Hints of a mid-July Pre3
release grew louder Thursday as the UK’s Play.com put up a pre-order for the webOS smartphone. The HP slider is shown as shipping in unlocked form on July 8, less than two weeks before it might show in Canada. The device also received a tentative £350 ($565) contract-free price.
The Pre3 may be HP’s most advanced phone of the year and will have a 1.4GHz, albeit single-core, Snapdragon at its heart. It has the best display of any webOS phone to date with a 3.6-inch, 480×800 screen and brings a front camera along with a five-megapixel back camera. In the UK, the phone will have the option of HSPA+ 3G on networks that support it.
An American version of the Pre3 is expected to come and will likely arrive on Sprint or Verizon with the existence of a CDMA model.
