We finally met the UK-bound Palm Pre today, and except for British network support, it was the doppelgänger of the US Pre -- not even a goatee beard to tell the evil twin from the good twin.
Palm's Dave Whelan told us that despite complaints about the Pre's build quality, the company resisted the urge to make any updates to the hardware in the months left before the Pre's launch on O2 this winter.
That means no memory-card expansion slot and no improved battery. Even Palm admits the Pre has a hard time staying awake for a whole day, but suggests we invest even more coin of the realm on the 'touchstone', the Pre's groovy magnetic charger.
So why the big delay before we can get our fish-and-chip-smelling, Empire-losing hands on Palm's new baby? Palm tells us that they wanted to "get it right", which means sorting out the network support, no hardware shortages and a solid marketing push behind the Pre.
It says it's not worried about the Android phones coming over the horizon, because the estimated growth in the number of people investing in smart phones means there's plenty of room for everybody.
Click the image to see more of how utterly similar the UK Pre looks to previous shots of the US Pre, and what Palm intends to do about its dearth of apps.
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