Last week, Palm and Sprint introduced the second phone to run on the former's webOS platform, the Pixi. That handset, due to ship in time for the holidays, is a smaller, cheaper sister to the first webOS smartphone, the Pre, which is also the sole province of Sprint.

Over the last couple of weeks, we got to spend some time with a Pre. For those not familiar with the Pre, it is the device that -- literally -- put the PDA pioneer back on the smartphone map this spring—after years in the wilderness making mostly evolutionary upgrades to its once revolutionary product line up.

We found the Pre to be a cutting-edge smartphone that runs on a solid operating system. It is, in many ways, Palm and Sprint's answer to the Apple iPhone from AT&T Wireless, the BlackBerry Storm from Verizon Wireless, and the Google Android-run G1 and myTouch 3G from T-Mobile USA.

These are all iconic touch screen models that have in one way or another become flagship smartphones for their respective wireless carrier. In addition, all but the iPhone are a direct response not just to Apple's wildly (and unprecedentedly) successful entry into the mobile phone arena, but also the ecosystem, particularly in the form of the iTunes App Store, Cupertino developed to support the iPhone.

We came away impressed with what Palm achieved with the Pre, both with the device itself and its Linux-based webOS. We can't wait to see how the lower-end, Centro-like Pixi handles the cutting-edge operating system.

Palm's webOS is a welcome and much-needed follow up to the once-upon-a-time leading-edge Palm OS. You see, over the last several years, the Palm OS (and by extension Palm itself) lost considerable ground to competitors, particularly in the area of multitasking—the ability to run more than one application at a time.

To be truthful, the Palm OS had become so neglected by Palm and PalmSource—the former Palm subsidiary in charge of operating system development, now a part of Access—it turned into something of a joke to wireless insiders. And Palm's once loyal customer base was forced to look elsewhere for a more modern and capable operating system.

Even Palm itself, long before the advent of the webOS, started to move more and more of its products to Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform in an effort to keep up with the times. As for Access, its own Linux-based open source follow up to the Palm OS, called the Access Linux Platorm, has found few takers. One blow occurred when Palm turned inward to develop what would eventually become the webOS and not to Access.

Hardware
With its keyboard closed, the Palm Pre is one of the most comfortable and easy to use smartphones we've ever handled. It fits perfectly in the hand and is classy looking. Amazingly, when the screen, which is flush against the outer casing, is turned off, you barely know it is there.

The Pre is so well designed and small, not too small mind you, the iPhone feels like something of a giant in comparison. While the Pre is certainly thicker than the iPhone, that is more a function of the device's keyboard, which slide's out from underneath the display than anything else. In fact, we liked the extra thickness, as it allowed the Pre to fit more solidly and comfortably in the hand.

The Pre has few buttons and only two ports. There's a port for the bundled stereo headset on top and a somewhat hidden micro-USB port for syncing and charging with a surprisingly flimsy-feeling door on the side. You've got power and mute buttons on top and volume buttons on the side of the Pre. A button underneath the display is used for navigation and there are LEDs on either side of this button in an area that's used as something of a touch pad for finger gestures.

You come away from the Pre thinking it is a sleek looking, shiny, glossy and black modern smartphone. It is built on the terrific design elements introduced by Palm with the Treo Pro, a huge step forward over recent Treos models, furthering them along nicely. From what I've seen so far, the Pixi, with its tablet-shape and keyboard underneath the display, looks like a smaller, more minimalist Treo Pro, actually.

The Pre even sports the same charger as the Treo Pro to power up its removable 1150 mAh rechargeable battery, which lasts about as long as the iPhone’s non-removable battery, which is to say not nearly long enough. Fortunately, you can pick up a spare battery.

The Pre keyboard appears easily when you slide up the smartphone's 3.1-inch display, which happens to be one of the most gorgeous and color-rich we've ever seen. Sliding out the keyboard is one way to turn on the Pre's touch screen, which uses the same finger but not stylus-friendly capacitive technology found in the iPhone.

The resolution of the Pre's screen is a satisfactory 480 x 320 pixels (HGVA). While pictures and videos looked great, the quality of the display shines when showing of the webOS and its many Vista-like translucent qualities.