6 Reasons Why the Palm Pre Is Better Than The Rest

Just like the underdog against a world champion, Palm's quasi-resurrection during a single CES presentation shows that there is still life left in a company whose shares have lost 99.18 percent of their value over the last decade.

Palm Pre is impressive for a number of reasons - we've shortlisted five - and is a serious competitor to the raft of touchscreen smartphones we've seen in 2008: iPhone, HTC H1, Nokia 5800XpressMusic and Blackberry Touch.

(1) Palm Pre has a keyboard

Palm is the only smartphone from the lot of recent high profile touchscreen phones to have a slide out keyboard that comes out at the bottom rather than on the side (like HTC's Android phone).It should suit most people who will find the layout familiar. It is also quite close to the feel of traditional Blackberry clients (ed : I guess using the keyboard in landscape mode is a no-go)

(2) Palm Pre has a great screen

The Pre has a 3.1 inch capable of displaying 320 x 480 pixels and although it is a few pixels short compared to say, the Blackberry Storm, some might prefer a 3:2 screen ratio (as for the Pre), compared to the more rectangular 4:3 ratio. This, in turn, is more suitable for a smartphone with a keyboard located on its shorter side.

(3) Palm Pre needs no wires

Yep. True. Provided you use Bluetooth for your headphones and to transfer data, the Palm pre would become the first smartphone to actually say goodbye to wires. Its Touchstone charging dock is perhaps more revolutionary than Apple's own anti-tripping magsafe adaptor. Downside is that it is an optional accessory that will need a special back cover.