My First Smartphone Experience

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My First Smartphone Experience

I was thrilled when my son wanted to buy me a smart phone for a retirement gift since I would be giving up my work-provided Blackberry. I checked out what was on the market and decided on the Palm Pre because of its powerful operating system and actual keyboard. I disliked the iPhone’s virtual keyboard as I couldn’t easily get the correct touch. My son ordered the Palm Pre and had it mailed to me at my home in Canada.

I succeeded in getting it set up with the telephone support but within a few days, I was unable to get it working AT ALL. It is probably true of all tech devices, if you buy on-line and you have problems with the hardware, you must package it up and mail it back. If you buy it in a store, you can take it back to the store. Despite the fact that my week-old Palm Pre was purchased on-line, I took it back to a Bell store. The manager could not get it going either. He took it behind closed doors and came back with it working. He said that he had removed and reinserted the battery. He must have detected that the hardware was faulty because he offered, without my requesting it, to replace the phone. I was very please and accepted. I experienced no further difficulty with the hardware.

My next challenge was that the Palm telephone help desk assured me that I could NOT get my free Yahoo.ca email account accessible on the Palm Pre. I insisted that they were wrong and with further patience and help I am able to receive my Yahoo.ca email on my Palm.

One more challenge was the protective cover for the screen that is sold at the Bell store that sells the Palm. The staff are not permitted to put the film on for the customer. You want to know why? Because it is very tricky to put it on. I followed the directions very precisely and carefully but still ended up with creases and bubbles in the protective film. Bell took it back and I bought a cheaper one which went on perfectly.

I have had my Palm Pre now 7 months. Despite the initial stumbles, I have loved using it. I read the manual carefully and made use of the 90-day free telephone support. I am really enjoying my device. In my opinion, the iPhone is a “toy” while the Palm Pre is a “tool”.

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My First Smartphone Experience

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Nov 20, 2010

Smartphones for Korea
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Great feedback and comments. I think your needs and desires are becoming very common. Assuming the smartphone you want is unlocked for use outside of the U.S. (or if you buy it in Korea or elsewhere), and it has frequency bands that are compatible with the carriers you're looking to use it on (in the U.S. and Korea), I would think that any device would work. I'm not sure how the upgrade process would work for Android if you buy it in once country and try to update it in another. I would hope that it would work no matter where the update is being downloaded, but I don't have any specific experience with this as of yet. As an open platform, I would hope it would be seemless, but sometimes the carrier or OEM is the one pushing out the update, and there may be country-specific detail in the code. This is such a new area, it's hard to know at this point. Hopefully as people gain experience (like yourself!) they'll post back here so we can all share and learn!

I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what you end up doing! Happy travels.

Nov 20, 2010

Getting a HIGH END, PREPAID smartphone that works internationally, and locally!
by: Joel

As an international student, I travel often between Wisconsin, US, and South Korea. It was last semester, 2009 fall when my brother told me that he bought a brand new Nexus One with a prepaid service. To my surprise, he somehow found his way out to buy very affordable prepaid service for that high end smart phone which also has a good coverage in Indiannapolis. Not only that, he just seemed to choose the right phone because when he went back to Korea during the summer of 2010, one of three Wireless phone service carrier KT began to provide monthly plan for Nexus One in South Korea. I'm currently in Korea, but plan to get back to school for my 2nd semester of junior year at UW, and have been doing exhaustible amount of search on prepaid smartphone plan that covers in Madison area, and also is serviced in South Korea by major carriers (In fact, there're only 3 carriers in South Korea. It's a closed competition.) I know what features I would like to have on my phone. I need bluetooth 2.1 or better for Enhanced Data Rate for my wireless bluetooth stereo headset, and I need very flexible Wifi feature since I'm going to talk a lot thru Skype or something equivalent to avoid gigantic 3G bill talking to my girl in korea. The phone'd better be equipped with Android 2.1 and should be able to be updated to higher version in the future, etcetera, and etcetera.

In summary, I'm looking for a smartphone that has:
1. Good Wifi Connectivity,
2. Android 2.1 or higher (update should be guaranteed)
3. Long battery life for long talk time
4. GOOD local coverage in Madison, WI.
5. Also should work in South Korean wireless phone service providers.

All in all, I guess I should re-route my search from the smartphones the Korean carriers provide, and then probably pick one and do extensive search for Madison coverage and so on after that. Arrrgh...hopefully, I'll get a good deal.

But thanks a lot for your info,prepaid wireless guide guy! I'll keep an eye on this place to see if I can get any smokin hot deal. Once I do, I'll be sure to let you know.

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