Playing with the Palm Pixi, hands on photos, first impressions

The Palm Pixi made an appearance and, of course, we had to mess with the it. Gadgetell took plenty of photos so you can see what the Pixi looks like in the harshness of reality and not some fancy studio. What are our opinions on the Pixi? Keep reading.

The Pixi has a rubberized back which keeps the phone securely in the hand. If you hate that rubberized back, you can opt to get other backs designed by artists. Some of them are available in a glossy finish if that’s what you’d like. If you want to toughen up your Pixi, you can even put a skull on its back. The keyboard has narrower keys that are raised more so than the Palm Pre. Palm also ditched the home button on the bottom of the Palm Pre’s face. Below the Pixi’s screen is a gesture area where a touch will bring up a menu so you can launch your apps.

The screen was as clear as the Pre’s even though there is less screen real estate on the Pixi. Attempting to type on the Pixi yielded not-so-great results for me. I’ll give the Pixi the benefit of the doubt and think that with extended use a person could get used to that keyboard. The Pixi is lightweight and narrow so it’s very pocket-able. Of course, the Palm folks would not disclose the price, but they are going after a different audience than the Palm Pre — a younger audience. Sounds like the Pixi should be around $100 to me.

Product Page: [Palm Pixi]