Palm Pixi now $50 on Sprint
Likely a direct counterstrike to Verizon's $79.99 Pixi Plus, Sprint has dropped the retail price of its original WiFi-less Pixi all the way down to $49.99 after $100 mail-in rebate on a new two-year contract. As you might recall, the Pixi debuted at $100, but now that the Pre's leaving it in the dust with both high-quality gaming and Flash support, a little more price separation between the two makes a lot of sense. Alright, Sprint, strong work -- now you've just got to drop the Pre a few bucks to distance it from Verizon's Pre Plus and you'll be good to go.
























I love webOS.
@RockNStuff Just got my 1.4 upgrade. WebOS is great, but waiting for WinPho7. Miss my Win Live integration.
@mhtucker78 haha, I'm all Mac, so I can't get my WP7 on. :(
That HTC Supersonic will just have to be enough, haha.
@RockNStuff Agreed. 1.4 is incredible. Sometimes I'm really in awe of how easy it is to do multiple things on the Pre at once, it feels more seamless than on my PC sometimes.
Also, and I may be an anomaly, but 1.4 has greatly increased my battery life.
@RockNStuff
I don't. Web OS is a couple of neat ideas surrounded by annoying bugs and agonizingly poor performance.
I'm an old school Palm Pilot user who followed them for years, and I don't relish criticizing them, but they wasted a decade developing a failed successor to Palm OS, then threw a hail mary in the form of Web OS. And it turned exactly as anyone who knows software engineering would have expected.
The reality is that it takes much, much longer to create a legitimate mobile operating system and platform. I think they'll be finished as an independent company in a matter of months.
@RockNStuff Its a pity they DONT HAVE A GSM VERSION FOR CHEAP
@mhtucker78,
WinPho 7 so far seems to run only one application at a time, which is surprising. webOS is so cool that it is "mine for keeps". I personally do not like the WinPho interface, I like the openness and elegance of webOS, it is pure genius!
@Stanley,
I would not want you anywhere close to my development team! I have used computers for about 30 years now, and what Palm has accomplished with webOS is simply stunning! webOS is efficient, beautiful, and easy-and-fun to use. The fact that webOS can run (multitask) 50 applications at the same time - fast and efficiently, while having the most innovative user interface, makes it the best smartphone operating system currently available on the market today.
You sound like a salesman working for the competition!
@RockNStuff
WebOS is wonderful, but I'm not too hot on the available hardware. Put WebOS on a device with WVGA, landscape mode, a side-sliding keyboard, and a resistive screen, and I'd be all over it.
best phone/dollar, even though its a meh phone
@artshark not really. im thinking that the centro is way better than these newer pal devices. oh wait. i know.
@artshark
I say the best phone/dollar would be the iPhone 3G- $99.
@think before you react I think the Droid for 50 bucks on Amazon is a hell of a deal.
@artshark
meh phone? Can your phone do this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-bGE7FCmDQ
@think before you react,
After thinking about the choices, the iPhone is not worth it. It can run only one developer application at a time. The Palm Pixi can run multiple applications at the same time. The iPhone cannot run Flash and will not run Flash in the future. The Palm Pre has Flash 10.0 built in and will support Flash 10.1 when it is released by June 2010, a major redesign of Flash by Adobe. With Flash you can run over 100,000 Flash games and thousands of Flash movie videos.
The iPhone's operating system is about 2 years behind Palm's webOS operating system. The choice is clear; Palm has the better smart phone experience. It is the best on the market! My wife and I have owned the Palm Pre smartphone for close to 9 months now, and we absolutely love it. It is easy and fun to use.
Sprint does not need to have a lower price on the Pre than on the Pre+ because the monthly fees are so much lower.
$69.95 gets you unlimited everything on sprint, with the exception of land lines - for which you get 450 minutes, should be enough for when you call grandma or leave Engadget voicemail...
@mogren
It's not the monthly price that keeps me away its the MIR! who in their right mind thinks people are enticed by a low price after $100 MIR?
IMO charge $75 for the device without a MIR- you will cut down on customers calling in not getting a MIR and you wont have to deal with a 3rd party handling all the MIR logistics.
@Mentat Best Buy it.
@mogren ^ What he said.
@mogren
I beg to differ Palm pre is no where as good as the iphone and sales proves it, heck they are giving it away and people still are not buying them.
@macandme
Comming from palm OS, I wanted a pre but instead I got an iPhone because it was the only "no-dumb-phone" from my carrier then.
After using it, Geez, this phone is just a polished dumb phone.
And it seems like webOS is missing some good palmOS features. But I like the multitasking function.
I think I ll wait for webOS 2.0.
Ps. Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is a nice, well built device and serves its purpose, just too limited IMO.
Wait...It doesn't have wifi? argh. I thought it did.
@questionexclamation
Nope, the Pixi plus on Verizon does however.
Anyone know if the Pixi is SERO eligible? I know the Pre isn't - haven't heard about the Pixi.
@bjsguess No it's not. Work for sprint sorry dude, it's lame
@bjsguess
Yeah, it is. Just search for the VP's code and email, they are online, and you can snag a nice $60 plan.
@Chalekan
Or know a close friend that works for Sprint :)
Yes I'm waiting for the next Pre.
Still not worth it. Sure, WebOS might have plenty of smarts to its credit, but the painfully slow hardware in the Pixi turns an otherwise competent operating system into a mockery. Sad part is: this is the ideal form-factor for such a keyboard-dependent operating system, far better than that of the Pre.
@Leindurstit
I half agree, this phone is a little laggy, but then again it's not really for a power user who may be trying to run multiple apps. For $50 bucks this phone is a steal.
@Leindurstit Out of curiosity, have you actually used a Pixi lately or are you just citing launch reviews?
The last few updates have made most of the lag issues disappear for your average user/Pixi demo.
@MrAkash Yes, we just got two Pixi Plus's to replace ailing blackberries at my work. They're painful. And the touch screen died on one of them after a weekend of use.
@Leindurstit,
Palm just released webOS 1.4 to give the Pixi the speed and performance it always needed. But if you want the top of the line, get the Palm Pre!
@mhtucker78
I sort of agree. Initially I was disappointed with the Pixi. II never expected Palm to release a nearly crippled device as their second phone. It felt like they never tested the OS on the hardware. I assumed it would work just like my wife's Pre in a smaller package.
But the 1.4 update is certainly snappier, and the preloading animations are a simple but smart addition.
For my non-power use it has become adequate. The physical phone is brilliant, I use it side by side with a BB Curve and prefer the Pixi keyboard and shape by far.
$50 = great, problem is its on sprint, = very little coverage
Can haz gsm?
@Hydra How can you claim that sprint has bad coverage and then request a gsm phone? Are you outside the US? If so sprint wouldn't matter to you so I'm assuming not... and GSM in the US does not come close to comparing with Sprint's network...
@Hydra
Sprint has the second largest coverage in the US, it is far superior to Tmobile and AT&T in terms of coverage. Actually its superior to them in pricing (especially AT&T) and is generally better at data speed too (though that really depends where you are).
@zsmorr
Not to mention free roaming on Verizon's network.
You can get the Pixi for $25 at Dell. Or get the Pixi Plus for free. Or the Pre Plus for $70. Or the Droid for $50. All are better deals than this.
@Jimbo same deals at letstalk.com
Funny. Radio Shack has been selling the Palm Pixi for $30 since late December, and all their rebates are instant.
The beauty of competition, when this comes out on gsm I will buy it unlocked for my mom :-)
That's still way too much
Just make it free already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-bGE7FCmDQ
webos is awesome!
It's been that way for a few days now. Guys, get this device.
Seriously, $50 for a phone that doesn't even have WiFi? If it's on a bondage basis ($30 extra per month = $720 for 2 years) it should be free.
The system of suckering consumers be in bondage for X years for purchasing an phone that goes obsolete in a year or less is ridiculous and destabilizes the economy. Buy the phone at the retail price with a credit card. People have to start rejecting being forced into contracts, even though the telecoms with their purchased government sanctioned monopolies force it.
My random thoughts on Sprint's Palm Pixi:
You can get Sprint's Palm Pixi at RadioShack for $29.99 right now. No MIR. Even with the absence of wi-fi, I think $29.99 is a great price for the Pixi.
I rarely use wi-fi to access the net from my phone (I have had the HTC Hero since November and just picked up the Pixi last Friday). I have a laptop and desktop at home. I have full internet access at work. Public wi-fi is painfully slow (at least in my experience). So, it's rare that I activate the Hero's wi-fi.
So far I'm really impressed with Palm webOS. I think the marketing for the Pixi was/is just wrong (not to mention the name). Despite the fact that it seemed to be marketed towards women, I still wanted one as I preferred the design of the Pixi over that of the Pre. My friends have enjoyed heckling me about the Pixi. Best nickname for the Pixi yet: "Fist Fairy." But, after the heckling subsides, they all want to check out the phone.
Oh, and even though it's really small, I think the Pixi would be perfect as a full touch screen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it could happen. One can dream.
Ok, enough of my rambling.
Good day.
@GeorgeAnthony
A wifi-less smartphone is crap to some folks like me who like to wifi tether when out and about and WITHIN the 5GB's of data i am ALREADY paying for without having to splurge on a silly $60 aircard.
It's obvious that the Pixi is not selling hence the price drop plus Verizon's Pixi plus has wifi which will make the difference to some, Sprint's price plans notwithstanding.
Which is why i'm still on a Sprint Treo Pro. Where's the Supersonic anyway???
Buying a Palm Pixi on contract and paying extra money upfront is one of the worst decisions you can make. It's a glorified feature phone that some have the nerve of calling a smartphone.
I have no idea what Palm was thinking when they made this stupid thing.
the pixi w/o wifi is a crap phone if you ask me, but it's better than a feature phone, so $50 should sound sweet for a non power user.