Palm Pixi Plus review

The Palm Pixi Plus may have the name of a little pink fairy, but it looks more like a rubbery black seal. Its minimalist looks, full Qwerty keyboard and glossy touchscreen, combined with the webOS software we loved on the Palm Pre, make the Pixi one to seriously consider if you're looking to upgrade to a smart phone.

The Pixi Plus comes out on 28 May exclusively on O2, from free on a £25-a-month, two-year contract.

Packing the Pixi
The Palm Pre was a refreshing take on touchscreens, with a gorgeous, smooth user interface and a tiny slide-out keyboard. But the Pre wasn't cheap -- and its successor the Pre Plus certainly won't be -- and that's where the Pixi comes pirouetting into the picture.

The Pixi has the same small, rubbery keys on its keyboard, but this is no slider -- it's a traditional candybar shape. We think that's an improvement, since the slider on the Pre tends to become wobbly over time, and it has some sharp, plasticky edges. Despite being less expensive, the Pixi feels more solid and well made, with a rubbery back that looks smart and is comfortable to hold.

The buttons are small, so might not suit those with sausage fingers.

The Pixi makes room for the keyboard by chopping the screen down to 66mm (2.6 inches). That means less room for Web pages and apps, but thanks to a decent 320x400-pixel resolution, it's still very usable, and text remains sharp and readable.

Most of us like the Pixi's keyboard -- although the keys are small, they're easy to find because they stick out from the phone, and they have a satisfying click. If you have huge mega-thumbs, however, you might find them too close together when you're trying to type with two digits.

Your fingers can also roam free over the touchscreen for dialling calls and navigating around, and there's a smooth, touch-sensitive area underneath the screen that works as a home button, back button and menu button. It may sound confusing, but after a few hours of practice, we found the gestures were intuitive and even addictive, thanks to the pretty transitions and animations that accompany each swipe.

webOS wonder
We recommend you read our Palm Pre review for more on how the webOS interface works, but in a nutshell, apps that are running are shown as a list of rounded windows or 'cards' on the home screen. You tap a card to open an app in full-screen size, and you flick it away to the top of the screen to close it. There's also a menu of apps to pick from and a choice of four shortcuts you can access anywhere using a gesture.

webOS merges your Outlook, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo and Google accounts, so you can see all your email in one place, all your appointments in your calendar, and all your contact info is cleverly organised together. We've seen these features on many HTC and Motorola phones running the Android operating system, but it's particularly well-implemented on the Pixi.

The Pixi also has multi-touch support, which means you can zoom into a map, photo or Web page with a pinch of your fingers.

Unfortunately, the Pixi's processor isn't always up to working the full wonder of webOS. We found the phone very sluggish at times, especially when opening apps. When we were slow and steady, the Pixi was a pleasure to use, but if we started tapping at top speed, we often had to take a meditative break while the Pixi sorted out our wishes. We also had to start binning cards when the phone couldn't handle having the address book, Web browser and music player open at once.