Palm Pre and Touchstone dissected for all to see

When a new product launches, there are a few great traditions that still endure to this day. There’s the rumor and speculation, then the early reviews, followed by the lines at launch, and then just a few hours later the shiny new device is ripped apart and analyzed by the folks over at iFixit.com. The Palm Pre and Touchstone charger are no exception to this tradition of splaying open, and what follows is not for the faint of heart: the Pre is nearly as beautiful inside as it is outside.

iFixit notes that the Pre’s logic board is significantly smaller than that in the iPhone. This also proved to be one of the more difficult devices for them to open without breaking, which explains why Sprint has declared the Pre to be a device that they won’t even attempt to repair - they'll just swap it out for a new one. Also cracked open: the Touchstone inductive charger, which looks like just about any other inductive charger on the market. Estimated cost to build: $5 (plus whatever engineering labor Palm exerted to design it). Talk about a healthy profit margin!