The Palm Pre is going for less than a hundred bucks again, and this time you only have to rush over to your closest Web browser to get it. The online cellular retailer LetsTalk.com is offering the Palm Pre for $US99.99, after a combination of mail-in and instant rebates. That means you'll pay $US199.99 at the checkout, but once (or should I say if) you send in Palm's mail-in rebate you'll have bragging rights to the $US99 Pre.
Previous reports had said this deal may only be a limited time offer that ends today, but when I checked LetTalk's Web site this morning I saw no indication this deal was set to expire. But if you've been lusting after the Palm Pre since the device was announced, you might want to head over to LetsTalk as soon as possible, just in case.
So what's the catch you ask? It's actually not that bad. You do have to sign a two-year service contract with Sprint, bit you have to do that to get the $US199.99 price, too. The only downside to LetsTalk's deal is the limited selection of Sprint plans you have to choose from. But on the plus side, the Sprint plans you can select are the choices you're most likely to want anyway. All of the available Pre plans on LetsTalk come with unlimited data, messaging and mobile-to-mobile minutes, then it's your choice of 450 anytime minutes for $US69.99; 900 anytime minutes for $US89.99 or unlimited minutes for $US99.99 (the unlimited plan also gives you free night and weekend minutes after 7 PM).
This is the second Palm Pre $US99 super deal after Best Buy mistakenly dropped its price last week. At the time, I wondered if Best Buy's move might be an indication of a future price drop for the Palm Pre. I think that may still be the case, but I'm not so sure LetsTalk's deal is another indication of this trend. The online retailer has a habit of offering great deals on some premium phones. For example, you can get the Blackberry Curve 8900 from T-Mobile on LetsTalk for free with a service plan, while T-Mobile offers the device for $US149. You can also get phones that are typically under $US100 for free on LetsTalk such as AT&T's Samsung Eternity or T-Mobile's Sidekick 2008. You can also get the G1 Android phone for the bizarre price of $US97.77 versus T-Mobile's $US149.99.
When I first saw the great deals on this site, I had to wonder why I hadn't heard of this retailer before. After some checking on the online forums, I discovered that opinions on LetsTalk are a mixed bag. I found quite a few complaints about getting back LetsTalk rebates, but most of those complaints were from 2004 and 2006. Epinions gives LetsTalk a rating of 3.5 out of 4, Yelp has two positive reviews from 2008 and other kudos are scattered across the site, Rip-off Report has a few complaints and comments on Yahoo Answers are fairly positive. Anybody out there buy a phone from LetsTalk? Leave your comments below and let us know what your experience was.
