Screen

Images on the Palm Pre's 3.1-inch touch screen appear with high-quality 320 x 480 px resolution and with amazing 16.7 million color quality. Fonts are crisp and easy to read, pictures appear vivid and sharp, and the size, although two-fifths of an inch smaller than the iPhone's screen, is big enough to watch videos without squinting.

Like the iPhone, consumers have a touch screen that, with a flick from left to right or right to left, can move through screens in a horizontal fashion. Unlike the iPhone, the Pre relies on its physical keypad and has no on-screen keypad to use.

Personal preference for keypad location will determine if this is a good or bad move for individual consumers, but the iPhone has the advantage of not making users go back and forth between tapping the screen and typing on the keypad. However, a physical keypad often takes less touch pressure and gets more accuracy than an on-screen keyboard.

There are a few drawbacks, such as how easily the screen gets covered in fingerprints. A small "pond ripple" effect shows where the screen is touched for accuracy but quickly becomes distracting.

Overall, the display is easy to navigate thanks to the ability to flip through workspaces, a simple home screen of icons, clear and colorful images, and a touch menu for dialing to save room and layering on the keypad.

The Pre has all the resolution of the iPhone without taking up as much room. Should consumers want a larger screen, the iPhone may be their best bet. But for those who want a more pocket-friendly display that's still easy to watch, read and navigate, the Pre is a good fit.

Audio

The Pre has built-in music player that plays, organizes and finds songs and streams music from Sirius Music and Music Choice.

Tracks can be synced from a computer or downloaded from Amazon MP3 -- letting customers search for music, listen to samples before buying and check the progress of downloads.

A massive 8GB of internal memory ensures even the largest music libraries can fit on the phone without a memory card.

Consumers can listen to music using a headset (included) or Bluetooth headphones. Users have complained that the phone doesn't have the best audio via Bluetooth on a car connection.

The Pre's audio is pumped through a loud speaker port on the back. The best audio quality comes through when the phone is held up since laying it down muffles the music.

The speakerphone sounds a bit distorted, but not more than usual. Calls also sound crisp on both ends of the line.

The handset supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, WAV and QCELP audio formats.

The sound quality is outstanding but placement of the speaker on the back may not be ideal -- side speakers would have offered better stereo sound.

Regardless, its music player and Amazon song download service will keep users bobbing their heads.

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