If we look past Sony Ericsson’s interpretation of the ultra-small smartphone experience namely its Xperia X10 Mini handset, there’s not much in mobile world that really holds attention. HP we think could just be changing that. Its latest Veer smartphone had us go ‘cute’ the moment we caught sight of it thanks to its earnestly diminutive size. Running on the HP webOS platform, it’s said to be the smallest smartphone to come out from those quarters.
There’s no Palm branding on this latest webOS wonder and HP reveals it to be no bigger than a credit card. The exact dimensions of the phone read at 54.5mm x 84.0mm x 15.1mm with it tipping the scale at just 103gms. It’s been fitted by a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard that should take the smartphone experience to new heights in this new found size. The 2.57” glass display is vivid, multitouch-enabled and boasts of an 18-bit color, 320 x 400 resolution.
“While much of the industry is trending toward larger and larger devices, we believe there’s also a whole lot of room for thinking small,” mentioned Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president and general manager, Palm Global Business Unit, HP. “Veer bridges the gap for a new generation of smartphone users, proving they really can have it all without sacrificing the size they want.”
The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 800MHz processor and claims high-speed connectivity all along. Among the other sweet spots, there’s 8GB of internal storage, a 5MP camera with geotagging, 3.5mm stereo headphone adapter, powerful messaging support, Email and a USB mass storage mode. On the connectivity front, the phone supports Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth wireless technology and Wi-Fi router functionality. It’s also integrated with GPS.
The smartphone’s gesture area is tailored for simple and intuitive gestures. The incorporated browser is high on performance and provides complete access to the web counting Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta support. Users can anticipate enjoying multimedia content seamlessly including music, photos, video recording and playback. With proximity sensor, light sensor and accelerometer, the phone has a ringer switch too that silences the ringer in a single touch. The phone is powered by a rechargeable 910mAh battery and is also slated to bundle in HP Synergy, a one-stop station for everything searched across the web.
Along with access to the webOS App catalog that features thousands of apps, Just Type, extensive multi-tasking and compatibility to HP Touchstone that will be sold separately are some other attributes on offer. Veer is a Tri-band UMTS, quad-band GSM/EDGE world phone and is among the trio of webOS products revealed by HP yesterday.
It’s said to be an early spring availability for the HP Veer smartphone, and the pricing details will only be announced later.