The Palm Pre launches all over the US today, with a buzz only paralleled by the iPhone's initial launch. Surely, a handset that gets so much attention has to be extremely good, right?
Well, it is. In fact, it is probably the first device to pose a legitimate challenge to the iPhone, in terms of actual capabilities. While most modern smartphones make a habit of slapping the best hardware rig they can put together and outfitting it with a standard OS, Palm seemed to go the other way, crafting a terrific platform and building the handheld device to support it.
Physically, the Pre is unlike any phone we've seen so far, shaped more like a smooth pebble than the typical contoured brick that the iPhone has made popular. At 3.9 x 2.3 x 0.6 inches, it's way more pocketable than a lot of high-end smartphones (including Apple's). Also, dispelling earlier concerns about its plastic build, the Pre is actually well-built and feels very sturdy in the hand.
As you may know, it comes with a bottom-sliding QWERTY keyboard. While the actual mechanism is smooth, the keyboard is a bit rough to use - just too cramped for its own good. It's something that will take getting used to - that's for sure.
The 3.1-inch touchscreen is one of the phone's main highlights, despite being smaller than those on other handsets. What it lacks in size, though, it more than makes up for in quality. Everything looks picture-perfect across the 320 x 480 resolution display, with crisp lines that put many high-end screens to shame.
Screen interaction is extremely responsive, with a wide array of touch functions available. As you may have heard, it comes with multi-touch support and implements it extremely well. That brings us to an important point about the controls, though: they are not intuitive and requires users to get acquainted with the available gestures before being able to use the device to best results. UI is simply one of the best we've seen (makes the Android screen look like it's years behind), with plenty of nice touches that really make life easier, such as one-touch access to the connections settings, the incredibly useful Universal Search (which searches everything on the phone), the unobtrusive notification bar (which alerts you to missed calls, messages and other in-phone events) and incredibly easy navigation.
Multitasking, however, is what really sets the Palm Pre apart, allowing you to run multiple applications at the same time, passing control as you wish from one to the other. A single press to the center button will bring up all available running apps displayed in a "Deck of Cards" format.
As a phone, the Pre manages its business very well. All the usual features are present, with the exception of voice dialing and visual voice mail (although Palm claims they can provide that via on-air update in the future). Messaging is equally robust, with great SMS, support for multiple email accounts and IM. Synchronizing emails, calendars and other similar applications is seamless.
While it is, hands-down, one of the best phone options out there, it doesn't come without some caveats. The Pre, for one, has only 7GB of memory with no expansion slots. Considering that the phone was built as a platform for apps, that sounds a tad too limiting. Other missing features include Flash support, a virtual QWERTY and video recording. There's also some amount of sluggishness.
As it is, though, the phone is an amazing piece of work, with well-integrated features, a robust web browser, great multimedia integration and mind-blowing multi-tasking capabilities. While it may not be the best phone for business users (the cramped keyboard made sure of that), those who want the latest in technology will be mistaken not to get one.
Also check out these daily deals for no contract Palm Pre phones.
Photo Credit: Cnet
