Palm Pre teardown shows iPhone-inspired design
Dismantling a Palm Pre piece by piece has revealed it to be very efficiently designed; so much so that, at points, it appears better put together than the Apple iPhone many see as its role model.
The component teardown by iFixit notes that the smartphone's thicker shape -- necessary to accommodate the slide-out keyboard -- gives Palm added design freedom to optimize the design where the iPhone is relatively straitjacketed by its thinner shape.
One of the obvious changes is a removable back panel that lets owners themselves replace the battery rather than take the device into a store. Similarly, the conspicuous speaker on the back of the Pre is louder than the small example on the iPhone, and the space affords room for an inductive (wire-free) charging system through an optional dock. That Palm has fitted a keyboard on its phone but managed to produce a device effectively as large as the iPhone is "very impressive," iFixit says.
In fact, the two share certain basic design traits. Both have separate processor and communication logic boards, and both are so tightly packed that they resort to glue and soldering to keep parts together in lieu of screws and other removable connectors. Repairing the very deepest components is expected to be very difficult, if not impossible.
Some characteristics, however, show refinement over what Apple has done. The Pre's processor board is "substantially" smaller than the iPhone's and reveals that Palm spent a large amount of time maximizing its available space -- a particular feat given the faster, 600MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3 processor and newer PowerVR SGX 530 graphics. Enough seems familiar that iFixit draws a close parallel between the two companies.
The Pre's main components exposed but still assembled; a water damage sensor is highlighted on the left. | Image credits: iFixit.
"This Palm hardware reminds us a lot more of Apple's engineering style than any of hardware we've taken apart by other manufacturers (like Dell)," the repair site observes.
The Apple-like quality isn't likely to be coincidental. Palm is thought to have scored a coup when it hired Jon Rubinstein as an executive board chairman, supplying it with one of the iPod's key creators. Aside from steering Palm away from an increasingly formulaic series of PalmOS and Windows Mobile devices, Rubinstein is known to have added or replaced many of Palm's engineers with former Apple employees, some of whom had worked on the iPhone earlier in its history.
That sudden break in philosophy has not only helped Palm overcome many of the barriers to producing a physically appealing phone but has extended as deep as its connection to software; the Pre is set to identify itself as an iPod and syncs natively with iTunes as though it were one of Apple's own devices, albeit without the extra access to calendars, contacts and e-mail that make the iPhone's sync so seamless.
iPhone 3G components laid out at top versus the Palm Pre on the bottom. | Image credits: iFixit.
The component teardown by iFixit notes that the smartphone's thicker shape -- necessary to accommodate the slide-out keyboard -- gives Palm added design freedom to optimize the design where the iPhone is relatively straitjacketed by its thinner shape.
One of the obvious changes is a removable back panel that lets owners themselves replace the battery rather than take the device into a store. Similarly, the conspicuous speaker on the back of the Pre is louder than the small example on the iPhone, and the space affords room for an inductive (wire-free) charging system through an optional dock. That Palm has fitted a keyboard on its phone but managed to produce a device effectively as large as the iPhone is "very impressive," iFixit says.
In fact, the two share certain basic design traits. Both have separate processor and communication logic boards, and both are so tightly packed that they resort to glue and soldering to keep parts together in lieu of screws and other removable connectors. Repairing the very deepest components is expected to be very difficult, if not impossible.
Some characteristics, however, show refinement over what Apple has done. The Pre's processor board is "substantially" smaller than the iPhone's and reveals that Palm spent a large amount of time maximizing its available space -- a particular feat given the faster, 600MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3 processor and newer PowerVR SGX 530 graphics. Enough seems familiar that iFixit draws a close parallel between the two companies.
The Pre's main components exposed but still assembled; a water damage sensor is highlighted on the left. | Image credits: iFixit.
"This Palm hardware reminds us a lot more of Apple's engineering style than any of hardware we've taken apart by other manufacturers (like Dell)," the repair site observes.
The Apple-like quality isn't likely to be coincidental. Palm is thought to have scored a coup when it hired Jon Rubinstein as an executive board chairman, supplying it with one of the iPod's key creators. Aside from steering Palm away from an increasingly formulaic series of PalmOS and Windows Mobile devices, Rubinstein is known to have added or replaced many of Palm's engineers with former Apple employees, some of whom had worked on the iPhone earlier in its history.
That sudden break in philosophy has not only helped Palm overcome many of the barriers to producing a physically appealing phone but has extended as deep as its connection to software; the Pre is set to identify itself as an iPod and syncs natively with iTunes as though it were one of Apple's own devices, albeit without the extra access to calendars, contacts and e-mail that make the iPhone's sync so seamless.
iPhone 3G components laid out at top versus the Palm Pre on the bottom. | Image credits: iFixit.
Comments
...Pre is set to identify itself as an iPod and syncs natively with iTunes as though it were one of Apple's own devices, albeit without the extra access to calendars, contacts and e-mail that make the iPhone's sync so seamless.
I would really like to have this phone if it weren't for that part.
Oops NIKE makes a iPod-Sneaker already... so wadda we do NOW???!!??
I would really like to have this phone if it weren't for that part.
I'm curious to see what happens with the missing sync, it claims to sync ical and the address book over wifi, which would be amazingly useful. I wish Apple would at least implement wireless syncing for the iphone, or ipod touch in my case.
What is the RAM size on the Pre?
8GB NOT expandable.
I'm curious to see what happens with the missing sync, it claims to sync ical and the address book over wifi, which would be amazingly useful. I wish Apple would at least implement wireless syncing for the iphone, or ipod touch in my case.
Still waiting on Apple to allow syncing to gCal in iTunes, as I hate having to go through loops
8GB NOT expandable.
That's its storage, not its ram.
8GB NOT expandable.
What I meant is the RAM not the flash memory used for storing data. For example, the iPhone has 8GB or 16GB of flash memory and 128MB of RAM. The Pre has 8GB flash memory but how large is the RAM?
I know some confuse the flash memory with RAM when when it comes to phones but I think it is easier to keep the basic terminology consistent between PCs and other devices. Some might say that technically they should not be the same but I really don't care. For me RAM is temporary and flash is for storage
Yep, so they hired EX PC guys that happens to be EX Apple guys. Since Palm can't even figure out how to make a decent phone on their own.
I would really like to have this phone if it weren't for that part.
So your are willing to buy the old iPhone 3G again for the next two years? All the Pre has done (on hardware level) is catch up with the iPhone 3G which is about to be phased out. You want to go to a website on the Pre? You go to the browser. Shift open de keyboard. Type in the web address. Slide it in again to read the website. Now imagine that you are reading a web page sideways (which I do a lot). You then want to go to a different web site. You first have to turn the phone, shift open the keyboard, type in the address, shift the keyboard back in and turn the phone sideways again. What an obvious design error. At least they should have, just like the G1, have the keyboard come out from the side. This way they would have had more space for the keys, which I read are very hard to type with, and wouldn't have to turn the phone back and forth to type things on a webpage or other stuff. The Pre's touch interface is plastic. Not glass!! I remember when the iPhone first came out everybody was so worried that the iPhone would be a scratch magnet. Now I would like to see those same tests on the Pre.
On software level the Pre is still far behind. Games wont be very easy to make for that phone. And if you know a little bit about creating and programming web pages the options are very limited. One needs to really go to big extremes to make the user think he is not handling a web page but an actual app. You can copy and paste on the Pre but only editable text. Well there you go. The Palm made a little step. Where the new iPhone will make a leap. And not only the new iPhone also all the older ones.
Multitasking
This feature is so overrated. Sure that are instances that you would like to have two processes run coincide with each other. But is that worth the battery drainage? Sure you can cary a spare battery with you. Then you must add that to the mass of the phone which eventually will make your phone thicker on average. When the hardware is ready Apple will introduce multitasking. But at this moment the batteries and processors are not efficient enough to make this feature an enjoyable one.
This monday the new iPhone will come out and will have the same amount RAM and probably a processor that matches the Pres'. Then the dock connector will be open for 3rd party development. Which will by itself attract and create a whole new market. If a lot of companies start making hardware for the iPhone and use the iPhones' interface. The iPhone will really take off as the next big platform. The Pre will have all its starters issues. Which the iPhone already had. But hey when the iPhone had all these issues there were no better alternatives. Now there are and if Palm slips up enough the consumer will think twice.
We will see but I obviously believe that this phone is absolutely not a game changer. It's just a me too phone.
Multitasking
This feature is so overrated. Sure that are instances that you would like to have two processes run coincide with each other. But is that worth the battery drainage? Sure you can cary a spare battery with you. Then you must add that to the mass of the phone which eventually will make your phone thicker on average. When the hardware is ready Apple will introduce multitasking. But at this moment the batteries and processors are not efficient enough to make this feature an enjoyable one.
Why do you people always conveniently forget that Smartphone OSs have been multitasking for years, smoothly and elegantly? You banter on about it as if it was this new fangled feature that's in its infancy. Multitasking is incredibly useful for quickly and easily switching between applications instead of having to quit out of one, and start another from the launcher. Of course, it also means you can stay logged into IM clients, etc, and do other things at the same time. The iPhone doesn't have it simply because Apple didn't design the OS to be lean enough for the hardware it runs on. They could have quite easily done it if they had worked harder at it to reduce the footprint of the OS and apps, but they didn't, and that was their choice.
What is the RAM size on the Pre?
256MB
So... Let's just try to keep our minds sane.
P.S. Go ahead, guys. Tell us your sad stories of how painfully slow and bumpy text scrolling is on your new 4GHz/8Core monster... We're here to listen to all that...
Why do you people always conveniently forget that Smartphone OSs have been multitasking for years, smoothly and elegantly?
Uhmm. Smoothly and elegantly? I don't think so. One of the reasons other OSs where so slow, unstable and inefficient was because they did multitasking. And what I mean by multitasking is not that Apple decides that one can listen to music and read web pages at the same time. But by multitasking I mean that the developers and users can decide themselves when or how to multitask. Doing this at this point in time will bring up a lot of problems
You banter on about it as if it was this new fangled feature that's in its infancy.
You sure you want to use the word banter? It doesn't make any sense in the context of the sentence. Well I do believe that multitasking is still in its infancy. Because the platforms that allow it or support it in the ways I described earlier have obvious problems and flaws. The one that don't or support it controlled or partially have their good reasons for not supporting it.
Multitasking is incredibly useful for quickly and easily switching between applications instead of having to quit out of one, and start another from the launcher. Of course, it also means you can stay logged into IM clients, etc, and do other things at the same time.
I never argued that it wasn't useful. I even stated that sure there are moments that multitasking come in handy. So no disagreement here buddy.
The iPhone doesn't have it simply because Apple didn't design the OS to be lean enough for the hardware it runs on. They could have quite easily done it if they had worked harder at it to reduce the footprint of the OS and apps, but they didn't, and that was their choice.
To a certain extend your comment holds truth. Of course one could argue that if developers spend more time and efforts to streamline their code in order for it to run even more efficiently some or a lot more would be possible. However, how realistic is this position? I don't think, for one, that Apple just slammed some software together and put it on a phone. I do believe they've worked very hard to get things as efficiently as 'possible' (to a very reasonable extend). So I don't believe as you also argue that; and I quote
simply because Apple didn't design the OS to be lean enough for the hardware it runs on.
. I don't think it is that simple. If it was, other platforms would have done so. Either pre or post the launch of the iPhone. One of the big disadvantages of the Pre is its battery life. Would you argue that Palm spend more time creating a more lean OS than Apple did for the iPhone? Would you argue that the Palms' WebOS is leaner than that of the iPhone? Remember it runs on a 600 MHz processor and has 256 RAM on board. The iPhone processor runs on an older 412 MHz processor and has 128 of RAM. This saves battery. But limits the possibilities software wise. So yes it was their choice to stop optimizing the code more and more and release the OS X Mobile. But I don't think that the gain they would have made by optimizing their code would outweigh the time and energy spent optimizing the code. Hardware is getting better and better. And I believe it is worth waiting for better hardware than to keep optimizing the code. It's a balance Apple knows very well.
The iPhone doesn't have it simply because Apple didn't design the OS to be lean enough for the hardware it runs on. They could have quite easily done it if they had worked harder at it to reduce the footprint of the OS and apps, but they didn't, and that was their choice.
I wonder, are you an iPhone developer, or a Mac OS X developer? If not... do you even know what you're talking about?
In a sense you are right, but there are also unavoidable battery performance issues with background applications that affect all mobile platforms. For example, if you want an IM app to run 24-7 in the background there's a hit to the device, whether or not the app is very light-weight or not.
Er... work harder? You portray it like they're lazy or don't know what they're doing. Somehow I... disagree with this after speaking to quite a few Apple employees. At some stage, building a half decent interface with touch, accelerometer, wifi, cellular, bluetooth... will create a decent enough footprint, especially if you want high quality interface with modern computer OS quality.
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
Yep, so they hired EX PC guys that happens to be EX Apple guys. Since Palm can't even figure out how to make a decent phone on their own.
A very good point! It is very apparent that smartphone makers didn't see their phones as little computers doing computer tasks. But still as a phone. If they saw it as little computers they would have developed phones way earlier with a computer architecture in mind. Yet on the other hand (espcially windows mobile) has always felt the need to have the same user interface on their mobile OS as on their desktop/laptop OS. Apple didn't, which is a great success.
Uhmm. Smoothly and elegantly? I don't think so. One of the reasons other OSs where so slow, unstable and inefficient was because they did multitasking. And what I mean by multitasking is not that Apple decides that one can listen to music and read web pages at the same time. But by multitasking I mean that the developers and users can decide themselves when or how to multitask. Doing this at this point in time will bring up a lot of problems
Try an S60 Nokia for instance, and you'll see what I mean. On my old N95-8GB I could have *every* application on the phone open at once without any noticable difference in performance. That's true multitasking working elegantly and efficiently.
You sure you want to use the word banter? It doesn't make any sense in the context of the sentence.
Banter means to talk, so it makes sense
To a certain extend your comment holds truth. Of course one could argue that if developers spend more time and efforts to streamline their code in order for it to run even more efficiently some or a lot more would be possible. However, how realistic is this position? I don't think, for one, that Apple just slammed some software together and put it on a phone. I do believe they've worked very hard to get things as efficiently as 'possible' (to a very reasonable extend). So I don't believe as you also argue that; and I quote
They certainly worked hard on it, but perhaps not hard enough. This is one of the problems of taking a full blown computer OS and shoehorning it onto a device with very limited resources. I think Apple would have been better off starting from the ground up when designing its mobile OS, rather than starting with OSX and trying to work backwards. That way they would have been able to have all of the great features currently available, and fully multitasking!
One of the big disadvantages of the Pre is its battery life
And the iPhone has good battery life?! Don't make me laugh! The iPhone has the worst battery life on any device I've used in the last 3 years for mobile internet browsing. From taking if off charge just before 7am, my iPhone can be at 20% or less, easily, by 11am. Battery life is one of the biggest flaws of the iPhone!