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Palm Pre Smartphone, WebOS Are Looking Like iPhone Killers
by eWEEK Staff
Palm’s Pre fits comfortably in the user’s hand. The handset is designed to look and feel like a polished water stone.
The Palm Pre features a physical keyboard that slides out for easy use. Unfortunately, this means that is only possible to type on the Pre keyboard while the user is in portrait display mode.
The rear-view of the Palm Pre. Here you can see the Pre’s 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field.
This circular object is the Palm Pre’s unique magnetic charging station called Touchstone. To charge, users simply plug the station into a power source, and then lay the Pre on top of it. The device is charged and the user does not need to physically plug the phone into the station.
The Palm Pre navigation is simple and elegant. The five icons at the bottom of the navigation screen form the starting point for all user-initiated actions on the smartphone.
Palm Pre users can customize the contacts page with special photos and other pieces of content, a common feature on many smartphones.
The Pre "desktop" can be expanded to include all the applications running on the device. Unlike the iPhone, Pre users can run multiple applications in the background, and switch between applications with a simple swipe of the fingers.
Here is a screenshot of Amazon.com’s homepage rendering on the Palm Pre Web browser. The Web browser works in tandem with the smartphone’s accelerometer, letting the user shift the screen from landscape to portrait and back again by rotating the device.
The Palm Pre incorporates IM and telephony features, such as presence, into its contacts and PIM functionality.
The Palm Pre offers tiled display of a user’s photos and images.
The quality of the display on the Palm Pre is outstanding. Video displays in landscape mode, and the quality of the video stream was quite high.
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Palm just can’t seem to stop showing off its hot new smartphone, the Pre, and the company’s stellar application platform, the WebOS. While there is no word yet when the Pre will hit store shelves, journalists, bloggers, gadget heads and Palm fans are chomping at the bit to get their hands on this handheld. eWEEK’s Stephen Wellman logged some time with the Pre at the 2009 CTIA show in Las Vegas, and has an in-depth look at Palm’s device, a gadget many claim will be this year’s iPhone killer. The handset might also look to give BlackBerry maker RIM a run for its money as well.