I picked up the Palm Pre when it came out June 6th....returned it the 24th, and picked up the IPhone3GS.

I've seen tons of articles and reviews comparing the two, but I haven't really heard which one was better for the average user. Not which one has the best features, fastest load times, biggest hard drive. I wanted to know for the average grab and go user, which one was going to work best.

I followed the Palm Pre since it was announced at CES earlier this year and was really excited. It seemed to have everything the IPhone was lacking; picture messaging, interchangeable batteries(without bulky backpacks or weird tethered add-ons), and a physical keyboard.

I've had an account with Sprint for almost 8 years now and that was my biggest reason for not jumping in with everyone else picking up the IPhone....plus there were cheaper options that were still pretty good.

I held on to my Treo650 for as long as I could

made a disastrous switch to the HTC Mogul

and was overjoyed when Sprint finally offered up a worthy mobile device -The Palm Pre.

Let me start off by saying that I loved the Palm Pre....if you lived next to a cell tower and only needed it for 6 hours/day....it's is the perfect phone.

The battery barely lasted a day with moderate use and the reception went from awesome to nothing to awesome...without even moving. Places where I had no trouble getting reception with previous phones were now a struggle. I would get maybe 1 bar in my house in the Tower District, 5 bars in Riverpark.....and what made me laugh.....I was ROAMING in the Apple Store while waiting to pick up my IPhone.

The keyboard on the Pre did seem a little cramped at first, but it only took about a day to get used to it.

One of the "neatest" features was Synergy. It would pull info from your AOL Instant Messenger, Facebook, and Google accounts and combine it with your contacts and calendar on the phone. You were even able to link all of the info from the different sources to one calendar or even 1 contact in your address book.

For example; I added created a new contact for my mom with her home phone number and called it Mom. Then after signing in to all of my accounts I now had 3 different contacts in my address book for my mom. 1 for AIM, 1 for Facebook, and the one I added. Synergy allowed me to link all of the profiles together, so when I clicked on Mom it pulled up her picture and email address from Facebook, her AIM screen name, and her phone number that I added.

It was even easier for people who had added more contact info on their Facebook profile. For some friends I didn't have to add any info, it was already there...and as they updated their profiles, it updated my phone as well.

I loved taking pictures with the Pre. From the same menu I could email a photo, send it to another phone, or even upload it to Facebook or Photobucket.

Now I now most of what I have said is only an App away with the IPhone......

...but imagine being able to do it all at the same time, without having to quit one to start another.

Multitasking it the #1 feature I really don't think I can live without. It's a world of difference when you can listen to music on Pandora, check out the latest blog entry's online, have a conversation via AIM and text, be able to reference an email, and check out my calendar....without having to close anything. Try doing that with an IPhone.

Palm is lagging a little with getting their SDK out...and their App Catalogue is hurting. It's been out for a month and barely has 30 apps available compared to the thousands now available for the IPhone.

All of those great things aside.....If I can't make or receive a phone call....it's hard to justify spending $200.

I'm out of time tonight, but part 2 with the IPhone3GS will come soon.