Another potential ‘iphone killer’, Palm’s Pre has a similar touchscreen interface which can be controlled by fingertip gestures, but trumps the king of superphones through the welcome provision of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, three megapixel camera with LED flash function and copy-and-paste MMS functions.
A 3.1 inch display, GPS, Wi-Fi, 8GB storage, Bluetooth and accelerometer are standard, but it’s the Pre’s Web OS interface which is garnering most interest from smartphone watchers. Preview reports from its January launch at CES say its web browsing and seamless applications integration outclasses all-comers to date.
Look out for it in Australia around mid-2009.
Specifications
As listed on the US Palm site, the specs are:
- High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A or UMTS HSDPA)
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
- Integrated GPS
- Large 3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display
- Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
- Email, including Outlook EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (POP3, IMAP)
- Robust messaging support (IM, SMS and MMS capabilities)(4)
- High-performance, desktop-class web browser
- Great multimedia experience and performance (pictures, video playback, music), featuring a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
- 8GB of internal user storage (7.4GB user available)
- USB mass storage mode
- MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
- Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
- Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
- Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
- Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
- Removable, rechargeable battery
- Dimensions: 59.57 x 100.53 x 16.95 mm (in closed position, W x L x D)
- Weight: 135 grams
