Palm has finally unveiled their latest smaprtphone, and true to prior speculation, it does come with a multi-touch display and slide-out QWERTY keypad.
Dubbed the Palm Pre, it features a 3.1-inch touchscreen display, 3-megapixel camera with flash, QWERTY slide-out keypad, EVDO Rev. A or UMTS/HSDPA connectivity, Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR, proximity and light sensor, accelerometer, and 8GB internal memory. More importantly, it also comes with their brand new OS called the webOS (formerly known as Nova). As the name implies, it is a web-centric operating system that supports multi-touch input and makes use of CSS, XHTML and JavaScript making it a versatile platform compatible with a wide range of applications.
Though the exact release date and price was not mentioned, it’s expected to become exclusively available via Sprint in the US in the first half of 2009 with a GSM/HSDPA version for other markets being released thereafter.
From what we can see, it looks like Palm has done a pretty good job in coming out with a multi-touch device that truly has an identity of its own. However, as we all know by now, there’s more to a smartphone than just its looks alone. Performance is key and essential, and that’s what we’ll be looking forward to when the Palm Pre is released later this year.
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