Palm Pixi Phone Sprint

Posted by Smartphone Review on March 7, 2010

The thinnest Palm mobile phone yet, the Palm Pixi for Sprint is a smartphone that’s designed to be easy to use and light in your pocket. In addition to high-speed connectivity via Sprint’s dependable 3G network (EVDO Rev. A.), a vibrantly colorful touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard, the Pixi features the instinctively useable Palm webOS platform. With Palm webOS, you can keep multiple activities open and move easily between them–like flipping through a deck of cards, using natural gestures. This allows for easy movement between messaging and email or searching the Web while listening to music, and items are rearranged simply by dragging them.

The Palm Pixi features the Palm webOS platform, a strikingly thin design, touchscreen-enabled display, and visible full QWERTY keyboard.

Palm webOS brings together the most important information from your phone, at work or on the Web, into one logical view. In addition to linking information from Google, Facebook, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and LinkedIn, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo! integration to Palm Synergy, which offers:

Linked contacts — A single view that links contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever.
Layered calendars — Calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams or other interests, and the user can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
Combined messaging — See all the conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, including MMS, even if it started in IM and switched to reply with text messaging. The user can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts or email, and start a new conversation with just one touch.

And a new Facebook application is available with Palm Pixi, enabling you to see and comment on all the latest news from friends and easily update their status.

The phone’s full QWERTY keyboard puts it all at your fingertips, and the multi-touch screen lets you move back and forth between open applications using natural gestures. The unique removable back cover is rubberized, making it scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and durable.

You’ll enjoy GPS navigation capabilities for accessing the optional Sprint Navigation turn-by-turn direction service as well as access to Sprint TV’s video-on-demand with full-motion video and vivid sound. Other features include 8 GB of internal memory, 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, digital audio player, Bluetooth connectivity for hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, access to personal and corporate email, and up to 5 hours of talk time.

Organize your work and social life by integrating calendars, contacts, instant messaging and social network sites.

Key Features

Fast 3G connectivity thanks to Sprint’s EV–DO, Rev A network
Palm’s webOS platform lets you manage multiple applications at a time, unlike any other mobile platform today. It lets you keep multiple activities open and instantly flip from one to another using card view.
Linked contacts: With Palm Synergy, you maintain a single view by linking your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they’re the same person and links the information together, presenting it to you as one listing.
Layered calendars: Palm Synergy lets you see your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view–combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
Combined messaging: See all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with a text message. You can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts, and start a new conversation with just one touch.
Combined email: Check your Outlook email with Microsoft Direct Push Technology and HTML support. Get wireless email access to popular commercial POP3 and IMAP accounts like AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo! All your email accounts can be viewed together, or separately from one simple application. Synergy even lets you see IM presence directly from an email.
Universal search: Simply start typing to begin searching your contacts, applications, Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and Twitter. Universal search narrows down the possible results as you type, so it’s easier to find what you need.

The Palm webOS offers the ability to keep multiple applications open at once with “activity cards,” so you can do more than one thing without losing your place.

Palm Pixi has the ability to pull in your online calendars from places like Facebook, Google and Office Outlook and layer them into one view of your whole day.

Each person’s contact information is pulled in from places like Facebook, Google, Microsoft Office Outlook, and LinkedIn, and combined under one entry.

Unobtrusive notifications: When important things come up or new updates arrive, you’ll receive notifications at the bottom of your screen. You will know what is going on without being completely interrupted or losing your train of thought.
GPS for built-in location: Find things to do and people around you, right from where you’re standing–like a nearby place for dinner after a late client meeting, or the closest bar where you can meet up with friends. You can even look up an address for a contact or from a calendar event, and map the location simply by tapping it. The Palm Pixi includes the Google Maps application on the phone, and it’s also compatible with Sprint Navigation for turn-by-turn directions, and points of interest searches.
2.63-inch multi-touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320 x 400 resolution TFT display. Gesture area enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation.
Accelerometer and proximity sensor: An accelerometer automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective so you can view them in landscape or portrait mode. Watch videos in landscape mode as well. The proximity sensor automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear.
Exposed QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging
2-megapixel camera with a flash and extended depth of field technology. Other features include auto exposure, auto white balance, and geotagging capabilities.
8 GB internal memory (non-expandable) with approximately 7 GB user available memory. Palm Pixi also works as a USB drive when plugged into a PC. You can simply drag and drop your PC media and documents onto the device.
Amazon MP3 Store enables you to download stereo-quality non-DRM protected tracks instantly to your wireless phone.
Bluetooth connectivity (version 2.1) includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and the A2DP Bluetooth profile–enabling you to wirelessly stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones or speaker dock.
Incredibly fast web browser brings you full websites the way they were meant to be seen
Voice dialing capabilities
Organizer tools including calendar, notes, voice memo, tasks, calculator
Ringer switch easily silences the device with one touch
Browse the App Catalog from your phone and download apps right over the air. Choose from a variety of titles designed for Palm webOS, many of which work together with other apps on the phone. Find apps like OpenTable, Yelp, or WHERE, just to name a few… and new ones are being added all the time.
Palm Services automatically backs up your phone so you have a copy of your important data. You can also remotely erase your data if your phone is lost or stolen. And you get software updates that make it easy to stay up to date with the latest enhancements.
3.5mm headset jack
Wireless charging: While Palm Pixi comes with a charger included in the box, Palm’s optional Touchstone charging dock can recharge the Pixi’s batteries without connecting any cords to it. The first inductive charging solution for phones, the Palm Touchstone, along with the Touchstone compatible back cover (both sold separately), allows Palm Pixi to be set on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. The device remains active while charging, allowing access to the touch screen, movies or video, or the speakerphone option.

Vital Statistics
The Palm Pixi weighs 3.26 ounces and measures 4.37 x 2.17 x 0.43 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5 hours of talk time, and up to 350 hours of standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A frequencies.

What’s in the Box
Palm Pixi handset, rechargeable battery, charger, USB cable, quick start guide, user manual

Sprint Services

Broadband-like 3G network: Supporting the EV-DO Rev. A high-speed data standard, this phone enables you to download and stream high-quality video, straight onto your phone. Where coverage is available, EV-DO Rev. A connectivity provides average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps, with peak rates up to 2 Mbps.
GPS capable with Sprint Navigation: This GPS-enabled phone provides optional access to Sprint Navigation for driving directions on your mobile phone–by voice and onscreen. Along the way, turn-by-turn directions will be announced in a clear voice and displayed on your phone. For example, Sprint Navigation will say, “Go 1.2 miles and turn right on Elm Street.” As you approach the turn, you will hear, “Turn right on Elm Street.” Sprint Navigation also provides proactive traffic alerts with one click re-routing. And it’s easy to find restaurants, banks, cafes, hotels and more from over 10 million points of interest across the U.S.
Sprint TV enabled: With Sprint TV, you can make your cell phone your always-on source for news, weather, sports and more. This comprehensive video service combines high-quality streaming audio and video from channels including the NFL Network, ABC, The Weather Channel, Fox Sports, E!, CNN, The Discovery Channel, and more.
Stay Sporty with Sprint: With NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, instantly connect to the NASCAR information you want, when you want it. Follow NASCAR action from practice to race day with real-time leaderboard and alerts. Get exclusive access to your favorite NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver with real-time driver stats, breaking news and more. Live in-car audio, race radio, NASCAR on SPEED and other audio/video only available on select phones. Visit sprint.com/speed for details.
To access, just text “NASCAR” to 7777 on your Sprint phone or visit the Sprint Digital Lounge to download NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile (standard text messaging and data rates apply).

This phone also provides access to NFL Mobile Live–your all-access pass to the NFL from DRAFT to Super Bowl. Stay on top of every game with real-time red zone alerts, game center scores, stats, and more. Manage your fantasy football team like a pro with up-to-the-minute insights, analysis, stats and alerts. Access by texting “NFL” to 7777 on the handset to download NFL Mobile Live from Sprint Digital Lounge (standard text messaging and data rates apply).

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Reality Decent, Potential BIG
I’ve had Palm smartphones for at least the past 7+ years and I have always liked them so when it came to upgrade my Sprint Palm Centro in November’09 I went for the Sprnt Palm Pixi. Here are my pros/cons after using this phone for 3 months:

Pros:

+Form Factor: I got this phone because it is one of the smallest thinnest smartphones I have seen. I like to keep my phone in my front pocket and the lighter the better. After using it for 3 months the size is still great although I wish it actually was slightly taller to accomodate slightly bigger screen. I chose the Pixi over Pre mainly because I didn’t want a slider (hassel to slide in/out and also durability concerns). I also like a physical keyboard and the Pixi keyboard is awesome (even for my fat fingers).

+WebOS potential: I see alot of potential in this software. Easy to use, fun to use. Nice to run multiple apps. Of course we are still in early release versions for WebOS and there are some things that need to be improved so I expect to see that over time.

Cons:

-Screen Size: Could actually be a bit bigger for internet experience even though I am partial to small phones.

-WebOS Current Reality: This is still an early generation of WebOS and that means living with growing pains. Palm has been issuing software updates which are good but some of the updates have reduced my battery life and also slowed down my phone. Sometimes there are noticable lags when using the phone features (ie, 5-10 seconds to open up an application, etc). There are not that many downloadable apps compared to iphone and android and developers want to develop for the biggest users bases first (in fairness I should note that no smarts phones are perfect yet and iphone and android users have their own gripes in their reviews). Cloud Storage- personally I don’t think web connections are fast enough or reliable enough yet to keep everything on the cloud…when I use an app dictionary I don’t want the app to lookup the word on the web (sometimes I am on an airplane or in a bad coverage area, etc). I think over time WebOS can be refined to be an amazing software platform…I just hope Palm has the additional capital to invest in this and keep up with the likes of juggernauts like Apple and Google (it may be a likely scenario that another player buys Palm and invests more money in evolving WebOS).

-Brand Name: Palm “Pixi”? As a red-blooded American male I almost didn’t buy the phone just because of the unmanly name…but finally I brushed my pride aside and bought it because it had the form factor I liked the best. When friends ask me what kind of phone it is I just say it is the new Palm Mini-Pre.

-Other minor details: No add-on memory card. No video camera feature yet (expected with future webos upgrade). Back cover durability. I actually like the changable back concept but the backing that came with my phone is already torn and coming off after 3 months (I will buy a new one for $20).

Overall:

=I give this phone 4 stars (3 stars for current usability reality, 5 stars for potential= 4 star average). This smartphone technology is amazing me (gps location tools, etc) and the speed of evolution is startling compared to my old smartphones from 5 years ago. It will be scarey to see what smartphones will be in 25 years…will we just be using implantation chips…or will we be absorbed into The Matrix!?

I hope you found my review helpful, I will try to remember to update my review if I think anything new/important is worth mentioning.

5 Stars smart choice for a smart phone
This phone is great! in comparison to the palm pre, it is almost equal, except for the lack of wifi (which is not that important to me). i like the fact that the phone integrates all my calendars and contacts from aol, gmail, facebook, etc. its VERY easy to use and set up. it has a touch screen with a ripple effect to help me see where i am touching, which is very helpful. i like the fact that it has a touch screen AND a qwerty keyboard. the keys are raised, so even though its a tiny keyboard, it isn’t too hard to push the correct keys. the screen is very bright, even on the lowest power setting. the phone weighs next to nothing. camera takes decent pictures, and the sound quality is great. the internet looks just like the internet, similar to the iphone. the only issue with the internet is that since the screen is so small, i have to sometimes look at it in portrait mode or be maximizing and scrolling a lot to see large web pages, but that’s a minor complaint, and its what i expected for buying such a small screen. This phone is sprint exclusive, and I had to switch from ATT to sprint to get the phone, and I have to say, so far, sprint has been very easy to work with and I have had no issue with my sprint service. the battery life is the only real con on this phone, but if you keep the screen brightness a little lower, adjust how often its connected and syncing to your email it’s not too bad, about equal to most other smart phone battery lengths. it charges very fast,and it comes with a charger and usb connector in one, which i like. I could go on and on, but for a smart phone that does basically everything that the pre does or is comparable to the androids and iphones coming out- this is a great little phone, and its practically a steal at $24.99….SOOOOO worth it! Also wanted to mention- i was scared to purchase a phone and plan and switch service through amazon, but it really was simple, and the phone comes with instructions to change your service/switch your number, its foolproof, even for the not-so-tech-savy-me.

BUY THIS PHONE!!!!

4 Stars Cool and very portable smartphone
I had the phone for over a month and it is proven to be a solid and fun phone so far. I really like the webOS software. I might have been jealous over the iphone apps but since I have an i touch, I can play games and use apps on that one. The very cool thing is the universal search. You just start typing and your contacts names start to pop up and if you continue to type you can also search google, google maps and even wikipedia. Apps even pop up when you start typing. For example, you type “M” and your contacts that start with M will pop up as well as your app “Maps”. And if you continue to type say “mustard” the os will realize you dont have any contacts or apps that match so it then offers to search google, maps and wiki for you.

The notifications are way better than I have seen with the i phone. Notifications get “stacked” at the bottom of the screen and you can “throw” the one off that you want to ignore with a left to right swipe.

This phone is great to text on. The keyboard is pretty cool and how the os organizes your text conversations is awesome. The synergy feature is very cool. It pulled my contacts from facebook and yahoo all together. Now I just add contacts to yahoo and the automatically are on the phone. I am less worried about loosing the phone and loosing contacts. I believe Palm also backs up contacts and stuff for you that you save to the phone itself.

For negatives: A couple of nights when I first got the phone the phone automatically shut off. But it has not done it again since. I wish the earpiece and speakerphone could be a little louder to be more audible in louder areas. The phone can be a tad slugish, but the time saved multitasking prob makes up for it. Apps are still in its infancy, but in my opinion, just the sprint navigation (which is awesome) is more useful to me than all the iphone apps.

Oh and back to the positive, 25 buck, really! I am looking forward to enjoying this phone and purchasing another high end palm in the future since WebOS is so easy to use. And the thing about pixi being for women is bs. Yes, the name is not great but its a sleek and powerful phone that can slip in my pocket and doesn’t even feel like its there. I have the touchstone charger on the way. Sure its a little pricy, but any phone especially the iphone is going to try to entice you with pricy accessories. I thought about the pre as well. My thought was grab this phone for 25 bucks and maybe get the next gen pre (when more kinks are worked our in the build) in a year or two.

3 Stars not that cool
I have owned the phone for almost two months now, and I came from using a blackberry, soo.. from comparison. this phone is pretty wack.

5 Stars LOVE my pixi!
I absolutely adore my pixi. I went through three phones trying to get to one I liked and am head over heels for the pixi. First I tried the reclaim, loved everything but the keyboard. It was so hard to type. Switched to the Incognito, it was too complicated, big and I didn’t like the keyboard on it either. When I returned it I intended to get the Lotus but the sales guy helped me decide what I really wanted and showed me the Pixi. I was looking for a phone I could text one handed or two handed, could hold audiobooks and had a decent speaker, wasn’t complicated to operate, reasonably durable, and was not ugly or huge. The Pixi is all that and more. I wasn’t sure I would use the web or email applications but they are so easy to use on the Pixi I use them daily. My three year old has chucked it and it survived but I had it in a case. So far I have only two complaints about it but they’re minor. The speakerphone isn’t as loud as I would like although it’s decent (the incognito’s was awesome) and I wish it had a dedicated call and hang up button. It’s frustrating to me to have to get the screen active then push the touchscreen hang up. I also have a hard time answering calls if i’m already on the phone for the same reason. It’s confusing to have to activate the screen then try to switch. I almost always end up hanging up on everybody. But, neither of those problems would cause me to give up the phone. It’s so easy to use and so cute. My hubby had an iphone which I used for a week when my phone broke and the pixi is so much better than the iphone. I would NEVER go back to an iphone after using the pixi. So, love this phone! It’s perfect for a techno-leary person who just wants a good phone that’s easy to use with a few bells and whistles.

Buy/More Info

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