RSSNever mind the iPods, there's a new Palm device!
By Tim Conneally | Published September 9, 2009, 1:23 AM
The second WebOS device from Palm, known as the Pixi has officially debuted. Like Palm's other devices, it will be making its debut on Sprint. Palm's Jon Zilber said in the company's official blog this evening that it will be released in time for the holidays, but did not disclose a price.
Looking something like a Pre in the open position, the Pixi has a slightly smaller 2.63" touchscreen (the Pre's screen is 3.1") but a similarly designed full QWERTY keyboard. With quite a narrow profile, the Pixi ends up being Palm's thinnest phone ever, measuring in at .43" in thickness. For comparison's sake, the iPhone 3G is .48" thick with a 4.5" x 2.4" footprint. The Pixi has a footprint of only 3.9" x 2.3", so while it is marginally thinner than the iPhone, it also is smaller overall.
Though it is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7627, a processor somewhat slower than the Pre, it carries the same 8GB of onboard memory.
It also has a 2 megapixel flash camera (instead of 3 like the Pre,) built-in GPS, an Ambient light sensor, accelerometer and proximity sensor, Bluetooth 2.1 (but no Wi-Fi), and will be compatible with the Touchstone wireless charger.
Really, it looks like a WebOS Centro, and as we all now know, the $99 Centro was a quiet smash hit for Palm. Unfortunately its margins were so low that its huge sales --well over a million units by late 2008-- were not enough to make the company profitable. But now that Palm has its upper tier already situated with the Pre, it can reel in customers with the Pixi like it did with the Centro and have some balance on the upper end.
Pre-orders for the Pixi are not yet being taken.
Would someone who currently has a Pre please comment on the availability / selection of applications for your device? I own a Centro at the moment, and being with Verizon, there just aren't many other Smartphone choices available to me. The Pre is supposed to be arriving at Verizon early next year, around the time my contract allows for a new subsidized phone. Also around that time, Android devices are supposed to be appearing at Verizon. Functionally, either OS is fine for me, but the deciding factor is going to be the app selection.
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|i just got the pre, there are a few apps for it, but not enough yet. They will come around. The pre its self is sofar is probably the best phone i have had, in both use and stiblity.
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|Actually, this is old news. This device is geared more towards the young than any other group. One look at the keyboard and you can see the how close together they are. the thickness, like the thin IPhone does raise some interesting questions- As phones get smaller the hardware needed to run the apps must get smaller and there is a point of diminishing returns. Besides the OS system on the IPhone, another reason that the IPhone has problems running more than one app at a time may be due to this desire for thinness. If you want a phone to do everything then you have to put in the hardware to run the apps and thin is going in the opposite direction.
I respect that others might disagree and look forward to reading counterpoints as I respect a lot of the opinions express here. Many have better knowledge about different aspects of tech and I still, naively, believe that I can learn from others comments and, occasionally, from the articles themselves.
Finally, This new phone has all ready been talked about on other "non-tech" sites which is interesting. I look forward to hearing others views on this.
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|pre's res is 320x480.
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|Thanks!
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|According to Palm, Pixi's resolution is 320x400.
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|As bousozoku stated, the Pixi has a resolution of 320x400. You really need to correct your article.
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|http://www.engadget.com/...int-this-holiday-season/
"The body of the phone is -- as we said -- very small, but the thickness is where it really struts its stuff... or lack of stuff. The Pixi is just 0.43-inches thick. To put that in perspective, the iPhone 3GS is 0.48-inches -- which means anyone who has complaints about sliding a handset into their pocket should be swooning."
Engadget is saying it's thinner than the iPhone. They had a hands on preview so I would lean towards believing them on that subject.
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|Re-read that sentence. BN are saying it's thinner too.
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|nice, will it fillet me? ;)
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|"it will be making its debut on Sprint."
I'M EXCITED LIKE NEVER BEFORE!
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|lol, I know right.
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