Palm Pre Plus Available Free to New AT&T and Verizon Customers

Now that it owns Palm, HP has opened a phone store where it is offering the Palm Pre Plus for free to those who are switching to AT&T or Verizon to get this webOS-based smartphone. The Palm Pixi Plus is widely available for free with contract.

Wireless carriers regularly offer special deals to new customers, hoping that discounts on phones will lure in additional subscribers. That's why Palm's flagship model is free to those who are willing to switch carriers and sign up for a two-year voice and data contract.

Verizon's version of the Pre Plus also includes a Bluetooth headset, leather case, and vehicle charger at no additional cost.

Verizon's regular price for the Pre Plus is $50, while AT&T's is $150.

Both AT&T and Verizon are giving the Pixi Plus away free with contract.

To take advantage of any of these deals, go to HP Wireless Central.

An Overview of the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus
The Pre Plus features a sliding keyboard as well as a 3.1-inch multi-touch-capable Touchscreen with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution. The device comes with 16 GB of internal storage, and is also equipped with Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS and a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash.

The Pixi Plus can be thought of as the successor to Palm's popular Centro series. It has a tablet shape, with a 2.6-inch capacitive Touchscreen with 320 x 400 pixel resolution. The model is smaller, lighter and less expensive than the Pre Plus.

The smartphones run the webOS, the replacement for the venerable Palm OS. This is a multi-tasking, touch-oriented operating system able to wirelessly synchronize a wide variety of data with online services like Google, Yahoo and Facebook, as well as Microsoft Exchange.

The webOS includes an on-device app store, and a growing collection of third-party software is available.