HP Veer 4G with webOS hits AT&T on May 15

HP and AT&T just announced the Veer 4G – a new webOS device with a compact form factor and a budget price point to boot. It’s very Palm Pre-esque, taking its design cues from the two-year-old smartphone after its acquisition of Palm, and it has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which should appease those who hate typing on touchscreen devices.

Here are all the dirty details and specs as laid out by AT&T:

• HP webOS 2.1
• 3.63 ounces
• Tri-band UMTS: 850/1900/2100; HSDPA Cat 10/HSUPA Cat 6
• Quad-band GSM/EDGE
• 800Mhz processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230)
• 2.6-inch multitouch display screen with a vibrant 18-bit color, 320×400 resolution
• Slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard
• Email and integrated IM, SMS and MMS
• Facebook integration, YouTube
• Wi-Fi/aGPS capable
• 5-megapixel camera with extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture
• Stereo Bluetooth (2.1)
• 8GB internal storage(~6.1GB available)
• 910 mAh battery; up to 5.0 hours of talk time or up to 300 hours of standby time.
• webOS WebKit browser with Flash support
• HP Touchstone compatible (sold separately)

That is one tiny screen by today’s smartphone standards, but HP says on its blog, “Don’t let Veer’s small size fool you [. . .]” Yeah, well don’t let the 4G name fool you, either. Like the Motorola Atrix 4G, it’s just a label that isn’t really going to bring you speeds anywhere remotely comparable to Sprint’s WiMax service, T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network or Verizon’s incredibly fast LTE network. Slow and steady does not win this race.

But if you’re looking for a capable smartphone in a tiny package at a budget price, the HP Veer wouldn’t be a bad choice. It’s only $99.99 with a two-year contract for AT&T and it’s launching next week on May 15. For additional details, see the press release on the following page.

[Via: HP]