Palm Pixi (Sprint)

Pros: webOS, all the way, form factor, keyboard

Cons: Lacks some basic business functions (hopefully to be fixed in future updates?)

Summary: I had a Pre, and then went to the Pixi. I liked the Pre a lot. Except the keyboard. I needed more tactile response to make it feel comfortable. I also thought it was a little big. I'm not a fan of the gigantic slab phones, like the iPhone. Seriously, I'm using this for email, texting, calendar, contacts and phone calls, and occasional browsing. I don't need a netbook-wannabe. Anyway, the Pre came in ok on size, but I still wanted something smaller.

I tried the Pixi, and fell immediately in love. It has all the advantages of the Pre, but a size and a better keyboard. I can type like a speed demon, out-typing my virtual keyboard friends by a wide margin. People complain about it being slow. Sometimes, maybe, if I have a lot of applications open. Not any slower than an iPhone for most apps. And the iPhone...it can't multitask. The phone is so light and thin, it's just a pleasure to carry around (because I forget have the phone with me). As a phone, it works fine. As a youtube player, it's kind of cool. As a PDA, it's pretty awesome. I love that it syncs with my contacts from many sources (if I want) (and yes, it really, it syncs. You should be using something to store your contacts, like an exchange server, google, or yahoo). I love that my phone is backed up every day over the air. I just wish I could invite people to attend meetings from the calendar app. Texting is flawless, and it does MMS. I don't use the device for video or a serious camera...I use real devices for that. I love the Amazon mp3 store...cheaper than iTunes in a lot of cases, and a breeze to use. The email app has a nice interface. It needs a few blackberry tweaks (e.g., ways of making filing my email easier on the device), but time will surely bring us there.

The webOS is a slick OS, and fun to interact with.

There is a healthy webOS community that develops applications and tweaks for the phone. Kind of fun to mess around with the phone, although I've managed to get the device into serious trouble. I've always been able to rescue it, though (the community is pretty good at figuring these things out). There are about 800 apps in the app store (from 30 or so in June to 800+ in December), although the full potential of webOS programming is not yet been unleashed. Soon. Some of the apps are really good, and like iPhone, a fair amount of junk.

Some people have complained about the screen being too small. Well, it's a small phone--you're not going to get a large screen! I like the smallness, and the power that has all been packed in there. The Pre has more screen real estate, but I really don't miss the extra area much at all.

the browser experience is superb. Not the iPhone, certainly not Blackberry, nor the 'droids can compete. Flash is coming early 2010. Cool beans.

While I still miss a few features from the way less sleek blackberries (a blackberry addict for 8 years), I enjoy using the Pixi (and Pre) a lot. Try it out.