Palm Pre, the new smartphone announced by Palm at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, promises to have some of the hottest phone features available when it's released this year, including a wireless charger, a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, easy switching between applications, and a new WebOS operating system that a Yahoo! Tech writer called, "one of the hottest mobile platforms I've seen yet." PC Magazine is already calling the Palm Pre, "the most radical new phone since the iPhone. The new phone was released early this year exclusively with Sprint.

So why is the Palm Pre phone getting such rave reviews? Features. It's got a lot of them.

Design - At 4.8 ounces, the Pre is lighter than the iPhone, and it features a real QWERTY keyboard that slides out for use. The screen is a large 3.1-inch 24-bit color 480x320 touch display with an accelerometer that automatically orients web pages and photos to the correct display, whether you're looking at the screen vertically or horizontally.

WebOs operating system - The new OS allows users to handle open applications like a deck of cards, making it easy to flip between them, move them around or throw them off the screen.

Universal search -Simply start typing and Pre will search your phone for matches. If it doesn't find a match in contacts or applications on your phone, you can quickly jump to the web to search Google, Google maps or Wikipedia.

Wireless charging - Pre's optional Touchstone charger is a hockey puck-like device that charges the phone. Simply place it on top, and magnets will quickly align your phone on Touchstone to power it up with no clunky cords or wires. Nice.

More Features - Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

- High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A or UMTS HSDPA)

- Integrated GPS

- Bluetooth^® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support

- Email, including Outlook EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (POP3, IMAP)

- IM, SMS and MMS messaging support

- 3 mp camera with LED flash and extended depth of field

- standard 3.5 mm headset jack

- 8GB of internatl user storage

- MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

- Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear

- Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage