Palm introduces the new Palm Pre smartphone!
Pretty huge news from Palm today as the company used CES to announce a new integrated solution based on cloud computing called the Palm Web OS that built on top of CMS, HTML and XML. The company also introduced a new phone, as we all knew would be the case, dubbed the Palm Pre! A black oval shaped touchscreen phone with a portrait slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The handset will have the latest TI3 OMAP CPU, EV-DO Rev. A, 802.11b/g, GPS, Bluetooth, 8GB of internal storage, a 3MP camera with LED flash, MicroUSB connection, mass storage support, 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth A2DP support. This thing is a Palm? The phone will also have a 3.1-inch multitouch display with a 320 x 480 resolution.
Among the Pre’s unique features, a touchscreen gesture area right underneath the main display allows for gesture controls and makes common tasks a breeze. The UI leaps and bounds beyond the Palm of old, sporting flick scrolling and swiping and a quick launcher available throughout the UI for apps, contacts and more. Palm’s tie-in service, Synergy, allows for one log in for multiple online sources, bringing Google, Outlook and facebook into your phone without duplicating entries. The same applies to the calendar, which displays color-coded entries indicating each separate sync source. The email app and IM also feature integration of multiple accounts into one location on your phone.
Last but most certainly not least, the Pre makes use of wireless conductive charging that Palm has dubbed Touchstone – a very cool finishing touch. Palm is shooting to make the handset available as soon as possible in 1H 2009, and it will be available in the US exclusively through Sprint. Hit the jump for some pics while you try and figure out how in the world you’re drooling over a Palm handset.
crap! Release date?
Android?????
I hope that is a good “crap!”. This thing, especially the OS, looks sweet. Going to give a nice long thought to ditching the iPhone when this thing comes out.
Palm may have saved itself today. Lets here what all the apple-jockeys have to say. lol.
Nice to see Palm is making a real effort for a come back.
Is anyone really going to jump to sprint for this?
If anyone watched the whole unveiling, you would have seen that this might be what brings Palm back from the clutches of death. Very nice looking handset. Is it the best looking? No. But it is very snappy and the UI is absolutely amazing. we tech buffs tend to be overly critical instead of just taking products as they are. If you were to do that with this handset, you would see that from the looks of it, it can turn out to be a real winner. Not to mention it might singlehandedly save two companies at once. Sprint and Palm. In today’s day and age, that automatically makes it a winner.
Iphone Fanbois….it has WiFi! What will you complain about now?
Any OS details? Java? etc?
pretty slick looking phone.
I think Sprint was a big mistake to get into bed with…
Somewhere in Canada, a bunch of RIM-techs working on OS 5.0 are going “Oh Shyte!” as they realize that their work on the upcoming berry OS has just been obsoleted…
Wow, I really like this phone. Glad I returned my Bold and back on the month to month plan so I can cancel AT&T when this thing comes out.
Of course, I would like GPS and I didn’t see it on the specs. No, I wouldn’t use it for driving directions…I’m just a nerd and I love using google maps.
Good deal Palm. The only thing I’d say they shot themselves with is the exclusivity to Sprint. We’ll see how this plays out, hopefully it is palms saving grace
I’d switch to Sprint for this Palm! This is a very sweet smartphone
Why does a company that needs a homerun to survive go with Sprint?
Palm had a chance, but I think they ruined it by going with Sprint.
awesome! And Sprint is a bonus (for me at least). Their unlimited data plans cost half of the iPhone’s and they have much better 3G coverage. I am very interested in this because my “dream” device has always been an iPhone with a slide-out QWERTY on Sprint. Let’s see how it works out.
There is no reason for anyone to give this smartphone the benefit of the doubt without a thorough hands-on review. It’s a Palm and they’ve done nothing but disappoint for years
Really nice, I can’t wait to get more detail, I was leaving Sprint to get an iPhone, now I’ll wait.
awesome specs….but why sprint?! When i heard EVDO rev A, I was sure that verizon finally had its killer handset. Was looking forward to something inovative in time for my upgrade…guess not.
Nice product. Glad to see them have a fighting chance. Cant wait for a GSM version.
Palm just stabbed themselves in the gonads. Palm became successful because its destiny wasn’t tied to anybody but the customers. Now they’re a carrier bitch, a sinking regional one at that – they’ve got a boat anchor around their neck.
HVGA sucks too with everybody moving to WVGA now.
Poor execution Palm! Maybe Sprint (a third-rate carrier in a third-world country for tech) can give you a leg up, but it’s only a very short-term solution.
apple better pick it up. everyone use to comment on how some competition is good for apple and its R&D. well here it is. there are a ton of new phones coming out (some inching pretty close to the iphone) so i want to see how apple reacts. imho the iphone 3g was a glorified refresh…nothing that impressive. A storage increase and a few new software features is not going to keep them ahead of the game with all the companies trying to blown them over….they better have something really earth shattering in the pipes or they might get walked over and see that marketshare dwindle….
The Bold’s screen is HVGA with a 480 x 320.
I thought the screen was awesome.
@WiGWam
The OS is called the Palm Web OS and is based upon web standards like CSS, HTML, XML,and Javascript. You dont need to be a Java or C++ programmer to write apps for the phone. An experienced web designer can write applications for this phone.
This is the only thing that could have saved them from death and they might have gotten the stay of execution they needed. Congrats Palm. I thought you were dead!