Palm Pixi Plus (photos)

The Palm Pixi Plus will be available from Verizon Wireless on January 25 for $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Overall, there isn't a huge difference between the Sprint Palm Pixi and the Pixi Plus with the exception of one thing: the Pixi Plus has integrated Wi-Fi. In addition, you'll be able to turn the smartphone into a Wi-Fi router with the new Palm Mobile Hotspot app. This feature is exclusive to the Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus.

Palm didn't make any changes to the design of the smartphone. Like the Pixi, the Pixi Plus features a sleek slate design and has a 2.63-inch capacitive touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard.

At just 4.37 inches by 2.17 inches wide by 0.43 inch thick and 3.26 ounces, you'll have no problem slipping this device into a pocket.

On top of the phone, you'll find a power button and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Admittedly, the smartphone's QWERTY keyboard is a bit small, but the buttons are raised higher than the Pre's and provide a nice tactile feedback.

Overall, we found the keyboard pretty easy to use, especially since our thumbs weren't hitting up against the bottom of the screen or on the raised walls of the Pre's slider design.

In addition to the limited-edition artist series backplates, Palm released five new back covers available in pink, orange, blue, green, and black. Unfortunately, we got the plain black one, but all are compatible with the Touchstone charging dock.

We weren't terribly impressed with the Pixi Plus's 2-megapixel camera. Images either came out too dark or overblown by the camera's flash.