your Palm Pre Plus. Choose your favorite song and – voila! – it’s available as a ring tone. I just changed my ringtone to Suzanne Vega’s “Small Blue Thing.”
Well, that’s it for now. Coming up, I’ve got posts on adding music, photos/video and apps.
[...] a look at my previous Palm Pre posts (Lookin’ Good, All About the Palm Pre Plus, How to Turn on the Mobile Hotspot, Downloading Music) and then come back here. Leave a comment on [...]
The battery life is about a day, just like my current palm phone. This one sure beats my tiny screen however.
at first i didnt like my palm but as i got use to it i love it the only problem i dont like about it is that when i set it on the table and i bump it it turns off all the way. i still cant believe that it is 150 dollars phone and i got it for free….i am still learning it does any one know how to keep sounds that u get through text message and put them for ringtone i had the voyager before i got my palm and i was able to keep the sounds for ringtones if some one has the answer can u please email me at tamilewis15@yahoo.com thank you
Lil Wayne – A Milli [OFFICIAL VIDEO] [UNCENSORED] RINGTONES W/Lyrics…
LilWayneTones.info – To get the new song A Milli by Lil Wayne on your phone as a ringtone, visit http The site has …
I just got rid of my Palm Pre Plus. The reason is simple: the keyboard SUCKS!!!! I never got used to it and it misses tons of letters. I have come close to throwing this phone through the window countless times. The OS is great but not worth the trouble of the crappy keyboard