Call audio quality is about average. The ringer, however, is too quiet; expect a lot of complaints about that.

Software: The Pre’s all-new operating system, called Web OS, is attractive, fluid and exciting. It borrows plenty from the iPhone—pinch or spread two fingers on the screen to zoom in or out, for example, or flick a list item sideways to delete it—but has its own personality.

For example, once the gorgeous screen comes to life, the black plastic strip beneath it is also touch-sensitive. Slide your thumb leftward, for example, to go back one screen. Drag upward to summon the animated, bendy, quick-launch strip. It holds the icons for the five programs you use most often (phone, calendar, e-mail), so you can switch programs without returning to a central home screen first.

That’s important, because the Pre can keep multiple programs open simultaneously. Play Internet radio while you read a PDF document, or compare two open e-mail messages— you can’t do that on the iPhone.

When you press the tiny, glowing button below the screen, all open windows shrink slightly into individual “cards”. You can swap programs by tossing them around, or exit a program by flicking its card up off the screen. (If you accumulate about 10 open cards, a hostile out-of-memory message appears.)

Thoughtful grace notes are everywhere. When watching a video, you can flick right or left to skip forward or backward a few seconds. Empty time slots on your daily calendar collapse to save space, denoted by a “3 hours free” strip. When you magnify a Word document, the text reflows so that you never have to scroll horizontally.

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