Mobilitysite got the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus from Verizon a couple days ago, and here is the highlights from their first impressions:

Starting with the Pre Plus, first thing I have to say is the build quality is a lot better. I had quite a few problems with the Sprint Palm Pre, and it’s all fixed now on the Pre Plus. Slider is solid, no creaks, everything is solid. I like the new front without the button, looks a lot cleaner, and the gesture area works just as well without the button. Keyboard has improved a little bit, still no where close to the Pixi Plus though. Verizon has been solid here, although I would lose EV-DO every once in a while. That could be related to the Pre Plus itself, because the Pixi Plus didn’t have that problem at all. So far, my main concern with the Pre Plus is battery life. I can barely make it through a day with moderate use.

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Palm Pre was one of Cnet’s best phones of 2009:

Palm Pre

Debuting at CES 2009, the Palm Pre breathed new life into a company struggling to defend its relevance in the smartphone space. More than that though, the Pre and Palm WebOS was a game changer in the way that it handled contact management and multitasking. Hopefully, we’ll see.

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Palm this afternoon sent an invite to members of the press to attend a keynote on January 7th, the first official day of CES. The company has provided no clues as to what it’s expected to release other than “new” developments. Last year was the company’s first CES keynote in a long time and saw the introduction of webOS and the Pre, both of which were key to revitalizing the struggling phone maker’s business.
Likely candidates for new introductions are a new phone model as well as adaptations of the Pixi or Pre for other carriers, including a Pixi with Wi-Fi for Verizon and other devices that end Sprint’s exclusivity in the US. A major webOS update is also a possibility and could address some of the remaining criticisms for the platform, such as its lack of 3D games and other truly native apps.

Source Electronista

Handhelds · Palm OS · PalmPixi · PalmPre · Sprint · Verizon Communications · WebOS · Wi-Fi

Finally some good Palm-Verizon news for us:
A second CDMA-flavored Palm Pixi just cleared the FCC and we can say with confidence it’s not coming to Sprint this time around. Better yet, Palm’s model P121EWW matches up with that P121 code we saw leaked a while back for Big Red (Sprint’s model is P120EWW), and this one got tested for 802.11b/g WiFi.

Source: Engadget

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• Sprint touts Palm Pixi’s nonexistent WiFi (engadget.com)

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PhoneDog’s Adriana Lee had the unique opportunity of messing with the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi in the same video session. She compared both devices in a 10 minute dogfight, that can be checked out in the video below. Slim candybar phone meets the original slider. Who wins?

Source: GSM Dome

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The Palm Pre’s little brother, the Palm Pixi, is due to hit the market this Sunday, November 15th, and retailers are already offering the phone at discounted prices.
The Palm Pixi will be Sprint’s second webOS-powered smartphone. It features the same touchscreen and gesture-support that came with the Palm Pre. However, screen size is smaller at 2.6 inches as it has a slate-style QWERTY keyboard, compared to the Palm Pre’s slide out keyboard.

Other features include a; 2-megapixel camera, GPS, 3G data, 3.5mm headphone jack, and 8GB of onboard storage. The Pixi does not come with WiFi, but as long as you’re within reach of Sprint’s network, you’ll get 3G data speeds.

If you get the phone on Sprint, it will cost $99.99 on a two-year contract with a $100 mail-in rebate, but there are already better deals out there.

Walmart’s partner LetsTalk.com is offering the phone for $30 for a two-year contract without the mail-in rebate Sprint asks for. The only catch is that this needs to be a new contract, not an upgrade.

[Source: ibtimes]

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webOS 1.3.1 is now available on the Palm Pre and will be available on the Palm Pixi.

• Yahoo! now appears as a Calendar/Contacts/instant messaging synchronization account.
• You can forward a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Forward.
• A new option is available for restarting the phone: press and hold power > Power > Restart. The prior restart method (Device Info > Reset Options > Restart) is still available.
• Widescreen videos (including YouTube) now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.
• You can select a unique ringtone for new message alerts: Open Messaging > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Sound > Ringtone.
• While listening to a song with album art displayed, you can tap the screen below the art to display a playback slider. Dragging the slider jumps forward or backward in the song.

[Source: Engadget]

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Pre Central has a great review of the Palm Pixi, we can’t wait for the Pixi to come to Verizon:

The $99 Palm Pixi will be unleashed upon the world this Sunday and after using one full-time for two days, I can say it’s a great smartphone for anybody who hasn’t made the jump past feature phones. The Pixi comes in a tiny, almost bite-able form-factor that’s immediately appealing — all the more so because inside that little frame is the elegance and power of webOS.

For current smartphone owners, however, there are a few compromises that, all combined, lead me to suggest that most those interested in webOS should still opt for the more powerful Pre.

The Pixi is Palm’s best attempt yet to broaden their base of smartphone users by picking up former feature-phone users. Its competition isn’t meant to be so much the iPhone 3GS, the Droid, or even the Pre – though in reality, of course, they are a healthy part of the competition. Palm wants to position it more as a killer of the ‘near-smartphones’ out there, your Samsung Instincts and LG Rumors and whatnot. By that metric, the Pixi absolutely wins.

The Pixi is a good phone for anybody looking to step up to a their first smartphone without breaking the bank. As a phone for SMS, IM, some Facebook, and web browsing, it’s great and stands well above any non-smartphone or ‘near-smartphone.’ Centro owners: You are going to love this phone.

Should Pre owners switch to the Pixi?
No.

Conclusion

Now that I’ve worked all of the gripes out of my system, it’s time to come back to the main thing. The Pixi is a marvel of a little smartphone. It’s tiny, fun, and does more than a lot of phones at its price. That price is just very close to the ever-lowering cost of high-end smartphones.

If the Pre didn’t woo Palm Centro owners, the Pixi has a much better shot. The only question is whether or not it will achieve its real goal: winning new users who have never used a smartphone. I think it has a shot.

Pros:
Small
No, seriously, it’s small!
Only $99
webOS 1.3.1
Cons:
No WiFi
Slightly slower than the Pre
Slightly smaller screen than the Pre

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