Just as we'd
heard earlier this morning, today's the day that Palm and Sprint come clean with their undercover plans for the former's second-ever webOS device. The
Pixi, which we toyed with back on our
first Engadget Show, is slated to hit Sprint stores, Best Buy, RadioShack and select Walmart locations on November 15th for $99.99, but that's after a $50 instant rebate and a $100 mail-in rebate that you'll be waiting ages for. Nothing here is all that surprising -- after all,
we knew it'd be on shelves before the holiday season -- but the $100 price point is downright depressing. The Palm Pre can be had right now for
just $150 (also on contract), and beyond that, both webOS devices are being offered on the exact same network. Throw this thing on Verizon,
AT&T or T-Mobile, and you've got a whole new wave of Palm customers; as it stands, who's really buying this with the Pre just $50 away?
posted Oct 26th 2009 10:27AM
It's about time. Damn rumor said the thing was coming out in October.
I wonder if that "Will it Blend?" guy will turn it into Pixi dust?
For some reason the layout of this phone really makes me want to switch from a 3GS to this. I dig the visible keyboard. Start throwing these to other carriers Palm!
"Who's really buying this with the Pre just $50 away?"
You would be surprised, quite a few people like the keyboard always visible without having to slide to access it.
(I still prefer to my Pre's slider to the Pixi's always visible keyboard).
I agree. I wish my Pre *didn't* slide. But I doubt I'll be switching (I mean, buying outright would be way too expensive).
If the camera was better & it had wifi I'd probably seriously consider it.
I returned my Pre because I didn't like the slider and constant need for 2 handed operation. I'd gladly trade in my Snap for another WebOS device.
Whether it's $99, or $299 means very little. Price of the device much less to me than the price of the contract does.
$100/month phone bills suck. grrrrrr
@crawdad689, 70USD a month since it's a Sprint "only" (going off the article).
i would buy this over the pre, i hate sliders.
Actually you're right. The slider is a big reason I didn't want the Pre, because dirt getting into my pocket on the construction site has already worked wonders on my G1. That and I didn't want the confusion of having the same phone as my wife.
I was half way waiting for the Eos to come out, I thought it would be cool to "buy American" but then they officially named it the Pixi. I already had a Centro, I was thinking of supporting them and that buying the second webos device would be cool. I could see the platform mature first had just like I have with the G1. Plus I could help Palm get a little more market share. But screw this Pixi crap. I can't go to the construction jobsite and say I got a Pixi. I might as well say I went and bought a butt plug. I'd be asking for personal ridicule. So I not getting a Pixi specifically cus they alienated the male demographic. I'm going to vote with my dollar and not buy their product. I mean you got guys running around with their mil spec Casio Boulder or Rock whatever you call it. That's a manly name, but i'd have a Pixi. No thanks but I would have bought an Eos.
Sucks for you Palm you did it to yourself.
No WiFi. That's $100 too much if it doesn't have WiFi.
@Doax
You are a straight-up idiot.
pixi is a gay name. what happened to all the outrage? everyone get used to the gay pixi name?
@Doax
wow...wow
Well obviously I'm in the minority on thinking that the Pixi name is too feminine. So maybe I wouldnt get ridiculed for owning one, on Engadget. Altho I still have beef with Webos not being able to forward SMS, no OSK or having Visual Voicemail. As for those who will say "why would you want an OSK on a phone with a 2.5" display stupid?" I'd like to have a T9 numpad OSK, like winmo has the option of using. T9 works great when you only have one hand available. Like when you're carrying something, or changing puppy pee pads with poopy gloves on one hand. Not fapping.
You guys think I'm crazy, but I'm sure if I bought a Pixi I'd hear it from my friends, as well as from the jobsite. To quote Brad Paisley "Yeah, with all of these men linein' up to get neutered it's hip now to be feminized. I don't highlight my hair, I've still
got a pair. Yeah, honey I'm still a guy." Have fun standing by the Pixi, and its feminine name. But I know most of you aren't buying one.
$200 to walk out the door - mass consumer product? No.
[btw - quoting the post-mail-in-rebate price as the actual price for ANY device is just wrong - mail-in rebates are used because the fulfillment of mail-rebates is MUCH less than 100%]
Best Buy doesn't do MIR. The Pixi will be $100 out the door at Best Buy.
RadioShack also does no mail-in-rebates on phones, so we can assume the $100 price right out the door there too.
I used to work in a Sprint store.
Everyone gets their rebates, it just takes some people one extra phone call to the rebate center to confirm their submission. If business is slow, the people in the store will call for you... so long as you are there.
Sad to see another perfectly good iPhone contender get owned like this. Makes you wonder whether any of those new Android phones even have a chance.
I would guess a lot of customers will jump on this due to form factor alone. Though it should come in other colors, like white.
It does come in quite a few back designs. Also white would look kind of ugly.
Hopefully we will get webOS 1.3 on November 15th too. Or sooner. MSN I want you!
Why Engadget never bothers to mention what kind of contract you need to get a phone for a certain price?
Don't you think that $50 a month vs $100 a month for two years make a big difference? (A way bigger difference than the initial "phone price"...)
I'm seriously confused...
Because the read link explains it all, you lazy man.
WmPenn: Following your logic, they could also leave out the "initial payment price" of $100, because it's explained in the link.
My point is that both the initial price and the contract price are important enough to be mentioned in the summary. If anything, the $70 plan price is more important, because $70*24 = $1680, which makes $100 not so relevant anymore.
In other words: I don't know why someone would care about $50 more or less for the first payment, when he'll pay (at least) $70 a month for the next two years.
I agree with your sentiments. I think I'd rather see Engadget publish the total cost. Instead of writing "Palm Pixi on sale November 15 exclusively at Sprint for $100 on contract" I would rather see, "Palm Pixi on sale November 15 exclusively at Sprint starting at $1780."
It is much more honest, however, when using this to compare against the iPhone, it doesn't work as well. The iPhone 3GS comes in at $1880 for total cost, but the service doesn't include any text messaging unlike Sprints unlimited plan.
Given that I would appreciate some more data in the summary if not necessarily in the title.
In case you don't know the Engadget drill yet it goes something like this... create a catchy smartass headline, mention very little if any relevent facts about the product, make a few snarky comments, occasionally take a low blow that's not warranted, and post a read link with the real info in it. That's your basic engadget blog formula. If you looking for accurate and detailed info on tech gadgets, Engadget probably isn't for you. ;)
The carriers have multiple plans at different prices. Do your own homework to find out what the total 2yr costs will be.
Anyone can get on a $60/mo. plan which is the same as the cheapest Everything Data Plan but with 500 minutes instead of 450.
Everything Plus - Almost all plans are cheaper and include more minutes.
Everyone essentially qualifies, but you gotta sign up with Sprint.
Once you get your device whether it's a Pre, Pixi, Hero, etc., if there's a price difference, call customer service and they'll credit your account.
It might just be the pragmatist in me, but it looks like your a little off...
Yep, i really want to spend 99 (and premium data plan) on a webOS phone with a slower processor, no wifi & low res screen. The Pre is already too laggy and barely usable.
I'll look at webOS when Palm decides to look at hardware like the HD2. Don't mind growing with ya Palm, but make it worthwhile why don't you?
the pre is barely usable? LOL k.
I dropped like half of my calls when I gave the Pre a try (especially when receiving calls). The phone app is crap. Too slow. Calendar is too slow.
So yep, barely usable.
I hate to see what the Pixi would be like with lesser specs.
agreed. while i love this form factor (i had a treo 700p on sprint once before), the lack of wifi absolutely kills it for me. i can deal with the decreased resolution and cpu speed, but no wifi is seriously an instant deal-breaker.
The Pre definitely has some issues or annoyances, but I still love webOS. YouTube videos show the Pixi chugging at 3 cards, so it kinda makes it hard to justify purchasing. I'm surprised Palm is happy with the Pixi's performance at all.
As for the Pre, mine was messy and buggy but I got it when it first came out. Had a problem with build quality, and from what I see on forums I made the right call.
I wonder if the patch that allows me to have ~25 cards open on the Pre will work to get 12-13 cards open on the Pixi...
Actually, the Pre can be had for $100 at Amazon, without any rebate madness. I was hoping for at the most $70 on the Pixi, but I guess it's more just an alternate form factor than a separate tier.
Except the Pre is $150 at Sprint and the $99 price for the Pixi is also at Sprint.
THUS, if the Pre is available for $80-100 (i.e. $70-50 cheaper) than the native Sprint price elsewhere, you can likely expect the same scenario for the Pixi- i.e. $29-49.
Think people think.
It's looking like _every_ webOS device is going to have to have that rather aesthetically unappealing blank area below the screen (for gestures). That's a pity...you could get more screen on there if you didn't need that.
More likely the gesture area was enlarged because the screen is smaller, not the other way around.
"as it stands, who's really buying this with the Pre just $50 away?"
People who don't need to slice cheese with their phone?
"who's really buying this with the Pre just $50 away?"
People who don't want a slider that twists like a turntable after a month. Or people who have pudgy fingers who despite the fact that the device uses the same buttons, can not use them with the spacing on the pre.
I'd consider trading in my Hero for this thing if they make the keyboard less sucky than the Pre's. From what I've read so far it sounds like they might have.
Yeah, I believe the keys on this are raised much higher since they don't have to meet the clearance of the slider.
Pixi is exciting because of it's form factor. The fact that it can only run 3 cards without chugging or that it has limited memory or no wifi is a huge issue...but I still find myself wanting it for the form factor.
Palm! Stop making me have to compromise!
A new webOS update should optimize the RAM usage. I think Palm is still engineering webOS to take advantage of their awesome hardware, because currently we have:
- RAM Usage Errors
- CPU Scaling OFF (this largely accounts for battery life issues -- it's always running at 500Mhz!)
- CPU Underclocked (again, 500Mhz)
- GPU is OFF (whabuzzah?!)
- App partition is static (there is an app storage limit)
I'm expecting Palm to nail these in the next 6 months, and once they do, to see a revolution in both the Pre and Pixi.
If they don't, well... webOS will have no place as a top-tier OS.
You see the size of that man's thumb? You'd need pixie sized hands to push them. And since a pixie is a mythological figure I fold. Good day sir.
Why does sprint (and everyone else, really) continue to pork everyone with bs prices. If its $99, sell it for 99. Stop with the 50 instant, then 100 mail in. This is why they stink! PU.
The 50 instant makes you feel like you're getting a deal or being treated special, or it's supossed to. The MIR is about collecting interest while they sit on your money, and benefiting from (1)breakage, where you do something wrong or lose a paper and can't get your MIR or (2)not caring/forgetting to do the MIR.
It's a scam that works wonders.