Palm Pre

“Pre is an odd name for a device that drops late into a corporate drama already loaded with twists, turns and setbacks. But if Palm is indicating that its new phone kicks off a new phase, maybe the Pre is aptly named after all.Shaped like a small bar of shower soap, the dense, ebony Pre matches many (if not all) of the features of its chief competitor, the iPhone. But in one key aspect, the Pre does the iPhone one better. While a lot of the Pre's features — a bright 3.1-inch touchscreen manipulated by taps, swipes and pinches, apps sold by third parties in an open online bazaar, integration of e-mail, contacts and calendar — are now standard in 3G smartphones, Palm also lets users keep multiple applications running simultaneously.It's a huge win. The Palm gets around the inherent difficulty of multitasking with a concept dubbed cards which work like windows on a regular computer. When browsing open apps or web pages, you swipe through the cards as if viewing photos. Tap on a card to use the app. The other apps are still active, your inbox still collects mail, web pages still update. Just as with your computer, you can stay constantly connected to Facebook, Twitter, IM and other online activities. Best of all, when you're using an app and need something from another app, you don't have to go through a tortuous process of closing, launching and reloading. When you're navigating with Google Maps you can slide over to check a contact's address, choose a podcast or answer an e-mail, and then return to Maps without losing a beat.”

“The Pre (and its accompanying operating system) could likely decide the fate of the company largely credited with ushering in the age of the do-everything phone. Since Palm's announcement at CES this year, news surrounding the Pre has been a veritable whirlwind of activity: rumors, half-truths, hate, love, fear-mongering, fanboyism, rampant gadget-lust... and even a little late night celebrity for the pint-sized phone. Finally the time has come to put rubber to road and get into the guts of this thing once and for all. Can the Pre and webOS live up to the hype - the kind of hype we haven't seen since the launch of the original iPhone - or do they snap under the pressure? Read on for the full review.”

“Now that everyone has had their say about the Palm Pre, I thought it wise to say a few words about the oft labeled “iPhone killer” that Sprint and Palm hope will bring each back from the edge of the dreaded deadpool. It seems as though every touch-screen device to launch since the first generation iPhone has faced an uphill battle and the Pre is no different. It’s unpolished, sure, but Palm’s webOS has managed to slip in right behind Apple’s iPhone OS, which is something the other smartphone operating systems have failed to do. But it’s not perfect and, let’s face it, nothing is ever perfect on launch day.”

“For a phone with a slide-out qwerty keyboard, the Pre is still surprisingly thin and light, but despite its polished black look it feels a bit plastic when the keyboard is out. Incidentally, the bottom ridge of the keyboard is weirdly sharp for a phone that is supposed to resemble a polished pebble.I know Americans love physical keyboards, but I can't help feeling the Pre would be better without it. I have never had issues with writing emails, texts or even newspaper copy with the onscreen keyboard on the iPhone.As with so many smartphones (including the iPhone), the Pre falls down when it is actually used for its basic purpose of making calls. The sound quality is poor – the person called sounds like they are stuck in a dustbin full of duvets – and reception is patchy, though again that may be O2's fault. Perhaps they are giving all their network capacity to the iPhone. If so, that is a terrible disservice to the Pre – by far the best of all the touchscreen devices to follow Apple's lead.”