Palm Pre: A Match For iPhone
The long anticipated Palm Pre has finally been made available. This smart phone will pose a direct challenge to Apple’s iPhone not only in terms of design but in long-term cost savings as well.
First off, the Palm Pre serves its purposes more than aptly as a phone, with clear sound and easy touchscreen dialing. The Pre, which is a slider phone, reveals a QWERTY keypad, which is essentially for text messaging, with comfortable buttons that are easy to press with your thumbs.
The Palm Pre’s most fascinating feature is its revolutionary webOS operating system, which is Linux-based. With its intuitive user interface feature called Cards, the user can seamlessly interact with a host of different applications. This is accomplished by sliding, swiping and tapping your thumb across the gorgeous 3.1 inch display, with 24-bit 320 x 480 color resolution.
Applications that you expect from a smart phone are all included and are easy to use. The calendar and contact software, called Synergy, will allow you to store contacts from numerous accounts, like Gmail, Exchange and Facebook, and manage them easily within the phone. There are also fun memo and task applications you can use to remind you of things you need to do.
Wireless Internet connectivity is not an issue. The built-in browser loads web pages extremely fast and effortlessly. Moving to other windows and accessing bookmarks are simple operations with clicks and taps. You can also zoom in and out as well by pinching or double tapping.
Engadget has more on that:
The webOS browser is obviously central to the operation of the OS as a whole. Since many apps on the device leverage web standards for their core operation, it could be said that the browser is the OS. But in terms of a straight-up web browsing, we found the Pre’s out of the box option fantastic — not only in speed and navigation, but with rendering and compatibility.
The text messaging feature is something that is indeed unique. You can basically convert an ongoing SMS conversation string into an AIM or Gmail instant messaging session and back on the fly, whenever you want.
The interface as a whole, from the vibrant color scheme to the crisp, simple icons is gorgeous. The look and feel of the interface is based on transparencies and layers. And the fonts are extremely easy to read without any jagged edges.
This smart phone comes with all the nifty features that you would come to expect: a media player that supports several audio and video file formats, 3G EVDO, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, an impressive 3.2 megapixel camera and GPS.
And like the iPhone, you can use iTunes to transfer music to the Pre music cell phone, which is pretty cool.
The Palm Pre is only available on the Sprint network for $199 after rebate. You can take full advantage of Sprint’s Simply Everything plan, which for $99 a month allows you to make unlimited calls including long distance, not to mention unlimited Internet access, GPS usage and messaging. Considering all that you’re getting, the plan is a bargain.
So there certainly are iPhone-esque qualities about the Palm Pre. But time will tell whether consumers decide that Palm is beating Apple at its own game.
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