Palm has announced the Pre, the company’s latest touchscreen smartphone, with EVDO Rev-A, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0. The Pre has a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field, together with GPS, and supports the A2DP wireless stereo profile.

video of demo after the cut

Hardware controls include the volume buttons on the left-hand side, power button, ringer switch and 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, and the micro USB 2.0 port on the right. Plugged into a computer, the Pre will appear as a mass storage device; unlike some rivals, there’s also a removable battery.

Measuring in at 59.57 x 100.53 x 16.95mm when closed, and weighing 135g, the Pre has a 3.1-inch 24-bit 320 x 480 HVGA capacitive touchscreen with an extended gesture area underneath. Opened, there’s a full QWERTY keyboard, using the same sheet keys as earlier Palm devices; under the hood there’s an unspecified TI OMAP processor, accelerometer, light sensor and 8GB of flash memory, around 7.4GB of which is user accessible.

Since the Pre’s webOS is built to be permanently connected to the internet, though, onboard memory is only part of the story. The Pre is constantly synchronized with Sprint’s servers, as well as Microsoft Exchange and other online contacts lists such as GMail and Facebook. Data is intelligently handled; contact duplicates between those three sources, for instance, are presented as a single, unified listing. Similarly, no differentiation is made between web searches and local searches; if the Pre can’t locate an item on its internal storage, it automatically queries the Sprint servers and then searches online.

webOS is arranged around a series of “cards”, each representing a running app. Swipe gestures switch between them – the Pre also recognizes pinch and spread zoom gestures – and new apps can be called up by sweeping up from the gesture area at the bottom of the screen. Like the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1, Palm’s Pre browser is based on Webkit. Screen rotation is almost instantaneous, and the Pre can switch between all four orientations.

Pre owners will also have access to a custom-made Sprint App Store, the only way to download software for the handset. All apps will be digitally signed before distribution. Once Sprint’s exclusive with the smartphone ends, Palm will work with future carriers to make their own custom stores. An UMTS version with HSPA is confirmed in the pipeline, but no specific release details have been given. Sprint users will be able to pick up the Pre in the first-half of 2009, price as yet unannounced.

-Vincent Nguyen