California-based Palm has launched the Palm Phone – a phone that measures the size of a credit card and goes along your regular smartphone. Manufactured by a new Palm-branded startup company backed by TCL, the Palm phone is a companion device that in most cases acts the same way as a smartphone with a small HD screen, runs Android 8.1 Oreo and has a water-dust resistant body, all for a price of $349 (approx. Rs 25,792).
Simply named as Palm, the tiny smartphone companion features a 3.3-inch custom-built LCD HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a high pixel density of 445 ppi. Both the front and back of the device are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and the device is rated with IP68 certification for water and dust resistance.
At the core of the Palm is the 1.4GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 435 Processor with Adreno 505 GPU which powers the smartphone wholly. The internals are assisted by 3GB RAM, 32GB of onboard storage and an 800mAh battery that Palm claims will last you up to a whole day o regular usage or 3 days of standby.
The Palm runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with support for Google Assistant and face unlock. The interface resembles one from Apple’s watchOS with colourful circular icons floating on the screen. There’s an integrated Life Mode which allows a user to avoid distractions by turning off notifications and muting incoming calls when the phone display is off. The device can connect to Bluetooth v4.2 LE, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS and no NFC.
Weighing in at 62.5 grams, the Palm phone being a companion device will still be able to click pictures with its 12-megapixel rear camera and the 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Users will be able to unlock the phone using facial recognition but it’s no 3D mapping and thus isn’t as secure as Apple’s Face ID.
The Palm Phone is available in Titanium and Gold colours for an asking price of $349 (approx. Rs 25,792) for the unlocked version.