Battery: Everyone griped about the iPhone’s permanently sealed battery. The Pre’s battery, however, is easy to swap. But even Palm admits that one full day is about the best you’ll get from its battery.

Music: When you connect it to your Mac or PC, the Pre appears in Apple’s iTunes software, labelled “iPod”. You can now sync your music, photo and video collections (minus the copy-protected items). iTunes never knows the difference.

Built-in programs: You might keep your family schedule on Google Calendar, your work calendar in Exchange or Outlook and some events in Facebook. The Pre consolidates these online agendas onto a single, colour-coded calendar.

App store: The Pre’s app store is starting small—there’s a New York Times reader, Pandora Internet radio, Fandango movie listings, and so on. Palm intends to approve thousands more in the coming weeks, but they won’t be as diverse or powerful as the iPhone’s (especially games). At the outset, at least, Palm is limiting programmers’ access to the Pre’s features.

The Pre is a spectacular achievement. But it has its annoyances. Opening certain programs can be very slow, and there is no progress bar or hourglass to let you know that it’s still working. There’s no memory-card slot to expand the 8GB of storage, and no Visual Voicemail (where messages are listed like e-mail). Finally, the Pre is not quite as simple as the iPhone. All those extra features mean that there’s more to learn.