Palm Pixi Priced & Dated

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	27th Oct 2009

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Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the Pre is that its webOS software will be featured on every new Palm handset from now on, and now we know when the second one will arrive.

The Palm Pixi was first announced back in September but, unlike the Pre, it won't be taking the majority of the year to make it to market. Instead Palm has agreed an exclusive deal with Sprint to bring it to the US on 15 November for $99 on a two year contract.

Yes once again this is a US launch first, but I suspect we won't have quite the same lengthy four month gap before a European arrival this time around. Furthermore, UK contracts tend to be better subsidised than our US compatriots so the Pixi looks like a prime candidate to me for "from free" tariffs.

Aimed at a more wallet friendly audience, the Pixi sports a BlackBerry-esque form factor with a 2.63in, 320 x 400 pixel multi-touch capacitive touchscreen display, 8GB internal memory, a 2MP camera, GPS, an accelerometer and 3.5mm headphone jack. Interswappable back covers are also available to appeal to a more youthful audience while it is compatible with the Palm TouchStone wireless charger. Lastly, at just 111 x 55 x 10.85mm and 99.5g, it's slim and light too.

On the downside the US edition drops 3G for EVDO, but I can't see any smartphone hitting the UK now and standing a cat in hell's chance without it so expect a variant for Europe. More concerning is the absence of WiFi, a missing microSD expansion (as with the Pre) and a slower CPU given the Pre is already a little laggy.

That said, webOS is a beautiful thing and as HTC has proved with the Hero, performance can have as much to do with firmware tweaks as hardware. So fingers crossed, we'd really like this one to succeed.

Link:
Pixi Product Homepage

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drdark said on 27th October 2009

Ooh, I like the back cover in the middle.

What's with the wasted space between the screen and KB though where they could have had, like, more SCREEN.

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Stelph said on 27th October 2009

@DrDark The Pre had a swipable place just beklow the screen where you could do gestures, thats probably what the "wasted" space is for. But I agree, IMO this isnt the pho... more

cjb110 said on 27th October 2009

to be honest, I've only turned wifi on once with my Pre. What's the point when 3G is more than enough for basic web browsing, status updates and IMs.

I don't find m... more