I think a little piece of us all got really excited to hear that an unlocked SIM-free version of the Palm Pre will be offered up. For us in the US that means a few more options as far as service providers go if you simply must have the Pre.

Unfortunately the foreign GSM Pre has a seemingly minor alteration to fit the German speaking countries that us here in the US may find very irritating. Take a good look at the picture of the foreign handset, the keyboard on these units is a full QWERTZ keyboard meaning the “Y” and “Z” buttons have been switched. This is a fairly common layout for these countries.

Will this prevent you from purchasing one for yourself? Such a minor alteration does not seem like much but at times I am sure that it will become more irritating than many can handle. We are sure the adjustment will come in time if your dead set on having this handset here in the US.