Palm Pre challenges iPhone
Updated on 16 September 2009
I’ve just spent 15 minutes on one of the most eagerly awaited gadgets for years- the Palm Pre, essentially the only smart phone that has realistically competed with the all conquering Apple iPhone.
The phone has been a massive hit in America and will be coming to the UK in the next few weeks like the iPhone exclusively to customers of O2.
It has a slightly familiar feel and is rather easy to navigate in very much the same way as one might use the Apple iPhone although the Pre has a smaller screen.
Like the iPhone it has a handy home button to quickly return to the main menu. Also in place is an accelerometer which like the iPhone switches the screen between landscape and portrait mode.
But unlike the Apple iPhone, it is possible to run many multiple applications at the same time, indeed the device I was using seemed to have about 15 running all at once, although the UK Palm Pre app store will have considerably less applications for download than the Apple iPhone App store.
But unlike the iPhone, a full QWERTY keyboard pops out at the bottom which will make composing long emails considerably easier than with the touch screen only iPhone.
Something I found a little confusing was the mountain of contacts in the sample phone I used. As it was connected to a PR’s Facebook account, all of his many “friends” were listed in the address book.
As I have many Facebook “friends” but considerably less genuine friends, this isn’t a feature I’d like to use.
Although the Pre has been adapted for the UK market, particularly in regards to technical specifications like HSDPA (faster web browsing) and 3G, the phone is almost identical to the one on sale in the USA.
This means that it is really still a first generation phone, whereas its rival the Apple iPhone is on its third incarnation. I do wonder how long it would be until the Palm Pre 2 would be out (although there’s no evidence yet of it).
I hope to have a more in-depth look at the Palm Pre prior to its launch but on first play it is a worthy challenger to the Apple iPhone and may yet be the cool gadget to own come Christmas.
