Palm Pixi flies on teeny tiny Qwerty wings

Palm has announced the Palm Pixi, the smaller, lighter and flightier follow-up to the Palm Pre. It's a candybar rather than a slider, but it packs many of the Pre's best features

Flora Graham

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Flora Graham

Sept. 9, 2009 3:25 a.m. PT

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It'll be a while before we see the Palm Pixi leaning nonchalantly against a coffee cup here in the UK, but Palm's follow-up to the Palm Pre is soon to hit the shops in the US.

The Pixi is able to prance lightly on the flower petals thanks to its tiny size -- it's 55mm wide, 111mm tall and a wafer-thin 11mm thick, coming in at a fairy's whisker under 100g. But it packs a 67mm touchscreen, with a small touch-sensitive area underneath for gestures, and a Qwerty keyboard.

Like the Pre, the Pixi will use the Synergy feature to merge info from social networks such as Facebook with your contact info on the phone, with brand-new support for LinkedIn and Yahoo. There will also be a new Facebook app to mess around with when you should be working.

The Pixi will have a 2-megapixel camera with an LED photo light, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and 8GB of built-in memory. It'll also have GPS on board, but no Wi-Fi.

For some extra cash, you can choose from five colourful switchable covers, as well as bog-standard black.

Palm is staying mum about the Pixi's price tag, but it's sure to be the cheaper little brother to the flagship Pre.

Palm says the Pixi will be in shops in the US "in time for the holidays" -- ie, Christmas -- which is also the vaguely defined deadline for us to see the Palm Pre in the UK. According to Palm, it's keen to bring the Pixi to the UK too, but at this rate we'll have mobile phone implants before that happens.

Click 'Continue' for more photos and tidbits about this mischievous elf of a phone.

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The Palm Pixie will support the Touchstone, Palm's groovy wireless magnetic charger.

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The Palm Pixi sports a 2-megapixel camera with an LED photo light on the back.

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The Pixi's user interface is almost the same as the Palm Pre's, with the addition of a Facebook app and support for LinkedIn and Yahoo. Because it doesn't have to fit into a slider, we've heard the buttons on the Pixi are slightly more raised than those on the Pre.