It looks like HP has inherited Palm’s penchant for extremely modest product promotion, with the new HP Pre 3 silently turning up in their European store with not even a parp, let alone a fanfare of publicity.
The online store is now offering the SIM-free handset for a competitive £299, which isn’t a bad price point for such a decently spec’d handset.
Unglamourously billed as ‘Model Number: FB437AA#ABU,’ the Pre 3 comes with 512MB RAM and 8GB of onboard storage, a 3.58″ WVGA display, vertical QWERTY slide-out keyboard and a 1.4GHz CPU.
Running the truly wonderful webOS, the handset packs a 5MP camera with LED flash, GPS and A-GPS, accelerometer, ambient light, proximity and compass sensors, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n 5GHz) with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication and Bluetooth.
Where’s the publicity?
Just like with the original Palm Pre, we’re baffled why this handset is getting such an extemely subdued launch – with Android and iOS making all the headway in Europe, HP has already got its work cut out trying to shift this lesser known OS.
That said, we suspect that this may be a rather enjoyable handset – the pricing is sharp and we’ve been fans of the webOS for so long we can almost forgive the serious shortcomings in the heavily US-centric app store.
We’ll write to HP and ask for a review model, but we won’t be holding our breath on a reply.
HP Pre 3 specs:
| Colour | Black |
| Operating system | HP webOS |
| Display | 3.58-inch diagonal multitouch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color, 480×800 resolution WVGA display |
| Keyboard | Slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard |
| Processor | Qualcomm MSM 8×55 (1.4 GHz) |
| Microsoft® Exchange email with Microsoft Direct Push Technology POP3/IMAP (Yahoo!® Mail, Gmail™, AOL, Hotmail®, etc.) |
|
| Messaging | Integrated IM & SMS |
| GPS4 | Built-in GPS |
| Digital camera | 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, HD (up to 720p) video recording, front VGA |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, ambient light, proximity, and compass |
| Media formats supported | Audio formats: DRM-free MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV Video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 |
| Wireless connectivity | Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n 5GHz) with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication; Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support; A-GPS; Wi-Fi router functionality for up to five devices using HP mobile hotspot |
| Memory | 512MB RAM; 8GB internal storage USB mass storage support |
| Battery | Rechargeable 1230mAh (typical battery) |
| Connector | Charger/microUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed |
| Headphone jack | 3.5mm stereo |
| HP Touchstone | Compatible |
| Dimensions | Width: 64mm (2.52 inches) Height: 111mm (4.37 inches) Thickness: 16mm (0.63 inches) |
| Weight | 156 grams (5.5 ounces) |
[HP Eurostore] – [Via]
