The Palm Pre Plus has finally hit the UK, available on O2 from the 28 May, and Pocket-lint has had one to play with for the past couple of days.

The new design, which builds on the Palm Pre first announced in the US in January 2009, attempts to improve on the build quality, ditches the "pearl" scroll ball beneath the screen and bumps up the memory allocation from 8GB on board to 16GB. There are also enhancements to the keyboard.

As with the Pre, you'll get a 3.1-inch touchscreen display, that slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the ability to multi-task with the webOS operating system.

Users also now get the induction charging case on the back, although you'll still have to part with the extra cash to actually get the Touchstone charger - an optional extra. 

Available just 6 months after the UK debut of the Palm Pre, this won't be an upgrade option for Pre owners, but is hoping to lure in others who are perhaps bored of the iPhone or confused by the fragmentation of the Android platform.

The Palm Pre Plus will be available initially on O2 from 28 May starting at £35 a month if you are happy to sign an 18-month contract. Palm has confirmed to Pocket-lint that it hopes to add more operators over the coming months.

We will be bringing you a full review of the new handset shortly.