For many years, Palm was a leader in the world of handheld information devices. Then it lost the lead to the iPhone and others. Now, in a dramatic comeback Palm has introduced the Pre, a mobile phone with a touch screen, a new innovative operating system, and some entirely new ideas. Everyone is trying to catch up to the iPhone. Is the Pre an iPhone killer? We decided to take a look and find out.

The Palm Pre comes in a white box covered by a thick black plastic sleeve, shown in Figure 1. The box itself is painted with a colorful of the phone itself, as shown in Figure 2.

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Figure 1: The box in its sleeve.

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Figure 2: The box itself.

Inside the box, shown in Figure 3, you will find an amazingly compact phone, a Getting Started Guide, a pair of ear buds, The USB charging cable, an AC adapter for the cable, and a small black case. The fold-out Getting Started guide has a good pictorial guide to the phone and its functionality. You will want to take a good look at this guide because although the phone is very easy to use, it is not necessarily intuitive. There are just some things that you have to learn by looking them up or having someone show you rather than figuring it out yourself.

The small black pouch that is provided with the Pre is made of a sueded material and is lined in orange. It is amazingly useful. The phone fits in snuggly, but is still easy to remove from the pouch. Because of the sueded finish, it may not be good for using in a tight pocket, but it offers good protection when you want to toss the Pre in a purse, briefcase, or bag.

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Figure 3: What’s in the box.

At 2.3" x 3.9" x 0.67" (5.95 cm x 10.05 cm x 1.69 cm), the Pre is  a nicely compact device. It weighs 4.76 ounces (135 grams). It has a glossy black finish and a very sturdy feel. The 3.1” screen is HVGA with a 320x480 resolution and 24-bit color. The screen is bright and clear and has excellent response to the touch. While the screen is smaller than the iPhones screen, the Pre itself is also smaller than the iPhone (shown in Figure 4). The Pre fits nicely in the hand and is more comfortable to hold to your ear than the bigger iPhone.

Like the iPhone, the Pre has an accelerometer that allows it to rotate the screen when turned sideways.

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Figure 4: The Pre (on the right) next to the iPhone (on the left).