The Palm Pixi is the baby brother of the Palm Pre – fewer spec, less weight and, most importantly, less money. But has it got the smarts to compete in the highly competitive touchscreen market? Read our Palm Pixi review to find out…
The Palm Pre charmed everyone with its friendly, curved design and impressed nearly as many with efficient multi-tasking and universal search. The Palm Pixi strips away the Pre’s rather ordinary slide-out keyboard and goes candybar in a way that will make Nokia and Sony Ericsson jealous. The optional extra of the rubberised Touchstone back for wireless charging makes the Pixi a tactile, pleasing handset.
The Palm Pixi’s cute 2.6-inch 320×400-inch capacitive touchscreen feels restrained but not cramped. Web pages flicker into life with excellent detail and you get pinch-to-zoom. The universal search and single inbox (now with improved support for Yahoo!) looks less revolutionary since the Milestone debuted but are still incredibly easy to use.
The Palm Pixi’s QWERTY keyboard is, despite its size, simply perfect. The keys are raised and give a pleasing click when pressed, while a subtle touch-sensitive strip places beneath the screen navigates you out of apps to home, where you can shuffle and organise app cards.
The largest “but” is that the Palm Pixi is noticeably slower than the Pre and lacks Wi-Fi. So we had to wait a few seconds for an app to boot up, and there is the occasional glitch with multiple apps running, but it’s no worse than many budget phones already on the market, and considering the price – under $25 (£15) on Amazon – it’s a solid performer.
The Palm Pixi’s 2MP camera is the only feature that’s potentially embarassing – not even matching the iPhone’s average optics. Elsewhere, sound quality is decent, but you’ll find no iTunes syncing and the battery life will only make it to a full day if you choose an early night..
Verdict
The Palm Pixi isn’t a handset aimed to go up against the iPhone 3G or Motorola Milestone. But for people eager for a simple phone that looks great, can handle key apps and still fit neatly into a handbag or jacket pocket, this is a solid choice.
Love
Simple design, great keyboard, cheap price
Hate
Slow performance, low-res camera
The spec
Screen: 320×400, 2.6-inches
Connectivity, HSDPA, Bluetooth
Camera: 2MP
Storage: 8GB
Size/weight: 111×55×10.85 mm /99.5g