Palm officially launches Foleo mobile companion

Your smartphone's new best friend

30 May 2007 19:04 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

As we reported earlier today following an unofficial preview of a leaked press release, Palm has now officially launched the new product.

The Foleo is not just a new product to Palm, they've created a new product category.

In Palm's words "the perfect companion for your smartphone", the Foleo is a small laptop-sized device with a 10-inch screen and full-sized keyboard that connects wirelessly with your smartphone.

Once you unfold the new device, your email is brought up on screen at the press of a button and you can use the Foleo to view Word, Excel, PDF and PowerPoint attachments, type longer emails, and get a big-screen look at webpages and photos.

The Wi-Fi-enabled Foleo boasts 5 hours of battery life and automatically syncs with your smartphone in real time via Bluetooth wireless technology.

It will be interesting to see how this product is received. Not quite a notebook, or a UMPC, will smartphone users want another product to lug around? Afterall, isn’t the point of smartphones supposed to be that they can do all the things that laptops can, but in a smaller package?

We would have thought that Palm will be keen to get the new device out before Apple's iPhone hits stores in the States in June, but availability has yet to be confirmed further to "the summer".

The Palm Foleo is being offered in the States at a special introductory price of $499, you can register for updates via the link below.