At a time when smartphone displays seem to keep getting bigger, the Palm has a distinctly old-school feel thanks to its 3.3 inch screen (and Palm branding).

First sold as a companion device for Verizon customers when it launched last year, the idea was that you could add your existing phone number to a Palm and take it with you when leaving your primary phone behind.

Earlier this year Verizon started offering the option of buying a Palm for use as your primary phone.

And now you’re not stuck with Verizon: Palm is taking pre-orders for a carrier unlocked version of its tiny phone. You can pick one up for $350 and it should ship in 6-8 weeks.

The Palm phone is… not a high-end device. It’s aimed at folks who believe less is more and while it should be capable of handling most Android tasks, the key selling points are probably that it doesn’t take up a lot of space and isn’t as likely to distract you as much as a larger phone.

Here’s a run-down of the phone’s key specs:

  • 3.3 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel (445 ppi) LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 octa-core processor
  • 3GB RAM
  • 32GB storage
  • 12MP rear + 8MP front cameras
  • Stereo speakers
  • IP68 water and dust resistance
  • Face unlock
  • USB-C port
  • Android 8.1
  • Aluminum mid-frame
  • 3.8″ x 2″ x 0.3″ (96.6mm x 50.6mm x 7.4mm)
  • 2.2 ounces (62.5 grams)

Palm is promising up to 3 hours and 20 minutes of talk time, 5.5 hours of battery life while streaming music over 4G LTE or 6 hours over WiFi and up to 9.5 hours of run time while playing music stored on the device. It’s notable that the company doesn’t even bother providing a battery life estimate for streaming video.

On the bright side, it only takes about a half hour to get a 50 percent charge or 68 minutes to fully charge the battery.

The Palm phone is compatible with all major US wireless carriers except for Sprint, and an unlocked model is also available in the UK, Germany, Spain, Japan, and Hong Kong.

You can find more details in the announcement.

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9 replies on “Palm’s tiny smartphone now available carrier unlocked (for $350)”

  1. Are they kidding with that price..Do they really think they can get apple drone like people to buy this? the palm name alone doesn’t make that kinda cash….That’s a $99 phone at most and even then i’m still thinking $59-$79

    1. Indeed the bigger ZTE Blade V8 Mini with same SoC sells for $70-80 and that’s a 5″. I assume most people who would buy this would just try and justify that they need a 3″ device in their lives blah blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, whatever. Absolute garbage at that price.

  3. If the price wasn’t so ridiculous and the battery life were better I’d snap this up. They need to put out a budget version with better battery life.

    1. I’m ok with the battery life estimates. $150 to $175 is what this is worth to me and only if I could use it as a companion device to my regular smartphone (same phone number).

    1. The UniHertz Jelly may be worth a look. Battery life is meant to be terrible though.

    1. I wish it was at least a webOS like launcher and skin combo. It should be 4 inch with a slightly bigger too, and it’d be perfect. I would buy it, just because.

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