What You Need To Know About The New Palm Phone

Maybe you have heard about the latest mini-phone that goes by “Palm” – designed to simplify your digital life. The tiny phone that is quite literally, tiny, is about the size of a credit card.

So, will its small design and minimalist interface actually stop people from being too tied to their actual phones? Well, that’s kind of their idea behind the startup.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the details of this mini-phone.

What’s the purpose?

With phones getting bigger and bigger (the size of a small iPad) – the idea of Palm is to minimize your interaction with your device. The bigger the phone you have, the bigger the distraction. And that’s what Palm is set out to do – get rid of the distraction so you can live your life.

Since many people can’t live without a smartphone due to work and other dependent circumstances, the Palm is there to do your basics – calls and texts. Anything else is too much of a hassle, since most people fingers are too big to functionally use it.

Keep in mind, this phone is not meant to be bought as a stand-alone phone. Think of it more like a sidecar. The Palm is designed to be a kind of “weekend” phone, or for when you’re hitting the road to go camping, working out, basically anything that doesn’t require your big device. That way you can be fully involved in the activity you’re doing in the moment (Instagram can wait).

If you’re thinking, “doesn’t having two phones defeat the purpose of minimizing the dependency of electronics in my life?”… well, you might be right.

What’s inside?

Think of an iPhone, then shrink it by 60%. That is what it looks like. Let’s go over some of its specs:

• Front and back with Gorilla Glass 3
• IP68 water and dust protection
• 800mAh battery (which is fine since it’s so small)
• 50 x 97 millimeters
• 7.4mm thick
• Weighs 62.5 grams
• No headphone jack
• USB-C port
• 3.3-inch, 445-ppi LCD display
• Rear camera is 12 megapixels, 8-megapixel selfie camera

Functionality

Yes, you can still get on apps – technically the Palm is an android, and only sold by Verizon. However, given how small it is, you probably won’t want to spend a lot of time on there. That’s the idea at least.

It has face unlock, Google Assistant, and Life Mode (basically a Do Not Disturb and low battery usage setting). Yes, you can still listen to music and connect your bluetooth headphones – you probably won’t even notice it when you’re working out.

You can find a huge launch of cases, lanyards, armbands, and Kate Spade clutches for this little guy.

So, is it worth it?

Eh, hard to say. It doesn’t offer much – and seems to be just another device you need to worry about. However, if you’re looking for something much simpler to carry about on the weekends to keep you off those work calls and emails, consider it. However, if you’re not apart of Verizon, well… guess you’re out of luck.

The next year will really show if people love the new Palm – but compared to the other mini-phones that have failed on the market in the past, the future doesn’t look to bright.