Palm, a company HP recently bought for about 1.2 billion, will release this month two upgrade models for Pixi and Pre mobile phones. Palm Pixi was a model we’ve analysed in the past and we weren’t so happy that time as it lacked Wi-Fi connectivity, but the good news was WebOS and the 600 Mhz Qualcomm processor. Is useless to say that the revamped models have the “Plus” word at the end, but at least let’s hope they’ll will bring a + comparing with previous ones.
Pixi Plus comes with the same look and feel the Pixi model has, the only difference it’s on the weight: Pixi Plus has almost 108 grams, while Pixi had just 100 grams. We cannot discuss too much about Pixi Plus because Wi-Fi support is the only important thing that this model has against his old ancestor. So, a final recap of Pixi Plus specs:
-full QWERTY keyboard and a 2.63-inches TFT capacitive touchscreen(320 x 400 pixels) with 256k colors.
–2 megapixel camera.
-600Mhz Qualcomm MSM7627 processor, Palm WEB OS(1.3.1) and 256 Mb RAM memory.
-300 apps available from the App Catalog.
-EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G, microUSB, 3.5mm port and now, Wi-Fi.
Palm Pre Plus is a totally new model for us, which keeps the design of the Pixi and comes with a new feature, the sliding QWERTY keyboard. The capacitive touchscreen have now 3.1-inches, but supports 16M colors, not 256k as the Pixi models.
At the back of the phone is a 3.15 megapixel camera equipped with enhanced fixed focus and LED flash. Is capable of shooting photos at 2048×1536 pixels resolution and features Video Capture and even Edit Clips feature. Don’t freak out Pixi phones have this feature as well.
Pre Plus comes with an ARM Cortex A8 600 Mhz processor with PowerVR SGX graphics support and uses webOS 1.3.5. Internals have 512 MB RAM and 16Gb of memory. Multitasking is also available.
Connectivity options available are the same as Pixi Plus: 3G, GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm and microUSB port. Gps is also available through A-Gps support and directions or satellite views are provided by Google Maps.
Both phones seem to have Mobile Hotspot feature available, but according to Palm official site this is only at Verizon Wireless only.
Palm Pixi Plus estimated price is $400, while Palm Pre Plus is near $600 at Verizon Wireless, starting this May.