Hands-on with the touchscreen Verizon Hub

Think of it as a Wi-Fi-enabled home VoIP phone complete with smartphone features—well, some smartphone features, anyway, including customizable weather and calendar widgets, mapping and searchable directories, streaming videos, and more. Read on for my hands-on impressions.

Available Feb. 1 for $199 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate (a pricier no-contract version will also be available), the Hub connects to your home broadband network via Wi-FI or Ethernet and looks something like a wireless base station on steroids, complete with a jumbo color touchscreen boasting time/calendar, weather, voice mail/missed call, and calling feature widgets.

Pretty standard stuff so far, but the Hub also boasts a series of smartphone-type features, although some of them might be better described as smartphone-"lite" than "like". For example: You can search a points-of-interest directory for restaurants, bars, banks, and the like, map their respective locations, and send their coordinates to any VZ Navigator-enabled Verizon phone—nice.

You can also browse and edit a family calendar, which automatically sends SMS reminders or alerts of the details change. Not bad, although you can't import calendar events from popular Web-based accounts like Google or Yahoo!—nor can you import an existing contact list, for that matter. You can edit calendar events and contacts on a Verizon Web site and then transfer that info to the Hub, but still … the ability to import all that from Gmail, Facebook, or a similar service (or your current Verizon phone, even) would make life with the Hub a lot easier.

Other Net-enabled Hub features include a movie widget, which lets you browse current titles, check showtimes, watch trailers, and buy tickers (for Fandango-affiliated theaters only); a V Cast app for watching brief news, sports, weather, and entertainment video clips; and the ability to send SMS and picture messages directly from the base station (there's no built-in camera, though, so you can't send stills or video clips of your beautiful self).

Also on board: Compatibility with Verizon Wireless' "Chaperone" service, good for tracking the location of young'uns with VZW's Chaperone-enabled cell phones; a calculator; and a local traffic app with updates on any area traffic snafus.

Then of course, you've got your calling features, including visual voicemail, call waiting, and a speakerphone. Unlimited domestic calling (including the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) goes for $34.99 a month, while an extra wireless headset (the Hub comes with one in the box) will set you back $79.

OK, so what's missing? Well, besides no built-in camera or Web-based contact/calendar importing, there's no Web browser—and not even a basic news and info widget, for that matter. A basic music player—through V Cast Music, perhaps—would also have been a nice touch. Or how about a game or two?

The Verizon Wireless reps I spoke with nodded knowingly as I ticked off my list of criticisms, and noted that new Hub features could be on tap via downloadable firmware updates—and that's a good thing, because from what I've seen so far, the Hub looks a bit half-baked, if still promising.