Once upon a time, there was Palm, and almost everyone had one…….until almost overnight it seemed to disappear. Now, a San Francisco based startup has bought the right to the branding and the name, and is launching a brand new iteration of Palm. The device has been priced at $349, and is quite interesting for multiple reasons.
For one, the device has been projected as phone-for-phone. The device is quite small, and you can add it to your Verizon plan, which allows it to share your phone number from your main device. Now, you can take either of these devices along and use them as you will.
The cases for the phone have been designed by none other than Stephen Curry, which further goes to add to their appeal. The new Palm device will easily fit within the palm of your hand, and is somewhere around 1/4th the size of Pixel XL. The device has a size of 50 x 97 millimeters, and is 7.4mm thick. It weighs only 62.5 grams, so it won’t weigh you down – pun intended.
However, do not think that just because the phone is small it lacks something. Of course, you shouldn’t expect to play Need For Speed on the device (and playing on a device this small anyways won’t be fun, come on!) but it comes equipped with Android 8.1, which means that you will be able to access all major applications from Google Play Store.
The device comes with Gorilla Glass 3, and it’s rated for IP68 water and dust protection. You get a 800 mAh battery which thanks to the fact that the device is very small, allows it to stay on for plenty of time.
The Palm device has a tiny 3.3-inch, 445-ppi LCD, and packs 12/8 MP cameras on its rear/front side. Under the hood, you get the Snapdragon 435 alongside paired to 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. There is no headphone jack, and all you get is a USB-C charging port. There is a single hard button that can be used to lock the device or power it on/off, and a virtual button that can be used to go back, or go to home based upon the number of times you press it.
Well, the device doesn’t make much sense when you consider that Pal is projecting it as a device that will reduce phone usage. Unless of course, Palm is counting upon the small screen size to be off-putting enough to keep users from doing much with the device. Of course, what is stopping them from whipping their primary device out of their pockets – beats me!
