Sprint today announced that the Palm Pixi will be released on November 15. It'll cost $200 with a two-year contract and after a $50 instant rebate. A $100 mail-in rebate will be given when signing up for a qualifying plan. The Palm Pixi will be sold through Sprint stores, online at Sprint's webstore and at Best Buy, RadioShack and select Wal-mart stores. Check out our brief hands-on with the second WebOS smartphone here:
At the Fall CTIA 2009 show in San Diego, we finally got our hands on the Palm Pixi, Palm's second WebOS-enabled device. We've been using the Palm Pre for quite some time, so we were curious to see where Palm would take their next step. If the Palm Pre is the new Palm Treo, the Palm Pixi is decidedly Palm Centro-like in feel and design. The Pixi is a tall, narrow phone with a full QWERTY on the bottom and a touchscreen up top. There's no ball-button beneath the screen, like there is on the Palm Pre, but in the time we had our hands on the new Pixi, we decided that the button-less design works better, especially for the swiping gestures necessary in WebOS. The coolest part of the new design is a small light bar that swoops left and right, something like the headlamp on K.I.T.T. in "Knight Rider," whenever you make the swiping gesture with your finger.
Even with this slight improvement, we weren't fans of the Palm Pixi design. It's nice and thin, but the long, smooth, glossy face had a bit of a goofy look, especially without the visual break that the trackball provides. Also, the screen is a bit smaller than the Palm Pre's display, and this means the interface gets fewer pixels. Icons were smaller, and some of the more difficult WebOS maneuvers were made harder on the Pixi.
Like they did with the Palm Centro, we expect Palm to target new buyers with the Palm Pixi. If Palm Pre fans are shaking their heads over the Palm Pixi, it's because the device isn't for Pre fans, it's for folks who are looking to step up from a Samsung Rant or LG enV into an attractive smartphone platform.
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