The T-Grid: Palm Pre vs. the Possible Next-Generation iPhone
By Harry McCracken | Friday, May 22, 2009 at 11:44 am
The forty-eight hour period that begins on the morning of June 6th promises to be one of the most eventful in the history of smartphones to date. That’s when Sprint will begin selling the much-anticipated Palm Pre. And on June 8th, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference will kick off with a keynote which most smart folks think will involve the announcement of the next-generation iPhone. Chances seem good that by late afternoon, the tech world’s biggest question will be this: Who has the hotter phone, Palm or Apple?
So it seemed like a good time to put together my first T-Grid in a while–and the first one that compares a product about which we know quite a lot (the Pre) against one that’s nothing more than a chimera of speculation so far (the next iPhone). The specs for the iPhone are based on rumors and informed guesswork, and almost certainly include both stuff that’s dead-on and stuff that will turn out to be sheer fantasy.
As usual with these T-Grids, I’m not claiming that you can use this one to determine which phone is superior. Actually, I think the most interesting differences between the two phones will relate to their software and user interfaces, and there’s no way to summarize most of that in a chart–especially when nobody’s had a chance to review the Pre, and the next iPhone remains shrouded in mystery. Still, it’s fun to start to think about how the two superphones may compare in terms of specs.
This T-Grid is a work in progress, subject to expansion and revision–and at some point, I’ll replace it with one that compares the Pre against the real next-gen iPhone:
|
The phones
|
Palm Pre
 |
Possible next-generation Apple iPhone 3G
 |
|---|---|---|
|
Platform
|
Palm’s webOS
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Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0
|
|
Availability
|
June 6th
|
Um, how about July?
|
|
U.S. carrier
|
Sprint
|
AT&T
|
|
Price
|
$299.99 with two-year contract; $199.99 after $100 rebate; 8GB only
|
$199 for 16GB model or $299 for 32GB model with two-year contract
|
|
Service (Unlimited voice minutes, data, and text messages)
|
$100 per month
|
$150 per month
|
|
Locked?
|
It’ll be Sprint-only
|
Yup, to AT&T
|
|
Colors
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Black
|
Black (16GB and 32GB); white (32GB only)
|
|
Size and weight
|
3.96” by 2.34” by 0.67”; 4.76 oz.
|
TBD, but probably not radically different than current iPhone 3G’s 4.5″ by 2.4″by 0.48″ and 4.7 oz.
|
|
Screen size, resolution, and technology
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3.1″; 480 by 320; LCD
|
Probably 3.5″ and 480 by 320; rumors of an OLED screen are neat if true
|
|
CPU
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600-MHz TI OMAP3430 CPU
|
An unspecified 600-MHz CPU?
|
|
RAM
|
256MB
|
256MB
|
|
Multitasking
|
Yes
|
Maybe, eventually
|
|
Input
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Multi-touch touchscreen and slide-out physical keyboard
|
Multi-touch touchscreen with on-screen keyboard
|
|
Connector
|
Micro USB
|
iPod Dock Connector
|
|
Accelerometer
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Wi-Fi and GPS
|
Got ’em both
|
Got ’em both
|
|
Compass
|
Nope
|
Yup
|
|
Headphone jack
|
Standard 3.5mm
|
Standard 3.5mm
|
|
Bluetooth
|
Stereo
|
Stereo
|
|
Voice dialing
|
No
|
|
|
Voice recording
|
No
|
Yes
|
|
MMS
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Camera
|
3 megapixels; LED flash; doesn’t do video
|
3.2 megapixels; no flash; no digital zoom; autofocus; does video
|
|
Voice
|
CDMA
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Quad-band GSM
|
|
Data
|
EVDO Rev. A
|
HSDPA
|
|
Use as tethered modem?
|
Unclear
|
Yes, at some point
|
|
Battery
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I don’t think Palm has made any claims about battery life to date; removable
|
Supposedly 1.5x the life of current iPhone 3G, which would give it 7.5 hours talk time and 450 hours standby; not removable
|
|
Copy and paste?
|
Absolutely
|
Finally
|
|
Web browser
|
Webkit-based browser
|
WebKit-based Safari
|
|
Web searching
|
Yes, including Google and Wikipedia, at least
|
Yes, via Google or Yahoo
|
|
E-Mail
|
IMAP, POP
|
MobileMe, GMail, Yahoo Mail, AOL; other services supported through IMAP
|
|
Calendar
|
Yes, hopefully with to-do list
|
Yes, but no to-do list that I know of
|
|
Microsoft Exchange support
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Instant messaging
|
Yes–multiple networks supported
|
Yes, but through third-party apps
|
|
Office Apps
|
Microsoft Office-compatible viewers, but no editing; QuickOffice already available and Documents to Go in the works
|
|
|
Maps
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Turn-by-turn navigation
|
Not as a standard feature
|
iPhone 3.0 features will help third parties enable it
|
|
Music
|
Music player and Amazon music downloads; supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV
|
iPod player and iTunes Store; supports MP3, AAC (with or without Fairplay), WAV, Apple Lossless, AIFF, VBR formats
|
|
Video
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Video player; supports MPEG-4, H.263, and H.264 formats
|
iPod player, YouTube; movies through iTunes Store; supports H.264 and MPEG4 formats
|
|
Photos
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Yes
|
Yes
|
|
Wireless synching
|
Not sure on all the details, but it features ambitious integration, such as putting Facebook portrait photos into your contact list
|
Yes, through MobileMe
|
|
Desktop synching
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Not sure on details
|
Yes, through iTunes
|
|
Application store
|
Yes; number of apps at launch unknown, but presumably not tens of thousands
|
Yes, the iTunes App Store; tens of thousands of apps available
|
11 Comments
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Palm Pre Vs. Next-Gen iPhone – The Most Inclusive & Detailed Chart To Date « PreInsiders Says:
May 24th, 2009 at 12:21 am[…] 24, 2009 Harry McCracken over at Technologizer has posted this side-by-side comparison chart showing the specs of the Palm Pre versus the suspected […]
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A Layman’s Guide to Apple’s WWDC | Technologizer Says:
June 1st, 2009 at 1:02 pm[…] Palm Pre vs. the next iPhone More Ways to Get Us… Feed | Free Newsletter Add to: Google | Yahoo | More Twitter: Harry | All Technologizer Join Our Facebook Group […]
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TechWatch: Bing! Google’s gotcha. « FTW Media Says:
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:41 am[…] Ed Oswald from the Technologizer. “Everything we are seeing — from the shortages, to the ever-building rumors, to those ‘leaks‘ all point towards […]
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:54 am
Palm Pre definitely is on my “next buy” list, but they need to massage their business model/dev community strategy a bit.
http://www.danrumney.co.uk/2009/05/21/predevcamp-palms-missed-opportunity/
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Correction, the Pre will have turn by turn navigation for free at launch (it is always included with Sprint’s Everything phone plans).
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Good stuff, but you considered “VBR” a format that iPhone’s can play. Only thing is that VBR isn’t a format! It is the bitrate encoding of a file. I’m guessing that you mean the iPhone can play MP3, AAC (with or without Fairplay), WAV, Apple Lossless, and AIFF, all with VBR or CBR.
May 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Palm Pre Prenatics Song
Singing
Risin’ up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a Palm Pre and I need you Prenatics to survive
So many times, it happens too fast
And then Palm and Garnet changed their passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
Chorus:
It’s the Palm Pre eye of the tiger, it’s the cream of the cell phones fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rivals
And the First known Palm Pre Prenatic stalks his prey in the night
And the competition watchin’ us with their eye on the tweets!
Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin’ tough, stayin’ hungry
They stack the odds ’til we take to the street
For we kill with the skill of our WebOS
Risin’ up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now Prenatics not gonna stop
Just a Palm Pre and I need you Prenatics to survive
May 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Man. A song for the pre??? Get a life lol
May 28th, 2009 at 6:47 am
pretty certain the iphone has POP too
May 28th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Sean, what if my life is making songs about the palm pre?
IN THAT HAPPY PLACE!
Palm Pre another one bites the dust
Palm Pre walks warily down the street,
With the Qwerty pulled way down low
Aint no sound but the sound of his MP3’s,
WebOS Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out on the internet the Tweets rip
To the sound of the beat
Another cell phone bites the dust
Another cell phone bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another cell phone bites the dust
Hey, The Palm Pre’s gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
How do you think your going to get along,
Without the Palm Pre, you’re know your gone
ITunes took me for everything that I had,
And made me wait two years for cut and paste!
Are you happy, are you satisfied
How long can you stand the heat
Out on the internet the Tweets rip
To the sound of the beat
Chorus
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man
And bring him to the ground
You can beat him
You can cheat him
You can treat him bad and leave him
When he’s down
But The Palm Pre’s ready, yes The Palm Pre’s ready for you
The Palm Pre’s browser beating the competition by two feet
Out on the internet the Tweets rip
Repeating the sound of the beat
June 11th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
They are going to have a hardtime in competition with the iphone…Anyways on that subject, this might be interesting for a topic…You guys should check this out, Second Voice is a service that offeres you to have 2 cell phone numbers and 2 voice mails in one phone. Take a look, thought it might be interesting with all this Iphone talk…
http://www.secondvoice.com
i mean, by just looking at them one is obviously more attractive than the other, and to most.. that is what sells…