Six months after it was officially unveiled, HP is about to embark on an unknown path with the official launch of the HP TouchPad literally right around the corner – in fact, it’s going on sale starting tomorrow! Looking back at it, the Palm Pre ushered in the era of webOS goodness, but in between the time since it launched, the platform has struggled to be fully adopted by the community as the onslaught of competition from all corners has seemingly extinguished its candle. Now that Palm is in a better position with HP, the TouchPad is indeed the culmination of their forged relationship – and the timing couldn’t have been better.

Rather than going all out with some sort of flashy packaging, HP takes the reserved route as a single image of the TouchPad gracing its front cover – with the distinguishable HP logos etched onto its side. Naturally, the overall clean approach is most evident in the rear, where we find only the box’s contents and pertinent information lined up towards the bottom edge. Sliding off the outer casing, we’re greeted to the plastic wrapped HP TouchPad, with a small packet beneath it etched with the words “now comes the fun part.” Well, it’s not actually the fun part because we’re only presented with the usual set of documentation and a useful microfiber cleaning cloth. In the left compartment of the box, we find its wall charger and microUSB cable. As always, we’d like to see more in terms of accessories, but it’s the normal thing we come to expect nowadays…

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

If you wondered where did the promised dual-core Snapdragon chipsets go this year, we actually found one right here at the MWC Expo, in the new HP TouchPad – the first tablet released with HP webOS 3.0.

Powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU, the TouchPad is a fresh take on the tablet paradigm, be it only for the alternative operating system in the sea of Android tablets.

Designwise the slate looks rather slick, although black glossy plastic all around is becoming a cliche. The 9.7″ capacitive multitouch screen with 768×1024 pixels might not be with the highest resolution out there, but the colors are vivid, and the screen is bright enough.

It is not as thin and light as is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1; feels more like the Motorola XOOM in that department, with the 0.54″ (13.9 mm) thickness and 26.1 oz (740 g) of weight. Actually it is slightly thicker than an iPad, and weighs as much…

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

One of the tiniest smartphones in recent history has made an appearance here at MWC – we’re of course talking about the HP Veer, the upcoming webOS-powered smartphone introduced hand-in-hand with the HP Pre 3 and HP TouchPad a couple weeks ago.

Honestly, the Veer is one of the smallest handsets you’ll be able to find on the market (once it is out), so if you’re on the lookout for a compact, but still highly-functional smartphone, the HP Veer looks to be a very strong contender. Naturally, from the day of its announcement we were wondering if its 2.6” capacitive screen would be big enough to allow for comfortable usage, and now that we’ve gotten the chance to play with it some more, we can confidently say that the Veer is quite usable…

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

Back in the day, the original Palm Pre was an iconic device despite its delayed launch and Palm’s funding problems. WebOS undeniably has one of the most original concepts for a platform with the card-based webOS, but the Pre seemed to be always plagued with problems and the most important one of them is the lack of massive developer support as seen on iOS or Android. The HP Pre 3 marked an important threshold – the end of the Palm era and the transition to HP for webOS. We were eager to take our hands on the upcoming Pre 3 to see if it has the potential to build on the legacy of Palm, so read on.

The HP Pre 3 brings initial relief – the screen is finally bigger than on previous Pre handsets at 3.58” with a WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels). Actually, the whole device is notably bigger. But at the same time, 3.6 inches is starting to be considered a bit small in the high-end segment and with its Summer release date the Pre 3 might remain the only flagship handset with such a small screen size. Nevertheless, it is a big improvement and webOS looks even better on the HP Pre 3. And it is not only the looks – the whole experience feels richer. The handset is compatible with the Palm TouchStone wireless charging dock as well.

Read the whole hands-on at PhoneArena.com!

With almost a year and a half under its belt, the once fresh and relevant Palm Pre is clearly beginning to show off its age as we’ve seen it slowly becoming more of a distant memory than anything else. Happily, HP Palm recently unveiled their followup successor with the Palm Pre 2 which has some notable improvements under the hood with its updated webOS platform.

On the surface, the Palm Pre 2 doesn’t differ too much from the original’s design and feel – which is honestly the safe approach with any succeeding device. Compact by default, this portrait sliding QWERTY handset boasts some minor elements, like its Gorilla glass display, that make it feel slightly more solid in the hand. Although it might not retain the original’s polished stone look, the handset employs more of a flat surface with its touchscreen and is hugged with a bezel – both of which give off a distinct look to the somewhat unchanged handset. Another notable change is that Palm removed the plastic cover for the microUSB port and now keeps it exposed.

The sliding mechanism feels fairly responsive and reveals the all too familiar cramped Pre keyboard. Thankfully though, Palm improved the tactile feel of its buttons, but it still doesn’t feel as good as the one found with the Palm Pixi or even Palm Treo Pro. Regardless, existing Palm Pre users won’t have too much concern when adjusting to the keyboard on this device.

In the rear, Palm decided to increase the camera from a 3-megapixel shooter to a 5-megapixel one. From what we were shown, it still retains that lightning quick response in taking consecutive photos without much pause in between shots. However, it should be noted that it’s not an auto-focus camera, but simply, a usual fixed focused one.

Under its plastic housing, the Palm Pre 2 is powered by a 1GHz processor which makes everything you do in webOS 2.0 pretty responsive and without much slowdown. Some of the notable new features found with the updated platform include the ability to stack several cards on top of one another which makes for some improved organization. For example, you can launch the email app and click a hyperlink within it, but instead of opening up a separate card, it’ll stack it on top of the email app so you can quickly navigate between them. Obviously, it’ll greatly improve the usability of the platform when you’re trying to juggle around multiple items at once. Additionally, webOS 2.0 also exhibits an improved search function which can be accessed instantly by typing on the keyboard. Naturally, it’ll search for relevant content on the handset, but it’ll even include other noteworthy suggestions from various searching engines.

All in all, the unit that we checked out, which is still a prototype and not a final production unit, follows accordingly to what a successor should do. Although it’s gong to be available shortly through SFR in France, there is no indication on a time frame when Verizon will launch the model.

The folks over at BGR (The Boy Genius Report) claim to have the first hands-on of the long-awaited Palm Pre, and they are giddy about it!  Although they promise a full review forthwith, their first impressions are a mixed bag.

According to BGR, although the Pre feels good in the hand, it has a “plasticky” feel.  They are also rather nonplussed about the QWERTY keyboard, particularly the top row of keys, claiming it’s difficult to avoid smashing multiple keys at the same time.  On a positive note, they rave about the quality and responsiveness of the capacitive touch screen.  Stay tuned here for more and more Pre news to come!

source: BGR