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Finally. The palm-sized Palm phone is back. And it will, er, save you from your real smartphone

Like a little tiny ghost in the machine

Video The Palm brand has returned with a bizarre concept: a tiny touchscreen "ghost" phone that mirrors the contents of your real smartphone – and won’t do much without one.

The 3.3-inch full touchscreen promises the “full Android experience.” should you want it – or as much of the experience as you can get with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor and a tiny 800 mAh battery. At 63g it’s as light as any smartphone, and lighter than last year’s retro revival Nokia 3310.

Here's what it looks like:

Palm Verizon 2018

Its shortcomings are apparently its virtue. Inside is a non-removable nano SIM that mirrors your primary SIM, much like an eSIM-enabled Apple Watch mirrors your iPhone. Mobile giant Verizon believes that the tiny new Palm's filtered “Life Mode” will free you from constant distractions, such as the non-stop stream of notifications. Unlike in a conventional Flight Mode, you can choose what gets through, and when.

Here’s the promo video, so you can judge for yourself:

Youtube Video

It’s made by TCL, which picked up the Palm brand from LG. It's currently a Verizon exclusive, costing $350 unsubsidized, plus an extra monthly fee to use the number sharing feature.

Palm v Watch

Erm, OK. If you look closely you'll see you can cross out the middle device (Palm) ... and not actually lose anything

In our Apple Watch Series 4 review last week, we marveled how nothing summed up Silicon Valley’s never-say-sorry philosophy like inventing a new product solely to save you from its last product. So here’s a phone that saves you from your phone. But what saves you from your Palm? Presumably, another even smaller phone. It’s turtles all the way down. ®

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