We already new that a new Palm-branded smartphone would be making an appearance at some point in 2018, and now further details have emerged about the return of the legendary PDA brand.
Speaking to Android Police, a source has confirmed that the device is planned for launch in the second half of the year, and will be tied to a deal with US phone network Verizon. It will be produced by Chinese electronics giant TCL, which also manufactures phones released under the BlackBerry name, most recently the BlackBerry KEYone. TCL acquired the Palm name back in 2015.
Like the recent BlackBerry reboots, the new Palm is expected to run Android rather than the ill-fated WebOS that the company was known for. WebOS currently lives on as a TV operating system, after it was sold to LG by Hewlett-Packard (which bought Palm in 2010).
TCL has been keen to maintain the brand-identity of BlackBerry with its newly released handsets, so we’ve got our fingers crossed that it will do the same for the eventual Palm device. Those (mostly) pre-smartphone PDAs were notably for their green-tinged black and white screens, and handwriting recognition through the use of a stylus.
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This raises interesting questions about what direction TCL could take the brand in. At its most extreme it could equip a device with a black and white eInk screen and allow you to control it with a stylus, but we think a colour screen is more likely, alongside a modern Galaxy Note-style stylus.
No further details are known about the upcoming handset, and we don’t even know if it will see a release in the UK. Hopefully the smartphone will be more successful than the HP Pre 3, which was on sale for just one day in 2011 before the company announced it would no longer be supported.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.