Customer Reviews

Palm Pixi Plus Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

This is my second Pixi & it is much better than the first due to the updates. It's got a lot of neat features & once you get the hang of how it works (which isn't too challenging) then, it's a great phone. If you do encounter something you are unable to figure out, Sprint (my carrier) has online chat help as well as phone customer service to help you when you need it.

It still has hiccups though. The screen goes black about one to two times a week. Also, when I push the power button to turn on or turn off the screen, sometimes I have to push it several times. The reception is absolutely horrible in my house of all places & the line drops resulting in another racked up minute if I've called a lan-line phone number. Next, it takes the web quite sometime to load a page even if the signal is strong. And last, when I listen to a video say on Youtube, I can barely hear the sound even with the volume turned all the way up resulting in me not seeing the video because I have my face pressed onto the speaker trying to hear. Other than that, the phone is great! Oh,I forgot. the battery life is terrible. I charge it once sometimes twice a day.

On with the good. The phone has a lot of great features. The touch screen is great. The calendar is very easy to manage as well as the memo & task menu. The task menu & calendar have a notes section at the bottom of their page which is helpful. When there is an upcoming event in your calendar, you receive a reminder from your phone as well as an email reminder up to a day ahead of the event. When on a call though, I'm unsure of how to hang up with the first caller to change over to the second caller without hanging up on both or having both lines open. So if you're leaving a voice message for someone & have to go over to the other line, the voicemail will continue running until you hang up both lines. The camera pixels are detailed at least as far as I can tell. When you're done with a certain application there is the feature of flicking the page upward to get rid of it.

So overall yes the phone has it's quirks, but it is my little helper & I have to take the good with the bad. I would recommend this phone

First impression was, believe or not, the packaging! Well done. I know that means nothing but still. The unit is small as is the screen. I have to use my reading glasses on some screens. I primarily bought this to use as a phone on PagePlus pay as you go service. I wanted the ability to use a keyboard for texting. I've turned off the data services because the cost is rather steep and will use WiFi where available or turn on data for those times I need internet access. I was not used to a touch screen device but it's fairly easy to master with this device. I really wasn't too interested in the app selection but I'll poke around to see what's there. I just really wanted a web enabled phone with a keypad. A little bigger would have been nice but I think I got what I was after and IMHO at $50, this is a great deal.

Quite pleased with this phone. I had the HTC touch 6800 prior to this one and the difference is night and day. The best features on this phone:

-Keyboard: so much easier than having to touch a screen

-OS: I like the Palm OS - doesn't freeze, doesn't need constant rebooting

-Resolution and Screen size: the extended screen helps as I can see YouTube videos and the resolution is good enough that offers great experience

-Sounds: I actually like the Palm sounds, a bit different than the Motorola or HTC

-Memory: 8GB is plenty. I have been using it for nearly a year and have filled no more than 1.5GB. I have plenty of pictures, some videos on it.

The negative parts are only few, but are annoying enough for me to mention them:

-The cover cracks easy. Unless you buy a protective plastic case, the cover will need to be changed

-Battery life: trust me, you'll need a car charger and a home charger. You will run out of juice quickly. I'd say about 6 hours total, before you need to charge it.

-Adobe Flash - Palm never developed a way to handle this, so you won't be able to view many videos. It does play MP4 and 3GP files though

Overall, I am more pleased with this phone than any of my prior ones. I recommend it for those interested in portable, small yet very practical phone.

I've had both the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus over this last week and can't say enough about the elegant webOS operating system that Palm made for these phones. The multitasking and ease of use are off the charts great. This phone shares a lot of the benefits of the Pre Plus, but there are some downsides to this phone that ultimately make me want to warn you off it.

This phone doesn't have SD card expansion capabilities. That's ok on the Pre Plus because it has 15 GB internal. But the Pixi Plus only has 8 GB so don't expect this to replace your music / video player. The Pixi Plus also doesn't have a video camera. In my opinion that is the biggest issue for both of these phones. The Pixi has an incredibly small keyboard. I assume that the Pixi Plus, because of its name and size, are made for women, but even a woman would have a hard time using this small phone's qwerty keyboard. Finally, the battery life on these two phones is short. You'll be plugging your phone into your computer before the day is through if you are a moderately high user.

Overall, an ok phone. But if you like Palm's webOS just get a Pre Plus. It is stylish, slightly larger and has a lot more processing power and internal memory.

This phone is everything I've wanted in a cell phone. Multitasking, great UI, and the ability for homebrew applications (something you'd never see on a WinMo, BB, or iPhone).

The only quibble I have is the battery life. That's why I charge it whenever I'm in my car, at my house, or infront of a computer.

For the price (free), this phone is great.

I've had my palm pixi for about week now and my reccoemndation would be- pass. This phone is more frustrating than it's worth.

Cons-

1) Battery life. Barely makes it to dinner when starting the day with a full charge. If you use it during the day, a few phone calls, texts and some email.. you'll want to recharge it about lunch time. This is not a phone that you'd want in an emergency if you can't even get one day out of it.

2) Mobile Hot Spot- this was the reason I bought the phone. I have yet to get this to work because I couldn't find the app. Went the to the Verizon store and they were able to fet the app up and running after several tries because..

3) Touch Screen- the touch screen on this is very sensitive. You will find yourself inadvertantly opening applications because you "missed" when touching the screen. Paging from one screen to the next is difficult as well. Often I'd wind up opening apps instead of scrolling. Repeatedly. The Verizon employee helping me with screen actually, after 5 or 6 tries to page over and instead opening an app let go an F'Bomb and looked up ashamed.. sort of a "did I sat that out loud?" All I did was smile and remark, "my sentiments exactly".

4) Slow- the phone is very slow to open apps. The thing freezes while it's opening or updating which is very frustrating as well.

On the other hand, good stuff about the phone-

1) The keyboard is excellent. Small but works great. My last phone was a centro and I was constanlty fat fingering letters, this one doesn't do that. Also, puting the "@" key as it's own.. very smart.

2) Display- the actual display is beautiful.. just try not to touch it. Emails and texts are very easy to read.

3) Call quality.. compared to an iPhone which is great for apps and email but very poor at calls.. this unit makes fantastic calls. The only complaint I have is the address book is your online address books and this slows the phone down when looking for address. It also means you're going to have to spend a couple hours cleaning up that old GMail or Yahoo contact list to use it.. One advice, if you have both pick one and stick with that one.. the phone and your sanity will thank you.

My overall experience, I'm sorry I bought the phone. The Mobile Hot Spot is the hook that got me and I've not even been able to get that to work. And, I'm afraid that when I do, the battery issues will really be a problem for long term use.

I like this phone when it works. However, after only a year, the phone now continually malfunctions.

At first it was the ringer switch. The palm pixi plus is designed so that if you need to turn your phone off when it freezes, you simply turn the ringer on and off and then the power button.

But the problem with my phone is that the ringer button isn't stable.

When it is in the on position, it goes back and forth between on and off, as if it's possessed.

Then the phone shuts off.

Turning it on, you have to wait around 3 to 5 minutes for it to be accessible, which sucks when you really need to make a call.

Now, it 's at the point where it just doesn't turn on sometimes. I press the power button and nothing.

If I flip the ringer switch back and forth it reboots and I don't need that delay.

The next problem is that, all of a sudden, I can't access the internet at all.

All of these problems came from no where. The warranty has expired and calling Palm is of no help.

Maybe I just have a defected model, but it defected after the year warranty. Very convenient.

So I'm stuck with this crappy phone until I can afford another one.