Tip to Improve Battery Life of Sprint’s New iPhone Rival: The Palm Pre

As your About.com cell phones guide, I change the cell phone I own and use personally and professionally relatively often to stay abreast on the latest and greatest in the industry.

While I usually make a change by choice, this time I swapped out my Samsung Upstage because its screen died (both of them).

While all of its data was still sound (my phone numbers being the most important), it was time for me to upgrade to the new Palm Pre.

While this is not to say I would particularly encourage all other Sprint customers to make the same change (many of us don't need that kind of power), I’m pleased with the decision so far.

In addition to what has been outlined by About.com smartphones guide Liane Cassavoy on the new Palm Pre for Sprint, I’d like to share with you three very important points I’ve discovered.

1. You are required to select one of three plans with unlimited data: Sprint’s $100 Simply Everything plan with unlimited minutes, data and messaging; Sprint’s $70 Everything Data plan with 450 minutes and unlimited data and messaging; or Sprint’s $90 Everything Data plan with 900 minutes and unlimited data and messaging.
   
   
2. In my first few days of using the Palm Pre, I was disappointed with its battery performance. The phone comes with a rated continuous talk time of “up to 5 hours”. Oh yeah? There’s a caveat with that.
   
   When leaving on certain features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and regularly checked email, the Pre won’t last for 5 hours. To improve the battery performance, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you’re not using them.
   
   As for email, don’t set the Palm Pre to check for new messages as quickly as every 5 minutes. Instead, set it to 30 minutes or 60 minutes. Checking for email every 5 minutes is a disappointing battery drain.
   
   
3. I just noticed that the Palm Pre can’t currently record video. Talk about a glaring omission.