Palm Pre reviews are gushing in. Think you'll agree with them?

The Palm Pre has finally surfaced, and so far most of the reviews are glowing -- some even gushing.

Here's a look at what some are saying about the Pre: 

• Palm’s New Pre Takes On iPhone All Things D

• Palm Pre Review Gizmodo

• Palm Pre review Engadget

• Palm Pre, Elegant Contender New York Times

In our initial hands-on look at the Pre, we found the keyboard to be a very welcome addition (even if moderately crowded for an average-size woman's fingers), the interface smart and Web surfing swift. A cursory test of calling up a website found that Pre loaded the Los Angeles Times website faster than the iPhone. 

The platform-agnostic messaging is quite impressive. No app switching required when a friend moves from instant messaging to texts. The conversation keeps going, uninterrupted.

Of course, Palm has a huge mountain to scale in taking on Apple Inc.'s much-adored iPhone. Even at Wednesday night's geek-meets-chic launch party for the Pre at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, there was a preponderance of iPhones in the crowd. 

On Friday morning, be sure to join us online -- on this blog and on Twitter -- as we put this device through its paces. Tell us what you're most interested in knowing as we walk through the device.

-- Michelle Maltais

Photo credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press

Comments

[Anonymous]

What's with the digusting nails on the presenter's hands on all these Palm pictures? I've seen Palm presentation pictures on other sites and the ugly half-faded nails are there too. It makes me sick and I can't concentrate on what the article says.

[Scott]

Wouldn't the fact that the LAT loaded faster on the Pre reflect more the Sprint network versus AT&T?

Of course there would be more iPhones at the party--the Pre was just launched so that's hardly a fair comparison.

As an iPhone user, I'm glad the Pre looks like a real competitor. It sometimes seems that's the only way Apple is motivated to add improvements of their own, such as the infamous cut & paste now being added to OS 3.

[Collis Huntington]

I'm concerned about the camera.