Palm Pixi Review

SAN FRANCISCO: Palm Inc., which revitalized its product line with the Pre smart phone launch in June, is hoping to keep momentum going with the release of a lighter, cheaper handset called the Pixi.

The company said Wednesday that the Pixi will be available during the holiday season in the U.S. through Sprint Nextel Corp., currently the Pre's exclusive wireless carrier.

Sunnyvale, California-based Palm would not divulge the Pixi's price tag, but confirmed it will be less than that of its big brother.

Sprint dropped the Pre's price by $50 to $150 on Wednesday, including two rebates and a two-year service contract.

"The combination of announcing a new device and changing the price on the Pre show we're aggressively pursuing new customers to get them accessing the WebOS experience," Katie Mitic, Palm's senior vice president of product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday.

The Pixi's release will mark Palm's second attempt in less than a year to use new software and streamlined designs to lure consumers in the still small but fast-growing smart phone market, which is dominated by Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices.

According to market research firm NPD Group, smart phones made up 28 percent of consumer cell phone purchases in the second quarter, up 47 percent from the same period last year.

Palm hasn't disclosed the number of Pre smart phones sold.

But its stock has more than quadrupled since the company unveiled the device Jan. 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Like the Pre, the black, shiny Pixi will come with a touch-screen, full QWERTY keyboard and Palm's latest operating system, WebOS.

It will also have 8 gigabytes of built-in memory. But while the Pre's keyboard slides out from the bottom of the device, the Pixi's slightly smaller screen and keyboard both fit on the face of the candy bar-style handset.

The new smart phone is longer and slimmer than the Pre, and, at nearly 3.5 ounces, lighter.

It trades the Pre's center button for a tiny touch-sensitive bar that sits between the screen and keyboard.

As on the Pre, the real estate between the screen and keyboard also will be touch-sensitive for navigating the device.

The Pixi will sport a 2-megapixel camera, instead of its sibling's 3-megapixel version, and two small speakers rather than the Pre's single large one.

Building on an already available WebOS feature, the Pixi will be able to gather users' contacts from Yahoo and business-networking site LinkedIn.

The Pixi will include standard smart phone features like Global Positioning System, video and music players and a Web browser, but it won't have Wi-Fi.

A dedicated Facebook application will be released with the Pixi, Palm said. It is not yet clear if it will come loaded on the phone or will be available through Palm's online application store. - AP

Palm Pixi Review

SAN FRANCISCO: Palm Inc., which revitalized its product line with the Pre smart phone launch in June, is hoping to keep momentum going with the release of a lighter, cheaper handset called the Pixi.

The company said Wednesday that the Pixi will be available during the holiday season in the U.S. through Sprint Nextel Corp., currently the Pre's exclusive wireless carrier.

Sunnyvale, California-based Palm would not divulge the Pixi's price tag, but confirmed it will be less than that of its big brother.

Sprint dropped the Pre's price by $50 to $150 on Wednesday, including two rebates and a two-year service contract.

"The combination of announcing a new device and changing the price on the Pre show we're aggressively pursuing new customers to get them accessing the WebOS experience," Katie Mitic, Palm's senior vice president of product marketing, said in an interview Tuesday.

The Pixi's release will mark Palm's second attempt in less than a year to use new software and streamlined designs to lure consumers in the still small but fast-growing smart phone market, which is dominated by Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices.

According to market research firm NPD Group, smart phones made up 28 percent of consumer cell phone purchases in the second quarter, up 47 percent from the same period last year.

Palm hasn't disclosed the number of Pre smart phones sold.

But its stock has more than quadrupled since the company unveiled the device Jan. 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Like the Pre, the black, shiny Pixi will come with a touch-screen, full QWERTY keyboard and Palm's latest operating system, WebOS.

It will also have 8 gigabytes of built-in memory. But while the Pre's keyboard slides out from the bottom of the device, the Pixi's slightly smaller screen and keyboard both fit on the face of the candy bar-style handset.

The new smart phone is longer and slimmer than the Pre, and, at nearly 3.5 ounces, lighter.

It trades the Pre's center button for a tiny touch-sensitive bar that sits between the screen and keyboard.

As on the Pre, the real estate between the screen and keyboard also will be touch-sensitive for navigating the device.

The Pixi will sport a 2-megapixel camera, instead of its sibling's 3-megapixel version, and two small speakers rather than the Pre's single large one.

Building on an already available WebOS feature, the Pixi will be able to gather users' contacts from Yahoo and business-networking site LinkedIn.

The Pixi will include standard smart phone features like Global Positioning System, video and music players and a Web browser, but it won't have Wi-Fi.

A dedicated Facebook application will be released with the Pixi, Palm said. It is not yet clear if it will come loaded on the phone or will be available through Palm's online application store. - AP

Palm Pre Review

With the entire buzz and the hype around for the latest smart phone addition, Palm Pre has been into limelight for being considered as one of the best smart phones available at present. The unique design, the awesome features and connectivity makes this set a must have for all mobile lovers. Palm Pre has already been creating a lot of gossips and has been receiving great reviews ever since its launch. Let us look into the details of this mobile and check for the uniqueness of this smart phone.
Peaking of the design, the mobile comes in a vertical slider based mobile offering a full QWERTY keyboard. The mobile is well known for its portability. It weighs around 135 grams. The size of this mobile is small and does not look bulky at all, like other smart phones do seem to be so. The size can be compared to an iPhone touch and in fact, it is of lesser size than iPhone when closed! Being small in size, it still offers a great display and the 3.1 wide inch touch screen displays the colors brilliantly. It gives a resolution of 320×480 pixels which is quite great. The high glossiness of the screen may cause some issues while using it in sunlight but still it does not reflect too much.

Among the features, this mobile comes in with an accelerometer which works great with web browsing and image viewing. Besides the regular features like Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE, Wi-Fi and others, it is best known for the unique new platform Palm web OS which makes it connected to the Web continuously non-stop. The browsing is high speed and so are the others features of this mobile. The talk time and the battery life of this mobile is also modest, if not great. The memory can be expanded to about 8GB as well. Besides, the OS also has a unique search program which will start searching the words you type in.

Speaking of its camera, if offers great picture and movie quality. Thanks to the 3 mega pixel camera embedded in it. It also has an LED flash in it and range of other options for its camera. The music quality is great and offers good audio and video with proper resolution as well. Some of the features which are missing include absence of MMS messaging and the unavailability to copy and paste option. Having said this, to sum up this mobile is into a lot of buzz and surely, it has lived up to its expectations. It is priced well and is competitive in the market of smart phones as well. The mobile is made unique and can be claimed as one of the best smart phones around. With an excellent new concept OS and regular connectivity to the Web makes this mobile competitive. So competitive, that some group of users are finding this mobile better than Apple’s iPhone as well.

Palm Pre Review

With the entire buzz and the hype around for the latest smart phone addition, Palm Pre has been into limelight for being considered as one of the best smart phones available at present. The unique design, the awesome features and connectivity makes this set a must have for all mobile lovers. Palm Pre has already been creating a lot of gossips and has been receiving great reviews ever since its launch. Let us look into the details of this mobile and check for the uniqueness of this smart phone.
Peaking of the design, the mobile comes in a vertical slider based mobile offering a full QWERTY keyboard. The mobile is well known for its portability. It weighs around 135 grams. The size of this mobile is small and does not look bulky at all, like other smart phones do seem to be so. The size can be compared to an iPhone touch and in fact, it is of lesser size than iPhone when closed! Being small in size, it still offers a great display and the 3.1 wide inch touch screen displays the colors brilliantly. It gives a resolution of 320×480 pixels which is quite great. The high glossiness of the screen may cause some issues while using it in sunlight but still it does not reflect too much.

Among the features, this mobile comes in with an accelerometer which works great with web browsing and image viewing. Besides the regular features like Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE, Wi-Fi and others, it is best known for the unique new platform Palm web OS which makes it connected to the Web continuously non-stop. The browsing is high speed and so are the others features of this mobile. The talk time and the battery life of this mobile is also modest, if not great. The memory can be expanded to about 8GB as well. Besides, the OS also has a unique search program which will start searching the words you type in.

Speaking of its camera, if offers great picture and movie quality. Thanks to the 3 mega pixel camera embedded in it. It also has an LED flash in it and range of other options for its camera. The music quality is great and offers good audio and video with proper resolution as well. Some of the features which are missing include absence of MMS messaging and the unavailability to copy and paste option. Having said this, to sum up this mobile is into a lot of buzz and surely, it has lived up to its expectations. It is priced well and is competitive in the market of smart phones as well. The mobile is made unique and can be claimed as one of the best smart phones around. With an excellent new concept OS and regular connectivity to the Web makes this mobile competitive. So competitive, that some group of users are finding this mobile better than Apple’s iPhone as well.