Palm Pre

Palm is focused on creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage extraordinary lives on the go. Their goal is to deliver products that implement technology in a truly useful way.

Palm has unleashed its latest release on June 6 2009- Palm Pre, a Smartphone that is designed according to our life style. The Pre incorporates a 3.1-inch touchscreen over a highly resolution HVGA liquid crystal display. The touchscreen permits for manipulation of the UI with fingers instead of a stylus that is commonly used in older Palm phones and PDAs. Below the display is the Gesture Area, a touch-sensitive area with LED under lighting that allows additional touch commands.

The Pre also features a full QWERTY keyboard which is similar other recent Palm phones. On the Pre, the keyboard slides out, and is curved to follow the outline of the human face. In addition to the keyboard, the mobile features a single button in the center of the Gesture Area, a volume rocker switch on the side and a ringer switch on the top.

The Pre features three input sensors that allow it to respond to its surroundings. An accelerometer will automatically change the orientation of the display between landscape and portrait when the device is rotated in the user’s hands. A surrounding light sensor allows the Pre to automatically adjust the brightness of its display. A proximity sensor allows the Pre to disregard touch inputs when the phone is held close to a user’s face during a call. The Pre also has an integrated 3 megapixel digital camera with LED flash.

Palm Pre is making a huge impact for those who love to have a stylish handset and makes an impressive foot-mark in the global market with some high standard features.

Smartphones have always been big business, but now, they’re bigger than ever, and three mobile phones in 2009 look set to increase their profile: the Nokia N97, the Toshiba TG01, and the incredible Palm Pre.

Nokia N97 – the Symbian contender

Symbian’s always been one of the most popular smartphone OS-es in the mobile world, and the latest, touch-based incarnation carries on the fine tradition, in the shape of the Nokia N97. However, it’s not just about touchscreens, as the Nokia N97 also comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, that makes messaging, chat and emails a breeze. In terms of other features, the Nokia N97 also impresses with its 5 megapixel camera, a brilliant multimedia player (including video playback that just has to be seen to be believed), a huge 32Gb of memory, and HSDPA internet access. Put simply, the Nokia N97 is one of the coolest (and yet also the hottest) phones out there.

Toshiba TG01 – Windows Mobile goes powerhouse

While Symbian has gone down the touch-based route, rivals Windows Mobile haven’t been resting on their laurels, and the new fruit of their labours is the ultra-powerful Toshiba TG01. Not only does it have the biggest screen ever seen on a mobile phone, measuring in at 4.1 inches, but the Toshiba TG01 also has the most powerful processor put into a mobile phone. Called Snapdragon, the 1GHz, dual-core processor gives the Toshiba TG01 sheer grunt, and as that’s what’s needed to let Windows Mobile live up to its full potential, the Toshiba TG01 is arguably the best WinMo phone that’s ever been announced.

Palm Pre – the new (and incredible) kid on the block

However, there’s a new kind on the block, that aims to take the smartphone crown all for itself. The Nokia N97 and the Toshiba TG01 both go for raw power, but what the new Palm Pre goes for is sheer elegance. Using the brand new, never-before-seen WebOS at its core, the Palm Pre takes touch-friendly interfaces and innovative design to an entirely new level. Take, for example, the new Fandango app that should be available when the Palm Pre is launched. It’s an online cinema booking service, that lets you buy tickets and watch trailers on the phone. But even the Nokia N97 will most likely be able to do that. The Palm Pre, however, will also put an automatic reminder in your calendar, and contact people who are going with you, to organise getting there. It’s that kind of integration, and interplay between apps that makes the Palm Pre the real candidate for best in breed.

Mobile phones of the present time have definitely evolved beyond just basic devices for calls or messages. Today, smart phones seem to be the next generation in terms of mobile communications. With tons of added features, including internet connectivity, multimedia enjoyment, and more, smart phones are must-haves for busy individuals. And with that, among the most well-known smart phone and PDA manufacturers in the world is none other than Palm, Inc.

Starting out in 1992 in Sunnyvale California, Palm Computing, Inc. came up with its first PDA called the Zoomer. The company’s founder was Jeff Hawkins, who along with other designers intended to make PDAs more consumer-friendly. After acquisitions years later, Palm emerged as one of the authorities when it comes to PDAs and smart phones. At the start of the new year 2009, Palm intended to wow its fans by debuting its newest release the Palm Pre, aimed to beat the seemingly unbeatable Apple iPhone.

What is the Palm Pre? This up and coming four ounce gadget has a 3.1 inch touch screen, and its slides up to reveal a QWERTY keypad. The operating system for the Palm Pre is the Linux based Palmweb OS, and this smart phone currently has CDMA, Bluetooth, and WiFi connectivity. Later on, Palm intends to release a 3G version. Apart from its generous 8 GB memory, the Palm Pre also has a 3 mega pixel digital camera equipped with LED flash.

In terms of inner features of the Palm Pre, it surely does not disappoint. According to the product page at the Palm, Inc. website, the Palm Pre allows for multitasking, so you can open several windows and apps at the same time. Also, there is a universal search options, so your Palm Pre can help you look easily through your contacts, messages, Wikipedia, and even Google.

To help you get things more organized, the Palm Pre can also connect your calendars and show them as one schedule, thanks to Palm Synergy technology. This includes calendars you set on your smart phone, your Facebook profile, and even Google calendars. In addition to those handy features, the Palm Pre also has integrated messaging, supports various audio, video, and image formats, as well as built-in Global Positioning System (GPS).

In the United States, the Palm Pre is expected to be out in the market in the first half of 2009. Gathering several awards after its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, including Best in Smart Phones and Cell Phones, the Palm Pre will be exclusively distributed by the Sprint Nextel network in the US.

As of the first quarter of 2009, Vodafone has expressed its interests by negotiation with Palm regarding the release of the Palm Pre in the United Kingdom. Before Brit mobile fanatics will know it, Vodafone will soon own the exclusive rights to sell the Pre to its subscribers in the UK for the first three months upon the model’s launch. According to a report by Softpedia, Vodafone also intends to distribute the Palm Pre exclusively among its clientele in Spain and Germany by the middle of 2009.

Now that the Palm Pre has been unleashed on the world, let’s take a look at it, and see how it plans to overthrow its rivals.

Looks and Design

First up, let’s take a look at the Palm Pre’s hardware, as compared to what are probably its two closest rivals: the HTC Magic and the iPhone 3GS. Of those three phones, the HTC Magic is probably the one that scores the lowest in terms of looks, as it looks the most ‘boring’ of the three. The Palm Pre and iPhone 3GS, on the other hand, both have sleek looks, with glossy, curvy panels. It’s a very close-run thing between the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre, and it simply isn’t possible to decide which is the best, looks-wise. It’ll simply come down to which feels right when you hold it.

Hardware Features

With hardware features, once again, all three phones are pretty evenly matched, with 3 megapixel cameras on all of them. One key advantage the Palm Pre has over the others, however, is that both the iPhone 3GS and HTC Magic lack hardware keyboards, while the Palm Pre has a full QWERTY keyboard. For messaging and emails, that’s a big plus. And whilst the Palm Pre has a smaller screen than both the iPhone 3GS and HTC Magic, its touch-sensitive screen actually extends, unbelievably, beyond the screen itself. It could be argued that they could have given the Palm Pre a bigger screen, but the sheer fact the screen extends, in effect, beyond the screen is a sure to turn heads, and it gives the Pre the edge on hardware features, despite the iPhone 3GS having much more internal memory (coming in at either 16 or 32Gb, compared to the Palm Pre’s 8Gb).

Software and Interface

Finally, we come to interfaces. The iPhone 3GS has the latest iPhone 3.0 software, which brings with it such cool features as voice control throughout the device, and the ability to edit videos captured with the camera. The HTC Magic, meanwhile, uses widgets, allowing you to customise the front end of your phone in any way you want. Also included in the HTC Magic is tight integration with Google apps, such as Gmail and Gtalk. However, in terms of interfaces, the Palm Pre is on a whole other level; its WebOS interface has to be seen to be believed, as it’s quite simply the slickest OS ever seen on a mobile phone. EVERYTHING is achieved through a variety of intuitive gesture and swipe controls, and as for integration and synergy between apps, the Palm Pre leaves even the HTC Magic in the dust. Of these three phones, it’s a close thing, but the Palm Pre is good enough to beat both of its rivals.

I’ve been playing with the Palm Pre for about a full day now and it is an impressive phone. In many ways, it is as if Palm is giving the single finger salute to Apple with a product by quite literally rubbing Apple’s face in the things that should have been in the iPhone but weren’t. Neither phone is truly enterprise ready, but that hasn’t slowed the iPhone down that much. And while I expect the Palm Pre, due to its Treo roots, will move faster here (and starts out ahead), I wonder if it matters. Right now, this is the hottest market segment going. Here are my impressions of the phone that is so much better than the current iPhone. 

Touch and Feel

The Palm Pre, particularly with the optional inductive charging back, feels good in the hand, just the right weight and nicely balanced. Like the iPhone, it is vastly different from BlackBerries, Windows Mobile, or Symbian phones, but is easy to learn. Once you’ve learned, you tend to wonder why you put up with the other, more difficult user interfaces. The iPhone and Palm Pre went down different paths to solve a problem with multitasking phones. The iPhone limits multitasking to downloads and cell phone functions, blocking multiple applications from loading to keep the experience simple and to keep the apparent phone performance up. The Palm Pre has improved the user interface so it is easier to move between open applications and shut them down if they degrade performance. Apple is rumored to be doing something similar in the next version of the iPod, due out shortly. 

One of the best features is the inductive charging dock, which doesn’t require a cable and turns the phone automatically into a speakerphone/desk accessory. I’m not missing having to plug the cable in at all and, so far, this has worked flawlessly. Overall touch and feel is in every way better than the current iPhone. One interesting aspect is that there is a touch bar at the bottom of the phone, which helps reduce the fingerprinting on the screen or the need to put your finger in front of what you are trying to look at. The phone trains you to use it initially when you first boot it up. 

Battery Life 

Battery life, as with most 3G phones, is far from great, but unlike the iPhone you can replace the battery. And with the inductive dock, at least when you are around the office, you shouldn’t have problem. It will be nice when one of these firms goes to one of the newer, longer-lasting battery formulas but, for now, they are largely buying on price. This does create an opportunity for a better after-market offering. 

Camera 

With 3 Megapixels and a bright LED light source, you could probably live with this camera for most things. This is much better than the iPhone’s 2 Megapixel camera, and the few pictures I took were very nice. It is easy to e-mail or transfer the picture to another phone from the device, though an application that would automatically batch them back to a computer or the Web, like EyeFi, would be an improvement. I expect an application like that, which exists in the iPhone’s application store, to eventually show up for the Palm Pre. 

Email – Enterprise Advantage 

The Palm Pre uses a mobile version of Outlook and Active Sync, making it easy to set up with an Exchange Server (they’ve changed the menus a bit but this isn’t hard for someone who had done it before). Exchange native support without going through an intermediate service like MobileMe is generally preferred because you don’t have to worry about the security or reliability of the Apple cloud offering.  With the setup, as it is with Windows Mobile phones, Calendar and Exchange contacts move to the new phone, and if you live on Exchange your phone is mostly configured this way. Tools for centralized management will undoubtedly come later as one of the expected applications. 

Keyboard 

What really causes this phone to stand out from the iPhone is the keyboard. It is tight, which means most will likely learn to type with their fingernails. When it slides down, it exposes a mirror for pictures you take of yourself and future video conferencing (not currently enabled in the phone). I can’t live without a keyboard myself and this feature, or the lack of it, is what has kept me from an iPhone (or any screen phone). 

Negatives 

First, this is a young phone and will likely improve a great deal based on user feedback over the next six months; most of this will come to phone owners via updates. Same with the application store, which appears to be in beta. It will improve significantly over the next six months and those that have the phones will see those benefits as they arrive. Sprint remains one of the more risky carriers, but Verizon and others are expected to pick up this phone in the New Year, allowing you to use a non-Sprint preferred carrier. 

Could This Be Your Next Smartphone? 

If you really wanted an iPhone but found a number of things annoying about the device, like the built-in battery, lack of a keyboard, uncomfortable feeling when you had it next to your head, the fact you could only launch one application at a time, and particularly if you don’t care for Apple and use Exchange and don’t mind Sprint  — you’ll love this phone. It is almost as if they built it with me in mind! Unless you want to be one of the first to have this phone, and it is a ball to be one of the first to showcase a device like this, I’d wait until after it shows up on other carriers so they are competing for your business and any initial hardware problems are fixed (there are always issues with the first run of any new phone). 

You’ll also want to check out the new Android and Apple phones due out shortly so you know what you are giving up. Having said all of that, this is clearly the best phone I’ve ever had the privilege to use and while there are critical parts, like the application store, still not cooked yet, I have no problem recommending it in its initial form to those that like to be first with cool products.