iPhone can’t just rule the market alone in the smartphone market and realizing that there is a desperate need for companies to challenge Apple by launching equally good products. Palm is trying its own hand in this competitive and recently crowded space with its own offering called Pre which it showcased at the ongoing CES 2009. Needless to say, we can safely assume it as Palm’s iPhone killer.

Plam realized that some users would seek an alternative to the touch screen so they have kept both touch-screen as well as QWERTY keypad in the Palm Pre. Almost all the functions can be done by the touch-screen but the QWERTY keypad will obviously provide an alternative which certain cosnumers insisit upon.

The new Palm Pre has a curved shape and a 3.1inches touch display with 320-by-480 resolution. It comes with EV-DO wireless wide-area access as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 8GB of storage. The back is removable to replace the battery. It weighs 4.8 ounces and at 2.35 inches wide, 3.96 inches long and 0.67 inches thick is slightly smaller than other popular smart phones. It also includes a 3-megapixel camera which is becoming a norm these days.

One of the most innovative features is the ‘Cards’ system using the centre button at the foot of the device, users can see a full set of all the open windows and either flick through them or ‘throw’ them up the screen to discard. It also  features a gesture zone where users can swipe around to navigate through applications or drag up the menu loader to access a full range of applications.

The Palm pre also features multi-touch capability meaning the familiar ‘pinch to zoom’ functionality present in the iPhone has finally made its way to another device and the press demonstration hints that it works pretty well.

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