Today I’ve got the first of my Palm cell phone reviews, the Pixi Plus from Verizon Wireless. The Pixi is the svelte little brother to the Pre Plus, it’s a candy bar style phone with the keyboard right there for you, while the Pre Plus is a slider. In my time with the Pixi Plus I’ve grown to like it very much, especially the interface, it’s simple and easy to use. The phone itself is well made, thin and lightweight, but I personally prefer a phone with a little more heft to it. Overall I like the Pixi Plus but I did run into a few small issues with it…
We’ll start off with the video unboxing and then follow with some still pictures of the Pixi.
Verizon also sent me the Palm Pre Plus for review which I’ll have up next week for you, but here’s some pictures of both the Pixi and the Pre together for comparison for you:
Specifications:
Incredibly thin. Instantly conversational.
Vivid touchscreen and keyboard in one beautiful package.
The Palm PixiPlus phone helps you navigate your life with an advanced touchscreen, full QWERTY keyboard, and the intuitive Palm webOS that keeps multiple apps open at once. View websites and watch videos in widescreen. Bring work and personal events or contacts together into one simple view. All in an elegant design that fits perfectly in your hand, and your life.
Features:
-Palm webOS platform
-Touch screen with full QWERTY keyboard
-Wi–Fi Ready (802.11 b/g)
-3G Mobile Hot Spot Capable
-HTML Web Browser
-Palm Synergy –See contacts, calendars, or conversations from multiple sources in one view
-Memory: 8GB Flash/256 RAM
-Bluetooth® Wireless Technology –V 2.1
-MP3 Player with Palm Pocket Tunes
-Gesture area –enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
-2 Megapixel camera with flash
-3.5mm Headset Jack
-Music Player for MP3, AAC, AAC+, WAV, AMR, QCELP
-Download MP3’s from Amazon Music Store
-Speakerphone
General Information:
-CDMA 1x EVDO Rev A: 800/1900 mHz
-SAR Information: 1.47 W/1Kg at Ear; 0.730 W/1Kg on Body
-Battery Usage: Up to 312 minutes talk time / Up to 350 hours standby
-Dimensions: 4.37″ (H) x 2.17″ x (W) x 0.43″ (D)
-Weight: 3.26 oz.
Boot time takes quite a while with the Pixi Plus, but oh well.
I changed the background and ringtone to my own easily. When you connect the Pixi Plus to your PC via USB you’ll get the choice of Sync, UBS drive or Charge, if you select USB you can just drag and drop pictures and music and whatever to the phone.
I had a video for you of the interface etc, but the screen is just so reflective it was pretty much impossible to get it done without me, the camera and the background getting in the picture, so I’ve got still pictures for you. I actually took these pictures in the dark with a blanket over my head to eliminate most all reflection, it was interesting but it worked..
To wake the phone you just hit the power button and the interface lights up for you, you can do the same to lock the phone as well. To unlock the phone you’ll slide the little lock icon, when it’s locked though you’ll see your newest email message there for you.
Once you unlock the phone there’s a few icons at the bottom of the screen Phone, Address Book, Email, Calendar and Settings or Menu.
Touching the menu button brings up your settings etc which consist of three menus that move right and left with the swipe of your finger.
The dialer pad is nice and large, though I did find myself hitting other numbers at times.
Browsing the web is decent on the Verizon network, the speeds you’ll get will depend on your area and the sites you’re visiting. You can view sites in landscape or portrait mode and you can zoom in and out as well.
I linked two of my gmail accounts to the Pixi and it worked well, it was easy to setup and use. When sending a message it automatically adds the cute little ‘Sent from my Palm Pixi Plus’ to the bottom of the message.
There’s a little light up bar below the screen that you can use as back or to minimize programs. Minimizing them though doesn’t make them go away, they just get smaller.
On the main screen you can have several things open and just scroll back and forth between them.
The Palm Pixi Plus keyboard does light up but it really isn’t that bright. The following picture was taken in almost total darkness, and as you can see it’s not too bright. For me I don’t really like the keyboard at all, it’s just too small, my thumb easily covers six keys at a time and that’s not very good when trying to type on it. You can type on it, just not fast at all.
As far as usability, I love this phone truly, even with the few faults it has. In my time with it I found I could use it one-handed, just swiping with my thumb. For the most part it responded well, there were times that it would take more than one swipe to do something though, but it’s anew style interface for me so I’m really getting accustomed to it. Overall though I like it. The interface seems snappy and fast and smooth, but I did run across times when things would just seem to take longer than I felt they should or at least longer than other times I did the same exact thing. A small issue I ran across was that the Pixi Plus would just lock itself for no reason sometimes, I’ll be doing something and the screen would go black, not sure why.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi worked well, no issues there. I connected the Pixi Plus to my Jawbone2 and to the solChat II that I just reviewed with no issues at all, re-pairing worked every time.
The included VZ Navigator worked I guess, but I like my TomTom, both on my WinMo phone and the stand alone unit I have. The VZ Navigator can work in a pinch but I found it wasn’t very accurate for whatever reason, maybe it was just me. I live within 5 minutes driving of my kids school so I tried to get directions from the school to my home just to play around while I was sitting waiting for them to come out, it had me going on a 30 minutes drive to get to my house. Just a bit weird to me…
I didn’t mess with the AmazonMP3, and YouTube is YouTube, if you want to watch some videos then go for it, personally I don’t like watching on such a small screen.
I did get the Mobile HotSpot from Verizon I thought I’d try it out over the weekend, we got hammered here with snow, power was out so I thought hook my netbook up to the phone and try it out, apparently the unit I got for review wasn’t setup for it. Yes it’s a nice idea but it wouldn’t work for me so I can’t comment on it really.
My call quality here in Pittsburgh is decent on the Verizon network and with the Palm Pixi Plus. There were times though that people would ask me to repeat myself, not sure what was going on there.
The phone itself fells solidly made, it’s thin and lightweight. It is though very glossy and reflective so using it outside requires you to find the correct angle to avoid glare. The gloss also picks up dust and fingerprints, you’ll be wiping it clean often. The Palm Pixi Plus is a phone that just screams the need for an anti-glare screen protector.
The camera does have a flash on it but it still doesn’t help with indoor pictures really. The following pictures were taken with the blinds open and sun light shining in and the overhead light on as well. They seem very dark to me. The first two are with the flash and they’re clear but the rest are no flash and they aren’t really. Close up pictures don’t work well either.
Here’s two that were taken outside in my car in the sunlight, they’re not bad but close ups don’t work well here either.
The Palm Pixi Plus is a nice phone, but it’s not for me, I like a phone that has a bit more weight to it. It’s thin yes, but I was always worried about breaking it. It’s not a phone that I would keep in a pants pocket for sure.
Conclusion:
The Palm Pixi Plus from Verizon Wireless is decent phone overall, but it’s not without some faults.
Part of the reason I don’t care for this phone is personal, it just seems to small and delicate for me, the other part is usability with the very small keyboard, I just don’t like it at all.
The camera is as expected for a cell phone, I really haven’t run across a phone that can take very good pictures, at this point I give up hoping for one, give it a few more years maybe.
Pros:
+Nicely made, thin and lightweight
+Easy and fun to use
+Finger friendly
+Good call quality
+Wi-Fi, BlueTooth work well
Cons:
-Very small keyboard
-Interface can be sluggish at times
-Camera not that good indoors
-Screen shuts off for no reason sometimes
| Grades: | |
| Overall |  |
| Design | |
| Performance | |
This product was given to technogog for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products. To learn more about our review policy please visit this page HERE.