Palm Pre in stores, plagued with display issues?

Yes, I just got my pre this past Saturday and it shut down three times. At first, the keyboard ceased to work at all at which point I tried to reset using the power button but with no success. I had to remove the battery for it to reset. The next time it shut down and when it restarted, all of my data were lost e.g. g-mail contacts, phone numbers, even the new short cut icons I created. Not sure what is causing this? I will probably return my pre and get another copy, test it out in the store first if there is same issue with closing keyboard which my current keyboard does. If same, I will have to buy blackberry or get an Iphone.

They look great! Their potential is huge... but after owning 11 Palm products over the past 20 years, I have no expectations that they can pull this off... Organizationally and tech repair structure wise, Palm is a disaster of a company... Take a close look at how easy it is to get repairs after the first 90 days... look at what they do to you after a year of trouble... flat repair rates of $150 on up...
Palm is not like any other company... they must have performed research in how to provide the worst support and repair in the universe.

I've had my Palm Pre for four days now. With a newly released phone I expect a few issues and bugs and usually wait for a patch to be released. However, the Non stop shutting down on its own is insane!!!!! No one particular action (i.e. closing it hard) seems to turn it off... it happens randomly all day long. Its about 2pm right now and my Palm has shut off about 6 times today. And it takes a VERY long time to reboot and turn on. The Palm Pre has GREAT potential... seems like a good mix of iPhone and Blackberry, but it has a long way to go. The powering off is the most serious. It also gets VERY VERY hot!!! And I have replaced the battery which did not fix it. HOwever, there are several other bugs that are an issue... the touch screen is not as responsive as it should be... I have to tap things several times. The iPhone was very accurate and never had any issues with tapping or response. Of course the APPs can't compete with iPhone... but they are so seriously lacking that I am shocked. The phone has froze up a handful of times. Battery time is low, but I shut off the wifi and it seems to help. However, I shouldn't have to do that..... my Iphone lasted all day and then some with constant daily use and everything running all day. The design was also poor, and sliding it open is awkward as the lower portion of the top slide is so thin it is difficult to grip it. (If that make sense!) Not enough options to customize the silly things like colors, ringers, etc. And unless I'm missing it, I can't organize my bookmarks and the launcher page to have the most frequently used apps on the top of the page. Also, the contact list is not easy.. I have several hundred contacts. I can scroll to a letter in my iPhone contacts in a second, this phone is not as easy. Again, I really like the phones potential, and maybe I would be won over in another year or so after these MAJOR issues are fixed, but right now I may take the penalty of breaking my contract and going back to iPhone. How can you release a phone that shuts off non stop for no reason!! WTF!
Of course the store was no help. They told me to back it up then reset it and that would fix it. Bull. It didn't work and was just a pain to reset everything again.

My pre has shut down ten times at least. Sometimes on its own and sometimes when I close the keyboard. Exchanging this weekend. Besides that, this phone is ridiculously good. Love it.

This just started happening to me after almost 2 weeks with the phone. When I close the keyboard the phone will shut off, and then I have to wait for it to re-boot, which takes forever. Happened once 2 days ago, twice yesterday and twice today. I hear it has something to do with possibly a loose battery?? This phone is awesome but still has issues that need to be resolved. My screen has no issues.

found putting piece of junk in freezer for minute or two helps to cut down on blackouts on piece of poo phone. can not wait till ten am. goodnight palm. really, no battery, spell check, no one can hear one word when I call.... wast of tiem, o meant time but your phone cant catch

got my pre 2 wks now, and it would shutdown on its own just my 2nd day of use. The guy at the store said to turn off the phone and turn it back on, he did not understand the issue, because the phone obviously was already off on it own. I was able to duplicate the problem; if you slide the keyboard 2 to 5 times, it will probably shutdown on its own. Going back tomorrow to get replacement.

The phone has only freezed on me 2 to 3 times, just remove the battery and put it back in.

As for battery life, just turn off GPS, this will help with the heat issue also.

Actually, it looks like the biggest initial issue with the Pre was simply the resets/lockups due to the batteries...probably because they were not properly conditioned properly upon being shipped. After a day or two, most people had time to charge the phone for a couple of cycles, which allowed 1) the batteries to get more stable and 2) the charge-level-detection circuity to become "trained" to know the battery charge level.

Palm has already released a software update that fixed some of the initial issues with the phone, and is working on another update. They appear to really be supporting the product.

As far as "dead pixels" or display issues...none with my Pre so far...had it a few weeks now.

I question the wisdom of titling this article "...plagued..." by the authors. Makes it sound like they have authoritative statistics on the percentage of Pres with any display issues at all...which they don't. Poor journalism.

Same problem as others have reported--randomly shuts down. I found email set up to be challenging and needlessly complex. I can't believe they have a calendar and email sync/ integration feature with Gmail and Facebook but not with common providers like Yahoo. Also find it astonishing that they do not offer a simple app to sync with Outlook on my desktop--what were they thinking? Facebook? Who cares about Facebook? Really!


As for battery life--what battery life are we talking about? Alas, the Pre has no appreciable battery life. I shut off GPS and location - based services and that helps but only marginally. This thing is still a power hungry little piglet.

After all the pre-launch (sic) fuss and bother, I figured that they would have had the hardware issues at least, figured out. I anticipate nothing but trouble from that fragile little slide-out keyboard. I owned a Blackberry Pearl last year --or more accurately, four of them (original plus three replacements due to Java issues)--and the nasty little trackball was a constant irritant.

In response to shutting down when closing keyboard:

yes, mine just started doing that this weekend. It also shuts down when using the camera feature. the battery life was great after I started having hotmail checked only every 6 hours, but it plunged over the cliff when the shutdown issue started up. It also gets really hot at times when charging.

My Pre just started shutting down today. Did you find a fix or take it back in?

YES Mine sometimes shuts down completely when I shut the keyboard. It happend twice today. I type a text and hit send, close the keyboard, then the display fades to black and it's off completely. And as I was typing this message, I got a text, replied, shut the keyboard, and it happened again!!! Can anyone else reproduce this?

AH I found the problem and solution for the shut off issue. The battery is a smidge too small, and can jar out of contact when you shut the keyboard. If you go to the store they may give you a new battery, or you can simply put a peice of paper in there to press the batter harder against the contacts, and the problem goes away.

You can organize the book marks (as well as the five on the main screen), just push and hold the bookmark until a little circle appears and then you can drag it to a new location. For the front screen, you must send one to the bookmark page before you can swap it for a new one, but it works the same way.

BTW, I too have been having the shutdown issue. I just read somewhere to check and make sure the battery is seated properly (so remove and replace). So far not shutdowns since, but it's only been a 1/2 hour.

Another Disappointed Palm Pre Owner: I've owned the gadget for 2 weeks. The first prob I had was the back flick action. I flicked fast, I flicked slow, I multi-flicked. Eventually something catches and if licks! Now, it started randomly shutting down. A co-worker has owned her Palm Pre since the first day. She likes her's and said it has only happened to her once before. She said to plug it in to the charger and it will "jump start" it. Luckily she had a car charger. We hooked it up and "PALM", there it was, back to life. It lasted several hours, until I made a phone call, using the key pad. I made a quick call, then a few minutes later checked the time. NO POWER AGAIN! I called the local Speint store where I bought the piece of..... they asked no questioned, offered no advice on how to reboot it, but were very eager to replace the phone for me. I thought I could simply pop out the battery and it would restart...WRONG! Other things I hate about this phone: No light to tell me that I missed a call. I lost all of my old ringtones, having to re-purchase entire songs for ringers, SLOW pre-set dialing, I even had to Google on how to set long pause, short pause, WI-FI!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even get my Wi-Fi to work on my hotel's Wi-Fi, I have purchased songs which I have been billed for, but can't download them......My next step, replacing this Palm Pre with another. I will give it another try for 2 weeks. If it doesn't work, I'm done. By-The-Way: before purchasing this phone I asked a Sprint rep on the phone and a Sprint salesperson a question. What seems to be the biggest compalint with this phone??? The rep said that people have complained that it is "TOO FLASHY" and the salesperson said "IT'S SO HOT THAT YOU BETTER KEEP YOUR HANDS ON IT OR SOMEONE WILL TAKE IT". Really?!?!?!?! The ONLY thing aI love about this phone...PANDORA!

I keep thinking that Palm is going to drown from its own weight pulling it to the bottom. Once an owner of every Palm that came along, I now think of it in the same category as Everex, Tiny, Packard Bell, eMachines, and others that cannot quite drifet off into oblivion. Palm is among the most poorly managed of companies still in business. They have a great opportunity with this Pre. I bet they muff it.

Sent to Dwell in the Techo-Ghetto With Emachines...Such is the Cruel Hand of Fate...

So, shall I take this to mean you're just um, "luke warm" about this new phone?

An astute observation, Captain, but i still love my Palm III and my Palm T2 despite the lack of support. No support is better than some support with Palm.

mine shuts down every once and while when i close it.

kaliwa2@gmail.com

Mines keeps shutting down when I close the keyboard