Palm Pre – can it beat the iPhone 3GS and HTC Magic?

Matt Sharp questioned:

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 ‘dull’ of the three. The Palm Pre and iPhone 3GS, on the other hand, both have sleek looks, with glossy, wavy panels. It’s a very close-run thing between the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre, and it simply isn’t possible to choose which is the best, looks-wise. It’ll simply come down to which feels aptly 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, but, 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 huge plus. And whilst the Palm Pre has a less vital screen than both the iPhone 3GS and HTC Magic, its touch-sensitive screen really extends, unbelievably, beyond the screen itself. It could be argued that they could have given the Palm Pre a larger 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 (appearance in at any 16 or 32Gb, compared to the Palm Pre’s 8Gb).

Software and Interface

Finally, we come to interfaces. The iPhone 3GS has the newest 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. But, 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 excellent enough to beat both of its rivals.