Yes and no, the competition (Samsung, LG etc) still continued for over 5 years to release their flagship smartphones chassis made out of plastic. The iPhone was aluminum, which felt significantly better.

The Palm as it was in 2007 was made of plastic, the screen was resistive touch and also made of plastic. The iPhone was made of aluminum, the screen was capacitive and was made of glass.

The iPhone in your pocket should've felt more like a polished stone than the palm.