HP officially announced a pair of webOS 2.1 smartphones and a tablet. The Pre 3 is the successor of Pre 2, the Veer is a tiny touch smartphone and the TouchPad is well, a tablet. If you are interested in any of these devices or just plain curious, read ahead for a first look.
HP Pre 3
At first the Pre 3 may look like the previous Pres, but take a closer look and you can see that HP has increased it’s screen size from 3.1 to 3.58-inches which has got a resolution of 480×800. But the shape of the device is still the same as it’s predecessors’. The larger screen size helps accommodate a larger QWERTY keyboard. It sports a primary 5 megapixel camera which can capture 720p videos and a secondary forward-facing VGA camera for video calling.
There is a magical feature in this device called as ‘Touch to share’ using which you can transfer data from one device to other by just swiping them over. Like for example, swipe a Pre 3 over a TouchPad while it is browsing and then boom, the url is transferred and the page is loaded on the Pre 3. It seems like you have to pair both the devices before-hand to use this feature.
It is a multi-tasking beast with 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8x55 CPU which is coupled with 512MB of RAM. It will have full support for HTML 5 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1. There will 8GB and 16GB models and it will support EVDO Rev A & HSPA+ 4G (AT&T, T-Mobile) as well as 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluteooth 2.1 + EDR, A-GPS and 1230mAh battery.
Specifications:
- Runs the new WebOS 2.1
- 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8x55 CPU
- 512MB RAM
- 3.58-inch 800×480 muti-touch screen
- Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 beta
- Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
- Back-lit slide-out QWERTY keyboard
- 5 megapixel primary camera with 720p video capture
- Secondary VGA camera for video calling
- 8GB or 16GB memory storage
- GSM/HSPA+ and CDMA cellular radios
- A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (dual band)
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and A2DP
- Mobile hotspot (upto 5 devices)
- Dual mic for noise cancellation
- Acceleromter, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor
- Touch-to-share capability
- Touchstone compatibility
- 1230mAh battery
- 64mm x 111mm x 16mm and 156g
HP Veer
The second smartphone, the HP Veer is a small and very cute smartphone. It has the same basic shape as the Pre 3.It has got a 2.6-inch 320×400 display, 8GB of storage, 5 megapixel camera.
It has an 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 7230 CPU with 512MB RAM and 8GB of storage. It is set for launch around this spring.
Specifications:
- Runs HP webOS 2.1
- 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 7230 CPU
- 512MB RAM
- 2.6-inch 320×400 multi-touch screen
- Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 beta
- Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
- 5 Megapixel Camera with Extended Depth of Field
- 8GB internal memory
- HSPA+ support
- A-GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (dual band)
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and A2DP
- Mobile hotspot (upto 5 devices)
- Dual mic for noise cancellation
- Accelerometer, proximity sensor, Ambient Light Sensor
- Touchstone compatibility
- 910 MAh battery
- 54.5mm x 84.0mm x 15.1mm and 103g
HP TouchPad
HP’s TouchPad is a direct (and serious) competitor for Apple’s iPad. This is the same tablet that was much teased as Topaz. It will run on the webOS 3.0 flaunting a 9.7-inch XGA capacitive display with a resolution of 1024×768, which is same as the current iPad.
Under the hood, TouchPad houses a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. In comparison, the iPad has the Apple’s own A4 1GHz ARM and the Motorola Xoom has a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2.
The Touchpad has got only a front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera for video calling, with no secondary back-facing camera, while the Xoom has got 2-megapixel at the front and 5-megapixel snapper at the back and there is none for iPad.
webOS 3.0 is still unfinished, so the demo units were a bit laggy. But the webOS 3.0 looks like a proper tablet OS which is optimized to make the best use of the large screen with refreshingly simple UI. E-mail has got the similar multi-pane UI as iPad’s.
HP has added the Beats Audio sound technology (which is used in HP’s notebooks) for better sound quality. It has also got HP Movie Store to compliment the cool audio system, using which we can stream movies and TV shows.
The TouchPad comes with 16GB and 32 GB storage options. Network-wise, there are three versions, TouchPad Wi-Fi, TouchPad Wi-Fi+3G and TouchPad Wi-Fi+LTE.
Specifications:
- Runs HP webOS 3.0
- 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
- 512MB RAM
- 9.7-inch 1024×768 multi-touch screen
- Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 beta
- 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calling
- 16GB or 32GB memory
- micro-USB connector
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Stereo speakers with Beats audio technology
- Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
- Gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, ambient-light sensor
- Accessories like chiclet keyboard and Touchstone
- Video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
- Audio formats: DRM-free MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+,AMR, QCELP, WAV
- HTML 5 and Adobe Flash 10.1 support
- Touchstone compatibility
- 6300 mAh battery
- 190 mm x 242 mm x 13.7 mm and 740g
HP TouchPad and Pre 3 will be available sometime this summer and the Veer will come out this Spring. Prices of any of the new HP WebOS devices have not been announced yet.
[via HP]
[BioAbdul]
