Palm Pre Smartphone, WebOS Are Looking Like iPhone Killers

by eWEEK Staff

Palms Pre fits comfortably in the users 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 Pres 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field.

This circular object is the Palm Pres 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.coms homepage rendering on the Palm Pre Web browser. The Web browser works in tandem with the smartphones 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 users 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.