Palm Pixi Hands-On Review

Only a few weeks after the release of the Pre, Palm has confirmed their intentions to come out with a follow-up to this highly regarded Smartphone. They have yet to confirm when they will launch the upcoming Palm Pixi, but based on the information that we have, it should hit stores either late this year or early next year. Here’s a look at what to expect for the Pixi.

Overall Design

By abandoning the slide-out QWERTY keyboard found in the Pre, the new Pixi has taken a more familiar design. It now looks like any other Smartphone that holds its keyboard on its front surface, in full view. This look, which was first made popular by the BlackBerry, has become the second most popular design when it comes to Smartphones. It is second only to the all too familiar iPhone-like design – the key-less front surface dominated by the oversized screen. With a more visible QWERTY board, the Pixi has taken a more formal, business-like vibe.

However, also available is the Pixi Artist Series line. Instead of going with the common black, shiny finish, users can opt for any one of five awesome designs. If you’re feeling more adventurous with your mobile phone then you can choose from any of these five funky themes: Red Barn, Skin, Skull, Two Fish, or Hummingbird. Take your pick.

Basic Features

The Pixi’s TFT capacitive touch screen measures 2.63 inches. Because of the addition of the QWERTY keyboard on the front surface, the screen naturally had to be downsized. It has the resolution of 320 x 400 pixels and is capable of displaying only 256 thousand colours. Nonetheless, it still has a handy accelerometer censor on board which facilitates the auto-rotate function of the device. This means that you can still use the Pixi in landscape mode – quite a unique feature for a Smartphone that takes on the BlackBerry-type design.

Aside from its quad band and tri band capabilities in the 2G and 3G networks, respectively, the Pixi also sports a host of data connectivity options. Among them are 3G, GPRS, EDGE, and of course, Bluetooth. Although this mobile’s internal memory is quite commendable at 8 GB, the fact that it doesn’t have an external memory card slot is a bit of a downer. But then again, the iPhone doesn’t have one either.

Smart Functions

Although the Pixi is being marketed as a downgraded version of the Pre, it is still considered to be a Smartphone. Therefore, in order to succeed in the market, it must have a decent set of features that have become prerequisites in today’s Smartphones. For starters, the Pixi’s operating system is still the highly efficient Palm webOS. The company definitely hit the jackpot with this mobile operating system and they surely know how to cash in on it. Under the hood is a 600 MHz Qualcomm processor which should be more than capable of handling the tasks of the Palm Pixi.

One of the biggest disappointments, however, is that there is no Wi-Fi option on the Pixi. Users will have to settle for GPRS internet connectivity and won’t be able to get online via WLAN.