The HP Pre 3 has taken the reigns from the second-generation Palm Pre 2 this morning. During the event, we began to ask ourselves – what makes the Pre 3 so special and is this truly a worthy upgrade for the webOS faithful? Let’s find out.
Only subtle upgrades accompanied the launch of the Palm Pre 2 for existing Palm Pre owners. Even more surprising is that with today’s announcement and all the buzz surrounding the Pre 3, tomorrow Verizon Wireless begins taken pre-orders for the older, Pre 2. Let’s run down the core features and see how these two handsets differ.
First up, processing power. The Palm Pre 2 is powered by a 1 GHz OMAP 3630 processor while the Pre 3 using a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon. A 40 percent boost in clock speed could yield considerable improvements in performance. The display is key — the Pre 2 uses a 3.1 inch 480 x 320 pixel multitouch display versus the 3.58 inch 800 x 480 pixel display on the Pre 3.
Memory remains roughly the same on the Pre 3 as it uses the same 512MB of RAM on the Pre 2, but instead of 16GB of internal storage, there’s two choices: 8 or 16GB. The camera of the HP Pre 3 remains at five megapixel, the same as the Pre 2, but adds 720p HD video recording instead of an inferior VGA resolution. Since there’s no front-facing camera on the Pre 2, the Pre 3 definitely takes the cake in the imaging department.
Battery life is crucial in smartphones, the Pre 3 ups the ante with a 1,230 mAh battery compared to the 1,150 of the Pre 2. A minor bump, but we’ll take anything we can get to keep our phones lasting longer throughout the day. The last notable comparison is the new touch-to-share feature of the Pre 3 which allows you to place your phone on the HP TouchPad and share URLs, receive text messages, and opens the door to a new webOS ecosystem.
Overall the HP Pre 3 offers several notable improvements over its predecessor. Until we have the Pre 3 in hand to compare to the Pre 2, real-world value cannot be determined. On paper it looks solid, sit tight as we put the HP Pre 3 through its paces next week at MWC 2011.
Coming Summer 2011 | HP | TBD
