Well, I was one of the lucky few who got to go to the Pixi Launch Party for the S|P members. Got to the location about 1/2 hour early and there was already a line of like 20 people! Well, after waiting around for a bit, they started letting people in. It was actually quite a smooth process. Waiters were passing out hors d'oeuvres (which were quite tasty actually) left and right and there was even an open bar - woohoo!!!!! The "celebs" were some NFL people who I could have walked right by and not even noticed (sorry, but I don't actually follow football, so this actually didn't mean much to me).
We signed in at the front desk and our names got put on the board "queue". Another 1/2 hour of wandering around and playing with the phone and we were up. I got my own Pixi and it's a thing of beauty.
I think the build quality is great (first impression). I do not think it's too hard to open. It's very shiny and is MOST DEFINITELY A FINGERPRINT MAGNET!!! Feels good and solid in your hand. Much smaller than I thought it would be. The way it's designed, it's a little bit of a pain to charge it with the included plug. Touchstone will be the way to go IMHO. The cards work well. Occasionally a bit of a lag when launching things, but it feels so much more like what I wanted to have when the Instinct was originally introduced. I'm pretty sure they ordered enough at the Sprint store to give one to every person that rsvp'd to the event, so they may actually have a few extra available tomorrow if not everyone buys one (i.e. I went with my fiancee who has T-Mobile, so she didn't get one), but I wouldn't hold my breath too long. There was still a line to get in when we left. They would not sell it without a 2 year contract. I will be playing with it later on tonight. It's currently charging for the first time and I noticed that there was already an over the air update available for the WebOS. The screen is gorgeous, BTW. Hope this info helps some of you feel a little bit more reassured.
-C
