Palm Pre is good, but it's no iPhone

That's a major weakness of Palm Inc.'s much-anticipated new gadget. The $199 Pre is a powerful, versatile smartphone, and in some ways better than Apple Inc.'s renowned iPhone 3G. But it falls short of the elegant simplicity that Apple has taught us to expect.

Besides, Apple's just cut the price of the basic iPhone to $99, half that of the Pre. And Apple is rolling out new, improved iPhones and upgraded software to boost capabilities. Throw in a desperate recession, and it's plainly a lousy time to launch the Pre, but it's the only time Palm's got.

Palm once dominated the market for personal digital assistants - pocket computers for storing an address book and appointment calendar. Too bad that its market was devoured by cellphones that did the same things; first, Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry line, and then the iPhone.

The Pre, which went on sale Saturday, might get Palm back into the game. It could also rescue Sprint Nextel Inc., the only carrier now offering the Pre. Sprint has lost 6 million subscribers since 2007 and is desperate for a hit phone that will win them back. So was AT&T Inc. when it scored the exclusive US rights to the iPhone, and that worked out well.

But the Pre is no iPhone. Fire it up, and you're not sure what to do next. The most impressive feature of the iPhone is that you know how to use it the moment you switch it on. Its on-screen icons are self-explanatory, and respond just as you'd expect.

Not so with the Pre, whose designers took to heart the old Apple slogan, "Think different." The phone's user interface takes some getting used to. But that's partly because the Pre, unlike the iPhone, can run more than one software app at the same time.

For instance, try the Pandora Internet music service. Pandora picks up music through a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network. But what if you want to listen to Pandora and read The New York Times? Both the Pre and the iPhone have apps for the newspaper, but since iPhone runs just one app at a time, the Pandora music stops when you launch the Times.

On the Pre, just launch Pandora, and then the Times. They run concurrently, allowing you to enjoy cheerful music along with your daily dose of bad news.

Managing multiple apps took a little practice. The apps either fill the screen or appear as little "cards." You slide the cards back and forth with a finger swipe. The iPhone has a similar navigation feature, but you can touch any part of the screen to shift its icons. With the Pre, you must swipe a small area just below the screen. It's hard to see where to put your finger, and I still have trouble doing it right. Luckily, closing Pre apps is easier. Just flick the card upward and it soars off the top of the screen. Still, I had to watch a video tutorial, included with the Pre, to understand swiping. That's something I didn't need to do with an iPhone.

Some Pre features explain themselves. Set the Pre to collect your e-mail, and you get a nice little on-screen notification of incoming messages.

Tap the notice and your e-mail program launches, without interrupting your other apps. Smart and slick.

Another touted Pre feature is its "real keyboard" with pushbuttons instead of the iPhone's touchscreen keypad, which many experienced thumb-typists find unsatisfying. Too bad the Pre's real keyboard is a real pain, with keys too small and flat for comfortable use. Compared to the Pre, the iPhone's touchscreen is as comfy as an old IBM typewriter.

But this annoying keyboard also enables another excellent Pre feature, "universal search." It works like Spotlight, the excellent search function found on Apple's Mac computers. Type any word - "boss," for instance - and the Pre will search all files on your device in search of that word: apps, stored documents, address book entries, whatever. And it'll give you the option of searching the Internet via Google, Wikipedia, or even Twitter. Again, very smart.

No question, the Palm Pre is good stuff, and likely to be popular with Sprint loyalists. But it's probably not enough to woo back defectors or win new business.

After all, there's the iPhone, sleek, attractive, and with thousands of software apps compared to a few dozen for the Pre.

The newest iPhones, priced at $199 or $299, go on sale next Friday. They offer a built-in video camera, Spotlight search to match the Pre's universal search feature, the ability to control the software using voice commands, and even a service that'll use GPS tracking to locate the phone if you ever lose it.

About the only thing missing is a help icon, like you find on the Pre. That's because the iPhone is so simple, most people won't need one. And that's the main reason why Apple has little to fear from Palm.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.