The claim is as follows: With Sprint, Palm is considering two different price points to be decided based on the competitive landscape at the time of the Pre's summer '09 release—a part of the original report that has been revealed as true, pretty much—and will settle on either a $399/$149 or $499/$199 unsubsidized/subsidized pricing.

Another little interesting nugget? The initial production run will sit at around 200,000, a low number necessitated by the limited manufacturing capacity for the Pre's screen hardware.

The $149/$199 figure is obviously the story here, as the on-contract price the most important, referenced one for any handset. But don't ignore the $399 price either—that's less than many no-contract BlackBerrys and WinMo phones, and the same price as the G1 developer model. All this sounds like it could conceivably be true, and if Palm wants their new handset to make any waves (or more urgently, save their entire company) then they should make it true. [Mobile Review via Unwired View—Thanks, Stasys!]

Whether this figure reflects the contract or full retail price is unknown, but the blogger also states that the price of an unlocked GSM version in Europe will run between $500 and $550. Obviously, this is only a rumor and should be treated as such—but it will be interesting to see if Palm does indeed price themselves into oblivion on this one. Let's hope not—Palm may actually have something going here. [LiveJournal via Electronista]

NOTE: If you want the latest Pre details, check out our Palm Pre Review and Palm Pre FAQ.

The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than I initially thought it would be. A good size comparison would be an iPod classic with a big hard drive. In terms of thickness, it's definitely not as thin as the iPhone, or even the bold, but it's an acceptable size considering it's a slider.

The Pre's Web OS UI and and UX really looks great. After watching (and using) for 20 minutes, It rarely looked (or felt) unresponsive, choppy, or laggy and it's clear a lot of thought was put into the design, especially with regard to how the phone would be used with fingers, as opposed to a stylus or d-pad

The Card system is really a great way to keep your information in front of you and know what you're working on. When you launch an app, you can drag it onto your phone desktop to create a new card, then when you're finished with a card for a specific app, closing it is as simple as flicking the card upwards.

The input technology that doesn't involve the screen is also top notch. Palm created the gesture bar, which is the black surface under the screen, because they found it was too hard to control a touchscreen phone with one hand, especially when trying to reach the upper part of the screen. The Gesture Bar streamlines some of the navigation so you can use the phone on the go.

There's also an accelrometer that works with apps like the web browser and photo viewer, which automatically rotates the screen depending on its orientation. It's the same as what's on many other phones, but it's worth noting that the accelerometer works quite well.

If you're working in a specific app, you can drag your finger up from the Gesture Bar to the screen, hold it for a second, and the wave dock will appear, making it easy to quick launch another app. The trackball, which feels similar to that of the G1 and Blackberry phones, provides another quick way to get around the Web OS interface.

There's also the keyboard. It pretty much looks and feels the same as previous Palm keyboards of late, which isn't spectacular, but it works well enough. When asked why they opted to go with the vertically oriented slide out keyboard, Palm had two main reasons—they didn't see much less of a difference in effectiveness when compared to a horizontal slider, and found that more people messaged holding the phone vertically. Second, they said there aren't really any other smartphones with a vertical QWERTY slider, so it makes the phone more recognizable.

While the hardware is definitely high quality, I'm not entirely blown away by the design. It looks really nice, and original, but it's a little too cutesy in shape and kind of reminds me of an oversized pebble. A slightly larger screen could have definitely been put to good use, and I really don't like the black space on the side's of the screen.

I think this phone's biggest appeal will be the central role the internet plays in the OS. The way it pulls data from various web services, and melds it into its own framework is top notch. I think being able to text, and gChat and send IMs over AIM all from the same window is such a benefit to the user to not have to switch windows for 3 different apps for messaging. And obviously, you won't be talking to someone on a bunch of different messengers at once, but over a period of a week, you might have convos over these different services, and it's good to keep track of all these interactions in one place.

The browser is also a far cry from Blazer that was on the Treo's Garnet OS. The new browser is built on top of Webkit, just like the Android and iPhone browsers, and renders full pages in under 10 seconds. The zoom and drag/pan functionality is very much like the other browsers, both in operation and feel. There was no glitchiness and the browser was extremely responsive.

I also love the way you can search for something on your phone, and then shoot that same query up to Google or Wikipedia without having to launch your web browser. It's another way the internet has subtly worked its way into the phone without being constricted to a specific app or browser.

The design influence of the iPhone OS is definitely apparent in Web OS. The App dock that sits at the bottom of the home screen is definitely a page out of the iPhones playbook, and for good reason—it works well. The design of the menus such as the contacts list take that same simple approach of not showing more than you absolutely see on any one page, something the iPhone perfected.

The screen is beautiful, and it really shows when looking at photos, which are so bright and colorful, I'd almost say it looks sharper than any other phone.

The camera takes really beautiful photos as well. Even in lighting that wasn't super bright, colors came out rich, and though a little grainy, it didn't suffer the same washed out, sandy look that other camera phones generate. This is also due in part to some image post processing that takes place behind the scenes of the camera app.

As far as video recording goes, it's not available on the Pre for now, but it's something Palm is looking at for future upgrades. I find this slightly disappointing, because Palm is touting this as an internet phone, and user generated video is a very big part of what's going on in the online world. A feature where you could live stream or auto upload to YouTube seems like an idea that fits in with the Pre philosophy. I think this absolutely has to be added in the next year.

The Apps and SDK for Web OS i think will be promising. Palm will make the SDK available to anyone to use, but there will be an App Store which will be accessible on the phone only and an approval process for apps. Palm says there are always exceptions, but they will not play the role of Big Brother so much when it comes to apps. What they are mostly concerned with are the security and stability of the apps. Making sure there aren't apps that crash or provide holes for their phones to be hacked. They also say they will work close with select partners on app and give them access to deeper areas of the OS that are not available in the SDK.

Like Android, there is an Amazon music store app that looks and smells very similar to that on the G1. It lets you preview songs, as well as download from the same screen.

When I asked Palm about flash on the Pre, they said it wasn't something they were talking about for now. But Dan Lyons over at Newsweek claims that the phone will run flash on it.

It also has a few features not found on the iPhone, which include copy and paste and MMS messaging, something hardcore iPhone users have been clamoring for since its introduction.

I asked Palm if the Pre and the Web OS platform will be married to the Sprint service, and they said that Web OS-based products will eventually be available on other carriers, but they have no specific announcements on that.

[More Updates will come in this post very shortly. Stay tuned, and check out the rest of our Palm Pre coverage here.]

From an earlier set of impressions:

It transcends what a mobile device should feel like. It's smooth but also tough enough to feel like you're using something that's going to last. I really like how the back of the slider is reflective like an iPod touch (might be good for the ladies and their make-up too).

The display looks richer in color gamut than any handset I've ever seen (almost like a mini Cinema Display). The GUI seems fluid enough so that it's not overtly cheesy and plasticky looking (transitions are still rough around the edges sometimes and not always as snappy as you'd like.) Speakerphone seems more than adequate for being Monophonic (totally useable for listening to music/calls.)

This is just like OS X, Expose, Spaces, Spotlight—uninterrupted multitasking. Even the cal is like iCal—on the desktop OS. When you get a call, the OS puts what you're doing down at the bottom, instead of dumping it like on iPhone. [Palm Pre Details; Palm Pre's wireless charger; Palm Pre Full Coverage on Gizmodo]

[Correction: I passed these notes off to a colleague who stated that I, Brian Lam, got to handle the phone in an earlier version of this post. That was an error in communications in the heat of the moment, and I've updated it to say that the impressions were from a friend. We will have more photos and impressions in a bit from our own experience with the phone. The post is now under Adrian Covert's byline, because the new hands on impressions are his.]

It has a 3.1 inch 480x320 screen that slides vertically to reveal a keyboard. The slider action is curved, sort of like the SE Xperia X1. It also has 3MP Camera, LED Flash, EVDO rev.A, WiFi, bluetooth, a gesture area on the screen for navigation and use, a removable battery, micro USB, USB mass storage support, a 3.5mm Headphone Jack., plus a very cool wireless charger.

It weighs 4.8 ounces and can be used easily with one hand. The phone runs on a new platform named Web OS, which is designed to seamlessly integrate all your web content into one interface. It's going to release the first half of 2009 on the Sprint network, but pricing details were not discussed.

The phone itself reminds me of the Treo 680 in shape, except all there is on the front is a screen and a button.

One of the big new features is something called Synergy, which can pull contacts from all your sites (Facebook, Gmail, AIM, etc...), gather and organize them into one coherent list on the Palm Pre. It has dupe checking so you don't have the same contacts listed multiple times. It does the same thing for calendar events.

Web OS has been designed to work with your finger. All the demos are being done without a keyboard and stylus. Synergy can easily go from checking email, to scheduling meetings in a calendar, to IMing someone in your contact list.

The music UI is cool—go from one "card" to the music UI, selected a song, then quickly switch back to email screen. It's super smooth, and lets you keep all your data in front of you.

[If you want to know what its like to use the Palm Pre, and get more details, check out our preview and full coverage.]

It's a lot for them to live up to, but we're resetting our expectations and approaching the lagging company's new model line with an open mind.

We're guessing we'll see a brand new phone, perhaps running the new OS, but who knows. What we do know so far is that Palm is rumored to announce a touchscreen slider running the Nova operating system, that according to descriptions, is squarish in appearance.

Palm first announced plans to release a new operating system back in May 2007, but they've delayed it so many times, I'm halfway convinced this event is just to announce they're delaying it again.

10:40 AM: This event has a more epic feel than the average CES press conference. I've already seen a lot of recognizable faces around here, including the omnipresent Robert Scoble. As someone said nearby, "it feels Apple-y."

10:45 AM: I'm getting the feeling that Palm is trying to seduce us with the romantic mood lighting, mellow music, and abundance of Vitamin Water. Is this their attempt at a reality distortion field?

10:55 AM: Not a lot going on right now, but Palm's product marketing manager is talking big game about the upcoming announcements (in vague terms, of course). She says we should be pleased.

11:01 AM: Event starting. Jon Rubenstein is talking about how he used to work at Apple. Then he packed up and moved to Mexico.

11:04 AM: Rubenstein says that mobile devices are the next wave of technology. This might be the obvious statement of the day.

11:06 AM: Jon Rubenstein has just brought Palm CEO Ed Colligan up to the stage.

11:07 AM: Colligan says lifestyle and usability is more important to Palm than raw features and "buttons". Talking about the instant on capability of the original Palm Pilot as an example. He wants to try and make the technology "invisible".

"Mobile is in our DNA. We don't do computers, we don't do refrigerators or set top boxes. We do mobile."

11:08 AM: It's interesting how Palm has to resell itself today, but is reaching back to its roots. In contrast, Jobs believes that looking back means being crushed.

11:10 AM: Colligan says he has a new twist on the same product. Talking about how we use so many websites and our data is all over the place. Smartphones let you browse that information, but they don't make it easy to access it. Simplicity seems to be the overarching theme here.

Colligan suggests it would be cool if we could seamlessly have our images from Facebook show up in the same place as our email and calendars.

11:14 AM: The whole new Palm OS is built with developers in mind. Developing apps, Colligan claims, is so easy.

New device coming now!! It's called the Palm Pre.

Palm Pre "will help you live your life more effectively." The design looks like an oblong rounded rectangle.

It has a 3.1 inch 480x320 multitouch screen that slides vertically to reveal a keyboard. The slider action is curved, sort of like the SE Xperia X1. It also has 3MP Camera, LED Flash, EVDO rev.A, WiFi, bluetooth, a gesture area on the screen for navigation and use, a removable battery, micro USB, USB mass storage support,and a 3.5mm Headphone Jack.

There's a gesture zone between the screen and button that lets you carry out pre-programmed actions with a few finger movements.

11:21 AM: The new UI is called Web OS, and it's designed to be so simple, you only need to focus on the information and content you want, not the OS itself.

They're demoing the Web OS UI right now. It looks a really responsive, aesthetically appealing design. It has alot of the same flick navigation as the iPhone and it looks really polished. The UI has a quick view that organizes data into "Cards" that can be rotated with your finger and it shuffles from card to card.

The phone itself reminds me of the Treo 680 in shape, except all there is on the front is a screen and a button. The main UI has a gesture zone, that lets you perform certain

One of the big new features is something called Synergy, which can pull contacts from all your sites (Facebook, Gmail, AIM, etc...), gather and organize them into one coherent list on the Palm Pre. It has dupe checking so you don't have the same contacts listed multiple times. It does the same thing for calendar events.

Web OS has been designed to work with your finger. All the demos are being done without a keyboard and stylus. Synergy can easily go from checking email, to scheduling meetings in a calendar, to IMing someone in your contact list.

Threaded SMS is still in Web OS, and you can even send IMs from the same window.

You can use the keyboard to do more than send texts and emails. The Pre has a predictive text feature that will bring up menus and apps based on what you type. It will cross reference your input with what you have on your phone, and it presents the info almost like search results. You can even take your input string and look for google results. They call it Universal search.

The web browser has a big URL bar at the top that can also be used to enter a search query. It renders full pages. While demoing the web browser with SF Gate, the presenter became fixated with a link that read "The Joy of Vole Sex." The crowd got a rise from that.

In other news, web pages render pretty quick, and navigation doesn't seem choppy at all.

The music UI is now on display. he just went from one "card" to the music UI, selected a song, then quickly switched back to his email screen. The app switching looks really really fluid, and lets you keep all your data in front of you, so you don't lose track of what you're doing.

When you're working in an app, the apps adapt when notifications (texts, emails, missed calls, etc.) pop on on the screen, so you dont get completely sidetracked. When writing a sticky note, for example, the sticky takes up the whole screen, but when you get a notification, the sticky morphs into half size, and the notification takes up the bottom half.

Rubenstein is back on stage, to introduce a wireless, inductive charger for the Palm Pre. It's called Touchstone. It looks like a hockey puck.

Colligan is back on stage now and says its the "one phone you can use for your entire life and really enjoy it."

Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint is now on stage. He says Sprint will carry the Pre, and says it will feel comfortable for first time users, and really likes how easily you can move between apps.

Hesse just gave us a shout out on stage! He's talking about our big 3G Coast to Coast test. He was also sure to mention how well Sprint fared in that test. He then talked business nonsense for a few minutes and disappeared. But he did mention that the Pre will be a good fit on the Sprint network.

The Palm Pre will be available first half 2009, and will have partners such as Facebook, Pandora, Google and others providing content and apps for the phone.

They're touting how easy app development for Web OS is. You basically just need to know JavaScript, HTML and CSS.

And that's the end of the event. To recap, we saw the Palm Pre, Web OS, and a movement to integrate the internet seamlessly with these two new products.

Palm has kept OS II largely under wraps, but the company's early plans for the upgrade include faster application switching, better power management and improved multitasking, such as being able to handle voice and data calls simultaneously.

Palm OS II Delayed Until 2008 [CrunchGear]