Well it seems Palm has pulled itself out of the depths of dispair with this little beauty. Packing a host of features including a 3.1 inch 320 x 240 multitouch display, gesture support, full slide out QWERTY, TI’s OMAP CPU to give “Laptop style power” , EV-DO Rev A, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, A2DP Stereo Bluetooth, 8GB flash memory built in along with a 3.1 Megapix camera with LED flash for good measure and wireless charger. Handset is due out on Sprint in first half of this year. Expect pricing and a firm date soonish. For all the low-down on the handset including offical photos, coverage from the CES press conference, hands on and almost everything you can get to satisfy your Palm pre cravings head on over to Engadget. Oh and by the way if you bought Palm stock over the last few days, you will be happy, it’s jumped 35% on the back of the Pre’s accountment.
UPDATE: Video of full press conference video has been posted on Palm’s website. Watch it here. (Requires Quicktime) Or we have mirrored Engadget’s posting of the video above.
My Thoughts: I think this was needed from Palm and i think everyone knows it (it’s stock sure did), i wasn’t a big fan of PalmOS but seeing the photos of this in action and seeing what it looks like and what it is capable of i think it’s a big win for Palm. It’s definatley iPhone-ish with it’s dock and multitouch, but having a physical slide out portrait keyboard and gesture control it really gives you more input options in a natural form. Hey and who can forget the awesome wireless charger, the Touchstone or “Puck” as the Palm reps ahev been calling it. This thing better come to Australia. Hopefully i can get my hands on one for a hands-on demo closer to the release date.
Handsome device !!!
Tony
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