TCL's pocket-sized Palm phone is finally coming to Australia

Credit: TCL

Alcatel Australia has confirmed they'll be launching TCL's bite-sized handset locally later this year.

Boasting a tiny 3.3-inch display, Snapdragon 435 chipset, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of on-board storage and an 800mAh battery, the Palm Phone runs on Android 8.1 and has a form-factor unlike almost anything else on the market.

Sam Skontos, VP and Regional Managing Director of South East Asia and Pacific for Alcatel Mobile, says that they'll be bringing the device to Australia through their new retail partners - Officeworks, JB Hi-Fi and Australia Post - later in 2019.

What's more, unlike the original US version of the device, which was launched last year and was pitched as a companion to your primary smartphone, the version of the Palm phone that Australians will be getting is designed to be used standalone.

You'll have to kit it out with its own SIM to use it rather than pairing it to your main phone as you would something like an Apple Watch.

Of course, the downside here is that relative to something like a Samsung Galaxy S10 or even Alcatel's own range of handsets, the Palm isn't going to offer the kind of performance you'd usually get from a smartphone - nor is the miniaturized display going to be particularly great for things like content consumption.

The pitch here is that it's a phone for people who want to minimize the amount of time they spend on their phone.
At the very least, that's an interesting and original angle. However, whether that limited performance is going to be worth the asking price is another question entirely.

Skontos says they expect the Palm phone to retail for 'sub-$700' but wouldn't commit to any firm pricing and availability details at this time.

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Fergus Halliday
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