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Palm Pre out in the UK

Well connected smart phone available on O2

Palm Pre out in the UK
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Palm's nifty Pre smart phone has been out since June in the US, where it has been performing admirably. Today sees the UK launch of the handset as an O2 exclusive.

It’s not going to come cheap though. The O2 website shows that in order to get the handset for free you need to sign up to a £34.26 a month two year contract or £44.05 a month for an 18 month contract.

Alternatively, you can pay £96.89 for the Pre to get an 18 month £29.38 contract.

The unit itself is a touchscreen device with the added bonus of a slide-out Qwerty keyboard for all those who can’t get on with touch-only handsets. It boasts a 3.1in screen, 8GB of memory and a three megapixel camera.

Undoubtedly the Pre's defining attribute though, is its custom operating system, webOS.

As the name suggests it's built around connectivity, and is capable of pulling contact details from many of your online accounts – such as Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Facebook - bringing them into a single unified phone book.

Unfortunately for us pocket gamers, despite the Pre packing a decent graphical punch, the nature of the operating system also means that we’re unlikely to see any technically advanced games on the system – at least not in the immediate future.

However, there are signs that Palm is working on the problem, and there’s nothing to stop simpler games from making the switch in the meantime (as we’ve seen recently with Gravity Sling).

We’re currently awaiting a handset for review, so keep your eyes peeled.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.