At a time when every new touchscreen phone looks like yet another rehash of the iPhone, except with a clunkier operating system, the Palm Pre comes as a breath of fresh air.

The device is smart, sexy and interesting. And its operating system is both visually enticing and appears to be technically sophisticated.

The Pre was clearly the hottest device at the Consumer Electronics Show this year. Still, there are important details such as pricing and launch date that have yet to be worked out. And no one — including us — has yet gotten enough of a hands-on with the phone to be able to make any significant conclusions about its usability, speed, features or other important details.

Even so, there are a lot of reasons to get excited about it based on what we know so far. Here are six:

1. It fuses a touchscreen and keyboard in one attractive package.

The iPhone is an excellent touchscreen phone, no doubt. But for heavy texters and e-mail addicts, the lack of a physical keyboard can be annoying (even if you type less than the 13-year old California girl who sent 484 text messages every day last month).

The HTC G1 combined a touchscreen and keyboard, but that phone's poor finish and clunky design only served to establish the iPhone as a superior alternative for the design-conscious.Now Palm may have actually pulled off a feat to make both touchscreen and the keyboard loyalists happy. The Pre has a great finish and comes in an attractive black casing that should be enough to satisfy the pickiest.

2. It improves on the iPhone.

Removable battery. Copy and paste. Better camera. A touchscreen that extends beyond the display to about an inch below the screen. Awesome web integration. Universal search. The Palm Pre has it all, making the iPhone look almost like — dare we say it — a version 1.0 device.

3. Multitasking.

The iPhone's apps are great and a big part of the phone's appeal. But have you ever tried to listen to Pandora while you're checking Gmail? Can't do it. The iPhone's limitation on running multiple apps is a serious drawback. The HTC G1 improves on that with the notifications drawer, but it's an insufficient solution because it's still too hard to see what's currently running.

The Palm Pre solves that problem. It treats applications as "cards" and makes it easy to flip through the deck of cards, view them at once and shuffle them. The apps are live even when minimized, and you don't lose your place even if you move to a different one or move to a new one.

4. Integrated contacts.

We all have lives that go beyond the phone — or beyond work e-mail. The Palm Pre pulls together info, photos and current online status data from Facebook, Gmail, and Exchange and seamlessly integrates them into the address book and contacts.That makes it easier to chat and message with just a single click.

5. Choice of network and flavors.

The Pre will launch on Sprint but is likely to be available on other networks after a few months.

That means a choice of networks for potential users — unlike the iPhone, which is exclusive to AT&T in the United States for five years. Palm also is reportedly developing a GSM version of the device for Europe and Asia.

6. Everyone loves the underdog.

With the Palm Pilot and the early Treos, Palm was the original favorite of all gadget fanatics. But in the last few years the company has been struggling to survive as its products bombed. Remember the Foleo fiasco? This gadget was positioned as an e-mail companion device, but it was dead on arrival. Palm's biggest hit in the last three years has been a $99

pedestrian smartphone called Centro: It's been popular with budget-conscious soccer moms but anathema to almost everyone else.

Now Palm finally has a phone that has set bloggers and geeks buzzing. Android, until now the most-talked-about mobile OS, should be afraid of the Pre, says Laptop magazine. And even before the Pre has hit the market, competitors are already trying to trash-talk the device.

And here's an extra something. The Pre has an optional accessory: The touchstone, a smooth pebble-like wireless charger that you set your Pre onto and let it suck up the juice without any wires.

See also:

Palm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the Pre

Video: Hands-On With the Palm Pre

New WebOS Is Palm's Secret Sauce

Up Close and Personal With the Palm Pre