Palm Pre Post Event Impressions
Palm promised the world some "new-ness" today in Vegas and they certainly did not disappoint. Alongside Palm's revolutionary new WebOS, Ed Colligan and Jon Rubinstein showcased Palm's fantasntic new smartphone designed to run the new operating system. While we have not yet had any hands-on time with the device, Ryan and I were seated on the 2nd row during the presentation and got a very good look at the unit.
Stylistically, the device has smoothly rounded corners reminiscent of some of the earlier HTC smartphones. It basically mimics the Treo Pro's design aesthetic, but has a much less "busy" front bezel. Most of the hard buttons have been removed, with the exception of a single button located underneath the screen. Not much was said about this feature but it's presumably some kind of scroll wheel analogous to what is found on the HTC G1 or the BlackBerry Trackball. The traditional Palm ring/mute switch is thankfully present, and the power button is a dual-function design similar to that found on the Treo Pro.
The device appears to have a slight curve in its lower body. Again, it's reminiscent of the HTC G1 in this aspect. The major surprise was the confirmation of the slide-down keyboard. It was glossy black with the traditional Palm orange highlights. The keyboard appears to be a bit wider than the conventional Palm Treo keyboard and the "smile" shape is retained; it is, however, somewhat less pronounced in its "smile" and the key spacing actually appears a bit wider than my Treo 755p I was using for comparison purposes.
Moving around to the rest of the device, a 3.5mm headphone jack is thankfully present up top, continuing a positive trend begun with last year's Treo Pro. A micro-USB port is found on the right-hand side In what is a Palm first since the days of the LifeDrive & Tungsten T5's "Drive Mode", the Treo Pre will fully support mass storage compliant for loading media onto the devices' 8GB of onboard flash. Unfortunately, no option for a microSDHC slot was mentioned or seen anywhere in the entire presentation. Perhaps Palm is borrowing too heavily from Apple's playbook with non-expandable storage?
The LCD measures 3.1" diagonally and has a resolution of 320x480, the same found on Palm's former large-screen Garnet devices such as the TX, T5, LifeDrive and T3. While we just found this out now, the screen supports 24-bit color, which is apparently a huge step above Palm's previous best of 18-bit on the Tungsten E2.
Below the screen is an interesting area that is part of the touchscreen area devoted to input. This zone seems inspired by the original Pilot's silkscreened Graffiti input area. It is where all of the finger pokes, jabs, swipes, and gestures take place. From the initial demos we saw, the multitouch aspects of WebOS work extremely well.
Palm pre - Click for Larger
Internally, not much said about the device's innards, aside from the fact that is fully GPS (no word on being unlocked, of course) capable, 802.11b/g is supported, a 3megapixel camera with "DSP functions" (Ed's words) and a LED flash assist light. Native multimedia support looks sharp, if nothing revolutionary. Certain a step above the crusty old media apps Bluetooth 2.1 + ADR +A2DP support is finally onboard, so no more Softick Audio Gateway headaches.
The device also has a built-in accelerometer and a light sensor. I was STUNNED to see no lag whatsoever during multitasking, app switching, or screen orientation changing. The CPU appears to be quite impressive, as it was mentioned to be the latest-gen TI Omap.
Palm pre - Click for Larger
As far as omissions, here is what I did notice as being notable.
- No IR port
- No stylus anywhere
- Apparently no removable memory card slot
- No mention of a Palm Desktop app. Everything is seemingly going to be done in the "cloud".
- Zero mention of any nods to backwards compatibility with Garnet. Not even a mention of a PIM import tool for legacy Palm OS data, though I cannot imagine that Palm would risk leaving users with thirteen years of PIM data out in the cold.
- A GSM/HSDPA version will follow sometime after its out on Sprint
- No word on pricing of yet
Permalink
PrintArticle Comments
(21 comments)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.
Sweet!
Expandable Memory
If they got video and music streaming nailed down, I for one would welcome my new webOS overlords.
RE: Expandable Memory
RE: Expandable Memory
Great job Ryan, Kris
Or better yet... can you steal me the demo unit?
Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 -> Treo 650 -> Treo 680 -> Centro
Old PIM Data
http://tinyurl.com/2ooncg
RE: Old PIM Data
RE: Old PIM Data
I agree. I think the Palm Desktop was/is more of a strength to the platform than many people give it credit for.
Outlook is bloated and slow and cumbersome. The Palm Desktop, while not perfect, is quick, has a smaller footprint, and does the PIM thing simply and smoothly.
I too have no desire to leave all my data out there in "the cloud", whatever exactly that means. I, like many people spend hours a day in front of my laptop... I enter a good amount of PIM data while on the phone at my desk or working on other projects at my desk... I don't always have access to the web and don;t want to store all my PIM on the web even if I could.
There is still a need for a good, robust PIM manager on your PC or Mac separate from "the cloud".
Nice wrap-up, Kris
There's a card slot
The slot is hidden top right of the back *under* the lid. No open slot. It's internal and requires the back to come off (as with changing the battery).
Eh. Not sure I mind having to take off the back for card access.
RE: There's a card slot
That's actually probably the SIM card slot!
I see in the specs from Palm - wtf? NO card slot? 8GBs is it?
RE: There's a card slot
i thought i saw that there was a microSD slot during the treo central cover it live.
BTW - this is great technology -
RE: There's a card slot
Welcome to iPhoneLand, Gekko. Your nightmare has begun!
RE: There's a card slot
I have not seen the bottom side yet - I figure that is where the microUSB connector is?
I seriously hope there is a card slot - I backup to SD. While backing up to the cloud is a nice/vital feature, it is not ALWAYS available - like in some locations without EVDO or other G3 coverage, or if a CDMA phone user takes their Palm to the EU!?!?
I want to KNOW that my calendar, contacts, memos, etc, are all backed up at ALL times!
Besides - which would you rather do during a "cattle-car" class flight:
Unpack a laptop and tether up my smartphone via USB to download videos or hours of audio books, or pop in a preloaded card???
PAY ATTENTION PALM! MAKE SURE THERE IS A CARD SLOT!
And make sure it is passed through as a USB mass storage device.
RE: There's a card slot
Someone who has contact with someone of status from Palm, PLEASE bring this up!
Anyone notice this?
http://www.engadget.com/photos/live-from-palms-ces-press-conference/1268942/
RE: Anyone notice this?
In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician.
- Chesterton
Latest Comments
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
Omissions
very minor and rare to find on other phones.
No stylus anywhere
not needed