We had been seeing the rumors and the leaks, but as of this morning HP has confirmed their re-entry into the smartphone space. HP has announced a pair of smartphones, dubbed the HP Slate VoiceTab, which will be available in a 6-inch and 7-inch variety. HP has offered up some details in terms of the specs, but for now it doesn’t appear as if either of these handsets will be available in many markets.
To that point, HP has said the Slate 6 VoiceTab and Slate 7 VoiceTab will be heading to India. Both models are expected to arrive in February. While India is the key market for now, it seems further expansion hasn’t entirely been ruled out. In a statement provided to re/code, HP mentioned how these handsets “generated a positive response” during closed door meetings at CES and how they “won’t say where or when, but you can expect us [them] to do more in the coming months.”
With that out of the way, both models will have an IPS display with the 6-inch model sitting with a resolution of 1280 x 720 and the 7-inch model sporting a slightly higher 1280 x 800 resolution. Otherwise, much of the specs are the same, or similar across the board. They will both be powered by a quad-core processor and both will be running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with 16GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot.
The Slate 6 VoiceTab and Slate 7 VoiceTab will also have a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, 2 megapixel front-facing camera and front-facing stereo speakers. The 6-inch model will measure in at 9mm thick and the 7-inch model will be slightly thicker and measure in at 9.5mm. Speaking in regards to the size, it seems HP intentionally went after the oversized smartphone market.
There was talk of how “consumers are looking to consolidate their phones and tablets” and about how this “is an exciting new category that represents a meaningful growth opportunity for HP.” They also made it clear that while on the larger size in terms of a smartphone, these devices are sporting a compact design that is “slim enough to fit nicely in the pocket.” And lastly, both models of the Slate VoiceTab will have a ” premium pixilated, scratch-resistant back cover design.”
SOURCE: HP
Would love to have one.. can’t wait.