Palm Foleo: Your Smartphone Companion?

Palm promised a "new category" of mobile device yesterday, and today it delivered one: the Palm Foleo, a smartphone "companion" that looks like a tiny laptop and packs in a 10-inch screen and a full-size keyboard. More of a mobile sidekick than an independent laptop, the 2.5-pound, Linux-based Foleo syncs with your smartphone (not necessarily a Treo, Palm tells me) via Bluetooth and lets you check e-mail, edit documents and browse the Web. Interesting...but do we really need yet another device to haul around?

I haven't had a chance to see the Foleo ($500 after a $100 rebate, available sometime this summer) in person yet, but Palm execs held a video briefing this afternoon to run through the specs, including Bluetooth, an e-mail client that automatically syncs with your smartphone messages, slots for memory expansion (SD and Compact Flash), built-in Wi-Fi, a USB port, a video-out jack for giving mobile presentations, five hours of battery life (according to Palm), and a document editor for Office files and PDFs.

So, who's the Foleo for, exactly? Clearly, power users looking to run Final Cut Pro on the road aren't going to be satisfied with a low-horsepower device like the Foleo, but I do see it as an interesting (OK, I'll say it) "companion" for anyone who wants to check e-mail on a plane or while taking a break at Starbucks. Interesting, yes, but worth $500—and more importantly, does it deserve a place in your increasingly crowded backpack or briefcase. Hmmm, mixed feelings...

Pros:

• Small and light: A ten-inch screen in a two-and-a-half pound device is really small and light, even by ultra-portable standards. Personally, I'd love to try the Foleo in the field, rather than lugging around a four- or even six-pound laptop for hours on end. Here's an effective mobile productivity tool that might not throw your back out.
• Smart e-mail and productivity apps: You get Opera as your Web browser (full HTML, mind you), Documents to Go from DataViz (excellent mobile editor for Office documents), plus a photo viewer (and maybe a simple editor, perhaps?) and of course, an e-mail client (which closely resembles Outlook). For me, that's pretty much all I'd need to cover a trade show, and it's just right for glancing over e-mail attachments and other documents on the train.
• Snappy performance: I haven't had a chance to try the Foleo in person, but from the demonstration videos I've seen, the Foleo's Linux-based OS looks pretty fast and responsive compared to a full-on ultra-portable PC, which (in my experience, at least) can be painfully slow and sluggish. No, you're not going to be able to run Photoshop on the Foleo, but if you're on the go and you just want to check e-mail or tweak a Word document, it would be a blessing to not have to wait 30 seconds for files to open. Also, what I've seen of the Foleo's "instant on" capability (it appears to snap on instantly, remembering its state from the last time you powered it off), I've liked.
• Smartphone compatibility: If what Palm's saying is true, the Foleo won't just work with Treos; it could also work with Symbian phones (such as the Nokia N95), BlackBerrys, and—most enticingly—the Apple iPhone. Now, this is more of a promise than a reality, especially with the iPhone (a Palm exec said iPhone compatibly could happen "if Apple opens up its architecture"—that's a big "if"), but if Palm actually delivers on its promise, it would be a huge plus.
• Wi-Fi: After endlessly dinging the Palm Treos for their lack of built-in Wi-Fi, it's nice to see that the Foleo will have Wi-Fi on board—good for mobile Web browsing, although it's unclear if you'll be able to tap into wireless office networks for checking e-mail. And yes, if you're out of Wi-Fi range, you can still browse the Web using your smartphone's data connection via Bluetooth.

Cons:

• It's another device: If you're already hauling around a full-size laptop, a phone (or two), a digital camera and an iPod, who needs yet another device? For road warriors who need a full-fledged laptop when they're on the go, the Foleo would be nothing more than dead weight. In general, the trend should be fewer devices, not more.
• Low horsepower: Again, if you need heavy-duty processing power while you're on the go, the Foleo isn't going to do you much good—it's really just an extension of your smartphone.
• No Good Messaging: The Foleo works with Palm's VersaMail out of the box, which is fine for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and POP/IMAP e-mail accounts; however, there's no support for Good Messaging (at least, not yet)—bad news for corporate users whose companies use Good on their e-mail and PIM servers.
• Events aren't synced: The Foleo automatically syncs your e-mail, any e-mail attachments and all your contacts from your smartphone—strangely, however, it won't grab the events in your calendar, which seems like a no-brainer to me.
• Battery life: Say the Foleo really does have five hours of battery life—if you're at an all-day event and you need to perform a task that demands firing up the Foleo, there's a good chance you'll burn through those five (more likely four) hours pretty quickly, and then you're stuck with a 2.5-pound paperweight. And yes, you can probably charge the Foleo via an AC adapter, but that's yet another item to lug around. Now 10 (or even seven) hours of battery life…that would be something.
• Price: After you're already spend $300 (or more) on your smartphone, kicking in another $500 (with the $100 rebate) for the Foleo is a tough pill to swallow. For that price, I might consider biting the bullet and coughing up $1,500 or $2,000 for an ultra-portable PC that does it all (if a bit sluggishly) and call it a day.

What do you think—would you cough up $500 for the Foleo?