Palm Pixi Plus

Slim & lightweight
 

The Palm Pixi Plus (left) next to the BlackBerry Curve 8520

Whereas the Pre Plus is a slider phone with a weighty, curved design, the Pixi Plus is a candybar mobile with a slim, lightweight feel to it. In fact, at just 1 cm thick and weighing under 94 grams, it's a pleasingly compact phone.
The 2.6-inch capacitive touch-screen allows multi-touch control with accurate results. Plus, just below the screen there's a full keyboard which, admittedly, doesn't look incredibly practical at first glance, but you never know (see below).

The phone's rear casing is made from a soft-feeling matte black rubber material. It's not quite the high-end Teflon casing used by HTC, but it's pleasant enough to handle and the phone doesn't slip out of your hands when you've been using it for a while. Another bonus is that it doesn't pick up fingerprints.

The on/off button (also used to bring the phone out of standby) doesn't seem very practical. It's on the top left-hand edge of the phone, and as it's set slightly back from the casing, it can be difficult to tell whether you've actually got your finger on it. What's more, the entry-level Pixi can't be charged on the Touchstone dock like the Pre Plus unless you buy a special cover.

A practical interface that can be mysteriously slow

The first time you turn on the phone, you have to sit through the tutorial explaining the basics of the touch-sensitive navigation system. For a more in-depth overview, the included booklet outlines the ten or so key gestures you'll need to remember. They're easy enough to learn, but I've certainly seen more practical systems. Anyway, once you get past the tutorial, you finally get to the Palm interface. Palm's WebOS is easy on the eye, well designed and well organised, and it makes navigating though the internal menus a breeze. The control gestures are easy to pick up too. To go back, for example, just run your finger over the slim, touch-sensitive bar under the screen (see video), which also flashes when you receive a message.
 

Although logical and easy to get to grips with, the interface can sometimes be sluggish. It's notably slow when scrolling through photos, for example, or when you've got several applications running at once. In fact, you may well find yourself sticking to monotasking. Demanding users or anyone who's used to faster smartphones (iPhone, HTC Hero or Legend etc.) may want to leave well alone!
 

And now for the keyboard. It's certainly not as comfortable to use as a BlackBerry keyboard or the slide-out keyboard of a Nokia Pro. These not only have more keys, but are also easier to type with than the Pixi Plus as the keys aren't quite so bunched together.
 

A small screen but a good web browser

We've seen phones with much better screens for surfing the web, that's for sure. However, the quality of the Palm browser and the accurate zoom function (just double click to zoom in exactly where you want to) make web browsing a comfortable and pleasant experience. The only real downsides are the lack of Flash compatibility and the fact that pages can sometimes be a bit slow to load.


It's strange that Palm decided to give almost all of its applications rounded corners, as on a small, 2.6-inch screen, rounding off the edges makes the applications even more difficult to view properly.

Multimedia: not bad for an entry-level smartphone

Don't count on the Pixi Plus for taking great photos wherever you go. At best, it's OK for occasional use posting a few snaps on Facebook, but not much more. The flash emits plenty of light without actually being that helpful, but the Pixi is fast to focus and has a fast shutter release, which is something.

A good number of video and audio formats are supported. Although video playback suffers as a result of the small screen size, audio quality isn't bad for a device of this type. Make sure you pick up a new pair of earphones though, as those supplied are just no good.

Finally, don't leave home without a charger as neither the Pixi Plus nor the Pre Plus have fantastic battery lives. In fact, even the iPhone—well-known for running the battery flat in record time—can outdo the Palm Pixi. I'm still waiting for the day I see multifunctional phone with a decent battery life of, say, more than two days. By definition, this type of phone is intended for frequent use so why can't the battery ever keep up?