The ELEGANT CONTENDER

Hardware: The Pre is a shiny,black plastic,flattened capsule,coated with a hard,glossy,scratch-resistant finish. When its turned off,the screen disappears completely into the smoky finish,leaving a stunning,featureless talisman. Its exactly the right size. Its smaller than the iPhonea 1/2 inch shorter,though a 1/4 inch thickerand therefore more comfortable as a phone.

Price: It costs 200 after rebate.

Typing: Unlike the iPhone,the Pre has a real keyboard. The screen slides up,revealing four rows of Thumbelina-size keys. Theyre really tiny; a BlackBerrys keyboard is Texas by comparison. Even so,the domed key shapes and sticky rubber key surfaces make it faster and less frustrating than typing on glass.

Phone: To make a call,just pop open the keyboard and start dialling. Or just start typing; matches from your address book come up immediately.

Call audio quality is about average. The ringer,however,is too quiet; expect a lot of complaints about that.

Software: The Pres all-new operating system,called Web OS,is attractive,fluid and exciting. It borrows plenty from the iPhonepinch or spread two fingers on the screen to zoom in or out,for example,or flick a list item sideways to delete itbut has its own personality.

For example,once the gorgeous screen comes to life,the black plastic strip beneath it is also touch-sensitive. Slide your thumb leftward,for example,to go back one screen. Drag upward to summon the animated,bendy,quick-launch strip. It holds the icons for the five programs you use most often phone,calendar,e-mail,so you can switch programs without returning to a central home screen first.

Thats important,because the Pre can keep multiple programs open simultaneously. Play Internet radio while you read a PDF document,or compare two open e-mail messages you cant do that on the iPhone.

When you press the tiny,glowing button below the screen,all open windows shrink slightly into individual cards. You can swap programs by tossing them around,or exit a program by flicking its card up off the screen. If you accumulate about 10 open cards,a hostile out-of-memory message appears.

Thoughtful grace notes are everywhere. When watching a video,you can flick right or left to skip forward or backward a few seconds. Empty time slots on your daily calendar collapse to save space,denoted by a 3 hours free strip. When you magnify a Word document,the text reflows so that you never have to scroll horizontally.

Battery: Everyone griped about the iPhones permanently sealed battery. The Pres battery,however,is easy to swap. But even Palm admits that one full day is about the best youll get from its battery.

Music: When you connect it to your Mac or PC,the Pre appears in Apples iTunes software,labelled iPod. You can now sync your music,photo and video collections minus the copy-protected items. iTunes never knows the difference.

Built-in programs: You might keep your family schedule on Google Calendar,your work calendar in Exchange or Outlook and some events in Facebook. The Pre consolidates these online agendas onto a single,colour-coded calendar.

App store: The Pres app store is starting smalltheres a New York Times reader,Pandora Internet radio,Fandango movie listings,and so on. Palm intends to approve thousands more in the coming weeks,but they wont be as diverse or powerful as the iPhones especially games. At the outset,at least,Palm is limiting programmers access to the Pres features.

The Pre is a spectacular achievement. But it has its annoyances. Opening certain programs can be very slow,and there is no progress bar or hourglass to let you know that its still working. Theres no memory-card slot to expand the 8GB of storage,and no Visual Voicemail where messages are listed like e-mail. Finally,the Pre is not quite as simple as the iPhone. All those extra features mean that theres more to learn.