Palm Pre Build Quality Issues Continue to Slide Out
So how’s the build quality on your Palm Pre? My particular unit is solid, but I’m reading more and more accounts of people complaining about their Pre handsets. Some folks have experienced cracked screens. Others see issues with the sliding hinge mechanism. Here are just a few of the several examples from a forum thread over at PreCentral to illustrate:
“I’m on my THIRD pre (yellow box). Over the last two weeks, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of play with the screen. I’ve also noticed that on the left side of the device the two sections are separated enough that i can almost see the innards. When I push them together, you can hear squeaking. On top of that, the device came with a loose power button that doesn’t click nearly as firmly as that of other devices.”
“I already exchanged my first one due to a faulty screen, and will likely also exchange my current one because of a wobbly/loose slider. Hopefully third time’s a charm.”
Then there’s the picture shown above of a gap between the two sliding halves of the unit. The owner of the pic claims that he’s not creating the gap with his thumb; he’s just using it to show the gap. If true, there’s clearly an issue with the slider on his particular unit.
What makes these issues particularly interesting is the lower-than-expected supply of handsets at launch and not a peep from Sprint or Palm on the return rate of the devices. Note that a question about sales and return rates was posed on the Palm investor call last week, but it wasn’t answered. It could well be that the number of poorly constructed handsets don’t equal a significant amount, so I’m not drawing any conclusions just yet. But accounts like those above in combination with limited supply have me wondering if there’s a quality control issue behind the scenes.
I know we have a few Pre owners out there. Have any of you exchanged your unit due to a defect of some type or is your hardware in perfect working order? Thanks to LucaMorandi for the tip via Twitter!
Yeah I will be exchanging mine as well. It is squeaky when i type on it, and I have found that if you squeeze thew pre in a weird way OR slide the screen down a tad to hard my unit just turns off in a blink of an eye…..
Same here.
My unit seems pretty solid. There is a little play/gap between the two sliding pieces, but I think it’s normal. I do wonder how it will hold up over time. But as of right now, it’s good.
The only issues that I’ve experienced is on a couple of occasions, when my battery died, the unit locked up on the charging screen (charging battery icon fills the entire screen) and would not come off of it, even after removing the phone from a power source. It’s been a while since I experienced that, so I’m not sure if that’s something that was fixed in one of the updates for if I just haven’t been depleting my battery to the necessary level to cause that to happen.
Every once in a while I’ll have to do a soft reset, either because it won’t open new cards when I only have a couple open at the time or because I can’t access EVDO.
Overall, considering the overall power and smoothness of the phone and OS, I’d classify the issues I’ve experienced as minor quirks that I’d expect to be fixed over time.
I love my Pre but noticed that I either had a weaker signal than my Mogul or was roaming. I took the Pre to the Sprint Store an it failed the tests. They didn’t have a replacement. Waiting to resolve.
My pre is starting to wable from side to side. I hope this loosening does not get much worse. Maybe the warranty will cover it.
Have had zero issues with my Palm Pre. Been a great unit, very solid. You should do a story on how new iPhone 3GS owners are complaining about the battery life… Twitter search it…….. it ain’t pretty!
Yeah and the 3Gs is overheating so bad its causing unit to turn brown. my pre thought is great but like andrew said a few quriks. but my slider has gotten looser then it was originally but still okay for now will c what happens after more time. but my mogul was same way with the slider but way worse. and i went through 4 of those in a year bc defects.
I have both a new Pre and a new 3GS and they are both in great working condition.
No heat or battery issues. I found with both units that some conditioning over a week or so made huge improvements in battery performance.
The Pre get’s much better signal on average in NYC but the 3GS definitely wins in battery life and overall performance outside of network performance. There is no comparison in network performance as the pre won in around 45 out of 50 side-by-side tests.
@Daniel – depends on the location. Sprint trumped ATT for me for years until they upgraded the network here in Austin TX. The 3GS kicked my Pre’s butt – at worst they were even, but most of the time, the 3GS was faster…and not as hot!
Agree, the 3GS has the best battery of the two – actually the best battery of a smartphone I have owned other than the Moto Q9c with the extended battery.
When I bought 3 Pres on release day, one of the 3 had an extreme rocking motion to the screen section, pivoting in the center, so when you clicked at the top of the screen, the entire front “clicked” — I immeditely went back to the store (because I was concerned there wouldn”t be any stock left) — although one employee gave me some grief about it not being a serious problem, the store manager was extremely nice, and accomodating, and got me a new Pre within 20 minutes (even with lines of people already waiting). However, when the sales guy was taking out my replacement Pre, I tested it out, and sure enough, it had the same problem as the first, so they gave me yet another. I have noticed that all 3 of our Pres have some give in the screen, this is seriously unfortunate, and makes me feel like the build quality is really poor, but, because it’s present on all three, I feel it’s unlikely that it would be worth trying to get them replaced.
I just hope Pre v2 will have these manufacturing/build quality issues better worked out.
Mine is perfectly solid. Best phone I have ever had…. It is hard to tell from the TERRIBLE picture (iphone camera?), but how do I know that this is not simply the battery cover popping up.
The Pre I have now – no problems whatsoever. Great device that gets used quite a bit throughout the day.
The original Pre I purchased on Launch Day – went defective a day after purchase. The sensor that recognized finger swipes wasn’t working!
At first – I panicked because the local store had NONE in stock to replace it with. I began calling various Sprint stores – and I found a Sprint Store 30 minutes away who after hearing my case – finally admitted that they just got new PRE’s in stock, though they didn’t want anyone to know. These Pre’s weren’t even inventoried yet at the store – but a great store employee called me back (though he probably shouldn’t have) and told me to come down immediately – and he exchanged the broken for a new one!
If yours is broken and needs replacing – call various stores and tell them of your issue and plead your case.
Good Luck
Mine’s been working great since day 1. It’s getting a slight side to side looseness. But nothing too drastic.
Looking at the picture above I can pry it open with my thumb/fingernail just like it shows. But then they say they’re not using the finger to hold it open.
I will be on my third Pre. My first was solid but had 10 stuck pixels and a large hotspot on the bottom of the screen. I exchanged it for one that had 7 stuck pixels and a wobbly screen.
Problem is they require the exchange first, scan the barcodes, then you get to see your phone.
I’ve heard of some people getting bubbles on their screen, too!
Palm, get it together!
No problems here with the two Pres I have access to. On my iPhone 3G on the other hand the mute switch broke off within a week (google it, I wasn’t the only one with the problem).
How about the build quality on the iPhone 3Gs. I never realized how many people sleep with their iPhone. Many people are reporting getting BURNED by 3Gs while sleeping on it. This phone may have a serious overheating problem. The Net is flooded with people getting toasted by their new iPhone 3Gs. It’s getting ugly out there. Rumor has it that the 3Gs has a built-in heat sensor that records temps and you can use this DB to get a free replacement at your nearest Genius Bar. Good Luck.
The Bus Driver
“I take everyone to school”
Many people are reporting getting burned by 3GSes while sleeping on them? How many? I think one comment on PC world and that’s it.
Its really a few reports getting recycled by many different places. The best place to gauge the severity of an issue with an apple product is the discussion boards and there is very little on this topic there.
I dont mean to be nasty but im quite glad you lot in the US are the guinea pigs! Hopefully when the european version hits it will be revision 2!!
One jealous palm pre wannabe!
i can understand returning the unit once, but these people on there 4th/5th unit are suspicious. how many of them have OCD or are actually just Apple zealots “making up” posts in order to create a bad image? i wouldnt trust ANYTHING i read like this until i saw official numbers.
We’ll probably never see any real numbers, will we? I don’t recall seeing any Storm return numbers and we know a lot of those came back. Or we think we know just like we think we know there is a problem with the Pre.
With that said – I am taking mine back today. For me the unit was pretty good, but I did not have much faith in the longevity of it. My slider was getting looser by the week. I also was getting pissed at the phone app itself – it just seemed to be less consistent overall. Crashed or locked up on me. While I love webOS, the Pre’s hardware and current state of webOS 1.03 needs improvement. It was the first time I have been in line on release date for a phone. Should have stuck to my usual plan of waiting a few months.
Also – I am testing out a 3GS right now. No real heat issues for me – certainly not as hot as the Pre gets when you are doing a lot on it. And ATT has certainly improved the 3G network here in Austin TX – I am getting about 50% faster 3g speeds on the 3GS than I was on the Pre – or my Touch Pro.
We’ll probably never see any real return numbers, will we? I don’t recall seeing any Storm return numbers and we know a lot of those came back. Or we think we know just like we think we know there is a problem with the Pre.
With that said – I am taking mine back today. For me the unit was pretty good, but I did not have much faith in the longevity of it. My slider was getting looser by the week. I also was getting pissed at the phone app itself – it just seemed to be less consistent overall. Crashed or locked up on me. While I love webOS, the Pre’s hardware and current state of webOS 1.03 needs improvement. It was the first time I have been in line on release day for a phone. Should have stuck to my usual plan of waiting a few months.
Also – I am testing out a 3GS right now. No real heat issues for me – certainly not as hot as the Pre gets when you are doing a lot on it. And ATT has certainly improved the 3G network here in Austin TX – I am getting about 50% faster 3g speeds on the 3GS than I was on the Pre – or my Touch Pro.
My first 3GS was exchanged due to an air bubble that was trapped in the case material during molding. It was exchanged immediately by The Apple store for a new in box replacement. And now my replacement has problems connecting to wifi networks. It sees them and can even give me the signal strength but it just refuses to connect to them. The bubble wasn’t a widely known problem but this wifi issue is.
hey thats a problem that most macs have even there computers mine does it all the time and i know other people who have same problem u have to just click back on it so it connects again kind of a pain in the arse
I am on my 3rd Pre. I really have no complaints with the general operation of the phone, but the construction is a little flimsy. My first Pre would shut off repeatedly and require I remove the battery and both Pre 1 & 2 had the screen become muddy looking and then the unit shut off and require a restart whenever I slid the phone shut. Pre 2 also slowly lost volume.
I have noticed that the slide on all three became looser & looser. My current has a gap somewhat comparable to the picture above on the volume side of the phone.
Ironically I baby my phones & my husband who is really rough with his phones had not had one problem with his Pre.
Launch day (black sleeve, 1.0.2 at the time) Pre, and I’ve had absolutely no build quality issues here either.
I bought 3. Two the first day and one last week. They’re all just fine. No quality problems at all.
I bought mine on launch day- had a frozen pixel on the screen. I returned it a few days later. The one I exchanged it for has a few problems with the slide out sections- feels a bit less secure than my first one.
Sounds like they’ll be a lot of refurbed Pre’s on the market next year…
I’m on my third Pre. This is absurd. The quality of the device is a joke, it feels like it was made by Mattel. RIM and Apple make their hardware with heavy duty components and tight manufacturing. Palm is producing plastic toys that can barely last a month of hard use. Mine gets returned ( not exchanged ) this week.
0 problems here.
All you have to do is look at a Pre to see it is poorly made from cheap plastics. The OS deserves better than that junky hardware.
I was at the Sprint store today checking out buying a Pre. While I was there I saw four people come in and return their Pre’s because of hardware problems. The sales rep just shook his head and said the best they could do is swap them out for new units but one guy was very vocal saying it was his third trip to the store and he was now on his third unit.
I walked out. Keeping my BB which is 2 years old and still solid as a rock. (The Pre did feel kinda cheap in a plasticky way when i handled it in the store)
really Brian?! 4 people all while you were there!!!
Brian is the perfect example of people going around making up claims in order to hurt a companies rep. whatever company he’s a fanboy of, who knows(probably Apple). but its just generally pathetic the loyalism people feel. i guarantee you NONE of these companies care about you unless you give them your money.
i was fully expecting all of this as the Pre got a level of hype for 6 months prior to it’s launch like i have never seen before, even rivaling the iPhone. which royally pissed off the fanboys of other platforms.
This is very inmature. Under what grounds you blast people who are having problems with the device? There are people having problem with the device and other’s don’t. Whether there is a trend, that is something that is difficult to say at this time. I guess every company has had its shares of issues with 1.0 devices, including Apple and BB.
Where is the Pre manufactured and assembled? I would assume the preproduction units were of a much higher build quality to get past QA.
Both my gf and i bought have pres, absolutely zero problems whatsoever. i read up on the problems it was having but either we both got really lucky or the problems are getting blown out of proportion. both do give a little bit more side to side after a week or so but i don’t see it being an issue. we both check facebook, gmail, calenders, gps, all that fun stuff, and get about a day and a half or so with HEAVY use. with minimal calling and surfing we can easily get two full days out of them. absolutely love this phone.
My Pre has worked well out of the box. It does feel cheap and the edges are still a little sharp. I like the idea but the software is very immature needs considerable improvement. e.g. when keying in a phone number it does not search contacts or recent calls to find a number for you; some apps turn on the side, some don’t, Lumosity Speed Brain is so slow it is almost pointless to use it.
Still deciding if I should keep it or go back to my Touch Diamond. Neither phone is perfect but the Diamond’s features are more stable.
My Pre WAS solid. The slider mechanism was tight, with only the slightest play. And the device performance was pretty reliable. Occasionally, an app would take too long to open or close, or the touch icons wouldn’t be as responsive as they could, but it would remedy itself quickly. My only complaint was, that my device came with some dust under the screen, which I considered rather shabby straight from the factory. So, I got on the list for a replacement. BUT, when it came in, it had a VERY loose slider mechanism with a lot of side-to-side play and it gapped very easily. So, I decided dust wasn’t so bad.
However, yesterday afternoon, I checked my phone and found the black screen of death. I replaced the battery and it fired up, but then all the apps started opening and closing in rapid succession, with little water ripple effects exploding like fireworks across the screen. It would do this for a while and then reboot itself. I tried several times to get it to stop, but it was unresponsive to touch. Finally, I sent an erase message from my Palm account. The phone is now stuck in the black screen with the Palm logo on it. I took it to the Palm store, and they couldn’t fix it. They told me they had another Pre they would give me, but its slider was even worse than the first replacement. It was so loose, with so much gapping, it seemed as if it had been played with as a Sprint store demo model. So, my fear, is that I will be going back and forth to the Sprint stores in my area, each time they call me from the list, checking out the phones and refusing them until I finally get one with a tight mechanism, if I ever do. I love this phone but I am VERY disappointed by the consistency of build quality. I am also concerned because I have had MANY Treos because of quality issues. At least a half dozen 650s, 1 700p and 3 or 4 755p’s. But, each replacement device at least had a honeymoon period where everything looked and felt in proper order. The Pre’s I have touched, from my two, would-be replacements, to the ones in the store, are all very loose and this is not acceptable as “normal”. Somehow, Palm and Sprint have to be made to acknowledge that this is a real issue, and tighten up quality control, rather than telling customers it is normal (my rep told me that last night…”my friends who have it all have the same loose slider,”. If it was like that on the first day, I would have refused every device until I found one that was acceptable, or left without the phone.
Thanks for reading!
My Pre has a little bit of play in the slider, allowing a very slight “oreo” twist, but it’s been like that since I opened the box (Launch day, v1.0.1) and it hasn’t gotten any worse. I’m watching it carefully, of course. No cracks and the minute amount of gap between the keyboard and screen sections when I pull them apart seems ok for a phone with moving parts.
I reboot it once a day and haven’t run into any bugs.
The screen is very scratch-prone and I was uncomfortable with how slippery it was, but with an InvisibleSHEILD on it, it rides around in my pocket and I don’t feel like I always need to hold it with both hands. I’ve dropped it on the floor of the car a couple of times with no problems.
My last phones were the totally bulletproof Sony Ericsson w810 and w580, so everything suffers in comparison (they make rocks look fragile, I swear), but I’m still happy with the Pre.
Pre has been great since day 1 zero issues.
Beats the hell out of the Iphone Oven I mean 3GS.
I’m on my 5th Pre. Yep, one of those.
Ordinarily I would not be this patient. But tose few exchanges happened at the store in succession with me inspecting the hardware prior to activation.
I’m a long time Palm user, longer than the fresh fanboys defending Palm (or Apple for that matter). Advocating on behalf of companies is pointless.
So far the 5th has been rock solid and I really like it overall, though I have my criticisms. My 30 days evaluation period is drawing to a close, and I’ll decide if I keep it then.
I have no doubt Palm botched the launch. It’s amazing, considering how critical it was for their future.
Me and my GF purchased one on June 10th. Since then she has swapped hers out once. While on vacation last week a bubble appeared on her screen. Here I thought she was just having bad luck on hers. This morning I started emailing on business and as i closed the phone – boom it would shut off. Did it twice!!! now the 3rd time I boot it up, I cant use my keyboard for anything. only touch screen works. I have been a Sprint customer since I finished boot camp back in Nov of 2002. I have never had any issues with any of my phones, mostly sanyo products, including the palm centro. But now with the pre it doesn’t look like it’s going down the road. I convinced my GF to switch from AT&T and now I might be regretting it if after so many swaps of the pre she won’t be able to go back to AT&T after the 30 day period. Sprint and Palm need to fix these issues quickly to keep their customers satisfied. Among other little tweeks i have also noticed. While surfing the web, when i rotate the phone – randomly i would see at the bottom of the web page the image be distorted. As in at an angle of a blocked tv channel. You know like you skip thru the HBO channel and if you dont have it, it distorts the image. Or the whole page doesn’t load and you have to push the refresh button several times. Another is when you have it in landscape mode during some web pages. Either typing in some words side ways or sometimes flipping it back to its normal way of use and starting to type I would get the symbols instead of letters without pushing the orange button to summon those symbols, nor was it locked. I would have to push the caps once and start typing for it to recognize letters and begin using the letters from there on forward. These last two I am sure can be fixed with updates, but the other issues do need to get resolved quickly.
-Felix
Sprint customer since 2002
I bought a pre June 19. Worked beautifully and a great phone, until July 10. Then cracks began appearing in the glass cover. Touchscreen still worked, but I decided to return it and go back to my Moto Q9c. My son bought a pre a week after I did and his touchscreen cracked. He is awaiting a replacement (no charge)but will return the new one and go back to the Moto Q. Sprint and Palm should have made this phone bulletproof. I would pay twice as much for one I knew would be durable. It is a real shame since it is a great OS and the features are superb. Maybe I will be back for the next version.
I got the pre the first day it came out. I like the phone but I have some issues. First mine does slide side to side which makes it feel cheap. Second I used the headphone jack and for some reason when I recieve calls it thinks I have headphones plugged in when I don’t. Third after one week, I took the phone out to find the volume botton was missing. I went back to the sprint store where they said it was physical damage and to go through issurance was my only option. They refused to honor the 30 day exchange policy with sprint. After battling with Sprint for 2 weeks I have come to the understanding that they are finished as a company. I was a loyal customer for 8 years and have cancelled my contract, turned my pre into a paper weight, and going with apple and ATT. I waited a year for the pre and was so excitied to get it. I have never been treated so badly in my life and this is A TRUE STORY!
I wish I had read this review before. I brought mine two days after your review was written and had a similar response when my screen stopped responding after only 20 days of ownership.
I am experiencing the same issues as all of the above; the front screen is wobbly, the separation on one side of the unit, also it is getting warm while off the charger as well as it is acting really buggy like waiting on an app to open or close or hesitations in the animation of the screen swipe.
I am on my 2nd pre at this moment. My first one would intermittently shut off after I had it for two weeks if I closed the slide to hard or opened it too hard or if I tapped the screen too hard. I had no issues with the sprint store where I got it because it was still within the 30 days.
My new pre’s slide feels more secure than the one it replaced but there is one pixel that is not working. I didn’t see it at the store, I saw it when it was charging and the screen was black. The pixel stays a light color.
I have been a loyal customer of Sprint since 1997. Never had a problem with their customer service. I hope I do not run into the same issues as I have seen here. I love the Web OS and use most of the apps on this phone daily. I hate the feel of it. Im afraid if i sit on it or drop it, it would shatter into a thousand pieces.
I have had both the 2nd generation iPhone and now “own” a Pre. I must say that the customer service from AT&T is much better overall, but perhaps that is because I rarely had issues with AT&T other than thier plan costs.
The screen on my Pre stopped responding after only three weeks of ownership. I was upset that when I returned to the store, the same person who sold me the phone said, ” it must have been damaged from a drop, you have to go through an insurance claim.” Now mind you I had just transferred three lines of service from AT&T, so I was less than pleased at that response.
To add insult to injury, after going twelve rounds with tech service, they said I needed to take the phone back to the store to exchange it. When I got to the store, the two folks talked and agreed that it must be my fault.
They then told me that the nearest repair center was 30 minutes away in VA Beach. When I went online, I found a repair center that was less than 5 minutes from the store. Now i’m waiting for the 2nd replacement phone since the 1st replacement phone would not even power up when the batter was placed in it.
Happy with the phone when it works, but not with the customer service.
I’ve owned the Pre for a couple of months now. I hadn’t had any issues until today when I attempted to lock my screen and noticed that the power button was not operating correctly. I took it to the Sprint Repair shop; needless to say they removed the battery and couldn’t get the phone to power back up! Now I have to wait 3-5 days for a replacement. Absolutely sucks!
@RichShumaker – I have had 2 Palm Pre’s and about to get a third and not for the hinge issue. Mine is the screen. When the unit heats up I get a small box like discoloration in the top left or bottom left – Portrait or Landscape views. I also get a series of light distortions on the bottom or right side – again Portrait or Landscape. It doesn’t happen all the time just when it heats up. The light distortion on the right seems like a series of Wall Sconses splashing light out bright in the center dark on the sides and going out in a V pattern. Oh and I have had the device for less than 30 days.
I love the features of the phone I am just concerned the image issue will turn ugly in 6 months and cost me cash or time or both to repair.
I have gone through 5 pre’s.. I love this phone but each one has had different problems. I tried every fix but was never satisfied. Maybe I am OCD, but I should have every right to be after shelling out that kind of money. The phones hardware shouldnt be this bad. I have had a wobble on each one.. dead pixels, loose volume button, I had one the internal mic broke, and several other issues. I just want the phone to function as it should and the hardware to be sound… too much to ask?
any one who wants to use there pre to tether go to precentral.net they have homebrew apps like almost 200
Well, right out of the gate my phone was solid. after around a week my pre acquired the “oreo wobble.” the wobble effect however was dampened once i put on the touchstone charger back. It became bearable, but annoying. About 2 months later, my pre, while pulling it out of my pocket, i noticed my screen had cracked and was spiderwebbing from the home button. I had not caused any damage to the phone besides normal wear-and-tear. I went to sprint for a replacement; no go. i called palm; now i have to wait a 2 weeks for a replacement and may be charged $200, might not…
It has been a trip with palm and sprint and has left me very unhappy. when do i draw the line between the phones features, and its quality? well, very soon. Don’t upset me again palm.
My Pre is officially done for. what started out as the gap, got worse after my son dropped it a few times. Finally, one drop ON CARPET, made it come completely apart. It’s held together only by the spring and the goldish ribbon thing. I wish I hadn’t of ignored the gap in the first place, because now I’m well beyond my 30 day replacement period. However I LOVE my Pre. It stopped working last night, and I’m going through some Pre withdrawal. I will hopefully be replacing it if I get get my insurance to work with me on the deductible. I DO NOT want to put another $100 into it. I do recommend it tho. Just report problems and exchange it ASAP. It’s worth a few bad ones to get to a good one!
I seriously love the Palm Pre but I will be picking up the insurance coverage on the phone. I am on my third phone. I had two phones that had the same issue. When you remove headphones from the phone the ear speaker and microphone will not start working again. The microswitch in the phone plug must be a poor design. At first you can fiddle with the headphones plugging them in and out several times and it will come back on. After time it stops working all together. I use the factory headphones. I do have concerns about the long-term reliability of the phone.
Ive replaced 3 .. and maybe im anal retentive cause mines had minor oreo twist and minor gap… but my old sliders never had this much twist/gap after a year of useage so i wont stop exchanging till i get one that doesnt twist this much
I have slight play in mine. I have had it for a few days now. There is only a slight gap at the top and the volume keys on the side wobble slightly from side to side but they still engage quite well. I have slight play from side to side but I have decided to keep an eye on mine and I have made sure to get Sprints insurance on the phone. I would normally be so OCD about that but the play doesn’t bother me. I got mine at radio shack. The only thing I will ask them is if that play is normal because they also all have Pre’s at that store. If its normal I won’t worry about it.
Rob, I’d suggest getting it exchanged now, while the issues are only slight. I ignored mine because they didn’t bug me, but as you can see from my above post, that was a BIG mistake. Good luck with the next one and enjoy!
Guys, managed to slightly resolve the issue using some foam; details here:
http://www.palmpreo2.net/slider
Hope it helps!