Somehow, those lucky bastards err… guys over at PreThinking got their hands on a Palm Pre and have posted an interesting first look at the device. Even more surprisingly, Sprint took extraordinary measures to insure that the article wouldn’t come across as a review by not allowing the “reviewer” as I’ll call him to talk about specific elements of the Pre, apps etc.. and also by not allowing any photos to be taken.

This first hands-on seems to only provide insight into general aspects of the device because of the restrictions imposed by Sprint. However we do find out about the design features (the reviewer says the Pre feels like a “smooth river stone”) and overall this first look confirms that the Pre is on track to be the solid, iPhone destroying machine we have all been promised.

I was interested to see what the “reviewer” thought of multi-tasking was on the Pre, considering that it’s suppose to make the iPhone look primitive.

This is what the “reviewer” had to say:

This is where the phone excels like no other. It truly Multi-tasks and does it with amazing flair. Putting it through a real world test, I started to launch app after app. Pandora, Webpages, email, among a few I cannot name), and the phone had NO LAG whatsoever. The ability to switch between apps using the cards interface was great and you could actually see everything running in the background. This has truly made this phone a revolutionary step in the next direction with operating systems for cell phones.

Anyway, I’m glad that someone finally managed to coax Sprint or at least someone with a Pre into doing a hands-on. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll wake up and have a Pre test unit from Sprint waiting on my doorstep ready for me to review - hint hint.

You can read the first Hands-on with the Palm Pre here.