Gizmodo has a great review of the new Palm Pre. Without having one in-hand, this is as close a look as I’ll likely get for another month.

The OS is nice. Clean, appropriately flashy for the new kid, though I’d argue that from what I can see it lacks the consistency that makes OS X such a pleasure both to look at and to use. The Pre feels like it’s trying a little too hard to be new, rather than just good. Round-end buttons turn to rounded-corner rectangles in some instances for no apparent reason. There are screens with mysterious green backgrounds, and others with blue. I’d probably prefer something more neutral that doesn’t visually interfere with the content as much. That wiggly app launch bar doesn’t strike me as any more useful than the iPhone launch bar, just flashier. Doubtless, there will be bells and whistles that trump the now dated feeling iPhone, including a smoother feel thanks to a faster processor.

But this comment from Gizmodo sums up the issue pretty well:

“If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware—someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market.”

I haven’t held one, but the video of the Pre slicing cheese isn’t exactly encouraging. Oddly, this is about where Gizmodo stops complaining. But hardware matters. It isn’t enough to build a great airplane and bolt on some crappy landing gear. If the hardware doesn’t look and work as great as the software it runs, the user experience is only half complete. And the Pre, it’s not an icon. It’s not sexy. It’s a lump.

Maybe Palm is hoping you’ll be so awed by their obviously great OS that you’ll forget what you’re holding. I can’t explain away that sad-looking lumpy thing any other way. It doesn’t have a shape so much as it just kind of falls inelegantly away from the screen hoping to hide itself in your hand. The mini-USB port planted smack-dab in the middle of the side of the phone is painful to look at. That’s where your data cable is going to live, which should make using it while charging absolutely miserable. I don’t have to read the article to get that it’s plasticky—it looks plasticky. It looks like a…phone. These days, that’s not a compliment.

I’m no great fan of the iPhone’s virtual keyboard for serious typing. It’s passable for texting, and ok for a short email, but it’s probably the one weakness that makes the iPhone marginal for business travel. Make it compatible with Apple’s bluetooth keyboard and I’d consider the problem solved. So Gizmodo’s comment that the Pre’s hardware keys are 30% smaller than the iPhone’s virtual keys is jaw dropping. Here’s the one hardware issue that left open territory for real competition pitting one ideology against another, and Palm pulls up in a clown car.

I have no doubt that the Pre will do ok for a while—it’s new, it’s flashy, and Palm has invested a ton of work to make itself relevant again. But they’re taking on a hell of a Juggernaut with two years of ground to make up as fast as they can, and Apple is poised to play its next card on Monday. From the bleachers, it looks like Palm blew their budget on software and is hoping people won’t notice the hardware flaws until they can tidy up with the next model. Or at least I hope so. As much as I love my iPhone, the whole market benefits from serious competition. I wish the Pre had hit it out of the park instead of just bunting.