Palm Pixi Hands On Preview

Palm Pixi Hands On Preview

During Fashion Week, we met with Palm to get a first hand look at the new Palm Pixi, scheduled to grace the shelves of Sprint sometime before the holidays. We hope to get a device in for testing and a full review before it’s released, but here are our first impressions based on our hands-on with Palm’s second webOS device — the Palm Pixi.



Software
The Palm Pixi runs the same version of webOS that’s found on the Palm Pre. There are no changes to the core OS, but app developers will have to follow guidelines of the Palm’s Mojo SDK to ensure that apps display correctly on the smaller screen that’s found on the Palm Pixi. According to Palm, this does not necessitate the need for differing versions of an app for each phone. If written correctly, the app will adjust for the screen size of the Palm Pixi or Palm Pre. Essentially, this means that all the webOS updates will come incorporated in the Palm Pixi. More importantly, all of the apps that are found in the App Catalog will work when out of the box on the Palm Pixi.

Palm Pre vs Palm Pixi
First question asked by many is “how does it compare to the Palm Pre?” The Pixi is designed as a entry-level phone, where as the Palm Pre is a prosumer model. If you were considering a jump from the Pre to the Pixi, there are a four major differences between the two phones.

1. The processor, which is detailed here, is not as powerful. No word yet on the amount of RAM. Palm acknowledges that there will be a limit to the number of cards they can have open at any given time.
2. The screen is 320×400, which is 80 pixels less than the screen on the Palm Pre 320×480. If you watch movies on your device, this is where you’d likely notice it most.
3. Camera is 2 megapixels vs 3 megapixels on the Palm Pre. Both feature an LEF flash. We could not test picture quality during the hands-on.
4. This is an entry-level phone. To keep costs down, it does not include WiFi.

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