Palm Pixi Announced

Palm Pixi

The Palm Pre came out with huge anticipation and big fanfare, but recently Palm announced a new phone - the Palm Pixi. Like the Palm Pre, it uses Palms new WebOS operating system based on Linux. The multimedia smartphone is viewed as a successor to the Palm Centro - Palm's budget level smartphone. The name Pixi means just what you would imagine it to mean, the Pixi is a smaller version of the Pre that’s meant to attract consumers who wish to have the new technology at a cheaper price. Is price all that this phone has to offer you, though?

The Good

What does the Palm have to offer the user besides a smaller version of the Pre?

It's Really Thin and Light - At 0.43 inches (10.85mm), it's one of the thinnest smart phones out there. That's about 12% thinner than the Apple iPhone. At 3.51 ounces (99.5) it's more than 25% lighter than an iPhone.
WebOS
- Synergy - Palm's WebOS allows one to link together multiple email accounts, contacts, and calendars into one user interface. A friend of mine with a Palm Pre says that he wish he had this functionality on his desktop.
- Multitasking - You want to run Sprints' GPS Navigation, while streaming music over to Pandora - that's not a problem. Your co-pilot can even check his e-mail and hop on the web while it's going on.
Form Factor - A lot of people like the "candy bar" style phone with a keyboard that the Treo and Blackberry made famous. You can get that with the new Palm Pixi
Style - You can choose to keep a standard look for your Palm Pixi - or you can buy a version in various artist styles. There are only a few styles available now, but one might just match your personality better than a plain phone.
Replaceable Battery - This directly addresses the Apple iPhone's inability to change out the battery.
Touchstone - The Touchstone really is the best way to charge any smartphone on the market. You just place the phone on the Touchstone and it charges - nothing to plug in It's one of the reasons why I chose a picture that showcases the Pixi on the Touchstone.

The Bad

That's great, but it can't be all rainbows and puppies for the Palm Pixi at it's cheap price. What are the bad aspects

No Wifi - Any longtime Palm Treo fan knows what it's like for Palm to omit Wifi in a phone. Truth be told, I don't use wifi on my Palm Pre much or at all. Next week when I'm in Aruba, I will probably take advantage, but other than that Sprint's 3g network is great.
Only Sprint (for now) - The Palm Pixi is set to only work on Sprint's network for now. Some people have had problems with Sprint, but I've had Sprint for over 8 years now and have had no problems. I find their plans are very competitive compared to other smartphones.

We'll have more coverage of the Palm Pixi in the upcoming days as we dive into it in more detail

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