Gadgetory

remember all those little itty-bitty pom phones from several years ago well pom is back but this isn't a phone at all instead this little itty-bitty device is a companion for your regular phone the new pom pairs to your existing phone to become a second screen that you can really easily slide into your pocket or into accessories like a clutch a bifold wallet or a fitness sleeve so you can take it on the go you just use your main phone again when you come back the pom runs on Android 8.1 and works with Google Play which means that you can download any app you want but it will work best for basics like Google Maps responding to messages and uploading photos not really for playing games pom is taking its name literally because this thing is actually palm-sized it looks like the smallest iPhone you've ever seen down to its shape and the camera array on the back there's a 3.3 inch pin chirp screen which is important because the on-screen keyboard is miniscule and so is a lot of the text that you're going to be reading texting is a challenge even for my smaller hands but there are three ways to use Google assistant and that should help the palms only button is a power weight key on the side that you can DoubleTap to launch voice assistant or the camera otherwise you use gesture controls to navigate around and you unlock the device with your face face unlock is only to get into the phone you can't use it for mobile payments there's a single 12 megapixel rear camera and flash and an 8 megapixel selfie camera on the front the palm uses Gorilla Glass 3 on both sides of an aluminum frame and did I mention that it's also water-resistant for a rating of ip68 there's a tiny 800 milliamp battery that you charge through USB C port but there's no standalone headphone jack well the palm will technically sync with your iPhone apps like iMessage and FaceTime won't work it integrates best with the Android to help cut down on your phone addiction the palm has a feature called life mode turn it on and you block out most notifications and apps except for the ones that you ok in the set now this next part is very important although the pond has its own nano SIM card for an LTE data connection you can't buy it to replace your primary phone if you want to make calls or text you have to use a built-in app that pairs your phone number with the palm but you can still message with the apps that use Wi-Fi and yes you'll have to pay a $10 monthly data fee to use the palm the palm goes on sale in November exclusively with Verizon and will cost about $350 and the carrier and pom are both baking on this being a completely new category of smartphone accessory