The much-awaited Palm Pre smartphone has been officially launched last week and is available through Sprint Nextel, Palm's official network carrier in U.S. The all-new slider smartphone operates on the Palm webOS and comes with features like multitouch screen and physical QWERTY keyboard that slides out.

 

Palm Pre features layered calendars and linked contacts that will enable the users to link various calendars and view them at one place in the form of layers.  Other features of the smartphone include built-in camera with flash, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity. The mobile phone is also equipped with a built-in music player along with a media sync feature that allows the users to transfer DRM-free iTunes music, podcasts, photos, and lot of other items to the smartphone.

 

The high-featured phone allows the users to zoom in and flip through applications without closing them. Palm Pre allows text messages and calendar appointments to appear as notifications at the bottom of the screen. With the help of the new smartphone, the user can perform dual activities of chatting and text messaging with a person in the same IM window.

 

The phone also supports e-mailing facility. Palm Pre will be available at a price of $199 (Rs. 9,431 approx.) with a 2-year contract and mail-in rebate in U.S. The new smartphone is expected to get stiff competition from Apple's newest iPhone, slated to be launched soon.