Sprint have updated their Palm Pre pages with details of the smartphone’s technical specifications. Most of the information has already been available on Palm’s own site for some time now, but there are at least a few minor tidbits that the carrier has confirmed. Most likely of greatest interest to would-be Pre owners is that tethering - that is, where the handset is used as an EV-DO Rev.A modem for a connected laptop or other device - is supported, both via wired USB connection and over Bluetooth.
Key Palm Pre rival the Apple iPhone 3G has long been criticised for not officially supporting tethering, although various third-party applications have enabled it. Still, AT&T reserve the right to cut off or limit data connectivity of those considered “abusing” the iPhone’s unlimited data plan. That’s why it’s great to see that Sprint are being more flexible with the Pre’s data capabilities; what’s still unclear, though, is what sort of price impact the functionality will have. It’s unlikely that tethering would come under the “unlimited data use” of a Sprint Simply Everything plan, for instance.
Also freshly revealed is the amount of free storage capacity available to the Palm Pre user. Out of the 8GB flash memory the smartphone is fitted with, 7.4GB is user-accessible. Given that the handset lacks a microSD card slot, or indeed any way to add local capacity, owners will have to be careful about what they try to store on the Pre.
We’re hoping to come across a GSM version of the Pre at Mobile World Congress this coming week, but you can be sure that whatever Palm announce we’ll have the latest news here on Pre Community.
Click here to view the embedded video.[via Pre Central]