I got my Pre on Friday. Here are my thoughts/experiences so far.

I'll start with the really frustrating part. The first unit I got had an area of discoloration in the corner of the screen. Basically, it was brighter than the rest of the screen, and as I'd use the unit more, it would become more noticeable and distracting.

I went back to the store on Saturday morning to exchange it, but they were all out, so they said they'd order me one. I called a few other Sprint stores in the area, and one of them said they were all reserved for people on the waiting list, but when I told them my story, they said they'd do an exchange for me.

So, I do the exchange, and the new one doesn't have any of the discoloration problems. However, on my way home, I check the screen some more and realize there's a different problem -- a dead pixel. Yeah, one stinking dead pixel. I go back to the first Sprint store, and the Palm rep is there hawking Pres. She says that she had never seen the discoloration problem, but had seen a couple of units with dead pixels. I told the Sprint rep to keep my original order for a replacement unit, since I wasn't going to deal with a dead pixel on a phone that's costing me nearly a grand factoring in the extra cost of my plan.

So, hopefully, the third time will be charm, and some time soon I'll have a Pre in my possession with a pristine screen. I don't know if it's just my bad luck or if these problems are very common, but it's certainly something I recommend being very careful about if you decide to buy one.

Now, onto my impressions of the device itself.

The OS is basically what everyone says it is. Loaded with potential, still a bit rough around the edges, but ultimately very usable and natural. I don't think the value of true multitasking can be overstated -- it's one of those "how did I ever do without it" things that I'd have a hard time giving up if I decided the Pre wasn't for me.

The built-in apps are a bit spartan, but will improve over time. Basic functionality is there, but expert options/customization are not. The camera works well, but the flash isn't really bright enough to be useful unless you're in a nightclub or something, and video recording is absent (but Palm has confirmed it's coming.) The push IMAP works fine, but the email client could benefit from some flexibility in terms of notification options, display preferences, etc. The Sprint navigation app works surprisingly well, though I found at least one inaccuracy in the map data (Google Maps is also available and works well, but doesn't have the voice prompting for turn-by-turn, or a 3D map view.)

The 3rd party apps are limited now, but there are some good ones. Pandora is obviously a highlight, but the Fandango and Flixster apps for movies are solid as well. The quality is good so far; it's quantity is lacking.

My typing speed is basically where it was at on my Treo, except for the fact that I can use KeyCaps600 on my Treo to do capitals and numbers/symbols more quickly through double-tap and tap-and-hold. Hopefully something equivalent comes out for WebOS. My average Pre typing speed at mobiletypingtest.com was about 30-35 wpm, a number I think will get better as I get used to differences from the Treo keyboard.

The battery life so far is less than what I was hoping for, but users generally report things get a lot better after the first few days as the battery is calibrated.

Ultimately, there are a lot of things that just don't feel finished, and I guess that's to be expected of a 1.0 device, but some of them are just plain puzzling. There's a "back" gesture that works in almost all apps, but no "forward" gesture anywhere. There's no option to turn the screen off when the Pre is connected to the Touchstone charger. The accelerometer works to turn web pages to landscape mode, but then the back gesture doesn't work because the orientation is different. Things like that.

On the hardware itself, two things that I'm having a tough time with coming from my Treo are the lack of a D-pad or 5-way navigator and the capacitive screen. There's a "cursor movement" mode where you hold the Orange button down and move on the screen, but it is no substitute for a true D-pad or dedicated cursor keys.

Re: the screen, on my Treo, I can get really accurate cursor positioning with my fingernail, but on the Pre, I'm limited to what I can get with my fingers. Maybe I'll get used to these limitations and learn to love the new screen, but to me, I don't know that the benefits of multitouch really make up for these two weaknesses. Certainly, if you're going to sacrifice the ability to use a stylus/fingernail on the screen, at least make the multitouch useful by adding more and richer gestures.

So, overall, with all of its warts and yet-unrealized potential, this is without a doubt the smartphone for me. Something more ideal could possibly come around, but of the available options, it's the only one that was worth the cost for me to upgrade. I do think it's incumbent upon Palm to support the device, and on that front, things look good so far, as they've announced SDK availability by the end of summer, and have already pushed out 2 OS updates since the launch. With the homebrew scene already coming out with some great hacks, I think things really look good for this device and the WebOS platform going forward.