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Unlike most phones we review, the Palm Phone does not claim to be the equal of another device. It doesn't even necessarily claim to be good. The Verizon-exclusive Palm Phone is billed as a companion to the phone you actually like using. A phone that's minimalist and limited by design can't be "good" in the traditional sense, but can it be bad in a way that you still might want one? Sadly, no.
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- Verizon has announced a release date for the Palm phone — November 2:
Last year, TCL announced that new devices with Palm branding would launch in 2018, and the first phone leaked a few months ago. The tiny 3.3-inch Palm phone is now official, and it's coming to Verizon next month for a whopping $349.99.Rather than being an independent phone, it functions as a 'Connected device,' similar to a smartwatch. You have to pay an extra $10/month, and it will receive the same phone calls and SMS messages as your main phone. TCL is positioning it as a secondary device for when you need a break from your regular phone.
What you're seeing above is the first Palm smartphone since the Pre 3 was announced in 2011. Currently codenamed 'Pepito,' this new handset is headed for Verizon, and it's possibly the weirdest Android phone of 2018. Sporting a tiny 3.3-inch 720p LCD screen, Pepito is easily the smallest Android device in years to be sold in the USA, and probably one of the smallest in the world. The diminutive size doesn't end at the display - this phone will have a tiny 800mAh battery, we've been able to confirm. That probably doesn't make this phone much of an all-day device, and it really is a bit of a head-scratcher.
Back in March, a trusted source revealed to us that a Palm-branded Android smartphone was slated to launch on Verizon in the second half of 2018. We haven't heard anything since then, but a Palm device with model name 'PVG100' has just rolled through both the FCC and Wi-Fi Alliance.