Before today’s press conference, many were saying that Palm needed to show off the killer device or else they were doomed.  When the smoke cleared and the event came to a close, the buzz for Palm’s new smartphone was through the roof.  Bottom line – Palm needed a homerun, and it looks like they hit it out of the park with the Pre.

The Pre has a 3.1 inch touchscreen with a display resolution of 320×480.  We’re unsure of the processing speed – all we were told during the press conference was that it’s “fast”.  There’s a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out of the bottom, which is sure to delight those who aren’t thrilled with the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard or the BlackBerry Storm’s clicking touchscreen.  The Pre has a built-in 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash, and fear not – there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the device, so you can keep your favorite pair of headphones.  The Pre has 8 GB of flash for storage, but as far as we know, you can’t expand beyond that.

There were many “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” in regards to the operating system.  Palm went to great lengths to ensure users would have an enjoyable multitasking experience on their new WebOS operating system, and you can definitely tell.  It’s hard to explain exactly how the OS works without video – fortunately for you, we’ll have a few up on the site later tonight.

Developers for the Pre have to know three very simple things: CSS, HTML and Javascript.  I anticipate there being a ton of great apps ready for the Pre’s launch and far into its life.  Pandora, Google, Amazon, SplashData and TeleNav have already signed up as development partners.

The Pre will debut on Sprint, making use of what is arguably the best 3G network in the country.  The price of the Pre is currently unknown, but we do know that it will be available sometime in the first half of this year.  Be sure to keep checking out Pre Community for more information as it becomes available!