Palm’s Pixi is better than magic dust

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (LIN) - The Pixi is the second entry into the mobile market for the venerable WebOS, developed by Palm. The first was the Palm Pre, a phone I use myself and have exhaustively typed my thoughts on. The Pixi has a great many number of similarities as its big brother, but also separates itself in a number of key ways.

Sprint was kind enough to send over a Pixi, and after spending a good deal with it, I can actually say it’s a great little phone with a number of key features. At the same time, the same things that held back the Pre hold the Pixi back.

I’ve long said that the greatest keyboard ever constructed for a mobile phone lies on a BlackBerry device, the Bold. The Pixi is the first I’ve used since the Bold that makes me rethink that idea. I absolutely love the Pixi’s qwerty keyboard and to me it’s the best part of the phone, which is good considering it’s supposed to get a lot of use. The keyboard layout is the same as the Pre’s, which brought some familiarity with it. Unlike the Pre though, the Pixi’s keys are unobstructed by the upper and lower lips that jut out on the Pre. This makes for a fantastically better typing experience because my thumbs aren’t running into anything. I found myself typing out messages quickly in no time, in texts, emails and while chatting in Google Talk. The keyboard is the backbone of a smartphone, and the Pixi’s delivers.

It’s been more than sixth months since I reviewed the Palm Pre, and for a phone that runs the same software, there’s been noticeable maturing. The App Catalog is bigger, there’s more polish on aspects of the software in almost every area. That being said, the App Catalog is still miniscule (only 774 apps as of this writing), and right now it’s plagued by useless apps (several dozen creations from “Brighthouse Labs” espousing news from your favorite sports team). There are gems to be had though, Pandora Radio is a must download for anyone using the phone, and there are a number of capable Twitter applications for those wanting to keep in touch. Plus, there’s now a Facebook application, which wasn’t there at the launch of the Pre. (Some would say that the Facebook application is sorely lacking features, and while it IS limited, the features that it has are extremely polished.) It’s definitely good to see the App Catalog growing, but as long as its still measured in the hundreds compared to the thousands (Google’s Android Marketplace) and the tens of thousands (Apple’s AppStore), there’s a lot of work to be done.

A lot is the same in the Palm Pixi when compared with the Palm Pre, that being said I won’t kill you in repetition, but will speak at much shorter length than before.

The keyboard has the same layout that I love, with dedicated ‘@’ and ‘.’ Buttons. If you have a Touchstone (Palm’s wireless charging solution) there is a backplate for the Pixi as well. Sprint sent one along, and it charged just fine on the Touchstone that I already owned. It also has the single most important feature that was on the Pre. The Card system is a marvel. WebOS delivers a multitasking system in its cards that is unmatched by any other system. Every program you launch runs in its own card. With a flick of your finger, you can switch to any card you want, running any number of programs. It’s easy and intuitive, so much so, that my four-year-old daughter has no problems launching programs and checking things out. There’s no nub on the Pixi, but there is still the gesture area for getting things done. Through gestures, you can bring up the menu, quick launch bar, or switch apps (provided you have that option enabled). Just like on the Pre, you can have multiple cards open at the same time, and performance stays up. Until you’ve multitasked on a phone, you won’t be able to really appreciate it. Not having to quit what you’re doing when you get a call, text or email is fantastic. The Pixi will remember exactly what you’re doing, because it won’t shut anything down when it opens up what you need.

I firmly believe that if WebOS fails to be a huge player in the mobile market, that someone will have to copy or at least mimic its style for applications. It’s just fantastic.

On the list of things that are the same, you can include the browser. While it’s still fantastic, it’s functionality is actually limited on the Pixi. Because of the Pixi’s candy bar style, the screen is smaller than the Pre’s. With a smaller screen, comes a smaller resolution. The Pre measures 480x320, while the Pixi only measures 400x320. At first glance, 80 pixels may not seem like that many, but it’s really noticeable. Cycle through to one of the images that shows the comparison of how much you’re losing on the Pixi compared to the Pre to see just what I’m talking about. While I still love the browser, the lack of screen real estate is a step back.

It’s still my favorite browser, better even than Mobile Safari (mainly because of the card system). It delivers the “real internet” and does so with a rendering engine that’s top notch. The multitouch interface responds quickly when you need to zoom in or out, and you can double-tap a column of text to it will zoom in perfectly to align to the column’s edges. The bookmarking system is the same too, which means your bookmarks will all have a title, picture and url associated with it. The picture is a snapshot of the webpage that you can change yourself. Rearranging your bookmarks is easy to, just drag and drop.

WebOS still lacks one key feature, there's no Flash support. But there’s not a lot of flash support out there in the mobile realm right now, so I can’t put too much weight into that. The browser is fantastic, and a real standout.

Just like on the Pre, email is still great in WebOS and that means the Pixi will not disappoint. I run both my personal GMail account and my work’s Microsoft Exchange Server account without a hitch. Push support is available, so the second I get an email on the server, I get it on the phone. I didn’t have problem with setup, and everything works the way it’s supposed to.

WebOS is designed to take in large amounts of information and make it easily sortable. You’re actually able to sync your Facebook account, along with the other normal accounts you’d assume would be syncable. Now, for some, this would create contact overload, but the way the system works, you can easily sort through your contacts by just typing a name. Palm calls the system “Synergy.”

It may require some sorting and contact management, but importing contacts for me is fantastic. I know that any update I make on an email address or phone number is automatically synced into my cloud of contacts.

Another great aspect of Synergy is that WebOS will recognize if you have contacts from separate accounts that are the same. So my Facebook and Google contacts will merge into one entity on the phone, and I won’t have to worry about doing it mself.

Carry on a conversation

One of the cool aspects of the Pixi is that it shares all of your IMs, SMS and MMS in one dialog box. So if you send a text message to someone, they can instant message you back and it will be in the same thread. It will even show you where the message came from so that you know how to respond.

I had no complaints with the audio quality while on phone calls. I used both speakerphone and handset modes without any problems. It’s loud and clear, and because I’m already a Sprint user, I had no problems with my coverage. It’s important to note though, like I have in every other phone review I’ve done, that your coverage will dictate the quality. If you live in an outlying area, you’re going to want to use the phone as much as you can to determine if you’ll be happy with the quality. I know it’s winter, snow’s falling down in some parts, but it may be your best bet to try the phone out in your summer vacation spot too. You don’t want to be in the middle of a 2-year contract when you head out for vacation and find out that your phone doesn’t work. That being said, I felt I had great coverage in the Metro Grand Rapids and Metro Detroit areas.
I have one major gripe with the phone, and a couple of minor ones. First, there’s no WiFi. That’s a huge let down. Not everyone needs WiFi, but a greater number of smartphones than ever are coming with WiFi. For me, if I’m sitting on my couch watching TV and I want to check something quick on the Internet, I’d rather use my home network than Sprint’s network. It’s just a personal preference, and one that might not be a deal-breaker for you.

The other gripes I have are both camera related. There’s no flash and the sensor is only 2.0MP. At this point, it was probably a cost-cutting measure on Palm’s part, but I really would have loved to see a larger sensor and a flash. It just makes it a more complete option and seeing as I’ve ragged on other phones for offering similar paltry options, I have to do it here as well.

The Pixi is a fantastic little device, and depending on where you shop for your phones, you may be able to pick it up for less than its debut $100 price. The Pixi wraps WebOS up into a smaller package than the Pre, but still brings along all of the features. Google Maps, Sprint Navigation, Calendar features are all packed in and are still fantastic, just like they were on the Pre. The media options are still available as well, including SprintTV that gives you access to a variety of different network shows at your fingertips. I was pretty lengthy in my descriptions during the Pre review, and seeing as nothing has changed, I’ll refer you to it, if you’d like to read more.

The Pixi is a great little phone, in a small little package and fits nicely alongside the other smartphones that Sprint has to offer.

Have any questions or comments? Shoot me an email or message me on Twitter.