It appears that many Palm Pixi smartphone come fresh out of the box installed with webOS 1.2.9 and not webOS 1.3.1, but as webOS regularly checks for updates there shouldn’t be a problem updating to webOS 1.3.1 right? Wrong!

According to an article posted on precentral, the Update application will only download over WiFi and EVDO which is faster than Sprint 1xRTT. 1xRTT is basically Sprint’s 2.5G network that runs at roughly 10 kilobytes per second and thus downloading webOS 1.3.1 which is 126MB would take 36 hours.

So it is fairly reasonable for Palm not to let a user update while in a Sprint 1xRTT area as once you step into an EVDO area the update will take about 10 to 20 minutes depending on signal, or you can opt for WiFi and do it faster.

However the problem comes when you don’t actually live in an EVDO area or even have it anywhere nearby, which is apparently the problem with one of their forum members.

The member spoke to Palm about the problem and palm apparently suggested waiting for the webOS 1.3.1 Doctor to come out for the Palm Pixi and thus wipe the Palm Pixi clean and they believe this is unacceptable and that Palm should deliver a more acceptable download solution package.

Are you having the same problem with updating your Palm Pixi or have you decided to travel to the nearest EDVO area to update?