HP previews new handsets, tablets

Hewlett-Packard Co. today held an event in San Francisco to show off some new hardware. The invite suggested we “Think big. Think small. Think beyond.” As it turned out they missed out “Think medium.” – as the company announced three different sized products.

First on show was the Veer, which is a mini smart phone in the same vein as the Sony Experia X10 Mini Pro. The diminutive device sports a cute-as-a-button 2.6-inch touchscreen, and a slide-out teenie-tiny QWERTY keyboard. Honestly, just imagine a Pre, but smaller. The Veer is running on WebOS (obviously).

The next device was the Pre 3, which like the Pre 2, looks very similar to the original Pre. The big changes from the previous models are a much higher resolution screen (800×480), 720p video recording, a front-facing camera for video chats, a snappy 1.4 GHz processor, and a slightly reworked keyboard incorporating a touchable area for gestures. Unfortunately – also like the original Pre – this one will keep you waiting. Release isn’t scheduled until the summer.

The last device was HP’s entry into the tablet market (The ill-fated Slate notwithstanding), the TouchPad. Running on a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and sporting WebOS 3.0 (the two handsets are rocking 2.2), the TouchPad has a 9.7-inch screen at 1024×768 (basically the same screen as the iPad). The TouchPad can also link up with the Pre 3 to transfer across notifications and stuff like that. Both devices also include a “tap to share,” whereby physically tapping the two devices together can transfer information between the two (think URLs, phone numbers, etc.). The tablet also supports a couple of popular services out-of-the-box, such as Skype and Kindle. Wi-Fi only, 3G and 4G models will be released (in that order), starting in the summer.

As Engadget rightly notes, one glaring omission from today’s presentation was Palm. All of the devices are HP-branded, and although all run WebOS, none of them feature the name Palm anywhere. Could it be the plucky stalwart of smart devices has finally been completely absorbed into HP’s monolithic whole?