Palm Pixi

The basics

The slimmed-down successor to the Palm Pre, lighter on features, weight and price. But has it got the attractions to compete in the super-competitive touchscreen market?

The good

The Palm Pixi replaces the Pre’s boring slide-out keyboard and goes candybar in a way Nokia and Sony Ericsson could only dream of. The rubberised Touchstone back for wireless charging (an ‘optional’ extra that only the terminally cash-strapped should forego), makes the compact, tactile Pixi look and feels better than any other smartphone out there.

The Palm Pixi’s compact 2.6-inch 320×400-inch capacitive touchscreen feels restrained but rarely cramped. Web pages flicker into life with excellent detail and pinch-to-zoom is standard. The universal search and single inbox (now with improved support for Yahoo!) looks less revolutionary since the Milestone debuted but are still incredibly easy to use.
Beneath the screen a subtle touch-sensitive strip navigates you out of apps to the home screen, where you can shuffle through app cards and discard those you’re not using. The Palm Pixi’s QWERTY keyboard is, despite its size, gorgeous, and the raised keys give a reassuring click when pressed.

The bad

The Palm Pixi is noticeably slower than the Pre and lacks Wi-Fi.
The 2MP camera is pretty sub-par, and can’t match even the iPhone’s average optics.
There's no iTunes syncing and battery life that will only make it to a full day if you’re tucked up in bed well before closing time.

The bottom line

As frustrating as the lack of Wi-Fi and slowness of app boost up may be for power users, it didn't mar our anjoyment of the Palm Pixi.
The build is way better than most budget feature phones already on the market – and what do you expect from a phone that’s selling for under $25 (£15) on Amazon?