It has been a month now since the introductions of the new iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre, and we all had a chance to use it to see the real world comparison in this month. Both phones are comparable to each other in both functions and looks, even when it comes down to the service plan of $69.99/month from both AT&T and Sprint. In term of functionality, the Palm Pre seems to have an upper edge than the iPhone 3GS due to its multi-tasks ability. Where the iPhone 3GS lacks, it made up by having a smooth and responsive feel to its interface and a few added features. The Palm Pre can be quirky at times due to multiple apps opened at the same time.
Both the Pre and iPhone 3Gs have a 3-megapixel cameras. There are some major differences in features, where the Palm Pre has an LED flash camera, but no autofocus, video recording or editing capabilities. You also cannot adjust white balance or exposure. But on the iPhone 3Gs brand-new camera, you can now control focus either by tapping on the screen or using the auto focus feature. The biggest bonus on the new iPhone 3GS is that you can record 30fps VGA video with audio by going into the camera app and switching from still to movie. Also, you can autofocus, auto white balance and auto exposure features apply to video.
As for copy and paste, the iPhone and Palm Pre both offer this ability. You can now copy and paste just like you would normally do on your home computer. Also, both have MMS, tethering (iPhone lacks this feature in the America version but available in Europe), A2DP Bluetooth capability, geotagging and turn-by-turn navigations.
On the plus side of the Palm Pre, it has a full QWERTY keyboard which slides out at the bottom of the phone. While some may prefer the feel and touch of a real keyboard, others might not like it so much due to its small keys. Also the multi-tasks ability allows business users to open mutli apps at the same time just like you would do on your home computer, where as, the iPhone 3GS only allows you to open one app at a time. As for the plus side of the iPhone 3GS, it has voice command capability; where you can speak to the phone to play a song or calling someone.
Let us dive into the hardware components that gave these phones such outstanding capabilities not only just being a phone but provide us the convenient functions to our daily life. The iPhone 3GS is based on the new ARM Cortex A8. The CPU runs at 600MHz up from 412MHz. The ARM Cortex A8 is a double-issue in-order microprocessor with an 13-stage integer pipeline. It got a 64KB L1 cache (32KB for instructions, 32KB for data) and L2 cache 256KB, which L2 is lacked in previous model. These numbers are similar to the TI’s OMAP 3430 processor found in the Palm Pre. The Texas Instrument’s OMAP has both a CPU and GPU on the same package, and the OMAP 3430 uses an ARM Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. As you can see, these specifications are somewhat similar to each in both the iPhone and 3GS with an exception of the graphic processor located on the same die of the CPU in the Palm Pre phone. This on the die graphic processor allows the Palm Pre to run multi-tasks.
So whether you choose the iPhone or Palm Pre, you can go wrong with any of them. Both are capable of doing the jobs of the other, but only your preferences and needs will decide which phone is suited for you. Please comment your thoughts from your experience.
