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Palm Is Back With a Mini Companion Android Phone That's Exclusive To Verizon (droid-life.com)
A couple months ago, it was reported that the dearly departed mobile brand known as Palm would be making a comeback. That day has finally come. Yesterday, Palm announced The Palm, a credit card-sized Android smartphone that's supposed to act as a second phone. Droid Life reports: The Palm, which is its name, is a mini-phone with a 3.3-inch HD display that's about the size of a credit card, so it should fit nicely in your palm. It could be put on a chain or tossed in a small pocket or tucked just about anywhere, thanks to that small size. It's still a mostly fully-featured smartphone, though, with cameras and access to Android apps and your Verizon phone number and texts.
The idea here is that you have a normal phone with powerful processor and big screen that you use most of the time. But when you want to disconnect some, while not being fully disconnected, you could grab Palm instead of your other phone. It uses Verizon's NumberSync to bring your existing phone number with you, just like you would if you had an LTE smartwatch or other LTE equipped device. Some of the specs of this Verizon-exclusive phone include a Snapdragon 435 processor with 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, 12MP rear and 8MP front cameras, 800mAh battery, IP68 water and dust resistance, and Android 8.1. As Kellen notes, "It does cost $350, which is a lot for a faux phone..."
We've already seen a number of gadget fans perplexed by this device. Digital Trends goes as far as calling it "the stupidest product of the year."
The idea here is that you have a normal phone with powerful processor and big screen that you use most of the time. But when you want to disconnect some, while not being fully disconnected, you could grab Palm instead of your other phone. It uses Verizon's NumberSync to bring your existing phone number with you, just like you would if you had an LTE smartwatch or other LTE equipped device. Some of the specs of this Verizon-exclusive phone include a Snapdragon 435 processor with 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, 12MP rear and 8MP front cameras, 800mAh battery, IP68 water and dust resistance, and Android 8.1. As Kellen notes, "It does cost $350, which is a lot for a faux phone..."
We've already seen a number of gadget fans perplexed by this device. Digital Trends goes as far as calling it "the stupidest product of the year."
Digital Trends goes as far as calling it "the stupidest product of the year."
nothing to see here - move along
Then it would be the Apple Watch killer too. /s
If it had an HDMI port, it may be useful as a kodi box with 3GB of memory. $350 does buy a nice shield, or a bunch of mi boxes or amazon fire boxes,,,
At work I was already carrying 3 phones, my personal, a dedicated support phone and a lot of weeks a year, an on-call phone. I didn't pay for the phone I have now, why would I buy a toy phone.
I'm sick and tired of phone review sites that seem to maintain an outsized influence on what people think is "trendy" and what people think is "boring" yet don't actually have a connection to whether the phone is a better tool or not.
Aesthetics and screen size trump all else. Design elements for the sake of novelty (OMG A CURVED SCREEN!) are valued over basic functionality. (It's easy to find reviews that complain at length about 'dull design' because omg simple and functional is so last year.) Getting rid of the 3.5" jack really was courage, because [cool-aid reason here]. Higher numbers are always better whether they have any impact on the user experience or not. Must have 4K! (even though phone users would be hard-pressed to tell the difference from e.g. 1440p in double-blind testing.) Must have 8GB RAM because it's what the trendy flagships are doing! (even though no benchmark has ever shown any real performance advantage in realistic contemporary use.) and so on and so on. And they seem to manage to dictate to users what to buy and dictate to manufacturers what to make.
For people who actually want to use their phone as a tool rather than as an all-consuming 24/7 Netflix and Instagram stream, it's a travesty that Android has had so little in the way of decent small phones. This is especially true for people who spend considerable time doing physical activity outdoors rather than sitting at a desk writing fawning reviews of $1200 toys.
The Xperia Compact has been the only line with good performance and cameras, but it's gotten steadily more expensive and less compact. Plenty of people were interested in the Unihertz Jelly and Atom because they offered a smaller form factor, even despite the phones' clear limitations. I would be likely to buy the Atom myself if it had a quarter-HD (960x540) screen; that's 450 dpi, which is not unreasonable, while the 432x240 screen is just too low-res for many kinds of uses.
"Palm" has ticked a lot of the right boxes with this- genuinely small, high screen area to total area ratio, HD res (1280x720), IP68 and decent impact protection. But the price point is a real problem, and it's too bad it's tied to Verizon.