About.com Rating
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The Palm Pixi makes a great first impression. This is one of the smallest, lightest, and most attractive smartphones I've ever seen. Its performance, though, doesn't quite live up to the standard set by its elegant design. The webOS-based Palm Pixi is not as powerful as the Palm Pre, and it lacks some key features, such as support for Wi-Fi wireless networks.
Price and Availability
The Palm Pixi is available for $99.99 when you sign a new two-year service contract with Sprint.
That makes it $50 cheaper than the Palm Pre, which now sells for $149.99.
Design
The Pixi is simply stunning to look at; its design gives new meaning to the word sleek. Unlike the Palm Pre, which sports a slider design, the Pixi is a candybar-style phone. It measures 2.2 inches wide by 4.4 inches tall by .4 inches deep. Place it next to an iPhone 3GS, and the Pixi is noticeably smaller. It also weighs in at a mere 3.3 ounces, which makes the 4.8-ounce iPhone 3GS feel like a brick in comparison.
There are some tradeoffs for the small size, of course. The first is that the Pixi's screen measures just 2.6 inches diagonally. That's significantly smaller than the 3.1-inch screen on the Pre, for example. I was, however, pleasantly surprised with how big the screen actually seemed when I was using the Pre. It never seemed as small as I feared. The same is true of the Pixi's QWERTY keyboard. The keys are tiny, to be sure, but they're nicely rounded and have a rubbery texture that makes them very easy to use.
Between the display and keyboard is the Pixi's gesture area. This is where you can swipe your finger to the left to return to the previous screen, or swipe your finger up to access a menu. The Pixi's touch screen supports multi-touch, too, so you can pinch and spread the screen to zoom in and out.
Making Calls
The Pixi's light weight and petite design make it very comfortable to hold during calls, and the phone offered very good call quality. My callers heard me loud and clear, and vice versa.
Software
The Pixi is the second phone to run Palm's excellent webOS, but the experience of using the software on the Pixi can't really compete. The Pixi's processor isn't quite as powerful as the Pre's --and I noticed the difference. The Pixi was noticeably sluggish on many tasks, such as launching applications or switching screens within applications.
Still, the overall usability of webOS remains excellent. I still love the "deck of cards" model that webOS uses; it allows you to shuffle through open apps (multi-tasking is available on the Pre, so you can have numerous apps open at once). I also love how you can sling an app up and off the screen to close it.
The Pixi ships with a document viewer and a PDF viewer, just like the Pre. And it also offers access to Palm's App Catalog -- but the store still feels a bit incomplete. While it has beefed up a bit since I reviewed the Pre, the store's selection still pales in comparison to what's offered in the iPhone's App Store or the Android Market.
GPS
The Pixi includes built-in GPS, and comes with access to Sprint Navigation for turn-by-turn spoken driving directions. It also includes Google Maps, which offers text-based driving directions, but not (yet, anyway) access to the superior Google Maps Navigation (Beta) app, which is currently only available for Android-based phones.
Messaging
Like the Palm Pre, the Pixi excels as a messaging device. The multi-tasking capabilities of webOS allow you to get notifications of and view the sender and subject of new e-mails without closing out of another application.
And, like the Pre, the Pixi takes advantage of the webOS Synergy feature. This collects calendar and contact info from your various accounts (including e-mail accounts and social networks like Facebook), and provides you with a central location for accessing all of the information. It's similar to the Motoblur feature offered on the Motorola Cliq. And, like the Cliq, the Pixi offers you a choice of a unified inbox, where all of your messages are collected, or individual inboxes for each account.
Browsing the Web
The Pixi lacks support for Wi-Fi wireless networks, so you have to rely on Sprint's 3G EvDO network for speedy browsing. That means that places where you can't get a strong Sprint signal -- like inside my house -- you're out of luck. This could be a deal-breaker for many people interested in the Pixi.
The phone's browser, though, is nicely designed and easy to use. I love that you can pinch and spread the screen to zoom in and out of Web pages. And even though the Pixi's screen is small, it never felt overly restrictive.
Camera
The Palm Pixi's 2-megapixel camera is a major disappointment. I could see the Pixi appealing to a younger shopper, someone who is new to smartphones. And that someone would likely want a much better camera than the Pixi offers. It took photos that were often blurry and dim. It lacks a flash and does not capture videos.
Music and More
Like the Palm Pre (and any Android-based smartphone), the Pixi offers one-touch access to Amazon's MP3 store, where you can download songs directly to your phone. Unfortunately, though, the Pixi -- like the Pre -- is limited to the 8GB of internal memory it offers; there's no option to expand that, so you're limited in how much content you can transfer to the phone.
The Pixi comes with a USB cord, and when connected to your computer, you can use Palm's Media Sync feature. As of this writing, the Pixi will NOT sync with Apple's iTunes software; Apple and Palm have been battling back and forth about this feature, and it may yet be added in the future.
The Pixi offers a basic music player on the phone, which is easy enough to use. You also get a standard headphone jack, and sound quality was very good. Additional apps include Sprint's Mobile TV service and a built-in YouTube app.
Bottom Line
The Palm Pixi is a bit of an enigma. If it offered Wi-Fi support and a better camera, it could be one of the best entry-level smartphones around. As it stands, though, the Pixi doesn’t offer enough features to make it more than a very pretty face.
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