Hands on: Palm Pre review

Updated: we've now published our in-depth full Palm Pre review

There's still no UK launch date at the moment, but the rumours that O2 will be launching it in the next month or two are growing stronger all the time.

Such was the excitement that surrounded the Palm Pre when it was announced at CES earlier this year that the company's stock rose 35 per cent straight after the keynote speech, which admittedly wasn't that difficult given how far it had fallen since it's '90s. But is the Palm Pre actually any good, and can it save the ailing company's fortunes?

Well, the first thing to say is TechRadar, like everyone else, wasn't allowed to handle the phone alone, apparently in case of theft, although we reckon it's more to do with the fact Palm didn't want the world to try out the device with pre-production software.

So we had to make do with using the screen while someone else held it, and when we did get to hold it we were instantly surrounded by Palm employees. But still, the impression we got was good.

When doing your usual hands on with a phone, the easiest thing to do is look for the flaws. For instance, the iPhone has no MMS and a rubbish camera, the Tube is sluggish etc, etc. But the Palm had virtually no problems, which is something of a first.

Better than the iPhone?

The touchscreen is as good, if not better, than the iPhone's, and also adds in the gesture recognition via a small bar at the bottom with LEDs that light up and fade away to your touch, something that adds a perceived element of class and straight away makes you want to like this phone.

It's an obvious point, but having a touchscreen that you can touch and find it does what you intended it to without any perceptible delay is something that marks out a good touch phone, as more people, especially those that may not have played with a touchscreen before, will certainly appreciate the experience.

The gesture bar at the bottom not only allows you to navigate through web pages and applications by swiping, but also a firm press, hold and drag brings up a customisable applications bar onto the screen. Nice.

The opening up of each application did bring a slight delay, as did some window changes, but it was far quicker than Windows Mobile and roughly on a par with the iPhone in terms of speed, so not all bad.

Contacts can be synced up with a whole host of options thanks to Palm's Synergy functionality, including Facebook, Outlook and Google, with the contact pictures coming in automatically from the internet. Think the INQ1 Facebook phone fused with the iPhone and the G1 and you're some way to understanding how this phone functions.

Messaging using the QWERTY keyboard was an interesting experience, as a number of people complained about hitting the small keys inaccurately far too often. However, it seems like a similar situation to the iPhone portrait keypad, where once you spent some time getting used to the system it seems like it was never a problem. An issue for the full review, we think.

This adds another level of functionality to your work and home life, as instead of having to worry about making sure a person's contact details are present and correct you can automatically assimilate them into the Palm Pre.

The contact syncing also allows for conversations betweens friends to switch between Google Talk, AIM, SMS and MMS at the touch of a button depending on what information is stored on the handset. it's hard to put into words just hwo useful this feature is, and the demonstration we saw of a person walking away from a PC but still being able to continue the conversation by text.

Of course, it does mean you have to have all the details plugged into your contact's entry in the phonebook, but thanks to Synergy that shouldn't be a problem for too many of your buddies.

The video is stunning on the 320x480 screen,although it pales in comparison to the likes of the HTC Touch Diamond 2, which packs a WVGA (800 x 480) screen.

However, while the 3.1in display is a tad small, it's more than enough to produce beautiful images. The photo viewer is of a similar quality, and while the camera is only 3MP, it can handle multi-focus points, so the pictures look good and take pretty speedily, and snapping the pictures is a lot of fun when the photo drops into your image folder in front of your eyes 9it might be pointless, but hey, we're easily impressed.