On June 6th, Palm will be releasing its brand new smartphone device called the Palm Pre.  It will be available for Sprint for $199.99 after you sign up for a 2-year contract.  I got a sneak-peak hands-on with the Pre this afternoon.  To sum it up, the Palm Pre is simply the first cell phone that will truly rival the Apple iPhone.   Both the exterior and the UI are extremely sleek and modern.  Although the physical keyboard is rather small, the keys are bouncy and raised to make typing with them not too much of a hastle.  I was able to run a number of apps including Calendar, Email, SMS, Photos, Camera, Music, the browser, SprintTV, AmazonMP3, Google Maps, and YouTube.  The App Store was open, but I was unable to download apps from it.  Synergy, Palm’s signature way of bringing together everyone’s contact information into one entity, is quite impressive.  When you search a contact name, you get more than a picture of them, their phone number, email and address information.  Tagged with their name is also their AIM, Facebook, and other social networking services, if they have them, of course.  Think of it as a a bundle of ways to contact a person, all found in one place.  The “cards” are very fluid in motion.  You can easily flick an open app to the side for later use, or up and out of the way to exit it.  All in all, I am very excited for the launch of the Palm Pre on Sprint.  According to some rumors, the Pre will soon be available on other networks, such as Verizon, in the coming months.  Here’s hoping Palm will make a move Apple did not take advantage of–opening their device to a number of networks, to get a Pre in as many hands as possible.

Check after the break for the gallery of pictures.  They include the front and back of the device, as well as the official packaging of the phone.