Palm Pixi Plus review

Can the Pixi out-do the Pre with less tech?

The definitive Palm Pixi Plus review
The definitive Palm Pixi Plus review

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Populating your contacts book couldn't be more straightforward. Basically, just logging into your respective accounts does the job for you, without ever really troubling your SIM card.

When we logged into our existing Palm account, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail accounts (it can also handle Exchange) to recover our contacts. In addition, all of our Facebook friends were added instantly if they've made email addresses and mobile numbers available, which gave us access to a lot of new numbers.

Palm pixi plus

However, if you're one of those social networkers with everyone you've ever known on your Facebook, then this can be a little annoying. Nobody wants 800 names in their phone contacts book, but all you need to do to rectify that is remove the account.

Also If you've used an Android phone before and chosen to store your numbers on Google's servers, they'll become available too.

If names are duplicated then Palm Synergy will match them up, and it's easy to streamline duplicate contacts on the phone. Give yourself 20 minutes or so, and you'll have your address book exactly the way you want it.

Palm pixi plus

It doesn't have the same depth as the Sense UI on phones like the HTC Legend, because it's not really a people-centric device.

Whereas Sense serves up easy access to your friends' Facebook pages, status updates and photos from within the contact card, as well as Flickr activity, web OS offers an unclickable 'F' icon, underneath the name.

Why not make that clickable? You also have no access to your message and email history with that person.

Pressing the 'Call' icon on the Quick Launch bar takes you the dialler screen, and despite the curious lack of an on-screen keypad, you can touch to dial.

Palm pixi plus

Getting to contacts takes an extra step because you can't just start typing in to get suggested names, which is rather annoying.

Call quality is acceptable and comes through clearly on the loudspeaker. There's a nice option that asks you if you want to redial if the call drops out. Again, it's the little things…

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.