Customer Reviews

Palm Touchstone Kit for Palm Pre

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This thing is cool and does almost exactly what you would think. A couple items you may not be able to tell from the pic:

Good's:
- Back has an optional peel off plastic that makes it sticky. I originally stuck the touchstone on a dresser then later re-stuck it vertically to the side of my computer desk - 1 year down and it has not fallen. It is probably secure, but I would be nervous if there wasn't carpet on the floor. **See Edit Below**
- Charge is fast. Under 2 hours gets it from dead to full. Hopefully it isn't too hard on the battery since it isn't a trickle charge.
- It feels & looks awesome. There is a reason sprint retail stores sell these at $[...] a pop.

Bad's:
- Makes a very quiet buzz, I do not suggest charging near your head while asleep!! On multiple occasions I woke up at 1am wondering what was making that strange noise. If you have ambient sound, or if your touchstone is more than ~5 feet away, you won't notice. If not, expect an almost inaudible but still terribly annoying "mmzzzzpmf... mmzzzpmf" every 2 seconds.
- No cord! The Touchstone needs to be plugged into the wall (computer won't work) with this cord & 120v adapter, which was included with your Pre: New Sprint Palm PRE Original Smart Phone AC USB Wall Adapter + Original Palm PRE Charging USB 2.0 Data Cable. Problem is if you connect Pre to computer on a regular basis you have to unplug touchstone cord to do it (which becomes a pain). I ordered one like this to leave with my computer: Palm PRE Charging USB 2.0 Data Cable for your Phone! This professional grade custom cable outperforms the original!.
- For vertical users (like me), it would be nice if the magnet was a bit stronger or somehow aligned better internally. Instead of being able to haphazardly no-look slap the Pre on, one has to look, align, and slowly let go.
- Screen stays on (showing time) so if you have it near your bed you may want to find an app that turns it off. It doesn't bother me on the opposite corner of a 12' room. Actually an app that makes the time/light yellow or blue instead of white would be the best for sleeping but I don't think one exists.

PS - Amazon has the Touchstone Kit and plain Touchstone for sale. You are currently looking at the Kit, but don't be surprised if you see the plain Touchstone for less $$. You have to buy the kit first (it includes the replacement back for your Pre). The plain Touchstone is only for users that want an additional Touchstone. EDIT- The Palm Pre Plus apparently comes with the touchstone back by default. If you have the Palm Pre Plus then you should save money buy the plain touchstone, not this kit!!!

**EDIT - Before purchasing I suggest looking at all the reviews on here & sorting by newest first. There are a couple people saying the Touchstone now comes with the adapter cable.

When I first found out about the Palm Pre, I was already very excited about the Touchstone charging kit, so as soon as I was able to buy it on sale, I ordered it. Overall the Touchstone kit continues the great style and physical design of Palm Pre.

1. It is sleek, minimalistic.

2. It uses your Pre's charge cable, so you better still have it. (E.g. you cannot order this kit as a replacement if you lost your original cable.) Nonetheless, it helps reduce environmental waste by not including extra cables.

3. It works great. Instead of prying open the USB cable slot cover on the Pre every night (as the Pre's charge only lasts for about a day), you can simply place your Pre on the charger stone.

On the other hand, there is a serious design flaw with the Touchstone charging process. And I am not talking about you having to force off the back plate to replace it with the new Touchstone back plate. My biggest and only issue with the charging process, is that it forces the backlight on while your Pre is charging. I guess the idea was to show the clock at night. However, the Pre's backlight (even dimmed) is enough to light up the night sky. Besides, it wastes energy. I hope that Palm will introduce an option to turn this backlight off during charging.

I bought this kit for my wife. She found the touchstone quite cool. The touchstone kit allows you to charge the Palm Pre without the annoying process of removing the micro-usb cover to insert the micro-usb charging cable into the phone.

The kit comes with the phone back panel and one dock (hockey puck). The dock has a reusable sticky surface on the bottom to hold it firmly onto your desk.

You connect the dock to AC power via a micro-USB cable. The kit does not include the micro-usb cable or the AC adapter - these come with your phone. The instructions state that you should not connect the touchstone dock to a computer via USB; I think the average computer USB port may not deliver sufficient electrical current.

The next question is, do you want to buy additional docks to charge your phone at the office or in the car? You can order an additional dock separately. If so, you may also need to buy an additional the micro-usb cable and AC power adapter (or car charger).

So the first touchstone kit that I received had the *very* annoying habit of the following:

1) It would charge to 100%

2) It would disconnect itself from the charging station (making the 'dun-duh' sound)

3) It would use up some infinitesimally small bit of power while not being connected to the charging station

4) It would soon after re-connect itself to the charging station (making the 'duh-dun' sound)

5) Goto step 1.

Coupled with the fact that the phone only gets to 100% the first time at around 3am or so, and that you probably keep your phone charger in your bedroom with you, would make this thing pretty much useless. The racket it makes would definitely wake you up.

HOWEVER, your best bet in the above situation is to just trade it in with Amazon for a replacement. They were great about it for me and had a replacement at my house the day I shipped it back to them. The replacement works like a charm. I tried fiddling with the connectors in the case, repositioning the phone on the touchstone, etc, etc, but nothing worked other than replacing the darn thing.

That being said, the (replacement) touchstone works great. It's a must, and makes charging your Pre as effortless as it can get. I imagine if I didn't have one, I would have broken the stupid cheap micro-USB cover dongle months ago.

Now I only wish they'd update WebOS so that you could turn off the screen while it's charging on the touchstone. It displays a black screen with the time, but it's still brighter than 'off'. I might just try hacking with the code myself to turn off the screen while it's charging.

Works great, it's expensive but very convenient. I have the new Palm Pre Plus and did not need the kit (the Pre Plus comes with the Touchstone Back Cover), so I actually bought the "Palm Touchstone Charging Dock for Palm Pre and Palm Pixi" for $14 less. Bought a 2nd one for work. 5 stars - minus one for the cost --

I am compelled to write this review because I based my purchase on a previous reviewer stating that the car charger works with the Touchstone. Well, not always!

The only reason I don't give this product 5 stars is because it doesn't *always* work for charging your Pre in your car--which was the main reason I bought it in the first place. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought "what a cool way to charge the phone in the car without worrying about inserting the micro USB thingy and use it to hold the Pre in the dashboard while I use Navigation or Pandora!"

Well, it may not always work and it could depend on your car (at least from my experience).

It may depend on the "juice" that your car power outlet puts out. I got the Palm brand car charger kit and hooked it up to the Touchstone. I tried it in my auxiliary charger spot in my 2002 Rav4 and it didn't work there. The Pre kept making the "ding" noise when it gets connected to begin charging... but it never started charging--just a repeated *annoying* ding.

I had read that the issue was with the Palm car charger but before getting a different charger I decided to try it out in my other car. To my surprise (and delight) when I used the Palm charger and the Touchstone on my 2005 Mini Cooper it worked perfectly!

Hope it works for you!

I don't understand why Palm makes such terrible connectors. Why don't they use USB ports like everyone else? That little, awkward plastic cover for the plugger thingy is such a bother. And the connector is awful. Thank Touchstone for the magnetic charger. Now I never have to open the plastic thingy anymore. I just stick my phone on the charger and forget it. I love the touchstone kit.

If you can put aside the fact that this SHOULD have come as a standard accessory with the Pre, and just appreciate it for how wonderfully simple it is, then this is a no brainer. Buy one.

I bought two, one for next to my bed, and one for my desk at work, and they both work flawlessly. I had to order another Palm Pre Original Smart Phone AC USB Wall Adapter + Original Palm PRE Charging USB 2.0 Data Cable for the second Touchstone, but it was worth it.

PROS:
- NEVER AGAIN will I have to pry open that flimsy little flap to charge my Pre!
- It charges very quickly. My in-car charger has been very lonely since I made this purchase.
- I haven't had any problems getting it to magnetize. I hardly pay attention when placing my phone on the dock now. It just works.
- The new back for the phone is much better in my opinion. It has a similar feel to the Treo 755...more secure in your hand because it isn't a shiny, slippery plastic.
- I have not had any issues with "buzzing" as some have mentioned. I sleep with this thing about 2 feet from my head, and as far as I can tell it doesn't make any noise at all.

CONS:
- I use my phone as my alarm (as I'm sure many others do), and when it is docked on the Touchstone, it turns into a "clock," and is pretty bright if you are bothered by that sort of thing. I wish there was an option to make the screen go black while it's charging. My solution at night is to lay the microfiber pouch that came with the Pre over the screen, and it blocks the light very well. Perhaps a future Palm update will include that option. In the meantime, this product loses a star.

Simply put, this product works as expected. If nothing else, it gives me another reason to not pay $130/month for an iPhone.
Take that Steve Jobs.

The Palm Touchstone charging station is an extremely convenient way to keep the Palm Pre charged. Simply place the phone on top and it will automatically position itself properly. Charging is a little slower than when using the plug, but not significantly so.

I would give it 5 stars, but am taking one away because the design of the Palm Pre almost requires you to purchase the Touchstone. The charging port on the Pre is hidden behind a fiddly cover on a spindly post; every time I had to open it to charge the phone I was afraid of breaking it or snapping it off. If they had simply left the port exposed like almost every other cell phone does, I would have still purchased this item, but would not have felt like I had to.

One small complaint about the Palm Pre phone, and not the Touchstone directly: when the Pre is charging on the Touchstone, the display will not turn off even in locked mode. It will dim, and display the time, but at night in the dark the glow is still pretty bright. I wouldn't recommend keeping it near the bed if you're light sensitive.

If you have this phone I would just stick with the basic charger. I thought this would be cool and easy but the phone always slips off the touchstone. It is a cool idea......just needs some refining!