Palm Pixi Plus Phone (Verizon Wireless)

by Palm

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 2 x 0.3 inches ; 5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00359FEFE
• Item model number: Pixi Plus
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The thinnest Palm mobile phone yet, the Palm Pixi Plus for Verizon Wireless is a smartphone that's designed to be easy to use and light in your pocket. In addition to high-speed connectivity on the fast and reliable Verizon Wireless 3G network, the phone's memory has been doubled to 8 GB and it comes with a built-in 3G Mobile Hotspot that can be shared via Wi-Fi among five devices--laptop, another phone, MP3 player, and more.

The Palm Pixi Plus features the Palm webOS platform, a strikingly thin design, touchscreen-enabled display, and visible full QWERTY keyboard (see a pop-up schematic of all the phone's controls and ports).

The phone's full QWERTY keyboard puts it all at your fingertips, and the multi-touch screen lets you move back and forth between open applications using natural gestures. The unique removable back cover is rubberized, making it scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and durable. With Palm webOS, you can keep multiple activities open and move easily between them--like flipping through a deck of cards, using natural gestures. This allows for easy movement between messaging and e-mail or searching the Web while listening to music, and items are rearranged simply by dragging them.

Palm's webOS interface brings together the most important information from your phone, at work or on the Web, into one logical view. In addition to linking information from Google, Facebook, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and LinkedIn, Palm Pixi Plus adds Yahoo! integration to Palm Synergy, which offers:

• Linked contacts that displays contacts from a variety of sources in a single view.
• Layered calendars that combine all your activities into one view--work, family, friends, sports teams and other interests
• Combined messaging presents all your MMS and IM conversations with the same person in a chat-style view.

You'll stay on course thanks to the VZ Navigator GPS turn-by-turn direction service. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, digital audio player, Bluetooth connectivity for hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, access to personal and corporate e-mail, and up to 5.2 hours of talk time.

Key Features

• Fast 3G connectivity thanks to the reliable Verizon Wireless EV-DO, Rev A network
• Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for accessing home and corporate networks as well as hotspots while on the go.
• 3G Mobile Hotspot: The Palm Pixi Plus comes travel-ready with a built-in 3G Mobile Hotspot--a Wi-Fi hotspot that can be shared among five Wi-Fi-capable devices. The 3G Mobile Hotspot is the perfect family vacation companion, and at $40 for 5 GB and 5 cents per megabyte overage, it provides an allowance big enough for sharing with the entire family for downloading games, Internet access, and more.
• GPS navigation capabilities via VZ Navigator service
• 8 GB internal memory (non-expandable) with the ability to work as a USB drive when plugged into a PC. You can simply drag and drop your PC media and documents onto the device.
• Palm's webOS platform lets you manage multiple applications at a time, unlike any other mobile platform today. It lets you keep multiple activities open and instantly flip from one to another using card view.
  • Linked contacts: With Palm Synergy, you maintain a single view by linking your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they're the same person and links the information together, presenting it to you as one listing.
  • Layered calendars: Palm Synergy lets you see your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view--combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
  • Combined messaging: See all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with a text message. You can also see who's active in a buddy list right from contacts, and start a new conversation with just one touch.
  • Combined e-mail: Check your Outlook e-mail with Microsoft Direct Push Technology and HTML support. Get wireless e-mail access to popular commercial POP3 and IMAP accounts like AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo! All your e-mail accounts can be viewed together, or separately from one simple application. Synergy even lets you see IM presence directly from an e-mail.

The Palm webOS offers the ability to keep multiple applications open at once with "activity cards," so you can do more than one thing without losing your place.

Palm Pixi Plus has the ability to pull in your online calendars from places like Facebook, Google and Office Outlook and layer them into one view of your whole day.

Each person's contact information is pulled in from places like Facebook, Google, Microsoft Office Outlook, and LinkedIn, and combined under one entry.

• Instant messaging for Google Talk and AOL
• Document viewer compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents

  Turn the Palm Pixi Plus comes travel-ready with a built-in 3G Mobile Hotspot, enabling up to 5 additional devices to connect to the Web via Wi-Fi (additional charges applicable).

• Universal search: Simply start typing to begin searching your contacts, applications, Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and Twitter. Universal search narrows down the possible results as you type, so it's easier to find what you need.
• Unobtrusive notifications: When important things come up or new updates arrive, you'll receive notifications at the bottom of your screen. You will know what is going on without being completely interrupted or losing your train of thought.
• 2.63-inch multi-touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320 x 400 resolution TFT display. Gesture area enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation.
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor: An accelerometer automatically orients Web pages and photos to your perspective so you can view them in landscape or portrait mode. Watch videos in landscape mode as well. The proximity sensor automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear.
• Exposed QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging
• Amazon MP3 Store enables you to download stereo-quality non-DRM protected tracks instantly to your wireless phone.
• 2-megapixel camera with a flash and extended depth of field technology. Other features include auto exposure, auto white balance, and geotagging capabilities.
• Bluetooth connectivity (version 2.1) includes profiles for communication headset, hands-free car kits, and the A2DP Bluetooth profile--enabling you to wirelessly stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones or speaker dock.
• Incredibly fast Web browser brings you full Web sites the way they were meant to be seen
• Voice dialing capabilities
• Organizer tools including calendar, notes, voice memo, tasks, calculator
• Ringer switch easily silences the device with one touch
• Browse the App Catalog from your phone and download apps right over the air. Choose from a variety of titles designed for Palm webOS, many of which work together with other apps on the phone. Find apps like OpenTable, Yelp, or WHERE, just to name a few... and new ones are being added all the time.
• Palm Services automatically backs up your phone so you have a copy of your important data. You can also remotely erase your data if your phone is lost or stolen. And you get software updates that make it easy to stay up to date with the latest enhancements.
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Bilingual interface: English/Español
• Hearing aid compatibility = M4/T4

Wireless Touchstone Charging
While the Palm Pixi Plus comes with a charger included in the box, Palm's optional Touchstone charging dock can recharge the device's batteries without connecting any cords to it. The first inductive charging solution for phones, the Palm Touchstone, along with the Touchstone compatible back cover (both sold separately), allows Palm Pixi Plus to be set on top of the dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. The device remains active while charging, allowing access to the touch screen, movies or video, or the speakerphone option.

Vital Statistics
The Palm Pixi Plus weighs 3.26 ounces and measures 4.37 x 2.17 x 0.43 inches. Its 1150 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5.2 hours (312 minutes) of talk time, and up to 350 hours (14.5 days) of standby time. It runs on the CDMA 800/1900 frequencies as well as EV–DO, Rev A 3G frequencies.

What's in the Box
Palm Pixi Plus handset, rechargeable battery, AC charger, micro USB cable, quick start guide, gesture guide

Verizon Wireless Services

• Reliable 3G Network: With support for the EV-DO high-speed data standard, you'll enjoy fast access to the Internet and Verizon Wireless multimedia services (additional charges applicable), with average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps and peak rates up to 2 Mbps. (Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered.)

• VZ Navigator Capable: With this GPS-enabled phone, you'll be able to access the Verizon Wireless VZ Navigator service (additional charges applicable) for voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, heads-up alerts, local search of nearly 14 million points of interest in the US (such as landmarks, restaurants and ATMs), and detailed color maps.

Product Description

This smartphone runs Palm's webOS platform, features a finger-touch display with a unique gesture area below, and a QWERTY keyboard. Other features include HSDPA 3G data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 2-megapixel camera.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I would give it 5 stars if not for the poor battery life, January 27, 2010

By 

L. Mcconner (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Palm Pixi Plus Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I love this phone. It's operating system is very intuitive and smooth. Also, the small size lends it a cuteness factor that is too hard to resist. Even though the keyboard is extremely petite I find it very easy to type fast and accurately. People have been commenting that the Pixi Plus is slower than the Pre Plus. I've played with both devices while in the Verizon store and while the Pixi is a tad bit slower it is still fast enough. The lag time is about 10 seconds or less. That is nothing; still super fast to me. This Verizon edition has Wifi, which is lacking in the Sprint model. Nice. From what I read the addition of Wifi should help ease the strain on the horrible battery.

Con:

Battery life. Even though I changed some of the settings to increase battery life I am finding that it still sucks. Even when it is just sitting in my purse the battery drains. So, basically you will only be able to get about a day's worth of a charge on this phone and that is with changing the settings such as decreasing the brightness of the screen, turning off the GPS, etc.. Depending on usage, you will find yourself charging it twice a day. Since I really do love this phone I will just have to put up with the battery and take full advantage of my AC adapter as well as my Touchstone. With this battery a car charger would be a good investment as well.

Pros: Everything else.

Three weeks later: I find myself more satisfied with the battery life. Manually changing the above mentioned settings on this phone does make a difference. It does not constantly drain from inactivity as it did before and even though I still have to charge it by the end of the day at least I get a full day's use out of it before I have to.

I also understand that Palm will be providing a wireless update for both the Pre Plus and Pix Plus that will give it the ability to record video. I remember reading that somewhere. I will check back and update my review when (if) this happens.

Ok. According to @Palm on Twitter a Sprint video recording update will be happening real soon. Alright, hurry up with the Verizon update all ready.

Downloading VZW's Web OS 1.4 now. Now I will be able to capture video, upload it on youtube,etc. Plus, according to Palm this update will enhance battery life. Yes!!!!!

Fully charged it last night (Sun) and battery life is at 74% the next night (Mon). That's awesome!

So, it's been close to weeks since I've downloaded the VZW's Web OS 1.4 upgrade and the phone is performing excellently. The speed of the processor has picked up a bit. Also, the upgrade makes the indicator light flash whenever you get an email, text, etc. So, no more having to hit the power button just to see if there are any alert icons on your screen. Thanks Palm so much for the upgrade!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Form and Functionality, March 29, 2010

By 

RegularEverydayNormalGuy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palm Pixi Plus Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

So after waiting like 6 months for Verizon to get the Pre, I was so ready to buy one, until I read a couple reviews on this little monster called the Pixi. I decided to go to the store and check both of them out. After spending 10 minutes listening to the Verizon guy tell me the Driod was better/manlier/cooler/whatever, I asked to play around with the 3 phones for a bit while he helped other customers. I encourage anyone to do this.

My impression:

The Pixi weighs something like half as much as the two others. It is slimmer than an iPhone or Razer. I could not tell if it was in my pocket or not.

This is how a phone should feel.

There was no sacrifice. The Pixi can do literally 98% of what the Pre can do. Unless you are planning on 800 mHz overclocks, opening 10+ cards, or 3-d games, the Pixi will do it. Now, I regularly leave my email, messaging, stocks, dialer, facebook all open simultaneously. I can instantly switch back and forth with a swipe, and no, it does not affect battery life to leave cards open. If I ever needed to call someone I literally just start typing the first few letters of the name, tap, and I'm dialing. Much easier than onscreen keyboards.

In comparison the Driod operating system felt clunky and slow. It was hard to switch between applications and there was no pinch zoom. It had a built in application that you had to use if you wanted to close down extra programs running in the background. webOS is everything Android should have been.

Not only is the pixi one of the smallest most capable phones on the market, but it's one of the most solidly built. With no slider it has zero flex and fits easily in your hand. I have fairly large hands (6'2" guy) and thought I would have trouble with the keyboard but it was actually easier than any other phone I have ever used. I can easily dial and message with one hand (I know it's not safe while driving, but this is coming from someone who regularly watches his friends drive with their knees while trying to type on an iPhone).

Anyway, if you can't tell, I endorse this product. Now that it can be had for free it's a no brainer. It is important to point out that the Pre is also free at some online locations and Walmart. If you want slightly more power check that out. But if you want one of the smallest most capable phones ever made, this is it. I'm hoping in a years time Palm will merge the Pre 2.0 into a slightly wider Pixi with the same slim feel and form factor.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really great phone for personal (non-enterprise) smart phone users, March 20, 2010

By 

M. R. B. "videcormeum" (Manchester, CT - USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palm Pixi Plus Phone (Verizon Wireless) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I recently dumped Sprint service and a HTC Touch Pro (awful phone) for Verizon service and the Palm Pixi Plus.

I noticed that the reviewers of this phone tend to be women. I suspect that with a name like "Pixi", males were not the intended market for this phone. However men shopping for phones should not dismiss this out of hand - I am glad that I gave it a look.

Just a few things I want to note:

Unlike in previous Palm phones - Centro, Treo Pro, etc, the keyboards on both the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi are significantly improved and much more usable. The Pixi's keyboard has what feels like rubberized plastic keys that are very grippy and spaced well enough apart that thumb typing is possible, even for a person with larger fingers (i.e. men, me).

The phone is super slim which is not only a nice aesthetic, but practical too - especially if you carry your phone in a pants pocket rather than in a belt clip case or handbag.

Finally, the Palm WebOS operating system is superb. While other OS's may have better or larger aftermarkets / application development communities, this OS is very easy and intuitive to use. I have not yet had to consult this phone's user manual for any routine tasks. Everything just works. Additionally, the integration with major web services (Yahoo and Google especially) are incredible. The phone can accommodate multiple e-mail accounts with ease. Calendars can also be synced with online services so that a change on the phone shows up online and vice-versa. Very cool. These integration features really increase the utility of a smart phone and I find myself making more frequent use of this device than I did my HTC Touch Pro. The straw that tipped the scale for me in favor of Palm's phones using the WebOS versus other phones and other operating systems is that, through the online Palm Profile (requires registration w/ phone activation) you can erase all your phone's data if your phone is lost or stolen. This is a feature that I imagine will be common on mobile OS's in the future, but to my knowledge is exclusive to Palm today.

Other users have noted poor battery life; for moderate use (3 or 4 hours of calls, texts, web, apps), the phone usually gets through 1.5x days of use, in my experience. If used heavily for multimedia (video / music), the battery drains quicker, of course.