Palm Pre GSM coming to the UK
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009Source: www.guardian.co.uk
The Palm Pre has been out in the States for a few weeks now, and seems to be making some headway in the market. Over there it has become known as a comparable option to the iPhone in terms of both aesthetics and features, but without draining the bank balance quite so much (most users will save anything between $30 and $50 per month by plumping for Palm’s latest handset over Apple’s). However, unsurprisingly for a cellular market which has come to compare every new handset to the iPhone as a matter of course; the new iPhone 3GS has exploded in the US, selling over a million units in the first three days.
However, the American market primarily uses the CDMA network, whilst Europeans hoping to get their hands on the Pre will obviously want something more compatible with the existing GSM networks. Thankfully, Palm have come to their aid by unveiling their Palm Pre GSM and announcing that it will be available on the O2 network in the UK.
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For the uninitiated, the Palm Pre packs quite a punch in terms of its specifications – not only does it look the business with its sleek, slide design with QWERTY keyboard and 3.1″ 320×480 touchscreen; but also comes with internal GPS, 3MP camera with LED flash, accelerometer and proximity sensors, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 (with Bluetooth internet connection tethering!), and impressive media compatibility for images, videos and music. All of this is packed into Palm’s brand new mobile operating system, webOS, which has so far received overwhelmingly positive reviews in terms of its speed, functionality and looks.
The final attention grabber with the Pre is its charging station, Palm’s much-exulted Touchstone, a magnetic charging dock that you just place your phone onto to charge… no wires, no plugging anything in, it just works. The only downside is the somewhat strange notion of having to make sure your phone charger is charged before you can recharge your phone…
Palm and O2 are still agreeing the specifics of the deal, but it looks like the Pre will hit British shores within a few weeks. Personally, I cannot wait to get my hands on one and see first-hand if it’s worth going from my Nokia N96 back to Palm for what looks to be a truly spectacular mobile phone. It’s been a long time coming!
