SFR accidentally confirms Palm Pre 2 with 1GHz chip
updated 04:05 pm EDT, Mon October 11, 2010
Palm Pre 2 tips up on SFR early
French carrier SFR accidentally gave away HP's smartphone plans in a major fashion with a page for the Palm Pre 2. The promo suggests speed is the focus with a much faster 1GHz processor (up from 500MHz) with the same 512MB RAM as the Pre Plus. It adds that webOS 2.0 will ship with it and will make Facebook a heavy focus, with push messages, status updates and Facebook Chat woven into the OS.
Its design is conservative and resembles the original portrait QWERTY slider. Tracked details have suggested at least one phone will have an iPhone 4-level display with a 960x640 display.
SFR further promises features that haven't been discussed surrounding webOS 2.0 in the past, such as faster overall speed and much improved boot times. The platform is already known to group apps into task-related stacks and a more healthily stocked App Catalog.
The page doesn't give a timetable or any other launch details and was almost certainly posted prematurely. SFR nonetheless hasn't pulled the page as of Monday afternoon. Electronista has contacted HP/Palm for details, but the company hasn't had an opportunity to respond as of press time.
Palm has been mostly quiet since being acquired by HP but now appears to at least initially be taking an Apple-style philosophy that doesn't change the design in significant ways but focuses on performance first. WebOS has been holding on to its market share in recent months but has been unable to dislodge either Apple or Google. Much of its status has been credited to Palm's near-collapse before HP became involved, as it couldn't afford to reach as many carriers or upgrade the build quality of its smartphones. [via PreCentral]
