A week ago, I wrote about an issue related to the brand-new Palm Pre smartphone. A reviewer said the Pre had a dangerous bottom lip that was quite sharp and could end up cutting users. Of course, I had to find this out for myself. So I headed down to my local Sprint store and had an extensive demo, playing with the Pre for quite awhile. Here’s my own take on the phone, and how it compares to my beloved iPhone.

First, I’ll address the issue that raised my eyebrows at first: that bottom piece of the phone. You can’t feel the dangerous lip when the phone is closed; it’s only when you slide down the keyboard that you notice that sharp edge. It’s at the bottom of the keyboard when opened.

Is it dangerous? Yes, I believe it will end up possibly cutting you occasionally. But I have to say that I don’t think it’s as big a deal as the reviewer said. Although the reviewer used the edge to cut cheese, the phone does have to held at an unusual angle to expose that edge, one that I don’t think will happen that often. That said, yes, it is very sharp indeed. I wouldn’t let me younger children play with it, for example, the way they can play with my iPhone, with its completely rounded edges.

The Pre has a nice feel in the hand — it’s slightly smaller than the iPhone, and curved to fit a palm nicely. The screen is bright, although smaller than the iPhone. It also has several items that the current iPhone lacks (although the iPhone 3GS will fix some of these shortcomings): namely, a physical keyboard and video capability.

I’m afraid the Pre’s keyboard disappointed me. It’s tiny; I mean really, really tiny. For me (and I have pretty small fingers for a guy my size), typing on it was a miserable experience; I much prefer my iPhone’s onscreen keys. There is a tactile feel, but it would take me a long time to get used to the cramped confines of the keyboard on this phone. Still, if you must have a  physical keyboard, this has one.

I didn’t try the video camera, but I’m told it works well (that’s another feature coming to the new iPhone). Swiping and moving around on the screen was much like using my iPhone; I did like the fact that you can have multiple applications open at one time on the Pre, something else you can’t do with the current iPhone. One worry is that the Pre application store doesn’t have many apps available yet; I’m sure that as the phone’s popularity grows, so will the store.

Overall, I like the Pre, but the drawbacks of the sharp edge and miniscule keyboard will keep from being an owner. For a first-generation phone, however, Palm has done a great job. It’s good to have more competition in the smartphone race.