The Palm Pixi is official, headed to Sprint this holiday season -- we've got hands-on and video!
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted September 9th 2009 12:02AM
posted September 9th 2009 12:02AM
Along with the new handset, Palm will offer five artist-designed back covers in the "Palm Pixi Artist Series" -- similar to Zune Originals and Dell's Design Studio laptops -- which can be purchased separately... of course. Touchstone owners take heart: those backs, as well as a separate black backing that you'll also pay extra for, are all compatible with the accessory. In addition to the hardware, Palm will be introducing a native Facebook app when the Pixi hits, as well as new Yahoo! and LinkedIn integration for Synergy. Right now no date for launch has been set, though Palm says the phone will be ready in time for the holidays. The company is also mum on price, but coupled with the news that Sprint will be slimming the Pre's entry point down to $149.99, we have to assume it's going to be in the $99-or-less ballpark. We had a chance to play around with the new phone, so read on after the break for our initial, early impressions.
Palm is still tweaking the device, so we aren't making any final judgments on the Pixi -- though what we saw is mostly heartening.
For starters, the phone is really quite handsome. In terms of industrial design, the clean lines and smart choices in materials belie the Pixi's likely price-point. In your hands it feels solid, though it's shocking just how tiny it is. The standard backing is a soft-touch material (not unlike the Touchstone back for the Pre), and perhaps due to the lack of moving parts here, the phone feels really well put together. Just as with the Pre, the Pixi includes a ringer on / off switch and 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as a removable 1150mAh battery.
The body of the phone is -- as we said -- very small, but the thickness is where it really struts its stuff... or lack of stuff. The Pixi is just 0.43-inches thick. To put that in perspective, the iPhone 3GS is 0.48-inches -- which means anyone who has complaints about sliding a handset into their pocket should be swooning.
Instead of a center button, Palm has made the middle of the gesture area (part of its capacitive coating) take on the duty. The target is represented by a small, white slit, and the same gestures that webOS is known for seem to work flawlessly around it. While the screen gets 80 pixels lopped off compared with the Pre (and the iPhone, G1, Hero, and Storm, to name a few), it looked clean and crisp to us. The responsiveness on the main part of the display was just as tight -- if not tighter -- than the Pre, and that's a plus. Of course, webOS makes clever use of the cramped space by squashing card and app sizes down to fit. It's a tremendous example of the UI's literal scalability.
The QWERTY keyboard on the Pixi was also a bit of a shocker -- even though the keys are tiny and tightly spaced, it's definitely usable. The reps we spoke with noted that due to the candybar form factor and lack of a sliding mechanism, they were able to get more height on the keys. Besides the more pronounced buttons, the Pixi's keyboard seemed to have a more tactile click than that of the Pre, and honestly, we might have liked the Pixi's variation better.
Inside, the phone is powered by a completely different CPU than its big brother. In this case, Palm chose to use the Qualcomm MSM7627, a smaller chip which enabled them to mint the micro form factor. The CPU itself isn't dramatically different than the 7200 series, though it is noticeably less charged than the TI OMAP3 chip in the Pre. Regardless of what's cranking the gears, the phone seemed pretty snappy when it was demoed for us (you can see it in action in the videos below). We did notice a few hangups during big image scaling and heavy webpages, but again, this is early software on an early device.
All in all, we walked away impressed by the Pixi, but a little bummed that Palm has chosen to bring another webOS device to Sprint. Here's hoping that this proliferation means the Pre will be finding its way to other carriers soon -- part of Palm's strength right now is that it's not locked into a long term Apple / AT&T situation, and it would be a shame not to take full advantage of that. Still, it's always nice to see a quality handset joining the smartphone ranks, and if this pans out to be as cheap as we think it should be, Palm could find themselves making a lot of new friends... Centro style.
Up there is this very same comment ranked all the way up, and here is again, ranked all the way down.
Epic fail.
On the page where you can sign up to be notified of its availability, it lists AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and "other" as the carriers. So is this not locked down to Sprint?
It's safe to assume this is taking the Centro route, being a Palm phone for everyone sooner or later.
No cross carrier yet.....Sprint always ask your current carrier so the can decide wether your a new costumer or a current customer (new customers wanted over contract holders) ie you get notified first!!
If this also has a sd or microsd card slot I am sold.
No slot, no wifi, no sale. If you want WebOS, get a Pre not this hobbled wannaPre.
Wow, Palm is moving right along.
The only problem with this device is the name. Good luck selling something named Pixi to any guys.
Or pre, they kinds screwed themselves on both.
I would at least thing about buying a Pre based solely on the name...
I agree they are not the best names for their phones but cut them a little slack. They have to pick something that isn't already trademarked and/or registered as a domain name. There isn't as much left these days as there used to be. At least they didn't just go with Treo/Centro plus numbers.
Looks like the now-released price is another problem with the device.
Nevermind about the immediately above pricing comment - wrong Palm device.
I am secure enough as a guy to easily own a phone called "Pixi".
Only self-conscious virgins and people with ED would be scared of buying a phone named Pixi and Pre....
Holy crap that rhymes? That's mother goose teaching you a lesson, nerdtalker. So make like an egg and get laid.
Wow, this looks like a great addition to the webOS portfolio. By changing form factors a bit, looks like Sprint may be able to satisfy BlackBerry and Treo folks looking for an OS upgrade. Very interesting.
btw, it's only 11PM central. looks like you beat sprint.com to the punch. What's up with that? :)
LOL @ the Palm hate.
All I have to say is if its got Web OS, I'm sold. That's what all those crazy apple fans keep telling me. It's not about the hardware, its about the software. Enjoying my Palm Pre.
MicroUSB for iTunes sync?
Oh Palm... when will you ever learn?
/cue 80s studio audience laugh-track
/cue sitcom scene transition music
So wait... you like iTunes to manage your music?
I'm confused...
Seinfeld: USB sync with iTunes.. I dunno...
Kramer: It'll be fine! Trust me.
Cut to next scene, where USB sync is obviously not fine.
The headphone jack seems a bit recessed... hopefully it still works with all headphones.
i like how its "just announced" 5 minutes ago and he already has all these hands-on videos and shit.
haha, clearly someone had a "do not publish" agreement.
ew no wifi?
Its just stupid of palm not to include wifi, my $99 e71x has wifi and I just can't imagine myself getting a "wifi-less" gadget ever. Not in this day and age. I think this is another fail device...
Agreed, wifi was one requirement when I replace my Blackberry Pearl here in November, so I already crossed this one off my list. It's a shame, it looks mighty nice.
Yeah ... Facebook I can sort of just about rationalize on a mobile data connection, but IM is very ungood. Nice latency, bro.
If a phone has to be mere millimeters thick to fit in your pocket, you're not a man.
Pixi?
Yes, that's that it says.
Please alert me when it has a landscape keyboard.
THis is one of the reasons why the WebOS is so much better than the iphone OS, scalability, you can have smaller and larger displays, you dont have to be stuck on one form factor.
The WebOS runs the same whether it's on a slider like the Pre or a candybar like the Pixi. I think what you mean is that Palm is making many different kinds of devices while keeping the same OS.
Windows Mobile, Android, and others can run on full-touchscreens or sliders or candybars. It's not unique to Palm.
I don't see how that really matters when all iPhones have the same sized screen...and I would prefer a bigger screen than what they're giving us with the Pixi. "You can make the screen smaller and everything will get smaller by itself!" doesn't seem like something you want to brag about on the "pro" list.
No, Michael. What he means is that the screen space itself is scalable. This happens to be one of the big advantages of using HTML / CSS for presentation :)
if you remember a while back, before iPhone OS 3.0 was released, Apple required all developers to make their apps resolution independent. Part of that means that apps are scalable in size. Apple is planning something that we may see September 9th or maybe it is mean for the rumored Apple tablet. Fact remains, all iPhone apps are resolution independent and scalable.
OK, I see. Because it's all web based... all you're doing is just making the screen a little shorter. Thanks.
Palm Pre: 320x480
Palm Pixi: 320x400
Quite impressive, Palm.
At $99, this certainly makes the BlackBerry 8520, which costs $129, look pathetic.
Palm is certainly making a push to show developers that they are serious about creating a good OS and great hardware.
I'm still glad I pre-ordered the Hero!!!
$99?? Its a cheap phone, it should be free on contract.
Weird, why no wi-fi?
3 words, dataplan, dataplan, dataplan
Probably removed the radio to get the phone that small.
I usually have the wifi off on my pre. I get 3g everywhere I go (yes, sprint is my carrier) and I don't notice the speed difference. so to me, its kinda a battery waster.
idk about ev-do but for hspa im pretty sure it uses more battery than wifi so ur actually wasting ur battery by turning it off :/
I actually don't really use wifi much on my pre. I usually have 3G everywhere, and the wifi gets turned off when you turn off the screen. So for a lot of simple things like quick opening an email, it is already loaded before the wifi even reconnects.
Wifi is a must for me, i download all my podcasts at home and use the 3G for all the other bits. If dl podcasts on the go, i blow through my 3gb cap in no time.
Cant say im sold overall, N900 still top of my list.
I'm a little surprised by the "lip" around the whole outer edge of the front of the phone. It was something I didn't really like much on the Pre, and I'm surprised they carried it over to this phone, I figured it was just to recess the buttons a little deeper for the slide, but not so much on this phone...
Anyway, looks good, but boo that it's only for Sprint (as of right now). Lack of Wifi is a stupid distinction too. Seriously, just make different form factors, you don't always have to neuter out features to artificially "hit" different price points.
Having a metal lip around the edge of the phone really helps with damage resistance.
me wants
Is that Om Malik demo'ing the product?
I think you forgot to say
"I stereotype people"
&
"I'm not funny"