Elegant smart phone from Palm

Palm Pre

The latest phone from Palm, the Palm Pre, is a 3G smart phone that comes with a vertical slider offering a full QWERTY keyboard.

It weighs only 135 grams and fits nicely in the hand when closed or open. Its physical keyboard ¬- a vertical slide-up feature rather than the traditional horizontal -distinguishes Palm Pre from most other smart phones.

The Palm Pre is very stylish. Its body is elegantly curved, and the glossy black finish looks sophisticated.

The vertical slide-up keyboard is comfortable and easy to use. The phone also has a touch-screen keyboard, but users have to slide open the phone every time they need to enter text.

The slide-up keyboard looks much like that on the Treo Pro, although the Palm Pre's is wider. However, the phone is still smaller that the iPhone when closed, and despite being small, it has a 3.1-inch touch screen display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels.

The Palm Pre comes with the new Linux-based operating system called Web OS. Its connectivity includes Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, EDGE, and Wi-Fi. It offers up to 8GB of built-in memory and an integrated 3-megapixel camera with an LED flash that offers great picture and movie quality.

Unfortunately, the Palm Pre has no video recording or removable storage capacity. But it has high-speed USB 2.0 support as well as a standard 3.5-millimetre headphone jack.

The new Palm Web OS operating system allows users to move seamlessly from one application to another, as with a desktop computer, and it can run several applications at the same time.

With its Palm Synergy, it links the same contacts found in different places, making it easy to find information. Its address book stores names, numbers, and addresses. It also integrates information from sources such as Facebook, Gmail and instant messaging into a single address-book entry that helps users to quickly view up-to-date information.

Palm Pre comes with a removable battery that can be replaced when it is worn out. This is a simple matter when compared to the iPhone, the users of which have to seek out an Apple service centre when they want to replace the battery.

The Palm Pre is scheduled for market release on June 6, beginning in the US.