Palm Pixi / Pixi Plus (CDMA)
Phone Scoop Review
Nov 12, 2009 by Eric M. Zeman
The Palm Pixi swoops into stores just in time for the holidays. Was Palm able to give the Pixi a magic touch, or does it need another dose of pixie dust to really take off? read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Best thing for your Palm!
I'll start off by saying that I have never owned a Palm device before now (always been a Motorola/HTC person), but this was definitely a great decision!
The Pixi is a powerhouse handset. I have had all signal bars consistently and also the internet works in a flash. Coming from Windows Mobile, I already understood the concept of a task mananger and with this phone you will need to swipe any cards that you know very well you're not even using. That will save you memory and keep the phone zipping along.
Pros:
Great style, durability.
Tactile keyboard (clicks when you type).
Nice web browser, very easy to use.
Full signal strength in most places.
Cons:
A little hard to customize the ringtone settings at first, but some reading will help that.
Web OS 1.4.1.1 was a great update as well.
PROS!!!!
all around good phone but just a few issues with camera specs. touch response is accurate but lags. expandable memory not available and thats what rates it a 4.0 also there is no camera settings no features should of came with magnetic charger as a standard feature. to make a long story short it gives the i phone a run for its money ;)
Best Smartphone (for ME) so far
It's been a long road but I think I finally found "the one". Got my first smart phone in 2008, a frustratingly bad HTC Touch on Sprint. After that, a brief fling with an iPhone 3Gs that I probably would have kept if my employer was paying for it but it wasn't worth my out-of-pocket cost. Switched to the HTC Hero on Sprint and struggled with it for 4 months before cracking the screen (6 foot drop onto tile floor)the lag was horrible, the ringer delay was 3-4 rings and the on-screen keyboard almost unusable (for me, yrmv). The battery life was also pathetic but I wasnât expecting much. Finally pulled the trigger on the Pixi after 3-4 sessions at the Sprint Store.
Iâve now had the Pixi for a week and have been completely satisfied. Note: I upgraded to WebOS 1.3.5.1 immediately. For my use (low volume texting, 3-4 calls a day and constant email use), it is perfect.
Pros:
Form factor â Thin and light, best smart phone form factor out there
Keyboard â A feat of ergonomic design
Syncing â Set up my Exchange account extremely easily (even syncs my outlook exchange tasks OTA). Emails arrive instantly with no apparent hit on the battery life.
Ringer delay â much better than the Hero
Battery life â best of the 4 smart phones I have had. Probably could get 2 days of use without a charge (yrmv, of course).
Call quality â better than other smart phones I have had but not by much.
Calendar â not up to palm pilot quality but better than the Hero
Cons:
Battery cover â a bit of a hassle to get open, will spend the money to get two touchstones.
Remember the Milk â I wish they had a native app for WebOS. Access via the browser is just OK.
Vibrate mode â very weak vibration alert, Iâm sure I will miss calls because of it.
App catalog â relatively weak compared to Android and Apple.
Screen size - I'm fine with this trade-off to have such a small phone.
All in all, I am very happy with the Pixi. Will update the review if anything changes.
Palm Pixi
What can I say about the Palm Pixi.
I only owned this phone for a few days before I returned it to the store due to continuous shutting down, and freezing up from the phone. However, the phone is not a bad phone. In my few short days, I did grow use to it.
Pros:
- Very lightweight and slim, heard rumor that it is thinner than the iphon.
- Beautiful screen, very responsive.
- Internet is suprisingly fast, for never owning a palm before, I definitaly misjudged palm.
- Can use full mp3's as ringtones and notifications.
- Camera is not bad quality, 2.0 mega pix with flash.
- Qwerty keypad very pleasurable to type on.
- Can bookmark your favorite websites onto your pixi allowing you to open them out quite fast.
Cons:
- Phone freezes up, and then only allows you to reboot (in my experience) by plugging it into the charger, and then takes at least a few minutes to reboot.
- Ringer, Speakers not loud. I missed several calls the first day because I couldn't hear the phone especially on loud.
- The silent button the side very easy to hit and turn off ringer while on the call, not good if you are not aware that you've turned off your ringer.
- Touch screen sometimes has a lack of responsiveness, meaning that you have to continue to touch the screen to access what you are looking for.
Overall I really think this phone is cute, however, the cons outweighed the pros for me at this time.
Would have been a great phone
So I picked this phone up the Wednesday after it came out. I'd been following Palm with the Pre, and even with the screen cracking issue, I was considering picking it up. I've had 57 phones in 7 years, so I have expirience with all except the iPhone-I NEED a physical keyboard.
Anyway, I got this phone after testing out the Samsung Moment (I had Verizon, moved out, and wanted to try Sprint, as where I moved, there isn't great service by anyone in particular, I'm in Rural Pennsylvania, started off in jersey). The moment has some bugs that it needs fixed. Got the phone, seemed to be great. Love the OS, the cards design is outstanding, the phone moves quickly. Was happy. Moved out to PA, there is literally no signal without a Sprint Signal Booster (Called the Airwave). So I LITERALLY had to charge the battery 2 to 3 times a day because it died so quickly (And that's AFTER I turned off all GPS services in an attempt to save battery life, also turned off Email Sync.) Then tonight, it decided it didn't want to charge, period. I don't know if I got a dud model, or if this is going to be a problem for the Pixi, like the screen cracking was for the Pre, but this phone is going back tomorrow and I'm taking my business back to Verizon. They are a bit pricier, but I know I won't miss calls out here with them.
PROS
-Keyboard works surprisingly well considering how small it is, I have large hands.
-When it worked, it worked.
CONS
-Speaker could be louder.
-Speed dial are a PITA to figure out, and I'm a tech guru.
-Battery dies entirely too fast, even with the services turned off.
Overall, it could be a great phone, but Sprint needs to improve their services in the rest of the country. Yah can't just work in Major Metropolitan Areas. Let's hope this battery charging issue doesn't become permanent, that I just have a dud phone.
Returned
Ordered online based on good reviews...I returned this phone in less than 24 hours. The reception was not good and it kept dropping calls. I could not hear intermittently. All the features were great. Basically, I run with a rescue squad and this phone was not going to be reliable for giving reports to the hospital in that reception was bad and it kept dropping calls so while all the bells and whistles were great...it didn't serve me well in its basic functions as a phone. Exchanged for a phone that when tested in the store had clear reception...I really wish this phone would have worked for me--it had many nice features.
