Palm Pre Review

The Palm Pre has captured attention in a way usually only Cupertino can. Tightly patrolled demos at intervening tradeshows have only added to the allure now, on June 6th, it’s Palm and Sprint’s chance to see whether hype adds up to sales. It almost seems unnecessary to go over the Pre’s hardware: it’s been pored over since the CES launch. As well as the obvious things the 3.1-inch 320 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, slide-out hardware QWERTY keyboard, multitouch strip under the display and 3-megapixel camera on the back there’s EVDO Rev.A, WiFi b g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a multitasking capable processor lurking inside.Palm ship the Pre with its 1,150mAh battery, an AC adapter, stereo headset, microUSB sync cable and carry pouch. There’s also the documentation: a Getting Started guide, Feature Guide, Terms of Service and a recycling envelope for a previous phone. Our video unboxing, below, should show you everything you need to see about the retail packaging. The phone itself measures 2.3 x 3.9 x 0.67 inches, making it thicker but otherwise smaller than the iPhone 3G and BlackBerry Bold. Hardware controls QWERTY aside are minimal, with a power button, 3.5mm headphone jack and ringer switch up top, volume controls on the left, microUSB charge sync port on the right, and a central chromed button on the front under the display.