HP announces Veer and Pre 3 smartphones

By on Feb 9, 2011 at 2:02 PM
mobile February 9, 2011

At the company’s highly anticipated media event today, HP announced a pair of new yet familiar smartphones: the Veer and Pre 3. The Veer is a webOS-based smartphone bucking the current industry trend of “bigger is better.” The device has the Pre, pebble-like shape — complete with slide-up keyboard — and a 2.6-inch, 320 x 400 pixel, capacitive touchscreen display. The Veer is powered by a Snapdragon 7230 processor running at 800MHz, has an HSPA+ radio, and sports Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 +ERD, 8GB of internal storage, rear-facing camera (no flash) and mobile hotspot capabilities. The device will be available “this spring.”

Next, the company rolled out the Pre 3. The newest Pre maintains its familiar form and packs a 3.6-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 480 x 800 pixel resolution and gesture area, the “largest QWERTY keyboard”, 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 +ERD, 8GB or 16GB of on-board storage, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and HD video recording capabilities, Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities, and a front-facing VGA camera for video-calling. The device will be available in HSPA+ and CDMA Rev. A flavors sometime “this summer.”

Both the Veer and the Pre 3 are listed as having “the same amount of RAM as the Pre 2″ — 512MB.

Not that radically different from the current webOS smartphones out there, but some nice spec upgrades. The timeline is a little too lengthy (summer for a revamped Pre?) for our tastes… what do you think?

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29 Comments

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  • In Shock

    I can’t believe it. Really I can’t. I’ve been a webOS supporter since day 1 and they still have that ungodly keyboard. Really how can a company be so naive?

    • Anonymous

      Palm has made millions off of keyboards..

      • Chris Nichols

        and they’ve lost even more to those that can not, or will not, use those keyboards

      • Anonymous

        I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. Phones without keyboards have only been around for a couple of years. I really don’t think anyone could have gotten SO attached to software keyboards that they WILL NOT use a hardware one at this point.

  • http://twitter.com/ChazClout ChazClout

    Might be too late for spec whores but im sure it’ll be a great little phone.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t see how these phones will receive a better reception than the original Palm Pre.

    • http://www.youtube.com/jeromeo1980 Jeromeo

      I keep hearing how amazing webOS is, but I’ve never even seen it because everyone I know has attractive phones like the EVO, DroidX, iPhone, GalaxyS, HD7, etc. What the hell is the difference between this Pre3 and the Pre2 or even the Pre1? Every year the iPhone gets a refresh. Every couple years cars get either a facelift or redesign. How out of touch are Palm and HP? Even Nokia (high end) knows not to make the same crap shell with different guts year after year.
      Try asking a consumer to wear an amazingly comfortable pair of hideous jeans. It simply will not sell. Not many people will sacrifice looks for brains. (Ask any woman how her sexy heels feel on her foot arches and legs after half a night).
      You have to PAIR a great operating system with a GREAT LOOKING piece of hardware. Period.

      • Scorpio83

        huge difference clown, more than double processor speed, hd video recording, double resolution, front facing camera, and the best mobile os in the game, webos. do you really live under a rock or are you just blind…or are you a hater- i would say all of the above. the hardware is a huge upgrade from the pre1, and a pretty big upgrade from the pre2. do your hw joke.

      • Anonymous

        please dont mind jeromeo, he ‘s another brainwashed victim. brainwashed by apple or android. not knowing that theres more than just apple & android out there. the problem with people now & days that they depend too much on opinions from editors instead of checking things out for themselves. the pre never stood a chance cause people judging it before even trying it. now they are judging the pre 3 the same way. check it out before talking sh*t people! dont fall for the hype! apple & android are very over rated. especialy android. android is a battery guzzler with apps that stay running in the background never closing & slowing down your phone.

  • Chad

    Your quoted specs are way wrong.

    • http://www.bgr.com Andrew Munchbach

      Which ones are wrong?

      • Anonymous

        HI ANDREW!

        I feel special. You’re like a celebrity or some shit.

      • Chad

        You fixed the 800MHz proc for the Veer. That was the most glaring one. Other sites report that the Pre3 will be a World phone with both HSPA+ and EVDO RevA radios, but there’s nothing on HP’s site to back that up.

  • Tonyjones

    I was expecting a fully – touch only phone with at least a 4 inch display! This is what I’ve been waiting for? Now on top of that we have to wait till the summer?? Are you friggin serious? By the time the Palm 3 is released we will have a lot of and better phones to choose from….um…the iPhone 5, the HTC Evo 2 I’m sure and many others. I’m soooooooo disappointed. After all this time this is what they come up with? They will fail…and should fail since they obviously have not listened to what the consumers have been begging for! Total fail

  • Anonymous

    By the time this comes out .. Android phones will have better specs.. the Atrix/Bionic and the future HTC devices will top that by a long shot .. WebOS is playing from behind.. .

    Not to mention the new Iphone will probably be updated

  • Scott

    Is it really that hard to make a phone with out that crappy keyboard? All I wanted was a slate. Looks like I’ll be going to Android still. Maybe next year Palm. But the Touchpad does look nice (even though it looks identical to an iPad, except WebOS is better).

    • Kcostin

      No way I am getting Pre 3. Come on HP. Its just a revamped Pre like every other phone you have had. I guess the EVO is waiting for me now.

  • Garymckoy1

    The Pre will continue to fail until they give it a screen that’s at least 4 inches and make an all touch screen version!!! And give it some blue instead of all that green that make it and Android make me want to spit! Web Os is one of the best operating systems on any phone but that cramped keyboard sucks! Bottom line! They are just gonna let it FAIL the same way that Palm did sticking to a form factor that put Palm out of business!!! Does it really take a genius to see this?! Come on guys! I just knew that HP would have put out something looking like a cross between a Galaxy S and the iPhone with a beautiful and big touch screen by now!!! I guess I was WRONG! And Web OS will continue to FAIL! I’ve been waiting to drop my iPhone but you guys just don’t get it! Maybe the tablets can save Web OS because these phones WILL NOT!!

  • Ndeele

    Very disappointing. Nothing really new or exciting.

  • Ytribal

    Blockbuster Failure!

  • http://twitter.com/aphrophyre Ryan T.

    The Pre2 hasn’t even launched in the US yet, the timelines make sense. Either that or they should have cancelled the Pre2…

    • Chris Nichols

      Unless one is opposed to the iPhone, I’d venture to guess marginalized smartphones, like the Pre 2 will be a non-starter after today on Verizon. They would be better off trying to sell it on carriers that don’t have the iPhone as an option.

    • Tagg2

      Huh? The Palm Pre 2 hasn’t been released yet? Umm…Ok bud! Lol

  • i told u so.com

    first off stop hating, second if you listen to qualcamm about their new chipset technology battery life will improve by over 50%, so battery wont be a concern anymore. Next the pre form factor with a iphone size screen is the perfect form. With a onscreen keyboard as a option still, you get the best of both worlds. It will be on sprint 4G wimax for record, and the summer date is speculation, they are talking late april, may right now. This is the perfect phone, now with the larger screen size and the fastest processor on the market. The iphon 5 will be the sam size and specs just 4G.

  • Which way is Up?

    Honestly, not impressive. The specs on the hardware are current gen, as in, the current market that we are in, even considering this, ther is nothing that says “hi end.”

    With that being said, I’ve never used a Palm OS device, my understanding is that the OS is pretty efficient and perhaps the hardware specs will have the phone’s buzzing along quite nicely? Idk, but I know this. When reading the post, nothing excited me. :(

    • Which way is Up?

      oops, lots of typo’s there. Anyhow, the new processor is very nice, the screen resolution is great but a higher resolution would’ve been even better. also, many like the Pre design, however the option of the classic Pre design and a slate would’ve been really nice…

  • No

    I have the original Pre, and I really like the form factor since it fits perfectly in my pants pocket and in my “palm.” Yeah, the keyboard could stand to be a bit bigger, but I’m okay with it since the overall phone size is perfect.

  • http://www.facebook.com/cdreyes87 Cristian Reyes

    SOOOOO disappointed!!! ive been waiting in anticipation to see what HP would announce for the webOS, and this is all they could come up with!?!? i mean….ya….the tablet is nice, but im not looking to get a tablet, im looking to upgrade from my old iphone 3G! the webOS is beautiful and i was hoping that HP would release a phone that was at least competitive with the other android os devices coming out, but it doesnt. Im fine w/ the fact that it doesnt have a dual core processor. what im most disappointed at is the fact that it doesnt have a 4-inch, touch only screen with a qHD resolution. by the time this phone comes out it will already b behind the competition. damn….and i was REALLY looking forward to purchasing a new webOS phone. The droid bionic it is i guess……

  • Chris Nichols

    My prediction: Veer – DOA
    Pre 2 – DOA
    Pre 3 – low sales and then cancelled early

    Why doesn’t Palm listen to their customers? seriously, it’s not that damn hard. We want a phone with a real keyboard, not a Barbie keyboard.

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