Coming soon ... Palm Pre with WebOS

That's Palm pre the next exciting launch of Palm. Another new expectation about the Palm pre is it's completely original operating system called webOS which incorporates some pretty heady ideas about what a mobile phone can do.

The specs would look like

• 3.1-inch touch screen (320 x 480)
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash
• IM/SMS/MMS messaging support
• Bluetooth 2/1+EDR and AD2P
• 3G EVDO Rev A
• 8GB on-board storage
• microUSB port
• USB mass storage support
• Bluetooth/USB tethering
• "Synergy" synchronization pulls data from your online/offline mail and social networking accounts
• Built-in support for wireless charging with optional "Touchstone" charger
• Copy and paste support
• GPS with turn-by-turn navigation
• TI's OMAP3430 System-on-Chip (SoC) running at an as-yet-unannounced clockspeed (up to 1GHz)
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Removable battery
• E-mail: Microsoft Outlook/Microsoft Direct Push and POP3/IMAP support
• Video: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
• Audio: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WAV
• Wireless: 802.11b/g

The casing of the phone is made from sleek, glossy plastic, and the 3.1-inch touchscreen is adores the face of the device, just like the iPhone or Touch Diamond. The phone has a bit of a curve to its body both in the back and around the sides, but would easily slip into a pocket. When you slide out the QWERTY keyboard, it has an almost curved banana-like shape to it, curving slightly to meet the contours of your hand and face. As you might expect, it feels great in the hand -- it's slightly smaller than an iPhone when closed, slightly larger when open, and roughly the same width.

On the bottom half of the phone below the screen is a black "gesture area" used for finger and thumb swipes. In the center of that space is a small metallic ball, which looks like a movable trackball, but is actually just a button. It's used to call up one of the most important parts of the UI, the "cards," but not much else. The black space is dotted with soft LED lights that glow when you swipe your finger across it -- a nice touch.

The screen itself is a sensitive capacitive touchscreen, which is as responsive (if not more) than the iPhone's display. The resolution is the same as Apple's device (480 x 320), though due to its smaller size, it has slightly higher pixel density. Colors looked bright and clear, and overall the screen was sharp and easy to read. The high gloss may cause issues in the sun, but most modern touchscreen phones seem to deal with the problem, and we expect no less from this one.

The phone will be released in at least two versions to start. The first, a Sprint exclusive, sports EV-DO Rev. A and 802.11b/g, as well as Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and A2DP; the second model will get 3G GSM in place of EV-DO for sale in other parts of the world. Like the iPhone, it also touts a light sensor, proximity sensor, and accelerometer. One critical thing to note for business users and frequent flyers: the Sprint version of the phone -- likely the first to be released -- will not be a global phone, meaning it can't be used on GSM networks overseas.