In a past life, founders Dennis Miloseski and Howard Nuk were design VPs at Samsung, and when they started hunting for a hardware maker to help produce the tiny phone of their dreams, TCL agreed and offered them use of the Palm name.

That we're even considering a question this strange is a testament to the fact that the new Palm has basically nothing to do with the old one. Here's the question, though: Can a smartphone company find success when all it aims to do is build a sidekick? Instead, its first smartphone - known simply as the Palm - is a minuscule device you're meant to carry around when you don't want to bring your main iPhone or Galaxy along. Unlike Palm circa 2010, though, the new team isn't trying to go up against the iPhones and Galaxys of the world. A startup out of California now uses the Palm name, and it's serious about breathing new life into the brand. To a die-hard community, losing the company was a blow.

The PDA and smartphone maker's glory days were in the past by then, but it developed a string of hits in the late 90s and early 2000s, and few names in the industry inspired as much zeal and loyalty as Palm Inc. When HP unceremoniously shut down Palm in 2011, it felt like the end of an era.

Sidekick phone comeback