PhoneTalk

The Palm Pixi for Sprint is one of the more affordable smartphones to hit the market. But does that mean it's light on features? Watch the video below to find out. Need more information? Check out our expert review of the Palm Pixi by clicking here.

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The Palm Pixi for Sprint will be available next week, but I've had a chance to spend a little bit of time with it. First, I have to say, it's a lot slimmer than the Palm Pre and a smidge longer. The Pixi isn't going to take up a lot of room in your bag. The construction feels sturdy. The back of the Pixi uses the same rubberized backing that comes included with the Touchstone when you purchase it for the Pre. The keypad, while not as spread out as the Palm Pre sports more rectangular keys, that are a bit easier to use. Also, the keys have a similar plastic raised style that's found on the Pre. However, if you look at the keyboard from the side, there's a bit of a 3D effect occurring, which is interesting. Instead of the button to shrink the size of apps found on the Pre, the Pixi has a white line that you touch to activate the same action. The display is not as big as the one found on the Pre, but it is still highly usable and crisp. The touchscreen is receptive and responds well to gestures, we did find that we had to occasionally touch the Done button a couple of times.

As far as the user interface goes, it's just like using the Pre. We particularly appreciate the fact that since we already created a Palm account on the Pre we just logged into it when first starting up the Pixi and all our contacts were loaded. We didn't just get our contacts, we also got all the apps we downloaded from the Palm app store. When the Pixi isn't in use, the screen goes dark. Simply press the power button found on the top left hand corner of the cell phone to activate the display. While it's not ideal, it does give you the sense that you won't accidently launch anything when the Pixi is loose in a pocket or a purse. The only thing we missed on the Pixi is the inclusion of WiFi. If you can live without that feature, the Pixi definitely has a lot to offer.

If you want to know more about the Palm Pixi, leave a comment and you can also check back next week for our full expert review

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Sprint's second Android smartphone, the Samsung Moment, has arrived. See what's different about this Google phone and if its right for you by watching the video below.

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Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint announced availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8530. Both models will sport the new trackpad found on the BlackBerry Curve 8520 that's available for T-Mobile. The trackpad is a lot like the touchpad found on laptop computers, so it's different than the trademark trackball. Additionally the new model will be WiFi-enabled, sport a 2-megapixel camera, GPS and everything else you've come to expect in a BlackBerry smartphone. Both companies will offer the BlackBerry Curve in Black and Violet (see below for Sprint's version). While there was no mention of an availability date from Sprint, Verizon Wireless said they would have it on November 20th.

On a separate note, I look forward to hearing the names people think of to call the Violet version. Anyone have ideas, post them below.

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Sprint announced an availability date of November 15th for the Palm Pre's sibling the Palm Pixi. The new model ditches the slider design in favor of an exposed full QWERTY keyboard. Like the Pre, the touchscreen Pixi will run Palm's latest webOS with easy access to information from Google, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Linked In and now Yahoo! The Pixi will also have a new Facebook app that will allow users to see and comment on all updates.

As for the specs, the Pixi will sport a 2-megapixel camera with a LED flash, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and 8GB of internal storage space. The new model will also be a bit more customizable with the availability of optionalstylish back covers from a variety of artists.

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Both Verizon and Sprint offer the BlackBerry Tour 9630 world phone. However, Sprint's version seems to be a bit more sporty. Watch the video below to see what we mean.

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Let's face it, Nextel push-to-talk cell phones haven't been the most attractive phones available to date. That's all about to change with the Motorola i856. The new slider cell phone sports a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headset jack so you can use your own headphones to listen to music, and Bluetooth 2.0. Combine that with its sleek design and red slide-out keypad and you've got a pocket friendly push-to-talk phone. Additionally, you can add up to an 8GB microSD card for storing pictures and music. Speaking of music, you can even have music playing while you text and talk on a direct connect call. Finally, this lightweight cell phone also has access to Sprint's mobile web features such as TeleNav Navigation, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile and NFL Mobile Live.

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A little over a year ago, the first Android cell phone was announced. Although, there haven't been a lot of new google cell phones released over the past year that's about to change as evidenced by the announcements this week. First, T-Mobile announced the Samsung Behold II, an Android based smartphone that will be available later this year. Verizon Wireless announced a partnership with Google to develop Android based cell phones.

Today, Sprint and Samsung announced the Moment. The Samsung Moment will be available with Sprint's Any Mobile, Any Time plans. The smartphone sports all the features expected including WiFi, GPS, 3.2-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack for listening to music or videos, Bluetooth 2.0, and of course access to Sprint's plethora of content such as Sprint TV and NFL Mobile live. The cell phone will be available at the beginning of next month. Let's not forget, that next week, Sprint's first Android phone, the HTC Hero will be available if you don't want to wait.

What does all this mean? In short, it means consumers will have a lot more choices in hardware if they want an Android cell phone and more carriers will be offering models than just T-Mobile. More choices is always good news for consumers, but it will be interesting to see which smartphone OS emerges as the most popular in the US this time next year.

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Sprint's latest calling plan, Any Mobile, Anytime is all about expanding the calling circle for people who already have unlimited data plans (Everything Data Plan). The good news is that if you already have an Everything Data plan, this feature will automatically be added to your plan. Essentially, Any Mobile, Anytime means that you can now call any cell phone number in the U.S. and it doesn't count against your monthly minute plan. In short, you'll be using the minutes in your plan for placing calls to landlines. If you were thinking of going cell phone only, this option means you don't have to invest in a ton of minutes to ensure you'll be able to call all the people you want whenever you want. Another way to look at it is if you wanted to get an Everything Data plan so you can surf the web, check e-mail, or even watch videos on a cell phone, but thought with a large minute plan and data combined it might be cost prohibitive - this might make sense for you since you can limit monthly voice minutes to 450 and probably still be able to make all the calls you need.

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Sprint announced that it will be offering the HTC Hero smartphone based on Google's Android OS starting in early October. The smartphone will be loaded with quite a few features including, WiFi, 3G connectivity, integrated GPS, Sprint TV, a 5-megapixel camera with the ability to record videos. The Hero will come with a 2GB microSD card and will accept up to a 32GB microSD card. Additionally, it will have access to popular social networking sites such as FaceBook, Flickr, and Twitter. Although, this smartphone lacks a tactile QWERTY keypad, there's a full QWERTY touch keypad on screen. To make the most out of the touch screen experience, the Hero will have a fingerprint resistant coating.

Currently, Android phones are only available from T-Mobile so it looks like Sprint will be the second carrier to offer a Google cell phone. Here's what the HTC Hero looks like, only it will have a Sprint logo in the upper right hand corner.

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