HP's 'Bender' phone spotted in benchmarks
updated 04:35 pm EDT, Mon September 17, 2012
HP smartphone appears running Android 4.0
Fresh on the heels of HP CEO Meg Whitman's admission that the company must build a smartphone in the near future, possible evidence of just such a device has begun to pop up. SlashGear reports that an HP device, codenamed "Bender," has shown up in benchmarking reports online. Despite HP's close ties with Microsoft and the fact that HP owns its own mobile operating system, the phone showing up in benchmarks runs a version of Google's Android mobile OS.
Bender is believed to have shown up in the device rolls for GLBenchmark, a benchmarking app available in Google's Play Store. The device described in the report runs Android 4.0.4, though observers believe it is possible it could run version 4.1 by the time it is released. It also appears to pack in a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, with a 1366x720 HD display.
Little is known about "Bender" beyond those specifications. Should the benchmarks describe an actual device, Bender would mark a return to smartphones for a company that was once thought to be on the verge of a major push in that sector. HP bought Palm more than two years ago, bringing its Pre smartphone and the WebOS platform under its fold. Due to internal realignments, the company never did much with its acquisition. It released a few devices to little fanfare before virtually abandoning the platform. Most recently, WebOS was released as open-source by HP.
