The Palm Pre

The new-ness is underway, and Palm just debuted its long(est) awaited all-new handset, the Palm Pre. The curvy touchscreen handset has a 3.1-inch 320 x 480 multitouch display, with a silver center button down below and touch sensitivity all down the face -- the lower part is for "gestures." A full QWERTY keyboard slides out from the phone in a portrait orientation, and you can flip the phone on its side for accelerometer-sensed widescreen browsing. The phone is running Palm's all-new webOS platform, with TI's new OMAP CPU under the hood -- which Palm claims provides laptop-style power, and which juices the phones smooth transitions, scrolling and "deck of cards" app-switching. Other internal specs include EV-DO Rev. A, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP and 8GB of built-in flash storage. There's a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, mass storage-friendly microUSB plug and a good ol' 3.5mm headphone jack, but most exciting is the wireless charger -- a first for a mainstream phone. More shots are after the break, including a fancy FCC diagram depicting a removable battery. The phone is exclusive at launch for Sprint in the first half of 2009, no word on price just yet.

You can check out our other Pre coverage below:

Live from Palm's CES press conference
Palm Pre's wireless charger, the Touchstone
Palm's Pre gets its own spot on Sprint's website
Palm Pre website now live with official images, video
Palm pre first hands-on with live updates!
Palm stock on a rocket to recovery
There will be a GSM-friendly 3G Palm Pre
Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery

Galleries

Live from Palm's CES press conference	Palm Pre official shots	Palm Pre hands-on: hardware
Palm pre first hands-on with live updates, part 2!	More Palm Pre hands-on shots

[v3xx @ Jan 8th 2009 2:19PM]

hold on im developing a comment

[zfurie @ Jan 8th 2009 2:30PM]

Ok, here it is... just wait... wait....

[dezzles @ Jan 8th 2009 2:54PM]

This is officially the iphone killer!

[profitablechoy50 @ Jan 8th 2009 2:56PM]

My man Dezzles calls 'em in like he see's 'em!

[StammesOpfer @ Jan 8th 2009 3:08PM]

Perhaps they are developing a reason that a CDMA/EVDO phone would have a SIM card slot under the battery

[kjb434 @ Jan 8th 2009 3:13PM]

This phone will obviously start on sprint and then the SIM version will go to T-Mobile or ATT.

Also, think of the rest of the world.....It also appears to be the easiest phone to develop for with HTML, XML, CSS, and Javascript.

I'm guess open source? This may be a problem for Android.

[wickliffe @ Jan 8th 2009 3:15PM]

That isn't a SIM card slot, probably a microSD slot. I've got one behind the battery of my BlackBerry. Looks just like it.

[v3xx @ Jan 8th 2009 3:21PM]

ah this post is no longer developing.

[ProfessorDex @ Jan 8th 2009 3:47PM]

iPhone killer? Not very likely.

A step in the right direction for Palm? Yes.

[Johan S @ Jan 8th 2009 5:24PM]

Question is .. what's it priced at?


It's no iphone killler, but if priced right it can probably shake things up on the low and mid range.

[thedesolate1 @ Jan 8th 2009 6:21PM]

Thank you apple for getting these people off their sorry asses. It looks awesome. Better late then never i guess. Too bad palm is bleeding cash. Much needed cash to really push this OS.

[7on @ Jan 8th 2009 2:20PM]

Neo Freerunner?
Moto Ming?
Oh wait, I know what it looks like - HTC Touch

[scooler @ Jan 8th 2009 2:51PM]

If it had a keyboard that is. I am super excited for this...just wish it was android, but nevertheless, this is my favorite form factor of all phones.

[frauhottelmann @ Jan 8th 2009 3:02PM]

Then the Touch Dual^^

[kjb434 @ Jan 8th 2009 3:15PM]

I'm thinking this could seriously hurt Android.

It appears to be easy to develop for and looks much cleaner in execution.

[ShogunMaster @ Jan 8th 2009 2:20PM]

Looks revolutionary...

[inteller @ Jan 8th 2009 2:25PM]

for Palm maybe.

[ShogunMaster @ Jan 8th 2009 2:29PM]

Ya, from what I can tell from this fuzzy picture, the OS doesn't seem like a huge improvement.

[coffee @ Jan 8th 2009 2:38PM]

maybe we shouldn't analyze the entire OS based on a single picture of the phone.

[ShogunMaster @ Jan 8th 2009 2:49PM]

coffee,

Really? That statment could be read without noticing the frothing sarcasm?

[Poke4Christ @ Jan 8th 2009 2:43PM]

Revolutionary? No, the iPhone is the only recent one that I think can truely claim that.

Game Changer? Certainly. I seems like Palm will now actually be a factor in the smartphone and Smartphone OS world. This actually has me somewhat excited if it's as good as advertised. I might be changing my buying plans.

[aaron @ Jan 8th 2009 2:59PM]

I'm looking at my iPhone 3G now like it is old news....

[Brian @ Jan 8th 2009 3:31PM]

@poke

What does the iphone do that any other smartphone can't Let me guess, no apps for winmo! Let's not forget the mediocre call quality of the iphone.

[BigD145 @ Jan 8th 2009 3:31PM]

Pre-revolutionary. They're still figuring out who's in charge.

[Jarhead2012 @ Jan 8th 2009 5:34PM]

Only because it's on AT&T. I've never seen an AT&T phone with exceptional call quality. It's the network, not the phone.

[John @ Jan 8th 2009 8:44PM]

@ Post

This phone is revolutionary. The iPhone was the first to GRACEFULLY converge phone and media player with limited PIM functionality. There were plenty of phones including Palm and WinMo that did the same things before the iPhone, albeit, not as seamlessly.

The Pre brings "Cloud" computing to a mobile phone for the very first time. The iPhone attempts to do this with MobileMe, but comes up way short. The ability to dynamically search content on your phone, Gmail, Facebook, etc is Revolutionary.

I'll admit, I'm not in love with the form factor yet...but I think that it will definitely grow on me just as the G1 grew on me. The G1 looks like a brick compared to the Pre now.

[Jagged Toaster @ Jan 8th 2009 2:20PM]

The name makes it sounds like it will be leading up to something. Next up: Palm post.

Get it? The Palm pre in a Palm post? It's been a long day.

[fistpittingnork @ Jan 8th 2009 2:37PM]

Please remember your hat on your way out.

[Andy @ Jan 8th 2009 2:55PM]

Maybe it's pronounced like "pray" because they need a miracle?

[Deeznuts420 @ Jan 9th 2009 2:52PM]

you can follow him on his way out sir

[Richard @ Jan 11th 2009 3:53PM]

Ok so it is not Palm operating system or windows platform. Its a new one? Ihave owned all the Palm based phones & have considered going to the i-phone (who hasn't) however if the phone is as good as the info on the web I may have to stay

[rfannon @ Jan 8th 2009 2:22PM]

I'm not sure about the rounded corners of the screen. It's kind of like going back to a 1960's television set.

[ThinkAgain @ Jan 13th 2009 12:04AM]

"What's old is new again" - could be Palm's new slogan...

[Kris @ Jan 8th 2009 2:28PM]

If you're following the event... this phone and OS look fucking amazing. I want one. I'm ready to throw my 800w in the trash anyway.

[Xoyuji @ Jan 8th 2009 2:32PM]

I'll buy the 800w from you how does $50 sound

[ChillyWilly @ Jan 8th 2009 2:55PM]

Ok, this Palm Pre is stunning. Drooling over the interface and features.

As a long time Palm fan/user, I really have a huge interest in this.

[iofthestorm @ Jan 8th 2009 3:17PM]

Seriously, this looks amazing compared to pretty much every other smartphone OS, and doubly so compared to the old Palm OS. I'm wondering whether this will be limited to webapp style programs only though, which could be annoying, but they'll probably allow native apps too to take advantage of the nice processor. That's about the only problem I have with Android; the lack of native apps.

This phone actually looks really nice and capable, and I've never been close to a fan of Palm before. It's getting me interested in a way that the G1 couldn't, similar to how I felt when I saw the Xperia X1 or HTC Touch Pro. I would love to see something like this phone with a VGA or WVGA screen, and that would probably be the ultimate smartphone, especially if it could triple boot with WM and Android.

[Patriks7 @ Jan 8th 2009 3:39PM]

So gotta agree..
Bring this to Europe and I am ready to add another phone to my collection of a couple older Nokia's, iPhone, Touch HD and maybe soon Omnia!
Like Borat says
"I like! How much?!"

[FrankW @ Jan 8th 2009 6:26PM]

You foul-mouthed moron. Why do you have to use vile language on a public forum. Is your vocabulary so poor that you don't know any other adjectives except f*******.

Shame on you.

[Gaines @ Jan 8th 2009 5:39PM]

This is excellent news. I’m a fan of Windows Mobile, however I know a lot of people who really just need a phone/personal organizer without all the extra stuff who would love this. We’re working on starting a community over at http://www.SprintPre.net

[Derek @ Jan 8th 2009 2:30PM]

I think I want one...

[M3Ls @ Jan 8th 2009 3:20PM]

I think I agree with you're comment.

[Quixel @ Jan 9th 2009 3:31PM]

I was looking at the HTC PrO which ooks realy nice but i wantt a bigger screen and am unwilling to get rid of My Sero plan on Sprint. If this can work on that unline the Instinct which you have to have the everything plan for =(.. I think i wil have to jump on the bigger screen as I use it mainyf or web browsing and entertainment purposes.LOOKS NICE.

[joe23521 @ Jan 8th 2009 2:30PM]

This will most likely be my next phone.

[shugg @ Jan 8th 2009 4:53PM]

sure.get your $350 ready.,dee dee dee

[Lav @ Jan 13th 2009 10:22AM]

Epic fail on my part... I got an HTC Touch Pro two weeks ago. It's great, but this thing... wow... I'm fanboy-ing all over this thing...

[Alex @ Jan 8th 2009 2:31PM]

I LOVE the TI OMAP 3430 processor on here. But why the HVGA resolution? Damn it, it's 2009 and this is your premiere device, give us WVGA.

[MadMike @ Jan 8th 2009 2:33PM]

A nice OLED device with some Blackberry Bold/Storm quality resolution would have been nice - but I doubt they want to sell a $1,200 phone.

[Alex @ Jan 8th 2009 2:37PM]

The Bold also has HVGA, and the Storm is a step above that at 480x360. I'm just saying, the Touch HD and XPERIA X1 are both WVGA, and the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro are VGA. It's not like Palm would be breaking ground with this.

[MadMike @ Jan 8th 2009 2:32PM]

Palm is no longer on death watch. This could seriously make them a contender. Not perfect, but neither is the iPhone, the G1 or the Storm!