Three years after HP pulled the plug on its WebOS-powered smartphone line, the PC giant re-enters the game with a bang. Its two new devices launching today in India.
Yes heard it right INDIA.
These phablets are of 6-inch and 7-inch respectively, the Slate 6 and Slate 7 VoiceTab they are quite similar to tablets. HP is hoping to capture the attention of its customers looking for all-in-one devices segment, a category that’s seeing a rapid growth in emerging markets like India. In fact, the Slate 7 VoiceTab appears to be a cell-enabled version of the Slate 7, a cheap variant of a Tablet that HP announced at MWC 2013 and shipped last summer.
Talking about specs both have 16 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for the 32 GB of additional storage. The display is 1280 x 720 on the 6-inch model while 1280 x 800 on the 7-inch model. The front-facing camera is 2MP, the rear camera is 5MP, and will run ANDROID "Jelly Bean." 4.2 with some modification from HP's side.
HP has not yet revealed any update on the price of the new Slate 6 and Slate 7 VoiceTab, but going by the spec sheets and the target customers, they should come in a mid range price bracket. The devices will become available from this February in India, but HP has refused to provide any more details on their eventual international availability as such.
“I won’t say where or when, but you can expect us to do more in the coming months,” an HP official told Re/code. “We’ll be talking about this in a more expansive way. But right now we’re focused on a successful launch in India.” The PC making giant presented these devices to retailers last week at CES, and received great response.
Insight taken from Re/code's Interview.