Palm Pixi shows off 3D gaming chops with webOS 1.4.5 release….

It might be a bit hard to believe that this is the Sprint Pixi you’re looking at, handling EA’s Need For Speed: Undercover with aplomb right after the webOS 1.4.5 update. While the frame rates will not touch the heights of those achieved over the iPhone 4 or Pre Plus, it is still a commendable effort for something as budget minded as the Pixi to deliver such results, small screen and all.

What with all the “battery optimization” excitement, we nearly forgot that Sprint’s new webOS 1.4.5 update doesn’t just empower the Pre; it also finally brings PDK’d OpenGL and SDL support to the Palm Pixi. On the off chance you don’t speak developer lingo, that’s short for 3D apps and games, and as it turns out the pint-sized Pixi doesn’t play the latter half-badly.

While load times were longer than normal, they were definitely not unacceptable – at least it gives you more time to stop and smell the roses on your daily commute. The cut scenes were also pretty impressive, but bear in mind that without the help of Wi-Fi, installation will take a whole lot longer than expected.

PreCentral fired up a copy of Need For Speed: Undercover on the freshly-upgraded handset immediately above, and found the game perfectly playable with “decent” framerates and only slightly sub-par load times. Watch their spiffy Nissan turn tricks right after the break, and pray companies get cracking on some Unreal Engine 3 apps soon.

Resources :engadget.com,ubergizmo.com