Palm Pixi Smartphone : Pre's Tiny Sister

Smartphone manufacturer Palm has unveiled a new smartphone called Pixi and based on its acclaimed WebOS mobile platform; it will be targetting the same sophisticated audience as the Pre but at a much lower price range.

Unlike the Pre, Pixi has adopted a flattened candybar format and comes with a fixed QWERTY keyboard; it boosts a much cleaner/purer design than the likes of the Nokia E71, Blackberry Curve and other similar keyboard-equipped smartphones available on the market.

Interestingly, it is the first smartphone (that we know of) that combines a touchscreen with a fixed keyboard; the Pixi's 2.63-inch display can display 320x400 pixels in a non-traditional, almost square 4:5 aspect ratio and is capacitive with multi-touch capabilities.

On top of that, the device comes with 8GB onboard memory, a 3.5-mm headphone socket, GPS, Bluetooth, built in accelerometer, a 2-megapixel camera with flash but no WiFi or MicroSD. 

The phone looks great and at just under 11mm thick and 100g, shouldn't be a pain to carry. Obviously, it is a WebOS based model which means that it will feature the same mobile environment as its big brother including the famed multi-tasking option.

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Pixi is also compatible with Palm's Touchstone wireless charging technology. Last but not least, it will be available on Sprint in the US (at a subsidised price of $149) with no release dates (or network) set in the UK.