Palm Pixi Review

Introduction:

The Palm Pre was arguably the most anticipated device of the year, and for the most part it hit the mark.  So how do you follow up the device that is supposed to turn your company around?  Meet the Palm Pixi.  This little sprite takes almost everything we love about the Pre and wraps it up in a smaller package.  Much smaller.  Like, sets a new standard small.  Some features are lost in translation, most notably Wi-Fi, and the screen has shrunk a bit, but the Pixi still embodies what we love about webOS and at $99 we can’t really complain.

Design:

Like we said this thing is small, and it feels amazing. Few CDMA phones have dove into GSM size, phones like the SLVR and UpStage, but never a smartphone.  When the Centro came out a few years back we were impressed with the size, but Pixi takes this to a whole new level.  The only phone that compares in size is the E71x, and while Pixi is a touch thicker it is shorter and more narrow.  It’s also nearly an entire ounce lighter.



You can compare the Palm Pixi with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

With no moving parts the Pixi has a much sturdier feel than the Pre.  It is so small and light that it effortlessly slides into the pockets of even the skinniest of jeans.  One casualty of the size is the display, which measures in at 2.63” and has a resolution of 320x400 pixels.  It also has only 262K colors, whereas the Pre has 16M, but the difference is not terribly noticeable.  The capacitive display seems more responsive this time, sometimes too much as panning and zooming on the web results in unintentional link clicks at times.  It is plenty bright though, and very usable.



The physical button found in the Pre’s gesture area has been replaced with a capacitive LED stripe on the Palm Pixi, but pressing it still minimizes the current app.  Below is the keyboard, which has again shrunk, but is more usable than the Pre’s.  Keys have a much better feel, and offer a very positive click.  We didn’t have many issues with the Palm Pre’s keyboard, but found ourselves enjoying the one of the Pixi much more.  We were immediately typing quicker and more accurately.  Unfortunately correction software is still sparse, though we needed it much less now.



Like the Pre, there are only a few buttons on the sides.  Along the right is the volume rocker, above that is the vibrate toggle and on the top left is the power button.  Towards the bottom of the left side is the covered microUSB port, which is quite frankly a pain to open.  Touchstone recommended.  The back door is more of a cover than a door, and wraps around the sides of the phone.  It is also a pain to get opened, but thankfully it is coated in soft touch paint like the Pre’s Touchstone back.  There will be several different designer doors offered.  The layout is simple: the 2MP camera and LED flash are centered at the top in-between two speaker cutouts, only the right of which is functional.



We love the Palm Pixi’s design, more than the one of the Pre actually. The Pre is definitely the premium device of the two with a larger, more vibrant screen and better specs, but the Pixi just feels so wonderful in the hand.  We can’t quite believe just how small this thing is, and as much as we tell you it can’t be appreciated until you actually hold one in your hand.  Despite being the low-cost alternative, Palm has knocked the design out of the park with the Pixi.

User Interface, Phonebook and Organizer:

*We covered webOS in detail in our Palm Pre review, if you’re not familiar with it please check it out!

Pixi is the second device to feature webOS, and for the most part it is unchanged.  Our unit is running 1.3.1, but there have been several software updates in the past few days so we can’t say that will be the final launch version.  Palm has been very responsive with software updates, and this appears to continue with the Pixi.  Whatever version it launches with, we expect it to be available for the Pre at the same time.  The interface seems to be a bit snappier as well, something Palm has hinted at, but there were a few things that felt a little slower.  We can't rule out that there may be a placebo effect going here as well.


Synergy is in full effect here, and as promised is now more robust.  The phonebook syncs with Google, Facebook and Exchange, but now Yahoo and LinkedIn have been added as well.  As always contacts are automatically linked between the different services, preventing multiple entries for the same person, and if one slips through the cracks it can be manually linked.


The calendar now offers Yahoo sync as well to go along with Google, Facebook and Exchange.  Tasks, Notes, Clock and Calculator all remain unchanged.



Messaging, Multimedia and Camera:

The Pixi features the same unified messaging that Pre does.  You can start a conversation via a contact with SMS and switch to IM part way through and it will all show in the same thread.  Yahoo Messenger has been added this time around.  Message forwarding is now enabled as well, simply tap on the message and you have the option to forward, copy text or delete it.


Perhaps Palm has decided to give up on iTunes syncing, or maybe they just haven’t implemented the work-around yet, but either way the Pixi does not sync with the latest version of iTunes.  The Media Sync option is still there however, so we tend to think they have something up their sleeve still.  In the mean time other work arounds can be used, or you can simply drag and drop music files onto Pixi in USB mode.  The media player remains unchanged, as does the video player.


The Pixi has a 2MP camera with flash, a step down from the Pre’s 3.2MP shooter.  The two phones share the same barebones interface with the flash being the only option.  The results were pretty poor: color saturation was too exaggerated, details were extremely blurry and the camera was only usable in good lighting conditions, despite the LED flash.  Pre was by no means a standout, but it was acceptable.  Pixi’s camera is a disappointment.  Video capture is still not available.




Connectivity and Software:

The Palm Pixi runs over Sprint’s speedy Rev. A network, but does not offer Wi-Fi for those not blessed with 3G coverage.  We don’t find much use for Wi-Fi on our devices and therefore don’t find the exclusion to be a big deal, but then again we’re well covered with 3G.  You’ll find the same wonderful WebKit browser, but the smaller screen is definitely noticeable here.  In options you now have an option to set your default search provider, though at this time Google is the only option.  There is now a placeholder for Flash videos; on the Pre these areas simply showed up as a blank spot.  We know Flash is coming, and it would look like Palm is getting ready.


The Pixi runs on Qualcomm’s MSM7627 chipset, unlike the TI OMAP3430 the Pre runs on.  The MSM7627 chipset has two ARM cores on a single chip, including one dedicated 600MHz applications processor, and a separate 400MHz modem processor to take care of some dirty work. There's also a 200MHz, OpenGL 2.0-supporting GPU that should be capable of handling some advanced 3D graphics  (once this is allowed by the platform, of course). Finally, a 320MHz application DSP is there to handle multimedia, including full 30 fps WVGA video encoding/decoding.  Like the Pre, the Pixi has 8GB of internal memory with no expansion available.

When the Palm Pixi was announced it mentioned a native Facebook client, but thus far there is none.  Included software is identical and includes Sprint apps like Navigation, NFL and NASCAR clients, as well as Office and PDF readers.  Palm’s App Catalog is growing rapidly, and now features over 300 entries.  Still just a spec compared to the 100K+ in the App Store and 10K offered in the Android Market, but it’s a far cry from the 18 that were available at the Pre’s launch.  There is a thriving homebrew community as well that roughly doubles the number of apps, along with a number of wonderful tweaks to the OS.

Performance and Conclusion:

Call quality was good on Pixi.  Callers reported us as an 8.5-9, saying there was a very slight echo, almost like we were in a chamber, but that it was a very minor issue.  On our end they sounded just fine with good volume and voice reproduction. Battery life on Palm Pixi is surprisingly good despite its petite size. Similarly to the Pre, it uses a 1150mAh battery, but we were able to get a day’s use out of it with about 1/3 of the battery remaining at bedtime.

The Pixi is a great compliment to the Pre and a worthy second entry into the webOS lineup.  Its size and feel is just wonderful and we think that many people would pick the Palm Pixi over the Pre because of this, even at the same price.  Sure, it loses some features like Wi-Fi and some pixels on the display, but we like the keyboard better and don’t mind the smaller display for the most part.  The HTC Droid Eris offers the best smartphone value for $99, but the Pixi holds its own and we feel that some people will prefer webOS, whereas others will prefer the Pixi’s size.  Whatever the reason, the Palm Pixi is a solid choice.

Palm Pixi Video Review: