- Small, stylish design easily fits in pockets
- Full QWERTY keyboard for fast, responsive input
- Measures 2.7 x 4 x 0.4 inches (WxHxD); weighs 3.85 ounces
- Service plan no longer supported by manufacturer.
To sum it up: It's still a work in progress (inconsistent delivery of email/text messages and slow UI being the biggest flaws), but Peek's excellent customer service more than makes up for its shortcomings. I'll explain a bit more later in this review.
I'll break up my review in two categories: hardware and software.
I. Hardware
A. Build Quality Metallic back feels solid. It doesn't feel cheap at all. Because of its dedicated functionality, it's not full of bells and whistles that inflate the price. The front face has a rubbery texture that attracts lint and dust in your pocket, but so far no scratches on the LCD. Overall, it feels as solid as, let's say, an iPhone 3G.
B. Keyboard One of the best I've used on a mobile device. With my stubby, fat hands, the spacing between each key makes thumbboarding a joy. It took me a good day or so to adjust to the layout and off I went. My only beef is with the spacebar. There's this gap in between the spacebar that makes it seem as if two standard keys were placed close together and then covered by the same piece of rubber. But after a couple days, that became a non-issue.
C. QVGA LCD Sharp, easy to read, spacious enough to read emails. Nothing much to comment here since you're looking at text most of the time (along with the occasional image attachment--more about that in a bit)
D. Other notes It feels comfortable in my hand. It's also sleek and thin enough to easily slip into my jean pockets. The jogwheel on the side could be a bit better since it's not easy to turn and grip sometimes. I also wish the power button stuck out a *little* more to make it easier to turn it off. And I also wish that it had a screen-lock slide-switch rather than a dedicated key on the keyboard, but that's just preference rather than function.
Other visual stimuli include a blue LED on the upper left corner of the Peek Pronto. It will flash whenever you receive a new email. Unfortunately, there's no way to disable the flashing, so it can be distracting at times.
II. Software/UI
A. Navigation Your inbox is your "home" screen. Once you setup your primary email address and activate your device, an initial batch of emails will get "pushed" to your device. Once you push in your jogwheel, a vertical menu appears. You then scroll through the options, albeit slowly (not-so-Pronto when you want to go to "Contacts" near the bottom of the menu list).
There are various keyboard shortcuts you can learn that will save you a couple steps. Although, a shortcut to "Send" emails is conspicuously missing (instead you have to click the jogwheel, menu opens up, and then you click again to send).
B. Email & Text Send/Receive Speed This will be a sticking point for current and potential Peek buyers. For the first 5 days, delays in receiving and sending email/text messages varied. Sometimes I'd receive new email within seconds or minutes. There were times I'd get new email 5-10 minutes after they appear in my Gmail webmail. When I send/receive text messages, they sometimes arrive instantaneously, fail to reach their recipient, or arrive on the person's cell phone a day later (!). So, by all means, don't use the Peek when you need to contact a person on short notice. Call them instead.
On the plus side, for the past couple days, my emails have been arriving in my inbox almost around the same time it appears in my webmail, sometimes even *before*.
Since I use my Peek for personal email and not critical or work-related email, I'm fine with the occasional delay. Just know it's not going to replace your work's Blackberry infrastructure anytime soon.
C. Attachments I've only tested JPEG attachments, so I can't vouch for the quality of DOC/PDF attachments. Yes, you can view pictures on your Peek, but the images are so heavily compressed that they can appear dark and/or pixelated. It's adequate, but don't expect anything spectacular--just good to take a "peek" at an image before you see it on your PC. And besides, since the Peek relies on a super slow GPRS data network, it's a blessing to even have image support.
D. Contact Import What's cool is that the Peek can retrieve my contacts stored in my Gmail account. You will get an initial email notification when the download starts and then another notification when it has finished downloading all of your contacts. It detected all 100 of my contacts just fine. Also, if you compose emails to other addresses not stored in your contacts database, that email address or phone number will automatically save into your Peek contacts. So when you begin to type the address or number again, a popup appears of contacts related to those letters/numbers.
E. Search You can search through your emails. You can choose various filters, including filter out only emails with attachments. A large inbox will naturally result in longer search times.
F. Other notes No folder support, so all emails from different addresses get parsed into a single inbox view. That's something they need to change in future iterations of the OS. The only native folders available on the device other than inbox are "Sent, Draft, and Trash."
There are also settings in the Peek to add more email addresses, change the volume and vibration settings, and other minor customization options.
Despite its occasional slowness and blemishes, I love my Peek because it's saving me money. I just realized very recently that I don't need the bells and whistles of an iPhone or a typical smartphone. It's not worth paying $30 a month to download 10 fart apps. Instead of paying over $90 a month with my old iPhone plan, I'm paying $40/month for my Peek+Phone Power VOIP service at home. Major savings w/o contracts or additional fees.
And Peek's customer service is top notch. I got two free months of service b/c I called about their Radio Shack promotion and inquired about getting a deal due to the recent $20 price drop (and having only owned the Peek for less than a week). They also have a Twitter/Facebook presence, telling me that they're dedicated to helping its users and community.
To sum it all up, if you're a power-user, avoid the Peek for now until its infrastructure matures. But if you're like me and is looking to save money, cut off his/her smartphone bill, and fine with the occasional delays, then the Peek is where it's at.
Buy Peek Pronto Mobile Messaging Device (Grey) Now
I coordinate many nonprofit fundraising events and had been looking for a way to keep in touch with volunteers while prepping such events, or while such events were in progress. In most cases my event site had no wifi, or unsecured wifi. And I'm on a budget! Didn't really want to get a "smart phone".I saw the Peek reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, and bought it to fill my need. I quickly found another benefit. I could *shut off* my laptop and handle chores, untethered to a large piece of equipment, and continue to be responsive to my volunteer base and whoever else wanted to contact me via email. Because my Peek tells *me* when I have mail I don't have to constantly visit my laptop and refresh the screen to see if I have mail.
Using the Peek saves me time in another way. I don't get distracted by the wonders of the Internet while I handle my email on my Peek.
I bought my Peek in Nov 2008, with pre-installed software version 1.04. Peek has helped me upgrade (for free, as has been its practice) to a test version of 1.09 Pronto. Compared to prior software versions, Peek Pronto has these benefits for me (note this is not a full feature list just the ones which mattered most to me):
a emails travel from my email providers' servers to my Peek faster than previously. In some cases, lightening fast seconds instead of minutes.
b texting to cell phones is preserved and also made faster. This is important to me because my sister does not use email so my "quickie" communications to her are via text to her cell phone
c search! Far better ability than before to search the Contact database. And it's available for the first time for email folders. The search capability is not as robust as Gmail and such, but it's a great start.
d the ability to read certain attachments (docs and pdfs, in addition to the jpgs previously allowed).
e louder ringtones/harder vibration settings to alert one that You Have Mail! (And Pronto has 5 ringtones, vs the one offered by prior software versions.)
f bold print to enhance one's ability to read the text of an email.
I admire Peek's constant striving to improve their product. This release is another great step forward.
Read Best Reviews of Peek Pronto Mobile Messaging Device (Grey) Here
I purchased a Peek when it first came out, based on a favorable review in the Wall Street Journal. I was looking for a mobile email solution to replace my Blackberry. I liked several aspects of the Peek, relative to a Blackberry or other smartphones. In a nutshell:+ The device does not require a service contract. If you don't like it, you can discontinue the service. You can also reactivate the service later if you choose to.
+ The full keyboard on the Peek, which reminds me of the original Blackberry, is much more efficient than trying to tap out messages on a non-smartphone keypad.
+ Peek email service is relatively cheap compared to the data plan on, e.g., an iPhone.
+ The Peek allowed me to synch up with three separate email accounts and did not require forwarding copies of messages to the device like some solutions do.
That was the promise. I would still love the Peek if the device had lived up to that promise. In reality, unfortunately, the value of the device was undercut badly by a series of serious reliability and quality problems. Specifically:
The device very often cannot get a radio signal. This is obviously a huge issue. As other reviewers have pointed out, coverage is very spotty.
The Peek routinely stops receiving messages, but it provides no indication that this has happened. As a result, you don't know whether you haven't received any messages, or whether people have been sending you messages but the Peek just doesn't know it. On multiple occasions, I missed important messages because the Peek looked like it was active but in fact had stopped receiving messages. An email message from the Peek CEO to all users said that best way to make sure you had received all messages was to turn the device off and back on, but rebooting the device all throughout the day just isn't practical. This reliability issue was a real show stopper for me.
There can be a significant delay (even when the device is working) between when messages are sent and when they arrive on the Peek.
The device itself, while slim and with a nice bright screen, has significant quality issues. The cursor wheel that controls the device suffers from a noticeable lag -you have to spin it and spin it before the cursor starts to move. In addition to being an annoyance (in this day and age, we expect electronics devices to respond without a lag), it can cause real problems. For example, on multiple occasions I unintentionally deleted or sent messages because I clicked the cursor wheel a second time, thinking that I hadn't clicked it all the way the first time. To get an idea of what it's like trying to use the Peek cursor wheel (which is key to using the Peek), imagine how hard it would be to use your computer if clicking on an object on screen with your mouse sometimes did what you wanted, sometimes didn't, and sometimes did but with a three-second delay. It can cause real problems day to day.
The Peeksters (as the employees at Peek call themselves) mean well, but they don't seem to have the capacity to follow up on problems effectively. In trying to solve the reliability problems, I had multiple individuals at Peek offer to do something then drop the ball and not follow through.
After five months of using the device and upgrading to Peek Pronto, I finally decided to cut my losses and discontinue the service. I hope Peek solves these quality problems. They seem like good folks and the Peek is a neat concept, but the problems are serious enough that Peek email just isn't worth the price at this point.
P.S. Given my troubles with the Peek, I was surprised by the number of five-star ratings. Several of these reviews are from reviewers who have reviewed no other products, and I recognized at least one of those reviewer's names as matching that of a person at Peek customer support. I would suggest that you check out the reviewers, not just the reviews, so you can weed out any reviews that are actually guerrilla marketing by the company.
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I bought this product with much enthusiasm and it lasted just one evening.1. Peek website and brochures promise 3 email accounts. Hidden there is a setup (device type Classic) where you can only add 2 email accounts. This is not mentioned anywhere in the package. You can only find it on your device once you switch it on. When I called the customer service, i was asked to pay additional amount which i did with full faith and a wait time of 3-4 days, i was able to add additional email account.
2. Exactly few hours after i activated, i got a note from peek care indicating my mailbox needs tidying up and previous days emails were gone. I am still waiting for a feedback from the support team.
3. After paying additional amount, and getting it upgraded, the device keeps resetting the personal preferences constantly. When I reported the issue, the response was, "it is a known issue, this issue can only be fixed by sending the peek device to our New York office as the device is missing set of crucial files. By the way, you will not have access to your device and emails during that time.
4. Every so often, i realized that NOT all my emails show up on the Peek device. You constantly need to watch out your mailbox with another mechanism. There is no pattern that i have observed as such.
5. When I reported the issue about emails not coming into Peek, I was provided no response. Few days later, I started receiving all spam emails. With additional follow up with the customer service team, i was told that the team is waiting on some feedback from me. In addition, i was asked to provide "Subject Header" of the emails i am missing in the device.
6. There is no proper way to keep track of the issues you report to the Peek customer service team. There is no incident # or a way to follow up.
Overall, i am very disappointed and dissatisfied and discontinued the service in just a few weeks.
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