Palm was reported a few days ago to be planning on launching its new smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the company managed to come up with the device in due time for the conference. Moreover, considering the early feedbacks the phone received, it seems that it did a great job once again, and earlier previsions that the handset might account for the company's comeback could prove true.

The new smartphone unveiled by the maker is dubbed Palm Pre and comes with touch-screen and a vertically sliding QWERTY keyboard. The handset has a 3.1-inch screen that provides a 320x480 pixel resolution, and it comes with accelerometer capable of adjusting the orientation according to how it is held by the user. It also features multitouch gestures, which means that users are able to flick their fingers up and down or back and forth to interact with the device.

In addition, the Palm Pre is reported to come in an oval-like shape, weighing only 4.8 ounces and being smaller than RIM's BlackBerry Bold and Apple's iPhone 3G. Even so, the handset brings Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR with support for stereo, GPS and EVDO Rev. A 3G, it is supposed to use Sprint's network, and it also sports 8 GB of on-board memory. The specification list of the Palm Pre covers basically all the main features of any smartphone currently available on the market.

Undoubtedly, Palm has managed to score with the launch of the new device, of which some even say that it would be better than the company's previously launched products. And to make things even more interesting, the new Palm Pre comes running a new operating system, one the company calls WebOS. According to Palm, the new platform has been developed on familiar Web standards like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Ajax, so as to provide third-party developers with an easy solution to come up with their own apps.

The company unveiled no information on the bands the new device would be compatible with or on its availability or price.