Wow, who would have believed it? The Palm Pre actually exists outside of private tradeshow demos and the hands of celebrities?

If that’s actually a real, functional pre and not a mock-up or a well-done knockoff, it looks like accessory manufacturers have began getting shipments of the much coveted Sprint handset. An anonymous Ludle employee tipster just posted a few shots of the Pre alongside a Centro and an iPhone, noting a few things:

• The screen is less scratch resistant than the iPhone
• The back of the handset is more scratch resistant than the iPhone, but much more susceptible to finger prints
• It’s in mass production, right this second.

We’ll keep digging for details, but we fully expect everyone involved to be bombarded with questions within the hour.

[Via PreThinking]